What did you do in the reloading room recently?

I just made up a few loads for a Mosin sniper rifle. My son bought it from a Russian guy in Waltham who said his grandfather carried it in WWII. Who knows but it's original and the scope is numbered to the rifle. It was $500.00. I think an original scope is probably worth that. This rifle seems to have a tight bore and didn't do well with .312 bullets so I'm trying .308 168 grain match bullets and H380. If I'm doing it correctly, the bore slugs at slightly under .308.
 
RankAmateur said:
Just tapping into an old conversation to seek advice from the group. Starting into reloading pistol rounds, currently limited to 9mm and 45acp. I want to do a little stockpiling now for my winter loading sessions. I've seen discussions of brands/vendors like Blue bullets, Xtreme, Berry's, etc, but don't know if one is better than another. Any recommendations for reliability (or conversely for brands I should avoid)? I'll only be loading for range plinking. Thanks!
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Penn coated bullets (very good IMHO) or Rim Rock (a little cheaper and not as accurate but satisfactory).

Also found ~200 once fired cases at the range Friday. Score! In the tumbler now..
 
Not so much in the loading room but trying to figure out where I am. I just did a little analysis on my reloads in stock and consumption rate, and I might have gone a little overboard loading some ammo before it was needed. This is just for assembled range ammo, not potential rounds from loose components, not any SD factory ammo.

In 45 Colt I have 16 months of shooting assembled.
In 44 Magnum I have 10 months of shooting assembled.
In 357 Magnum I have 31 months of shooting assembled.
In 38 Special +P I have 20 months of shooting assembled.
In 9x19mm I have 24 months of shooting assembled.

With 9mm that includes components as well--every 9mm bullet I have is loaded. That's fine for that caliber, but in general I'd rather have this more in the 6 month range. Only reason 44 magnum is close to that is because I've gone out of my way to shoot a lot of it in the last month or so. God help me if I ever got a progressive press.
 
Agt. Smith said:
Wow! Just curious - how many .44 mag rounds do you use each trip to the range?
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The spreadsheet assumes 50. Sometimes it's a bit more, but that's only estimating 14 range trips with 44 magnum per year. At twice a week, there would be a lot more range trips, just shooting the other calibers.
 
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meh said:
Not so much in the loading room but trying to figure out where I am. I just did a little analysis on my reloads in stock and consumption rate, and I might have gone a little overboard loading some ammo before it was needed. This is just for assembled range ammo, not potential rounds from loose components, not any SD factory ammo.

In 45 Colt I have 16 months of shooting assembled.
In 44 Magnum I have 10 months of shooting assembled.
In 357 Magnum I have 31 months of shooting assembled.
In 38 Special +P I have 20 months of shooting assembled.
In 9x19mm I have 24 months of shooting assembled.

With 9mm that includes components as well--every 9mm bullet I have is loaded. That's fine for that caliber, but in general I'd rather have this more in the 6 month range. Only reason 44 magnum is close to that is because I've gone out of my way to shoot a lot of it in the last month or so. God help me if I ever got a progressive press.
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Eh if your happy with the loads its good to be ahead.
Few years back I bought a lee Pro1000 in 223 just to load up all my 55gn plinking ammo. Loaded until I ran out of powder for that load.
Now I have plenty of plinking/practice 223.
I have at least 2-4 years loaded up for some of the odd ball cals
Example 32sw i shoot the little pistol 2-3 times a year around 35 rounds a year. I loaded every case I had….200+
Same with other items.
Only thing Im loaded as needed is 30-06,308 and 7.5 swiss
 
Loaded up 50 round of 45 Colt with 200 grain hollow points and a “max” load of 7625. Granted it’s still a light load with box velocity just over 1000 FPS. I’ve found it hard to get the +P (not Ruger only) load data with lightweight bullets. Seems all of it is for the 250 ish grain bullets.

I’m hoping this gives enough speed to open up the cast hollow points.
 
I have a set of .45ACP dies on order from Dillon, ordered them last January. Knew at the time that there was a backlog, expected wait then was like 14 weeks which grew to 36 weeks. Actually, it's more than dies - it's dies, conversion kit, powder hopper, toolhead, etc.

So - saw some dies on MeWe, reached out - and they're on their way. Followed that up with an order from Amazon for the conversion kit.

Been picking up brass, and managed to pick up a couple boxes of LPP.

Guess it's time to order the bullets. Thinking 255grn for bowling pins.
 
Not so much what I've done to the reloading room, but more a question. Last winter I dove right into pistol reloading, this winter I'm throwing my hat into rifle.
My question is this:

For all of those with progressive presses to mass reload say 223; what are the stations you use in the press? I may be wrong, but do you not use a resizing die & trim cases as part of the case prep before you head to the progressive? So in that case, If you already have the brass sized, do you not bother with the sizing die at all in the progressive as the first stage? I also am coming from the standpoint of decapping on a universal decapping die prior to cleaning as the first step of case prep. What am i missing here because all the videos I see on youtube start at fully prepped cases yet still have a sizer die being used as the first stage on their progressive, so are these folks essentially just running it through a sizing die twice?
 
murf4321 said:
Not so much what I've done to the reloading room, but more a question. Last winter I dove right into pistol reloading, this winter I'm throwing my hat into rifle.
My question is this:

For all of those with progressive presses to mass reload say 223; what are the stations you use in the press? I may be wrong, but do you not use a resizing die & trim cases as part of the case prep before you head to the progressive? So in that case, If you already have the brass sized, do you not bother with the sizing die at all in the progressive as the first stage? I also am coming from the standpoint of decapping on a universal decapping die prior to cleaning as the first step of case prep. What am i missing here because all the videos I see on youtube start at fully prepped cases yet still have a sizer die being used as the first stage on their progressive, so are these folks essentially just running it through a sizing die twice?
Click to expand...


I do not run through a sizing die again, personally. I just prime, charge, seat, and crimp.
 
Belted up 1160 rounds of 7.62 NATO reloads on "brand new in the sleeves" Israeli links. Only 2000 left to go.😬
Happiness is a well fed beltfed.

Now I need about 25-30 more 30cal cans to put them in.......it never ends.

Loaded 100 more rounds of 7.62x39.
 
murf4321 said:
Not so much what I've done to the reloading room, but more a question. Last winter I dove right into pistol reloading, this winter I'm throwing my hat into rifle.
My question is this:

For all of those with progressive presses to mass reload say 223; what are the stations you use in the press? I may be wrong, but do you not use a resizing die & trim cases as part of the case prep before you head to the progressive? So in that case, If you already have the brass sized, do you not bother with the sizing die at all in the progressive as the first stage? I also am coming from the standpoint of decapping on a universal decapping die prior to cleaning as the first step of case prep. What am i missing here because all the videos I see on youtube start at fully prepped cases yet still have a sizer die being used as the first stage on their progressive, so are these folks essentially just running it through a sizing die twice?
Click to expand...
Quick clean
Decal and size on press-- 1st run
Decrimp and trim off press
Prime on press - 2nd run
Load - 3rd run
Powder drop
Powder check
Seat
Crimp
 
pastera said:
Quick clean
Decal and size on press-- 1st run
Decrimp and trim off press
Prime on press - 2nd run
Load - 3rd run
Powder drop
Powder check
Seat
Crimp
Click to expand...
Most of my brass is military...
Decap and tumble
Remove crimp (Dillon swager)
Uniform primer pockets (Sinclair International solid carbide Uniforming bits). I feel this pretty well eliminates any chance of a slam-fire. Primers are then .004-.006 below flush. These
tools (small rifle and large rifle) are non-adjustable and should never wear out. I first bought RCBS (adjustable) and stopped using them when they came out of adjustment...
Lube (Dillon spray)
Size. Either RCBS small base size die (.308) Or if .223 or .30/06 I size and trim with Dillon RT-1500/Dillon trim die.
Verify shoulder bump with RCBS Precision mic.
Tumble 15 minutes in corn/Dillon polish
.308 is trimmed, chamfered and de-burred on a Giraud Tri-way.
.223 and .30/06 are chamfered and deburred individually on my drill using RCBS carbide deburring and chamfering tools.
Rifle cases are primed on an RCBS bench tool.
I dump the prepped cases in the 650's case feeder, powder and seat bullets. No crimping.
Drop every one into a case gauge to check
 
gerrycaruso said:
I just made up a few loads for a Mosin sniper rifle. My son bought it from a Russian guy in Waltham who said his grandfather carried it in WWII. Who knows but it's original and the scope is numbered to the rifle. It was $500.00. I think an original scope is probably worth that. This rifle seems to have a tight bore and didn't do well with .312 bullets so I'm trying .308 168 grain match bullets and H380. If I'm doing it correctly, the bore slugs at slightly under .308.
Click to expand...
at $500 right now thats a decent price even if its nor "real" I would look hard for import marks.
 

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