What did you do in the reloading room recently?

gerrycaruso said:
I generally throw small primer .45acp brass in the trash but I had about 150 sorted from a few thousand large primer cases. What a pain in the ass. I thought I'd try loading some since small primers seem easier to find than large. I'll see if there's any difference in performance. I expect not.
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I've never seen a difference between spp and lpp loaded 45acp. I load both.....like you said the only pain is sorting it.
 
Primed about 150 300AAC cases looking to load 100 of them with 155g Hornady Match and the rest with 230g Hitech coated Lee cast bullets
Went through the powder shelf and realized I had nothing with load data and didn't want to try experimenting with Gordon's to find something that might not blow up the gun

So off to valley and picked up 2 lbs each of 11FS and Buffalo Rifle (Lovex D060-01)
Both have loads for 300AAC and the 11FS will do 357 Mag also.
 
Since I have 4 boxes of 7mm Rem Mag Federal Power Shok and my rifle doesn't like them, I decided to reload them to save me the hassle of selling or trading them, to save my barrel the pointless wear, and to get some rifle reloading experience without needing to find magnum rifle primers. I really don't shoot the 7mm enough to need all that many primers. In normal times, I might have just bought a card.

The Federal rounds are factory loaded quite hot, and I'm thinking I might be able to back off the heat and find a loading that works better. Thought about using different bullets, but I will try first with the factory bullets and see how it goes. Ordered some dies. Also ordered a pound of Accurate 4350 along with the Ramshot pistol powders I mentioned before. Pulled one of the factory rounds last night. I think the factory powder might be a bulk version of Alliant Power Pro 4000MR. Whatever it is, now it's fertilizer.

FedPowder.jpg
 
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Before I head to work I checked my clean brass stickpile.....Want to spend about 2 hours tonight loading something up just to get some stock made. Found way more clean 45, 357 and 44 brass than I thought. So I emptied all my 44 mag ammo cases of empties and started that tumbling. So......what to load tonight? I'm lower on 357 mag than any other cal.....not shooting 357 much these days but.....just feels strange only having 50 rounds of 357 on the shelf......so 357 it is tonight. Will probably make some up with imr4227 for the Henry carbine.
 
Y’all don’t load enough ammo to last you more than a week or so? 😂
I do enjoy reloading but this time of year I like to be shooting among other things and not in the basement 😂
To each their own of course.

Edit: I do have a progressive press
 
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andrew1220 said:
Y’all don’t load enough ammo to last you more than a week or so? 😂
I do enjoy reloading but this time of year I like to be shooting among other things and not in the basement 😂
To each their own of course.

Edit: I do have a progressive press
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Whatever is loaded with a progressive or smokeless, yes.

But BP takes a long time. Weight every charge, use a drop tube, lube the bullets ... I load 100 BP in the same time it takes me to reload 700+ 9mm or 200 smokeless 460 loads.
 
andrew1220 said:
That makes sense.
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when i load my rifle loads on the 750 i weight every one, and it goes very quick for me now with the routine when all the brass is pre-primed. weighting of the load is a 2-3 sec max, if charge is way off it is dropped back into the measure, if diffs by just a bit - then adjusted, but in 95% of drops it is dead on now, so it goes quick.

you can do precision loads on the progressive press with no issues, once you got used to it.
 
paul73 said:
when i load my rifle loads on the 750 i weight every one, and it goes very quick for me now with the routine when all the brass is pre-primed. weighting of the load is a 2-3 sec max, if charge is way off it is dropped back into the measure, if diffs by just a bit - then adjusted, but in 95% of drops it is dead on now, so it goes quick.

you can do precision loads on the progressive press with no issues, once you got used to it.
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Yeah rifle is a lot more involved. I was referring more to pistol calibers.
 
Just a Thank you to members here that helped me start my reloading "journey".
First batches finally made it to the range today.
All went bang. No failures to feed or eject.
150 rounds out of G19X and PSA Dagger from Glock, Magpul, and KTS assorted round count mags.
Flawless.
Berry's 124 grn plated over 6.8 grns of Hodgden HS6, CCI primers.

(Unlike wtf my buddy was shooting. Lot of smoke. Lot of gun issues. FTF, blown primers, etc. Poor bastard was struggling)

Thanks again boys,
You know who you are.

(Originally posted in the Neck Sizing thread by mistake)
 
Made 100 each 357 mag......

50 with 158 grain jsp and 15 grains imr4227

50 with 158 grain jsp and 7.9 grains unique

50 38 special with 158 grain cast rnfp and 3.5 titegroup.

The time group for 38 special is my first 38 load using titegroup......charge is right in the middle for that bullet.....I'm sure they'll be fine but I'll test these 50nforst before making a large batch.
 
whacko said:
Made 100 each 357 mag......

50 with 158 grain jsp and 15 grains imr4227

50 with 158 grain jsp and 7.9 grains unique

50 38 special with 158 grain cast rnfp and 3.5 titegroup.

The time group for 38 special is my first 38 load using titegroup......charge is right in the middle for that bullet.....I'm sure they'll be fine but I'll test these 50nforst before making a large batch.
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I got about 700 fps with 3.8 gns of Titegroup using 158gn RNFP (jacketed) in a S&W 686

The Lyman book has very low values for Titegroup for 158 gn lead projectiles (as in 2.9 to 3.4) and they do not list a +P for Titegroup.

Curious to where you saw 3.5 being in the mid range, the 3.8 I used comes from the bullet manufacturer (Xtreme bullets)
 
paul73 said:
How often do you do that? Is it worth the effort?
Worth - means compared to just getting new brass?
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Before every sizing on rifle brass. Should prevent stress failures like neck fractures as it reverses work hardening of the brass. As important for folks like you, @paul73, who are pursuing precision, it should improve the "sameness" of your handloads. Neck tension will subtly vary each time you reload the same brass as although the dies/expanders may be identical, the brass hardness continues to increase. That influences the amount of spring back in the brass, and the amount of "grip" on the bullet. My groups got better when I started using the AMP, and I specifically ran pretty uncontrolled tests of groups made up of new brass + 2x fired brass + 2x fired and annealed brass. Whenever the 2x fired brass (annealed) was grouped with either new or annealed brass, my groups (5 shot) opened up. I could not tell the difference between new brass and annealed in terms of grouping/consistency/SD/ES/etc. I must admit that I'm also influenced by advice from some of the top competitors in benchrest who swear by the benefits of annealing.

Worth it compared to getting new brass when speaking about "good" brass. I wouldn't bother if reloading 1x fired Federal GM (for instance) as the cost of the machine wouldn't be recouped until thousands of reloads and that brass is comparatively cheap if just using cases from commercial GM rounds. On the other hand, I think it IS worth it if speaking about Peterson or Lapua brass that was matched for weight, checked for concentricity, neck turned, trimmed, chamfered, deburred, flash hole uniformed, primer pocket uniformed, loaded with match bullets, BR primers, and powder weighed to the hundredth of a grain, fired from a really good barrel. As usual, YMMV, but I'm a hard "IN" for annealing (specifically with the AMP Mark II) with brass/loads/rifles like that...

Hope this is helpful.
 
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ddeck22 said:
I got about 700 fps with 3.8 gns of Titegroup using 158gn RNFP (jacketed) in a S&W 686

The Lyman book has very low values for Titegroup for 158 gn lead projectiles (as in 2.9 to 3.4) and they do not list a +P for Titegroup.

Curious to where you saw 3.5 being in the mid range, the 3.8 I used comes from the bullet manufacturer (Xtreme bullets)
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The can lists 3.8 titegroup with a 158 grain cast bullet.

Lyman lists 2.9 to 3.3 for 158 grain cast.

So I extrapolated that the range is actually 2.9 to 3.8 and 3.5 is about the middle.

Being that 3.5 is well under the 3.8 grain load listed on the can I'm plenty safe.
 
ddeck22 said:
I got about 700 fps with 3.8 gns of Titegroup using 158gn RNFP (jacketed) in a S&W 686

The Lyman book has very low values for Titegroup for 158 gn lead projectiles (as in 2.9 to 3.4) and they do not list a +P for Titegroup.

Curious to where you saw 3.5 being in the mid range, the 3.8 I used comes from the bullet manufacturer (Xtreme bullets)
Click to expand...

One of the things that is hard to accept about the way reloading data is published is that they don't give you the friggin' shank seating depth, just the COAL. Well COAL is ambiguous unless you're using the same bullet profile. For the same COAL and grain weight, a RN is seated deeper than a SWC which is seated deeper than a RNFP. That means for a given chargeand COAL, the pressure is with the RN is higher than with the SWC which is higher than the RNFP. I don't know why it would be so much trouble just to measure the friggin' bullet for us and quote that alongside the COAL. Instead, when I'm researching load data, I have to go on this hunt to sort out how my bullets relate to their bullets, sometimes resorting to counting pixels and inferring bullet dimensions. If their bullet is in QuickLOAD, then I can get it there. Of course none of it really matters with 38 special unless your gun is an antique or something. The differences in pressure are not usually gun-challenging dramatic. QuickLOAD for a COAL of 1.490" and 3.8 grains of Titegroup and Lee bullets gives 14341psi with RNFP, 15778psi with SWC, and 16973psi with RN. All those are under the SAAMI threshold of 17K. Of course if the bullet has a crimp groove, there will be a natural COAL to roll crimp to, which might or might not be close to what the reloading data is saying.
 
whacko said:
The can lists 3.8 titegroup with a 158 grain cast bullet.

Lyman lists 2.9 to 3.3 for 158 grain cast.

So I extrapolated that the range is actually 2.9 to 3.8 and 3.5 is about the middle.

Being that 3.5 is well under the 3.8 grain load listed on the can I'm plenty safe.
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A big issue with handloading is understanding how to interpret published data load discrepancies. Early on in my reloading learning i was freaking out with the data issues. The more reference manuals i bought the more discrepancies i observed. What put my mind to ease was the purchase of a chronograph. This was the best way to test and log velocities and ensure that i was reasonably staying in safe territories.
 
Made another 100 of 38 special with tite group and 158 cast rnfp

Changed the dies and started a batch of 45acp with 230 grain plated round nose and 6.3 cfe pistol. Got hungry.....off to get a sub.....then back to the bench to finish off 100 rounds.

Wife has class tonight I'm a bachelor till 9pm. 😂
 
whacko said:
Made another 100 of 38 special with tite group and 158 cast rnfp

Changed the dies and started a batch of 45acp with 230 grain plated round nose and 6.3 cfe pistol. Got hungry.....off to get a sub.....then back to the bench to finish off 100 rounds.

Wife has class tonight I'm a bachelor till 9pm. 😂
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Always nice to get a no-distraction reloading session in. My wife is leaving around 8 for gym class; hopefully I can measure powder and seat some bullets for the 60-ish .32 win special I have waiting on the bench
 
Well I had a nice long run on my Dillon 550 with out changing the number 1 baseplate (308, 6.5 CM, and IIRC 45 ACP). Like maybe 2 years?

But I have 600 pcs of .223 prepped to load for CMP shooting and another 500 pcs ready to load for my .223 PRS practice rifle (200 yards practice range) so swapped things over today. Cleaned, lubed, and adjusted things up.

I didn’t get anything loaded today, but I fully understand why some people have multiple units.
 

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