What did you do in the reloading room recently?

My mail lady doesn't need to go to the gym, she just has to unload her mail van and carry the stuff that gets delivered here, I had a 6 " bench vise in one of those if it fits it ships boxes delivered. Lots and lots of brass lately and just last week had a box of 40 lbs. of wheel weights that was sent north to me from FL. She's young and fit . * Just for the record No I wouldn't.
 
Mailman delivering package one day. Im not home but my sister was there. Mailman says "Package for your brother." She says, "Is it heavy?". He replies "Nope, no bullets this time." Sis almost shits, lol. Mailman says, "What? My brother has one of those machines too in his basement. Looks like a big can opener. He's down there for hours loading up his ammo."
 
Made a case feeder for an Dillon RL550. Used a spare Dillon primer feed, some Lee case feeder magazine parts, some fab work, and 2 days that I will never get back.View attachment 215390 View attachment 215391 View attachment 215392 View attachment 215393 View attachment 215394 View attachment 215395 View attachment 215396
Good to see someone actually finishes something they start. I've thought of making one but know it would end up in the pile of scrap...
 
I loaded up the last of the 2500 X-treme plated rounds (in various revolver calibers) I bought when I started reloading.

I finally realized that my 44 magnum Lee Factory Crimp die was defective (better late than never--give Rabbit enough time, and he'll figure it out). In the other calibers the resizing ring rarely does anything other than maybe catch on the belling of the case before it reaches the crimping collet, but the 44 magnum FCD always put up a fight. I finally measured the resizing ring and came up with something too small to be right (don't remember the number right now). Lee said if my measurement was right, the die was defective, so I sent it back to Lee. That explains the two light 44 magnum rounds that I had jump the crimp--my .44 magnum crimp die was relieving neck tension by swaging the plated rounds a little inside the casings.
 
Made a case feeder for an Dillon RL550. Used a spare Dillon primer feed, some Lee case feeder magazine parts, some fab work, and 2 days that I will never get back.View attachment 215390 View attachment 215391 View attachment 215392 View attachment 215393 View attachment 215394 View attachment 215395 View attachment 215396
I ran somewhere between 100-200 rounds thru the 550. So far the only problem is when the magazine is full all of the way to the top. This includes the steel blast shield and the lee rotary magazine. That's about 3' of 9mm cases stacked. The next one in line can knock over the one being fed. Very easy to controll, once 4 or 5 from the column are fed it works 100%.
I'm very pleased so far. Somehow it feels like cheating a bit! I tried to post a short video, but no go.
 
Starting charge of Trail Boss in .32 H&R Magnum with a 95 grain bullet. Starting load velocity is so close to max load velocity I didn't feel the need to try and push it. Recoil was non-existent. Now I'm going to try some TB in .32 S&W Long in an H&R topbreak and see how that does. My last loads in the H&R were moderate charges of Unique with a 75 grain bullet and they felt a bit too hot in it, so a starting load of TB should be fine.

My plan is to use Trail Boss in .327 with a 75 or 85 grain bullet in the Henry .327 Big Boy. I'm trying to keep the velocity under 1050 fps from a 20 inch barrel to keep it subsonic and keep the energy as close to .22 LR as possible.
 
The mailman delivered some 405g 45-70 pills, I'll be assembling those soon.

Test batch of 30 - 35g of H4198... lipstick
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The red is a polymer coating, an alternative to jacketed bullets. These particular 405g bullets are HiTec coated from Acme bullet co. Will be fired in my 45-70 H&R handi rifle
 
Those are purty...

I’ve been cranking out 9mm but might switch over soon to load more reduced 30-06 rounds with Trailboss.

Those were made on my Lee classic turret, my Dillon 650 is still set up for supercomp. I plan to make another thousand of that before switching to 9mm for several thousand. Winter stockpiling is progressing slowly this year.
 
Those were made on my Lee classic turret, my Dillon 650 is still set up for supercomp. I plan to make another thousand of that before switching to 9mm for several thousand. Winter stockpiling is progressing slowly this year.

I’m trying to be more proactive this winter with reloading. Last winter I was super lazy which caused me to scramble all year to keep up with shooting matches almost every weekend. Don’t want to do that again.
 
Funny. I do a hell of a lot more loading in the summer. Basement is always cool. Uncomfortably cool in the winter, (sometimes dips into the 40's down there) but is very comfortable in the summer when its hot and humid. I load all year round, but my sessions are definitely shorter in the winter.
 
I’m trying to be more proactive this winter with reloading. Last winter I was super lazy which caused me to scramble all year to keep up with shooting matches almost every weekend. Don’t want to do that again.
Same here, I was loading all summer to keep up. I just added another 550 just for rifle so that should make things easier.
 
I managed to crank out 100 9mm on the SDB before the little guy woke up from his nap. At this rate I should have 1000 done by spring.. lol. And here I was hoping to load more this winter. My basement is fully finished and heated/cooled so I can load whenever, just a matter of finding the time.
 
Too rainy to smelt ingots,so I went down in the basement an opened up two cool whip tubs of sized and primed 9mm and started loading away. Pobably about 300 or so deep when I stopped to take abreak and order some more stuff online. Going to order a pizza and head back down while I wait for it. Most likely end up with 500 that will bring me to around 1100loaded and ready to go .
 
Working up a new 9MM load with N320 and 125gr FP heads from Precision. Loading them a little short at 1.07 so I started with 3.6gr. Not a good day for chrono, so small test batch to just make sure they function out of the Glock 17. So far, so good.
 
Too rainy to smelt ingots,so I went down in the basement an opened up two cool whip tubs of sized and primed 9mm and started loading away. Pobably about 300 or so deep when I stopped to take abreak and order some more stuff online. Going to order a pizza and head back down while I wait for it. Most likely end up with 500 that will bring me to around 1100loaded and ready to go .

Nice. I just finished loading about 700 rounds of 9mm. I think I’m done for the night. Feeling it in my back from standing lol.

I haven’t counted how many rounds I got so far but a 30 cal ammo can is full to the top...

Glad those 3k blue bullets arrived yesterday. Still waiting on 3,000 Federal 9mm cases...
 
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Started a new reloading room project - I've set out to build my own automatic powder dispenser/trickler.

My proposed architecture is as follows; electronic balance communicating with a Raspberry Pi - I will enter my target charge with buttons & LCD screen or an apache web server interface. I will have two methods of dispensing powder; an auger-based system for dispensing 90% or so of the charge, driven by a stepper motor, in combination with a motor-driven powder trickler to finish it off.

First thing I did was source a balance that measures in grains, has resolution equal to or better than .1 grains, and has a data output line that I could tap into. There are a lot of high priced scientific balances that meet the criteria, but I didn't want to blow the budget on the first piece of equipment. I ended up with this - MyWeigh | iBALANCE 401




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Next, I started playing with the Pi. I am using Python for this project - I have done SOME programming in C, but it has been 8 or 9 years. Needless to say learning python is a slow process. I have succeeded in receiving data from the scale, interpreting it, and lighting up LEDs which represent the two motors driving the dispensers.

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(Note the custom gender changer and null modem - its a work of art)

I have begun designing the auger side of the dispenser/powder hopper in CAD. My original concept used a drill bit inside a tube as the auger. I have recurring nightmares about sparks/heating and quickly dropped the drill bit idea. My current plan is to 3d print the auger and housing to meet my needs. I figure I can also fine tune the auger/tube/hopper this way.

A 3d printer is in my future... driving the total cost for this project to at least double (and maybe triple) the cost of an off-the-shelf solution. The printer will get continued use well beyond the scope of this project so I am not sure I can consider it part of the cost. I am simply 'charging it to the job.'

My immediate challenge is choosing a 3D printer. After that? On to the auger/trickler and drive system for the stepper motors.




This guy has the right idea, but I don't want to sit in front of it and dump powder in manually. My goal is to 'walk away,' so to speak, and continue with other reloading operations while my dispenser handles the rest.


Awesome stuff, please keep us posted!


Many months later (and many hours playing with a 3D printer), it finally lives. I have stayed with a single motor architecture for simplicity. I run it at a couple of different speeds, depending on how close the measured load is to the target.

I set up a simple set of questions to start the loading routine (caliber, powder, bullet weight). The program builds a file name, and retrieves a .txt file. This 'configuration file' contains target load, slow and fast motor speeds that work best for the powder, fast/slow crossover point, and a few other minor details. That data is used to adjust dispenser behavior for different scenarios.

There are dozens of hours of tuning ahead... but it is finally ready to start testing with powder.

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Can’t shoot so gotta reload and get a headstart on ammo for next years IDPA/USPSA matches right??

Lost count but it’s definitely well over 2,000 rounds, maybe pushing 3,000? I’m sure the 30 cal ammo can holds a bunch...still need to continue making more before I go back to work on Tuesday....

So purty....
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Sorted another 4,000+ rounds of 9mm out of my 5gal bucket.......with a couple hundred .45,.40 and .223 spread throughout.


I should probably get a press soon. o_O
 
Can’t shoot so gotta reload and get a headstart on ammo for next years IDPA/USPSA matches right??

Lost count but it’s definitely well over 2,000 rounds, maybe pushing 3,000? I’m sure the 30 cal ammo can holds a bunch...still need to continue making more before I go back to work on Tuesday....

So purty....
View attachment 216484
View attachment 216483

Loaded another 1,000. I think I’m done for a while. My shoulder and back hurt from standing and using the press for so long lol. With this shitty weather, this ammo should hold me over for a bit - late spring/early summer?....
 
Ordered some coated gas checked 170 gr 30 cal bullets from a guy out in NM (thanks to NavelOfficer). Good deal at $11.80 per 100 plus small flat rate box for shipping. The casters are going to cringe I’m sure, since it’s next to nothing for you guys lol.

Going to try them with Trailboss in the 1903A3.
 
Unless you simply enjoy casting, sizing and lubing or coating bullets, Norm's prices hardly make it worth it for me to light the Coleman stove. He doesn't offer every bullet caliber and weight, but I've done okay with several of his offerings. Especially since I haven't ventured into bullet coating and my lubri-sizer is out of commission. The 170g bullet looks like an RCBS mold, but I'm not 100% certain about that.
 

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