What did you do in the reloading room recently?

[quinnjalan]

I finally got my wet tumbler back in action and I normally use Dawn, Lemi Shine and the stainless steel media. However, this time I squirted in a few tea spoon of Nu Finish, not sure why…but it was sitting on the shelf and I figured why not. I ran the tumbler for 2 hours and the brass came out clean but brown in color! The last batch I did without the Nu Finish came out shiny brass. Clearly I’ll be dropping the Nu Finish but I also noticed the brass feels tacky. I’m thinking of pitching it as it’s all range brass so no great loss but figured I’d see what you all thought.

 

[Mike 53]

I finally got my wet tumbler back in action and I normally use Dawn, Lemi Shine and the stainless steel media. However, this time I squirted in a few tea spoon of Nu Finish, not sure why…but it was sitting on the shelf and I figured why not. I ran the tumbler for 2 hours and the brass came out clean but brown in color! The last batch I did without the Nu Finish came out shiny brass. Clearly I’ll be dropping the Nu Finish but I also noticed the brass feels tacky. I’m thinking of pitching it as it’s all range brass so no great loss but figured I’d see what you all thought.

First load of brass I did with my F.A.R.T. the brass came out like that. Later figured out that I should have washed the pins before using it to tumble brass.
I do not use it much, but when I do, I find a 9mm case full of Lemi Shine and some Armor All car wash works GREAT...

 

[Mike 53]

I have read the Nu Finish is best used with corn or walnut media.

 

[quinnjalan]

First load of brass I did with my F.A.R.T. the brass came out like that. Later figured out that I should have washed the pins before using it to tumble brass.
I do not use it much, but when I do, I find a 9mm case full of Lemi Shine and some Armor All car wash works GREAT...

I washed the pins before I stored them a few years ago (before we moved). I was thinking it was some kind of chemical reaction….but I’m no chemist. I’m going to give the pins a good washing and try again….but my 3D printed Decapping ByPass broke so I need to fix that first before I can recap more!

 

[quinnjalan]

I have read the Nu Finish is best used with corn or walnut media.

Right you are, now I remember using it when I dry thumbled. Good call!

 

[jek]

Anyone ever use cfe pistol for 45acp? How did it run?

That’s all I use with a 230gn projectile and runs great. I’m not home now, but I know I use mid range loads.

 

[jpm]

Right you are, now I remember using it when I dry thumbled. Good call!

I think they look kind of nice in that bronze color.

 

[mac1911]

Just fell into 1000 each 185 grain cast lswc for 45acp. I've neveroaded 185s only 200 and 230. I'm reading 3.6 to 4.0 grains bullseye is the range I should be in but hear may have cycling issues as it may need a lighter spring. Using in a sig 1911. Anyone ever have issues cycling a stock 1911 with 185 grain projos?

SW 1911 and even my SW PC 1911 cycle my 180 swc on 3.5gn BE
Makes a mess of the muzzle/slide but shoots well, IDK about the SIG?

 

[pastera]

Anyone ever use cfe pistol for 45acp? How did it run?

I have - no issues but prefer Silhouette for no particular reason past it runs well in my 9mm and it was much more available.

 

[meh]

About 438 rounds of 45 ACP loaded for my son. 230 grain Zero JHPs over 6.8gr CFE Pistol. My "original packaging" for reloads is a little less sophisticated-looking than it used to be. It's actually not bad packaging. I bought dessicant packs in bulk, and there's a bigger one than necessary embedded in there somewhere. I wish I could have fit the last 50 rounds in, but, alas, I loaded not to fill the container but to use up all the once-fired brass I had on hand.

 

[meh]

Snagged 4# of VV N350 recently when it showed up in stock. Will evaluate it as a potential back up powder to Auto Pistol. Some study with the VV reloading guide and QuickLOAD suggests that the loadings compared to Auto Pistol should be almost the same weights for comparable pressures and velocities. Another thing I'm hoping it does is drive 158 grain Zero JHPs a little faster in 38 special +P loads. I'm mainly loading 125 grain coated lead in 38 special, but I'd like to have a loading for the 158 grain jacketed bullets that performs reasonably well out of both my 1873 rifle and out of revolvers. As of now, I don't have a load for 158 grain jacketed bullets that I would want to shoot in the rifle. My attempts with Auto Pistol didn't impress me, though possibly I could have pushed the charge higher. I'm reluctant in 38 special because I'd want to be able to shoot them in my model 10 as well. Seems like there isn't much in the way of pressure signs to tell you when you've exceeded the +P range but aren't really into .357 magnum territory, at least with CCI primers. Pretty sure the casings are still going to fall out at 23K psi, and the primers are not going to be flattened or anything. Possibly N350 will do no better than Auto Pistol in the published range of charges, but while the charges might be about the same, the down-barrel burning characteristics could be rather different. Anyway, I'd like to see if it will get the velocity up a little higher in the rifle. We'll see.

 

[Jim Poulette]

I was pumped after Jim's class Saturday - so Sunday night I made up 307 more 9mm - 200 JHP and 107 FMJ. Also did a lot of 986 cylinder gauging.

I had the chance to look for stuff I never even knew existed before the class. I did find 3 completely flattened (or swaged) primers in the recycled brass - so I chucked (crushed) those.

Next up will be target loads for .44 SPL/MAG - never made any of those before, so here goes......

 

[PL-52]

Welcome to the Alumni of JF Tech. ( one of the MassReloading companies)

 

[DW357]

I was pumped after Jim's class Saturday - so Sunday night I made up 307 more 9mm - 200 JHP and 107 FMJ. Also did a lot of 986 cylinder gauging.

I had the chance to look for stuff I never even knew existed before the class. I did find 3 completely flattened (or swaged) primers in the recycled brass - so I chucked (crushed) those.

Next up will be target loads for .44 SPL/MAG - never made any of those before, so here goes......

View attachment 492289

Nice. What you running for bullets and powder in 44 spl/mag?

 

[Jim Poulette]

@andrew1220 Well, it's uncharted territory for me.

I'm going to start with an Alliant recipe - start around 4.5gn Sport Pistol behind a 240gn RNFP for SPL. I also have some 215gn RN that I would like to try, I have brass for both SPL & MAG. There are WAY more options for MAG with SP, and I need to read up on those more. I'm looking for a "low stress" load for knocking over steel plates. Nothing fancy really. The feel of the 629 is a lot more comfortable then I expected. I suspect I'll definitely be shooting it more.

 

[AJK129]

I was pumped after Jim's class Saturday - so Sunday night I made up 307 more 9mm - 200 JHP and 107 FMJ. Also did a lot of 986 cylinder gauging.

I had the chance to look for stuff I never even knew existed before the class. I did find 3 completely flattened (or swaged) primers in the recycled brass - so I chucked (crushed) those.

Next up will be target loads for .44 SPL/MAG - never made any of those before, so here goes......

View attachment 492289

The class made me want to start looking for a revolver to reload for

 

[TrashcanDan]

@andrew1220 Well, it's uncharted territory for me.

I'm going to start with an Alliant recipe - start around 4.5gn Sport Pistol behind a 240gn RNFP for SPL. I also have some 215gn RN that I would like to try, I have brass for both SPL & MAG. There are WAY more options for MAG with SP, and I need to read up on those more. I'm looking for a "low stress" load for knocking over steel plates. Nothing fancy really. The feel of the 629 is a lot more comfortable then I expected. I suspect I'll definitely be shooting it more.

There is a metric ton of loads out there for .44 spl.
240 gr anything + Unique (forget what my charge was 6- 7 grs?) will knock plates over out to 75 yds.
If you want some stout loads, 300-325 gr Sierra Silhouettes and.......Blue dot? (Theres a v.v. powder that works really well too) are fan-f'ing-tastic for 100 yd ram shots. They might even stop a compact car in its tracks.

If you can, grab one of these-
Amazon product ASIN B000WPU936View: https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Reloading-Manual-44-Magnum/dp/B000WPU936

Theres one for special too.

And now you'll need a levergun in .44.
I mean c'mon man. Can't have one without the other.

 

[Jim Poulette]

@TrashcanDan Is this the same thing? You're not kidding about the jillion loads for 44......

 

[TrashcanDan]

@TrashcanDan Is this the same thing? You're not kidding about the jillion loads for 44......

Close to it.
The small lymans manual covers a broader range of powder, but its laid out a little more .........archaic? It gets you the gist of it and you can play around with charges.

I'm not saying it can't be done, because people have done it, but Titegroup I like to leave for smaller faster cartridges. For the volume its too much on the hot and fast side for me. Matter of preference.

I liked heavy mag loads, my wife liked 44 spl's.

Man, you're gonna have fun with it.

 

[Knob Creek]

Had a problem with a new gun I need to solve. My normal load for 9MM is 3.6 Gr of Titegroup, Federal or Winchester primers with a 125 Gr. Blue Bullets with OAL of 1.125. This runs in every 9MM Pistol I have (Sig, S&W, HK etc). I used this load in a new S&W EZ Shield and the gun would not go into battery. Works in a Shield 1.0. But not in the EZ. Fails the 'Plunk' test.
I have to assume S&W has shorter throats on these barrels. Factory ammo works. The design of the Blue Bullet is such that it won't work in this gun at least at this OAL. The Ogive of the bullet is too big. So since I'm at the bottom end of the powder load I'm going to try some at OAL of 1.12 and 1.090. Won't go any deeper that that. Or try another Bullet.

 

[DW357]

Had a problem with a new gun I need to solve. My normal load for 9MM is 3.6 Gr of Titegroup, Federal or Winchester primers with a 125 Gr. Blue Bullets with OAL of 1.125. This runs in every 9MM Pistol I have (Sig, S&W, HK etc). I used this load in a new S&W EZ Shield and the gun would not go into battery. Works in a Shield 1.0. But not in the EZ. Fails the 'Plunk' test.
I have to assume S&W has shorter throats on these barrels. Factory ammo works. The design of the Blue Bullet is such that it won't work in this gun at least at this OAL. The Ogive of the bullet is too big. So since I'm at the bottom end of the powder load I'm going to try some at OAL of 1.12 and 1.090. Won't go any deeper that that. Or try another Bullet.

Yup. I’ve also noticed some minor inconsistencies with the o give on the 147 gr blue bullets. I’ve got a few rounds loaded with same brass, same OAL, and they won’t pass the plunk test. Then I try the ones that do plunk (same brass and OAL) and the only slight noticeable difference is the o give. It had me scratching my head for years until recently.

And someone on a blue bullets reloading Facebook group posted about their 147s being inconsistent in length:

 

[PL-52]

That’s not good!
I’ll take a look at the other variants in 9mm from Blue Bullets too, when I get back from Petco this morning

 

[allen-1]

Had a problem with a new gun I need to solve. My normal load for 9MM is 3.6 Gr of Titegroup, Federal or Winchester primers with a 125 Gr. Blue Bullets with OAL of 1.125. This runs in every 9MM Pistol I have (Sig, S&W, HK etc). I used this load in a new S&W EZ Shield and the gun would not go into battery. Works in a Shield 1.0. But not in the EZ. Fails the 'Plunk' test.
I have to assume S&W has shorter throats on these barrels. Factory ammo works. The design of the Blue Bullet is such that it won't work in this gun at least at this OAL. The Ogive of the bullet is too big. So since I'm at the bottom end of the powder load I'm going to try some at OAL of 1.12 and 1.090. Won't go any deeper that that. Or try another Bullet.

You might try XTreme 124 grain plated. They run in every single 9mm gun I have. I'm loading them over 4.0 grns of TiteGroup. Can't give OAL accurately from memory, and I'm away from my press.

I'm using the 125 grn round nose Blue bullets for my .38spcl loads and I like them a lot for that.

 

[DW357]

That’s not good!
I’ll take a look at the other variants in 9mm from Blue Bullets too, when I get back from Petco this morning

I will say I think it's not very common in the tens of thousands of blue bullets I've reloaded.

 

[pastera]

Had a problem with a new gun I need to solve. My normal load for 9MM is 3.6 Gr of Titegroup, Federal or Winchester primers with a 125 Gr. Blue Bullets with OAL of 1.125. This runs in every 9MM Pistol I have (Sig, S&W, HK etc). I used this load in a new S&W EZ Shield and the gun would not go into battery. Works in a Shield 1.0. But not in the EZ. Fails the 'Plunk' test.
I have to assume S&W has shorter throats on these barrels. Factory ammo works. The design of the Blue Bullet is such that it won't work in this gun at least at this OAL. The Ogive of the bullet is too big. So since I'm at the bottom end of the powder load I'm going to try some at OAL of 1.12 and 1.090. Won't go any deeper that that. Or try another Bullet.

I like to use use load manual data to find the seating depth of known loads using Bullet Length Data.
A same weight bullet with a larger nose radius and ogive radius (fatter nose) will be shorter so will give a larger effective case volume for the same COAL. The larger effective case volume results in lower pressures and velocities for a given charge. It can also result in slamming the fat nose into the rifling on S&W barrels - I haven't done precise measurements but they seem to be shorter than SAAMI spec(at least on the very short end of spec)

Using a "similar" profile bullet of the same weight will give you a good idea of the safe effective case volume for that charge data. Start off at the low end and work up.

 

[PL-52]

Re: Blue Bullets……..I dumped the peanut jar on a towel on my bench , looking thru the almost 1/2 the jug I dumped, I don’t see anything that jumps right out at me. ……. So I put the calipers to 20 of them for a starting point. Nothing jumps out and says Whoops. All withinthe margin of error of a pair of old eyes reading a dial caliper. ……So I did 40 more, same same. Got most all of these with my last order, I have to look up when they were delivered ………..Last delivery of 9mm was in Dec. 2020. I haven’t checked a more recent order of .45 round nose 230 gr yet. ….. Dumped about 60 or 70 on a towel, and checked about 1/2 of those, again nothing out of spec. I’m thinking that in the new market rush for their components, something got by Quality Control in that lot. Not good and a phone call to their office is in order! In my humble opinion.

 

[jpm]

You might try XTreme 124 grain plated. They run in every single 9mm gun I have. I'm loading them over 4.0 grns of TiteGroup. Can't give OAL accurately from memory, and I'm away from my press.

Same here, but I use 5.0gr CFE Pistol

 

[eisenhow]

Had a problem with a new gun I need to solve. My normal load for 9MM is 3.6 Gr of Titegroup, Federal or Winchester primers with a 125 Gr. Blue Bullets with OAL of 1.125. This runs in every 9MM Pistol I have (Sig, S&W, HK etc). I used this load in a new S&W EZ Shield and the gun would not go into battery. Works in a Shield 1.0. But not in the EZ. Fails the 'Plunk' test.
I have to assume S&W has shorter throats on these barrels. Factory ammo works. The design of the Blue Bullet is such that it won't work in this gun at least at this OAL. The Ogive of the bullet is too big. So since I'm at the bottom end of the powder load I'm going to try some at OAL of 1.12 and 1.090. Won't go any deeper that that. Or try another Bullet.

I'm not a big fan of making unique loads for each gun, at least handgun. All my stuff has to run in everything AND makes power factor in everything I could use. My 40 major loads fit in my Glock extended mags (pretty short OAL) and my STI 2011. Most people load much longer for that. I'd probably have the barrel reamed.

 

[BarnBuilder]

Loaded 500 223 Hornady 55 gr FMJBT mixed HS with 25.0 gr H335 at 2.20 OAL Probably do another 500 before the weekend.

 

[quinnjalan]

Figured out my web tumbling juice mixture (Dawn, Lemi Shine and the stainless steel media). I also 3D printer some name plates for my processed brass ammo cans.