What did you do in the reloading room recently?

I loaded 241 rounds of 147 grain Berry's plated RN bullets in 9mm to finish off an open box of bullets. Man this load is light! It's above the starting load, but I basically chose it not from trying to work the load up, rather to almost run out of powder when I run out of bullets to load. Kind of silly, but I'm silly in that way sometimes. With my hot 125 grain JHP loads over N350, the Canik TP9-SFL launches the brass way the hell over there. With these 147 grain loads it tosses them one foot in the air and to the right, landing within arms reach on the bench.. It's great that the gun cycles reliably at these extremes. Not super accurate with the 147 grainers, though not terrible. Not sure whether that's the plated bullets talking or the fact that I loaded them in unsorted, oddball brass to discard. It'll be good enough for 9mm. Who really cares how accurate 9mm is? [troll]
 
pastera said:
Tried it -just clamped a trim board to the saw table and set the speed to max (HF 4x6 horizontal/vertical saw)
A pain to hold 6 in the fixture but one at a time isn't bad
Cut quality isn't great but good enough to send through the forming die.
Seems like it would be quick as long as you remember to keep your fingers in the right place.
Click to expand...
6E239055-6745-453E-9743-3EA1387C7113.jpeg
Is that a stl file you made? I’m thinking of fastening something like that that to a board with a quick clamp with some rubber backed board to keep things in place. My Blade cuts awesome with a shell freehand. I love reinventing the wheel
 
Michael J. Spangler said:
Is it just the pic or is that bandsaw blade beat? How many TPI?

I used to use the HF chop saw with good results. The best thing I ever did was buying a Giraud trimmer. Not to big fancy one but the one you power with a drill. It was about $100 and is amazing. I prefer it to the Dillon trimmer.
Click to expand...

Yeah the blade has seen better days
I think it started at 14 tpi but it's missing a few here and there
 
ffej ruedorb said:
View attachment 597056
Is that a stl file you made? I’m thinking of fastening something like that that to a board with a quick clamp with some rubber backed board to keep things in place. My Blade cuts awesome with a shell freehand. I love reinventing the wheel
Click to expand...
Yes - I design in Fusion 360
 
whacko said:
I need to pick up some 44 special brass.
Click to expand...
I have a Marlin 1894 that had the barrel set back to shoot 44 specials. I got it really cheap because it didn’t cycle well. Coke to find out it didn’t have an ejector.
New ejector and a new carrier to smooth it up and make it feed 44 special and 44 Russian properly.

If you load a short 44 Russian like a stumpy 200 grainier it might double up but I really only use the RCBS 44-250k which is pretty long.

The little Russians shoot like a pop gun.
 
Decapped a bunch of 380 brass until I found a berdan case the hard way - thought I got all of them out but one got past the magnet.
Broke the universal decapped that I made about ten years ago - it hit the bucket I'm a very unceremonious manner and I ordered a new decapped and swage kit for the APP.
With a case feeder the app goes too fast - you get going faster until you toss a case across the room or break something.

Also cast up a few pure lead 525gn 12 gauge slugs - didn't have a lot of time so only a half pot Pure doesn't drop as easy as alloy but I still got up to a decent pace.
 
pastera said:
Decapped a bunch of 380 brass until I found a berdan case the hard way - thought I got all of them out but one got past the magnet.
Broke the universal decapped that I made about ten years ago - it hit the bucket I'm a very unceremonious manner and I ordered a new decapped and swage kit for the APP.
With a case feeder the app goes too fast - you get going faster until you toss a case across the room or break something.

Also cast up a few pure lead 525gn 12 gauge slugs - didn't have a lot of time so only a half pot Pure doesn't drop as easy as alloy but I still got up to a decent pace.
Click to expand...
Buddy tagged 2 deer last season with that style slug.
1st destroyed the shoulders , he swears he saw a shock wave through out the deer when that thing hit! He has his loaded to about 1350 ftps over my old shooting chrony.
2nd deer was taken with a stout charge of blue dot.
He thought he missed as the deer did not flinch or move then it jump off into the brush and collapses 10 yards in.
Hes aweful at pictures but his dad told me it looked like it pushed/dragged one lung into the next.
I have the Lee Key Drive Slug —-only used it on pie plates . I load mine down to target velocities 1000-1200 fps
Fun stuff - my least favorite mold to cast with . Pot is full of pure at the moment so I should cast up a few dozen
 
pastera said:
Decapped a bunch of 380 brass until I found a berdan case the hard way - thought I got all of them out but one got past the magnet.
Broke the universal decapped that I made about ten years ago - it hit the bucket I'm a very unceremonious manner and I ordered a new decapped and swage kit for the APP.
With a case feeder the app goes too fast - you get going faster until you toss a case across the room or break something.

Also cast up a few pure lead 525gn 12 gauge slugs - didn't have a lot of time so only a half pot Pure doesn't drop as easy as alloy but I still got up to a decent pace.
Click to expand...
I found that with the APP and a case feeder you have to consciously slow down.

And that APP swage kit is amazing. I picked up a RCBS swage tool in a large lot and I tried it for about 4 cases before I said "There has to be a better way." Midsouth still has the press at $80 and the swage kit for $40. Other online vendors had upped the price recently for the press to $100
 
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pastera said:
@Michael J. Spangler set me up with some shotgun supplies [banana]
But I don't have the right bushings for the old Pacific 366 so I spent some time writing an OpenScad script to generate a model for any size I want.

Once I verify the script, I'll post it up on Thingiverse

View attachment 599746
Click to expand...
Sick! Bushings used to be cheap. $10 a pop for a damn chunk of aluminum is crazy.

This is a perfect application for 3D printing.
 
IMG_20220406_102503853.jpg
A slight elephant foot issue but fits perfect - I just need to adjust my z-offset by about 0.04mm


www.thingiverse.com

Hornady 366Auto Powder Bushing Generator by pastera

Companion: Hornady 366 Auto Shot Bushing Generator Printable Powder bushings for the Hornady/Pacific 366 progressive shotshell press.Hornady Press Requires text_on.scadText On Github Depending on your printers accuracy the bushings may not drop exactly what bushing tables show - Like everything...
www.thingiverse.com www.thingiverse.com

Edit: add link
 
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Tried out the universal deprimer for the APP - works much better than a standard shell holder and decap die. I should have busted the decap die a long time ago and spent the $20.

Also made minor changes to the 366-DL powder bushing script to make shot bushings - only issue is I only have the 1-1/8 oz #7.5 bushing and can't find any information on bushing ID.
Same deal - will post a link once I verify fit.
Only good way to create a chart would be to get a few ounces of multiple shot sizes to try with a couple of different bushings then calculate the correct sizes for each shot size and weight.
 
pastera said:
Tried out the universal deprimer for the APP - works much better than a standard shell holder and decap die. I should have busted the decap die a long time ago and spent the $20.

Also made minor changes to the 366-DL powder bushing script to make shot bushings - only issue is I only have the 1-1/8 oz #7.5 bushing and can't find any information on bushing ID.
Same deal - will post a link once I verify fit.
Only good way to create a chart would be to get a few ounces of multiple shot sizes to try with a couple of different bushings then calculate the correct sizes for each shot size and weight.
Click to expand...
Damn I wish we knew that this weekend. I would have sent you off with some 9,8,7.5,6 shot.
 
kept moving my reloder16 from a jar into loaded rounds - it got so smooth now, it is even boring. :)
i spent less than an hour or so to make a 120 loads, measuring each - all with a .2gr max deviation - from 41.6 to 41.8 grain. most of drops were dead on 41.7, only a few went under to 41.4 and 41.5 and at some biting into sticks it would overdrop, but mostly it was very smooth with minimal repeats of drops. i could probably run it as a batch at this point without measuring each one - just discarding any that would be biting into sticks. but, wanted to get a guaranteed set of a 100 - now have 300 of those properly measured, and a 100 of a batch.

i got to say the process relaxes me a lot. i like it. it was a very good idea to mount the press so i can sit by it. standing up by it would be much less pleasant.
 
pastera said:
Tried out the universal deprimer for the APP - works much better than a standard shell holder and decap die. I should have busted the decap die a long time ago and spent the $20.

Also made minor changes to the 366-DL powder bushing script to make shot bushings - only issue is I only have the 1-1/8 oz #7.5 bushing and can't find any information on bushing ID.
Same deal - will post a link once I verify fit.
Only good way to create a chart would be to get a few ounces of multiple shot sizes to try with a couple of different bushings then calculate the correct sizes for each shot size and weight.
Click to expand...
Pacific 366 Shot Bushing #9_1.125.png
Updated my script on an extended telecon/slide reading contest [banghead]

Found a post that had the bushing diameters for a bunch of Hornady bushings from their tech support

1 oz.Field (#6 and larger shot)I.D. = .608"
1 oz.#7 1/2I.D. = .606"
1 oz.#8I.D. = .597"
1 1/8 ozField (#6 and largerI.D. = .648"
1 1/8 oz#7 1/2I.D. = .641"
1 1/8 oz#8I.D. = .638"
1 1/8 oz#8 1/2I.D. = .635"
1 1/8 oz#9I.D. = .632"

As the diameter of the shot gets smaller the fill efficiency goes up but it isn't easily predicted because patterns form at different diameters

Tossed those numbers into a spreadsheet and it looks like a ±5% fudge factor will get you close enough

Hornady 366 Auto Shot Bushing Generator
 
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