What did you do in the reloading room recently?

[DW357]

I thought I'd start one large thread on What you did in the reloading room recently? Gives us fellow (addicted) reloaders a place to chat about reloading all in one thread.

This past weekend I cranked out a bunch of 44 mag rounds using 180 gr XTPs, 300 gr XTPs, and X-treme plated 240 gr FP with H110. Also made more 357 mag rounds with 158 gr JHPs using 2400.

If I have some time tonight after work, I'd like to make more 9mm rounds with X-treme plated 115 gr RN using Titegroup.

 

[EddieCoyle]

Today? I walked through it to get clean pants out of the dryer.

 

[mrmags]

This weekend I converted a bunch of 223 brass into 300 blackout brass. Made up 100 rounds of 300 blackout
80 rounds of 150 grain SMK
20 rounds of 168 grain SMK
Using Lil Gun Powder
Also made 100 rounds of 45 lead RN using tite group
I love reloading ALMOST as much as i love shooting the stuff!

 

[DW357]

Today? I walked through it to get clean pants out of the dryer.

I did that last night.

I can't even imagine what you're reloading room looks like. I would have thought you have a separate secured warehouse for reloading lol.

 

[DW357]

This weekend I converted a bunch of 223 brass into 300 blackout brass. Made up 100 rounds of 300 blackout
80 rounds of 150 grain SMK
20 rounds of 168 grain SMK
Using Lil Gun Powder
Also made 100 rounds of 45 lead RN using tite group
I love reloading ALMOST as much as i love shooting the stuff!

Nice! I'm with you on loving to reload as much as shooting lol. I wish I could quit my job and just reload, I have so much fun making ammo and trying new loads to test at the range. But I got to balance reloading with personal life as the fiancé gets pissed when I'm down in the basement while she's upstairs watching TV or making dinner

 

[jibbr71]

Since my reloading set up is at my folk's place for considerations of space, I'm not there every day. I did however drop off about 60 lbs of projectiles the other day in preparation for a run of pistol ammo.

 

[mrmags]

Definatly a balancing act. Im married with 2 kids., I usually reload when the kiddies go to bed. I can usually get about 2 hours maybe 2-3 a week. Cant push it too mu h and get wifey mad....lol

 

[DW357]

Since my reloading set up is at my folk's place for considerations of space, I'm not there every day. I did however drop off about 60 lbs of projectiles the other day in preparation for a run of pistol ammo.

That's a lot of lead. Unless you're reloading 500 gr projectiles for 500 S&W like EC, it's only 840 bullets lol.

 

[DW357]

Definatly a balancing act. Im married with 2 kids., I usually reload when the kiddies go to bed. I can usually get about 2 hours maybe 2-3 a week. Cant push it too mu h and get wifey mad....lol

Ya that's got to be tough for sure. I usually get home from work before my fiancé so I try to reload for a bit before she gets home. Then when she's at her parents house or out with friends, I race to the basement lol.

I don't have any kids but I have a dog that I try to walk 2-3 miles per day which takes up some time.

 

[Smokewagon]

Got my new wet tumbler rocking and rolling. I can now do 1000+ rounds easy from dirty to brand-spankin-new-like shiney in around 3 hours. Which is about 4x what I used to be able to do in the same amount of time.
Packed up my old HF Dual rock tumbler, it served me well in getting me started with wet tumbling.

 

[tysdad115]

I turned off my tumbler at 2AM when I was leaving to go fishing, I loaded it Saturday and turned it on then. That will be some damn shiny brass.

 

[DW357]

Got my new wet tumbler rocking and rolling. I can now do 1000+ rounds easy from dirty to brand-spankin-new-like shiney in around 3 hours. Which is about 4x what I used to be able to do in the same amount of time.
Packed up my old HF Dual rock tumbler, it served me well in getting me started with wet tumbling.

I've been reading numerous threads here on NES and on the 1911 forums about wet tumbling. I've been using my Berry's tumbler for the last few years and it works great but lately I find myself shooting a lot, especially with IDPA coming up. I've considered buying a second tumbler (possibly a wet tumbler) to keep up with the backlog of dirty brass. Still haven't decided yet.

 

[jibbr71]

That's a lot of lead. Unless you're reloading 500 gr projectiles for 500 S&W like EC, it's only 840 bullets lol.

Yeah, a metric shit ton of 9mm and .45, plus some .40 thrown in for the old man. I like to order enough to make a run worthwhile, especially since It's spring time when I finally start making good money again.

 

[DW357]

I turned off my tumbler at 2AM when I was leaving to go fishing, I loaded it Saturday and turned it on then. That will be some damn shiny brass.

Nice! Ya I've found myself tumbling brass for 12-18 hours a couple times - both by mistake and on purpose. Brass is definitely shiny!

I tumble my brass outside due to the noise and the nasty lead dust. I remember the first time I started doing that and my neighbor was wondering what the hell I was doing.

 

[DW357]

Yeah, a metric shit ton of 9mm and .45, plus some .40 thrown in for the old man. I like to order enough to make a run worthwhile, especially since It's spring time when I finally start making good money again.

Wow. Yeah definitely good to buy in bulk. I went in on a group buy at my club a few years ago on X-treme bullets. Bought 5k 9mm bullets and 5k 38 cal bullets. I still have enough 9mm bullets for the rest of this year and plenty of 38 cal bullets since I've bought jacketed bullets as well.

What brand of bullets you using?

 

[highlander]

Later today I have to make up some test rounds for 2 rifles that I replaced the firing pin springs. Going to try neck sizing rather than full length sizing.

 

[DW357]

Later today I have to make up some test rounds for 2 rifles that I replaced the firing pin springs. Going to try neck sizing rather than full length sizing.

Cool. The only rifle calibers I reload currently are 30-06 and 30 carbine but I haven't tried neck sizing the cases for my Garand yet. I have about 1,500 rounds of HXP and PPU garand ammo so I haven't reloaded too much 30-06.

 

[jibbr71]

I'm running all xtreme bullets for pistol. They're great for plinking/practice, and economical. I think what triggered this order was a free shipping promo they had. I have them shipped to work for ease of handling, and they've been sitting in my office for a month. Can't remember the exact #'s, but I think it was 3.5k 9mm, 1.5k .45, and 1k .40 s&w....just checked the tracking info from UPS, and it was a little over 100 lbs, oops. The 60 lbs was just the 9mm

 

[DW357]

I'm running all xtreme bullets for pistol. They're great for plinking/practice, and economical. I think what triggered this order was a free shipping promo they had. I have them shipped to work for ease of handling, and they've been sitting in my office for a month. Can't remember the exact #'s, but I think it was 3.5k 9mm, 1.5k .45, and 1k .40 s&w....just checked the tracking info from UPS, and it was a little over 100 lbs, oops. The 60 lbs was just the 9mm

Nice. Ya X-treme is a great company with awesome service for sure. I've only used X-treme bullets for 9mm. I haven't tried jacketed 9mm bullets yet but I'm curious if there's a major accuracy difference? I have no issues hitting my 10" steel at 50 yards with my CZ75b using X-treme 115 gr RN, so I think that's probably good enough.

 

[jibbr71]

What did you do in the reloading room today?

Nice. Ya X-treme is a great company with awesome service for sure. I've only used X-treme bullets for 9mm. I haven't tried jacketed 9mm bullets yet but I'm curious if there's a major accuracy difference? I have no issues hitting my 10" steel at 50 yards with my CZ75b using X-treme 115 gr RN, so I think that's probably good enough.

There may be some accuracy difference, but they do everything I need out of a practice round for defensive pistols.

This is a group at 7 yds:

 

[DW357]

There may be some accuracy difference, but they do everything I need out of a practice round for defensive pistols.

This is a group at 7 yds:
View attachment 137426

I'd say you killed your target there lol. What's your load?

 

[jibbr71]

That is 124g xtreme over IMR 700-x. I think the charge was 4.9gr, but I'm not 100% sure. I got some of that powder last fall when i couldn't get anything else and I hate it. A LOT. It meters miserably, and makes a large fireball, which is tough when training low light. I just picked up 12 lbs of Alliant BE-86, which looks to be very similar to Bullseye, but with a flash suppressant added. I'll be working up loads with that powder in the next couple weeks.

 

[DW357]

That is 124g xtreme over IMR 700-x. I think the charge was 4.9gr, but I'm not 100% sure. I got some of that powder last fall when i couldn't get anything else and I hate it. A LOT. It meters miserably, and makes a large fireball, which is tough when training low light. I just picked up 12 lbs of Alliant BE-86, which looks to be very similar to Bullseye, but with a flash suppressant added. I'll be working up loads with that powder in the next couple weeks.

Cool. I've never tried 700-x or BE-86 before. Only Titegroup and 231 which both shoot and meter great. I might have to try some of X-treme's 124s as all I have now is 115s.

 

[mac1911]

Walked in and relized its still a cramped cluster **** of a space.....loaded 100 rounds and left!

 

[NavelOfficer]

The X-treme products are quite decent, in my view. I've loaded the 124gr in 9mm (5.2 gr. W452AA), the 158gr in .38/.357 and hope to load a bunch of the 150gr in .30 caliber shortly (makes for an economical plinker round in .30-06, .308 and 7.5x55).
Last thing I did at the bench was to size and decap some .38 Special. A day or two back, I loaded up .32 S&W and the fella came down with his old S&W to shoot them off. What a hoot!
Speaking of 700-X, that's what I used in the .32 S&W. Had to screw the powder measure all the way in to get 1.2 grains of 700-X. Only had a 100 grain LSWC, but most of them I drilled to get them to 87 grains. The 100 grains worked just fine, too.

 

[DW357]

Walked in and relized its still a cramped cluster **** of a space.....loaded 100 rounds and left!

Haha, I can only imagine what my basement is going to look like after another 10-20 years of reloading. Not too cramped now but only been buying components and reloading for the last few years.

 

[DW357]

The X-treme products are quite decent, in my view. I've loaded the 124gr in 9mm (5.2 gr. W452AA), the 158gr in .38/.357 and hope to load a bunch of the 150gr in .30 caliber shortly (makes for an economical plinker round in .30-06, .308 and 7.5x55).
Last thing I did at the bench was to size and decap some .38 Special. A day or two back, I loaded up .32 S&W and the fella came down with his old S&W to shoot them off. What a hoot!
Speaking of 700-X, that's what I used in the .32 S&W. Had to screw the powder measure all the way in to get 1.2 grains of 700-X. Only had a 100 grain LSWC, but most of them I drilled to get them to 87 grains. The 100 grains worked just fine, too.

Yeah they help up well shooting full house 44 mag loads with H110 out of my 7.5" super redhawk. I've yet to try them out of my Henry 44 where the velocity will be much higher. They seem accurate enough for my 9mm although I've thought about trying some jacketed 9mm bullets to see if there's a big difference. Especially trying the different bullet weights and shapes (124s and 147s), JHP, RN etc.

 

[tysdad115]

I've been using the Rainier FMC 115gr 9mm , I havent noticed a difference between those and the Xtremes I was using other than I'm paying less for them. Load them as a regular FMJ, 4.1gr of Titegroup and they are plenty accurate. I've ordered the 124gr to see how those are.

 

[DW357]

I've been using the Rainier FMC 115gr 9mm , I havent noticed a difference between those and the Xtremes I was using other than I'm paying less for them. Load them as a regular FMJ, 4.1gr of Titegroup and they are plenty accurate. I've ordered the 124gr to see how those are.

Cool. I was commenting in that Woburn IDPA thread about what people were using for bullets/weights/shapes and M1911 said he was using the Zero 147 gr JHPs. I'm sure those are nice bullets but almost twice the cost of plated is tough to swallow unless they're grouping 1" at 50 yards lol. Maybe if you buy in bulk you can get the JHPs for a better price.

 

[Smokewagon]

I've been reading numerous threads here on NES and on the 1911 forums about wet tumbling. I've been using my Berry's tumbler for the last few years and it works great but lately I find myself shooting a lot, especially with IDPA coming up. I've considered buying a second tumbler (possibly a wet tumbler) to keep up with the backlog of dirty brass. Still haven't decided yet.

I've only run about 5 batches through my new one, and so far I love it. Absolutely one of my favorite purchases in a while. I went with the Frankford Arsenal Platinum Series Rotary Tumbler. It's not much louder than my HF tumbler, and when I close the door i can't hear it in any other room other than the kitchen, and that's only if no one is in there making noise like washing dishes or something. The amount of time I save and the ability to clean up a weekends worth of brass in one go makes it a great buy.