What did you do in the reloading room recently?

[p..]

Are you shooting a Mini-14? They seem to chuck brass a looong way.
Good, consistent reloads will land in a bucket, if you're shooting from a fixed location (sometimes, at least!).
Place some sort of barrier next to your shooting bench or construct some sort of basket to gather your brass on your rifle. Or just live with it

20" AR.

The firing line right of my position was a bit cluttered with barrels and stuff stacked against a wall last time I was there, so there were plenty of places for the brass to hide. I eventually dragged a piece of plywood over to try to deflect most of them down to the ground next to me. But I see the appeal of a brass catcher.

 

[bigblue]

 

[ProGun]

Sized and primed 200 cases of 380. Loaded 50 of those, 90gr XTP over 3.2gr of HP-38.

Also decapped and sized some 40+ year old 380 brass included in a purchase a while back. Was last loaded in 1979 according to the sticker on the MTM box. I think I was in 5th grade, lol.

 

[mac1911]

Loaded 30 223 for group/chrono testing
2011 Lake City M193 once fired, resized to 0.003" shorter than what came out of my barrel last time at the range, trimmed to 1.760"
CCI #41
50 grain Hornady V max seated to 2.260"
IMR 3031, 5 each 24.0, 24.3, 24.6, 24.7, 24.8, 24.9g

I pulled a couple handfuls out of my bucket of 223/556 brass to look things over, and the 2011 Lake City seemed to have the best consistency of the stuff I had on hand. I found a lot of really off center flash holes in some of the federal 223 cases I had.

Around 24.6g, I have to take the filled case and tap on it a bit to get the powder grains to settle in enough where it's not a compressed load. I noticed the grains settle in better if I tap on the side of the case, vs tapping the upright case on the table.

Now if I can figure out how to get the rifle to stop throwing the brass where I can't find it... this is why I like revolvers...

Looking forward to your test results
If its a AR these work well

Creedmoor Sports - Precision Reloading and Shooting Gear

Shoot and Reload with the Pros! Creedmoor Sports has served the Precision Shooting Community for over 40 years in Centerfire, Small-bore, Air Rifle and Pistol Disciplines.

www.creedmoorsports.com

 

[DW357]

No idea what the terminal ballistics of the JHPs would be, though. I don't think I've ever seen anybody shoot them into ballistics gel at any speed.

These are a couple of the Zero 158 gr JHPs that I shot into water jugs a few years ago. Not ballistics gel but decent expansion.
Of course these aren’t meant to be hunting/defensive bullets as they’re not bonded like you mentioned.

 

[jpm]

Looking forward to your test results
If its a AR these work well

Creedmoor Sports - Precision Reloading and Shooting Gear

Shoot and Reload with the Pros! Creedmoor Sports has served the Precision Shooting Community for over 40 years in Centerfire, Small-bore, Air Rifle and Pistol Disciplines.

www.creedmoorsports.com

I have one of these and one of the nets that you connect to the upper that goes over the ejection port. The deflector is FAR better! I highly recommend it.

 

[xtry51]

Does anyone have a pic of one mounted?

 

[PL-52]

Caldwell S.A. Universal Brass Catcher Nylon Mesh Black (midwayusa.com) I have one of these I use with the Mini-14 It works , you have to empty it often doesn't really get in the way , BUT it is O SO GAY I use because the range I shoot at has a berm on my right side with long tall growth and lots of Primrose in it .

 

[bigblue]

Caldwell S.A. Universal Brass Catcher Nylon Mesh Black (midwayusa.com) I have one of these I use with the Mini-14 It works , you have to empty it often doesn't really get in the way , BUT it is O SO GAY I use because the range I shoot at has a berm on my right side with long tall growth and lots of Primrose in it .

They make one with a QD attachment that works quite well actually. I use it on AR9’s because we do a lot of move & shoot and that works well to save brass. Pulls right off and you barely notice the qd part.

 

[pastera]

Looking forward to your test results
If its a AR these work well

Creedmoor Sports - Precision Reloading and Shooting Gear

Shoot and Reload with the Pros! Creedmoor Sports has served the Precision Shooting Community for over 40 years in Centerfire, Small-bore, Air Rifle and Pistol Disciplines.

www.creedmoorsports.com

Also very helpful for southpaws shooting prone

 

[PL-52]

Thanks, I already bought a separate rail mount for it works good, disconnects quickly, and remounts easily without really having to fuss with it. I just not crazy about a rail mount on the Mini-14 it's tooo damn close to the ejection slide.

 

[mac1911]

Also very helpful for southpaws shooting prone

eh , depends. Sometimes it tosses brass right in your crease at the elbow. Especially if your wearing the fancy elbow pad retainer that has the zipper in that area . I use it when I want all my brass back. Or where theres alot of grass and mud around the line. Basically i only use it ,when I go to Reading rifle for NRA service rifle. Which is not often enough

 

[pastera]

eh , depends. Sometimes it tosses brass right in your crease at the elbow. Especially if your wearing the fancy elbow pad retainer that has the zipper in that area .

Depending on the ammo, I usually get a handful per 100 into the elbow.

Biggest issue is an over oiled BCG blowing shit back into face.

 

[slap shot]

Setting up for 400 300BLK subs and 200 300BLK 125gn supers and I have a helper lol.


ok gonna be slow going


Helper 3 just arrived.

 

[DW357]

I think you might want to clean up some of that spilled powder?

 

[Silverado]

Doing some practice runs with my RCBS 9mm setup. Not happy to say I thought I had it down but I crush a few cases. I'm sure I need to expand them a little more.

 

[kerryman71]

Doing some practice runs with my RCBS 9mm setup. Not happy to say I thought I had it down but I crush a few cases. I'm sure I need to expand them a little more.

I set mine up to flare it just enough to let the bullet sit in the case mouth.

 

[NavelOfficer]

Indeed, a slight flare helps in bullet seating in most all profiles, but boat tails (147gr XTPs have a BT base).
If the bullet merely sits atop the mouth, you can easily crush cases, unless you have a slight lead in to make sure the bullet goes into the case instead of simply pushing/crushing the mouth. The taper crimp/FCD will remove the flare and result in proper head spacing.
Now, unless you're Louis Armstrong, don't make a trumpet bell!

 

[slap shot]

I think you might want to clean up some of that spilled powder?

Yeah that cfe black is so damn fine. I since swapped over to the rcbs dropper. No leaks

 

[xtry51]

I primed 500 more 223 brass today.

Here are some pics for people from my discard pile. Neck/shoulder cracks and bad primer seats.

 

[bigblue]

Well used brass, I’d say. Well done

 

[p..]

I primed 500 more 223 brass today.

Here are some pics for people from my discard pile. Neck/shoulder cracks and bad primer seats.

About how many reloads do you get before the necks start splitting?

 

[xtry51]

As a note I identify 90%+ of my neck/shoulder failures while trimming on the Giraud. A weak case makes a distinct high pitch chatter should, even the ones that aren't cracked at the top of the neck.

The priming is just some brass grabs the primer lip and its over basically from the get go. As I'm hand priming its easy to feel and I just slowly squeeze to smash the primer in so I can remove the shell. I've never had a primer go off no matter how mangled the cup is. You can see a sideways one there. If you are hitting the primer or banging it in, it will not go off.

In about 4500 cases, I've scrapped maybe 20 pieces of mixed brass. Pretty low attrition rate.

 

[BarnBuilder]

Finished another 500 9mm 124 RN PC with 4.4 Unique A 50 Cal. ammo can does hold 2200 9mm rds.

 

[xtry51]

About how many reloads do you get before the necks start splitting?

Depends on the brass. I've noticed FC is a lot less than others. Maybe 5. Lake City is more like 7.

All my training ammo is 55gr and loaded to roughly initial flattening of primer. No primer flow. I'm not using the primer flattening as a guide. What I do is load to flattening starts. Than I do an OCW test to find the best node closest to flattening and I load to that. Sometimes its under the flattening, sometimes slightly over. I don’t pick a load that will flow or crater primers though.

 

[mac1911]

Depending on the ammo, I usually get a handful per 100 into the elbow.

Biggest issue is an over oiled BCG blowing shit back into face.

My dad drilled into me proper gun lubrication , Army and AirForce made sure of that. Running wet and sloppy was not part if his training. In the air force he was part of some rapid deployment unit and he was usually manning what he called the “ready to go” hanger. Apparently they kept the plane darn near ready to launch. He said part if his training was to defend that hanger at all cost and got to shoot the M16s alot for a AirForce plane Mechanic.
My dad did a lot if electrical work on planes. Late 60s into the 70s
Mass Guard after that where he later was handed a M1 for training.
Army prior to the airforce where he touched the M14 and M16 briefly before going to the air force.

 

[Mudflap621]

I primed 500 more 223 brass today.

Here are some pics for people from my discard pile. Neck/shoulder cracks and bad primer seats.
View attachment 440665

View attachment 440666

View attachment 440660View attachment 440661View attachment 440662View attachment 440663View attachment 440664

You using a sledge hammer to seat ur primers or using large primers

 

[pastera]

You using a sledge hammer to seat ur primers or using large primers

Or priming on a Load Master - primes at the top of the stroke. Sometimes you don't feel a tipped primer until it's too late. Others you feel the primer crushing but keep going so you only need to clear one station.

 

[bigblue]

Dillon shipped part of my order so now I am only two caliber conversions away from reloading .45 ACP & .308 which is both awesome and faster than I expected.

Now I just need to source some large primers.



PS Don’t you just love Sunday deliveries? So much fun lol

 

[mac1911]

Or priming on a Load Master - primes at the top of the stroke. Sometimes you don't feel a tipped primer until it's too late. Others you feel the primer crushing but keep going so you only need to clear one station.

Yessss