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What did you do in the reloading room recently?

I use a Shars toolmakers vise for 90% of what I do on my X1 - 3-1/2" x 4-7/8" Precision Toolmakers Vise
It's low profile enough to not eat up too much space over the table. If you get one, put some Loctite on the setscrew holding the pin on the adjuster before you use it - and avoid having to take the squared up vise off the table to fix it mid project.

I've got a Chinese Kurt clone with 5" jaws, but I only use that occasionally. Kind of tall for the X1.
 
Loaded up some of @Michael J. Spangler ’s 260 gr bullets over Sport Pistol. Going to head to the range in a few and see how they shoot in the Dan cannon.

Sadly the profile is just too long for my Henry rifle. Made some dummy rounds and tried to cycle them through the Henry and they got hung up. Even when I seated the bullets to the base of the pointed part of the bullet - forgot the correct terminology.

Not a big deal. They’ll just be shot from the revolver only.

Can see how much longer they are compared to these other coated 240 gr SWC’s I have.
A2B83141-2831-49D2-A0A1-B8A4BE07178C.jpeg
 
Looking good! I think the RCBS mould is a touch longer bullet than the 429421 Keith bullet.
I have the same issues with the 358429 357 mag bullet in my Marlin
I know guys used to crimp over the front driving band back in the day. Some load data is actually listed like that for short cylindered revolvers.
 
Loaded the last of my clean 44 mag brass - hate when that happens! I got like 300 grains of bullseye left and I’m trying to use it all up then switch to sport pistol.
 
andrew1220 said:
That they do! It’s hard to miss with a 10" barrel and a super light SA trigger lol.

You’ve got one right?
Click to expand...
I do. With a 6" barrel. Sometimes we shoot it next to the Ruger Security Six just to remind us how great the Wesson is.
We were going to get some range time in today but the local theater is showing They Shall Not Grow Old so I opted for a movie instead.
 
Yesterday I noticed the plastic hopper on my Hornady powder measure was extremely loose. Took little effort to remove. Why the F is the metal housing threaded while the plastic is just jammed into it??o_O Come on Hornady
F697B2B6-FC75-4E7F-A854-97A089685EBE.jpeg

Anyway, did some reading and it looks like the powder slowly reacts with the plastic (which I knew) and causes it to shrink thus becoming loose. I never leave powder in for extended periods of time - always empty it when I’m done loading. But I’ve been using it for 5 years. Cheap and easy fix is to simply flip it around and insert the opposite end of the hopper which I’ll do for the time being.

But I just ordered a threaded Pyrex/glass hopper from Dram Worx for $57 shipped. Not super cheap but it should cut down on the static electricity and it won’t react with the powder which is nice.
Products
 
andrew1220 said:
Yesterday I noticed the plastic hopper on my Hornady powder measure was extremely loose. Took little effort to remove. Why the F is the metal housing threaded while the plastic is just jammed into it??o_O Come on Hornady
View attachment 272181

Anyway, did some reading and it looks like the powder slowly reacts with the plastic (which I knew) and causes it to shrink thus becoming loose. I never leave powder in for extended periods of time - always empty it when I’m done loading. But I’ve been using it for 5 years. Cheap and easy fix is to simply flip it around and insert the opposite end of the hopper which I’ll do for the time being.

But I just ordered a threaded Pyrex/glass hopper from Dram Worx for $57 shipped. Not super cheap but it should cut down on the static electricity and it won’t react with the powder which is nice.
Products
Click to expand...
I have a Hornady powder drop and have wondered myself as to why they bothered to thread the body but not the hopper. (even though threading a plastic part into a metal base or vice versa is a pet peeve of mine) Perusing the link you posted and saw that they at one time had ridges on the inside of the metal body to help hold the hopper in place. Maybe its easier to machine threads (which act like ridges) than it is to machine ridges? Interested to hear how the new hopper works out.
 
andrew1220 said:
Loaded the last of my clean 44 mag brass - hate when that happens! I got like 300 grains of bullseye left and I’m trying to use it all up then switch to sport pistol.
Click to expand...
Scratch that! Went through my reloading cabinet and found another 200+ 44 mag cases! It’s getting pretty bad when I’m finding brass I didn’t know I had....

Now I was able to finish off that pound of bullseye. Been using it since late 2016 - goes a long way when you’re using ~4 gr for 357 and ~5 gr for 44 mag.

Going to blast some of these off later this afternoon.
 
headednorth said:
I have a Hornady powder drop and have wondered myself as to why they bothered to thread the body but not the hopper. (even though threading a plastic part into a metal base or vice versa is a pet peeve of mine) Perusing the link you posted and saw that they at one time had ridges on the inside of the metal body to help hold the hopper in place. Maybe its easier to machine threads (which act like ridges) than it is to machine ridges? Interested to hear how the new hopper works out.
Click to expand...
Yeah I never understood threading plastic into metal either. It’s possible it was cheaper/easier to machine threads rather than ridges. But it sounds like the ridges weren’t very secure.

Anyway, I tried flipping it around to use the other end, and it was next to impossible to press it into the housing. I pressed and twisted the original end into the housing and now it seems to be fairly secure. Not sure what I was doing yesterday when I tried it...

Oh well, still looking forward to the glass hopper. Really curious to see how it holds up to static electricity.
 
andrew1220 said:
Yeah I never understood threading plastic into metal either. It’s possible it was cheaper/easier to machine threads rather than ridges. But it sounds like the ridges weren’t very secure.

Anyway, I tried flipping it around to use the other end, and it was next to impossible to press it into the housing. I pressed and twisted the original end into the housing and now it seems to be fairly secure. Not sure what I was doing yesterday when I tried it...

Oh well, still looking forward to the glass hopper. Really curious to see how it holds up to static electricity.
Click to expand...
I'm not a huge fan of my Hornady measure. I use it because I have it but for most work I use my Lyman 55s.
Hornady's design is kind of stupid. I also don't like unscrewing the lock nut to have to dump the powder. I think they make a special insert for dumping the powder without removing it from the stand but I'm all set with giving hornady any more $$
I don't like anything I've purchased from them.
Powder trickler is super cheap
cam lock trimmer sucked and you had to fiddle to get it to line up right
40 cal dies that have a roll crimp feature? Is that a joke? Good luck trying to get them to gently taper without a roll. Near impossible.
 
andrew1220 said:
Yeah I never understood threading plastic into metal either. It’s possible it was cheaper/easier to machine threads rather than ridges. But it sounds like the ridges weren’t very secure.

Anyway, I tried flipping it around to use the other end, and it was next to impossible to press it into the housing. I pressed and twisted the original end into the housing and now it seems to be fairly secure. Not sure what I was doing yesterday when I tried it...

Oh well, still looking forward to the glass hopper. Really curious to see how it holds up to static electricity.
Click to expand...
When my hopper fell out i duct taped the shit out of it! Has not come loose in years! As for static, i just use dryer sheets, keep a few around and just toss them in the hopper or wspe stuff down. If you have static problems you should find a ground and ground your bench or other stuff/methods
 
Last edited:
Michael J. Spangler said:
I'm not a huge fan of my Hornady measure. I use it because I have it but for most work I use my Lyman 55s.
Hornady's design is kind of stupid. I also don't like unscrewing the lock nut to have to dump the powder. I think they make a special insert for dumping the powder without removing it from the stand but I'm all set with giving hornady any more $$
I don't like anything I've purchased from them.
Powder trickler is super cheap
cam lock trimmer sucked and you had to fiddle to get it to line up right
40 cal dies that have a roll crimp feature? Is that a joke? Good luck trying to get them to gently taper without a roll. Near impossible.
Click to expand...
Wow I’m surprised you didn’t like the powder measure. I really like the measure. It’s dead nuts on dropping powder. I also use the powder funnel which makes dumping powder extremely easy.

And their dies have been good so far. I must have been lucky lol.
 
mac1911 said:
When my hopper fell out i duct taped the shit out of it! Has not come loose in years! As for static, i just use dryer sheets, keep a few around and just toss them in the hopper or wspe stuff down. If you have static problems you should find a ground and ground your bench or other stuff/methods
Click to expand...
I have dryer sheets around which helps.

The hopper is fairly secure now but I’m curious to see how this glass hopper turns out.
 
andrew1220 said:
Wow I’m surprised you didn’t like the powder measure. I really like the measure. It’s dead nuts on dropping powder. I also use the powder funnel which makes dumping powder extremely easy.

And their dies have been good so far. I must have been lucky lol.
Click to expand...
Love the funnel
 

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