What did you do in the reloading room recently?

[76Too]

that looks like some kind of a penis torture device. insert each tip for varying outcomes (just the tip)

really cool though...I made something along the same lines, but with drill bits. I have two cordless drills I just line them up and chamfer/deburr with my 'machined' tools.

 

[Mudflap621]

Thanks for the tip guys it’ll save me a step. Just cautious as the moment but learning a lot and my wife hates it lol.

 

[mac1911]

It'll come out when you deprime. Here is the primer pocket setup I have for when I'm feeling 100% analysis about reloading precision rounds. For the record I don't think it provides any better results from the ammo, but it increases my confidence. The switches are momentary.

The tools are:

1) chamfer bit - kissing .308 mouths for internal chamfer consistency. I actually did see an improvement in consistency loading Barnes TTSX.

2) RCBS Primer Pocket uniformer, small rifle

3) Flash hole deburring tool (I think Lyman). Originally I bought it as a hand tool to clear media because I was depriming first.

View attachment 344893
View attachment 344897
View attachment 344894
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Where did you get the motors? Where they cheap

 

[mac1911]

I've shot hundreds of rounds made from cases with media in the flash holes and it doesn't make a damn bit of difference as far as I can tell.

I used some of those 30-06 cases i tumbled while deprimed for a few matches and my scores were consistent with other scores with factory ammo and other handloads that were confirmed to not have any blockages.

Shoot 'em and don't waste your time picking it out. The media will come out when you fire the round...you can trust me on that

Half of this shit with reloading is voodoo, I swear to it. All these queers out there 'neck turning' and confirming the liquid volume of their cases need to stop making youtube videos and get to the range.

@mac1911 even got me to think twice about cleaning my brass!

I've never cleaned, reamed, or uniformed a primer pocket in the few years I've been reloading. (i DO swage military brass, of course)

I've found that the best thing you can do to improve accuracy...is reload as many cartridges as possible and get yo' ass to the range and shoot them!

I dont even clean the shirt I use to wipe the brass off before I cram it into the die!

 

[whacko]

I messaged Andrew about it and he said same thing but I’m just a little nervous as this is my first time reloading lol. If you guys think they’ll be fine I trust your judgement better than mine.

Just deprime them and move on. Your good.

 

[76Too]

Thanks for the tip guys it’ll save me a step. Just cautious as the moment but learning a lot and my wife hates it lol.

why does your wife hate that you're learning?

wait until you start getting up early in the morning to start reloading and don't come upstairs until it's time to go to bed.

sooner than later you'll start peeing in bottles in the reloading room like the rest of us and eating MRE's for lunch so you don't have to see/deal with your wife and her 'honey-do' list.

for thread relevance, I finished swaging my .223 mixed headstamp brass for 'plinking' ammo, this morning. the dillon super swager with the 'spring method' moves things along pretty quick. it was really easy to adjust and I barely noticed the time as I did 500 cases.

 

[xtry51]

Where did you get the motors? Where they cheap

I think supplyhouse.com. 1/50hp 120VAC 1000rpm. They were something like $7 each.

 

[Queen Bee]

Tonight i primed, full length sized, powder measured, seated and crimped 150 8mm mauser rounds. Damm i am tired. Most of my time comes from measuring out powder, and cleaning the lube off all the cases after FL sizing. Took hours...

Do most people just do it like an assembly stage doing one or two steps a night?

Maybe i should try FL sizing and priming on one night, and then powder measuring and seating another time.

Maybe i should buy the lee auto drum powder dispenser

 

[nstassel]

I loaded some 230 grain .45 with 3.9 grains of Clays and 147 grain 9mm on 3.4 grains of n320. The 9mm is my usual recipe with xtreme and some new blue bullets I'm trying for the second time.

I chrono the loads today, the .45 was way short of major. Out of my TRP I got an avg 640. Pf 147000. That's almost max too, may switch maybe to wst.

The weird thing happened with the 9mm which I shot out of a CZ pcr 3.9 inch barrel. The blue bullet had to be loaded a bit shorter to stay off the lands.
Blue bullets 147 gr 1.12
899
911
910
894
897
894
910
895
913
Avg 902
Pf 133000

Xtreme 1.15
821
841
849
806
840
848
838
709
826
Avg 834
Pf 122600

The blue bullets would've saved me a dq at a sanctioned match. Btw that same load makes 130 out of a full size CZ or X5. Softer exterior I guess makes the bullet easier to send down the barrel? Shorter oal I shouldn't think would make that much difference.

 

[Rim Job]

On my fourth load of brass cleaning. Damn corncob keeps getting wedged in flash holes though.

Don't deprime before tumbling^^^^^^^

I think every reloader learns that lesson the hard way, myself included.

Depriming before wet tumbling is ok and the pockets usually come clean as a whistle.

Same here, just went through it with about 1k pieces of 223. Got a little excited over using a new universal de-priming die. Turn around and 1k pieces are done...SHIT!

 

[headednorth]

Did another run of 45ACP. Have a load of 9mm tumbling rn.

Tonight i primed, full length sized, powder measured, seated and crimped 150 8mm mauser rounds. Damm i am tired. Most of my time comes from measuring out powder, and cleaning the lube off all the cases after FL sizing. Took hours...

Do most people just do it like an assembly stage doing one or two steps a night?

Maybe i should try FL sizing and priming on one night, and then powder measuring and seating another time.

Maybe i should buy the lee auto drum powder dispenser

I try to do it all at once to get it done. If I had a ton of rounds to get through I do smaller batches and complete them rather than doing partial steps on the whole lot. Just my preference I guess.

-Tumble then lube
-Size and prime in one operation. Pull down on the lever to size then push up on the lever to prime all 50.
-Trim. I dont measure the length to try and determine which need to be trimmed, I just put them all through the trimmer. If theyre shorter than the trim length youll know right away because you wont feel any trimming happen. Saves some time.
-Charge and seat in one operation. Seating die is in the press, powder measure is set for the charge. Case is charged, then bullet is seated and completed round is tossed into the tumbler to get off the lube.
-I typically dont crimp bottleneck rifle rounds
-after a short tumble, I check some % for correct OAL before they get labeled and stored.

Key time savers here are sizing and priming in one step, and charging and seating in one step. This way Im only handling the case once instead of twice. Also I think its quicker to put every case through the trimmer rather than measure each one individually. If it trims, it trims. If it doesnt, it doesnt.

Imo, smaller lots that get completed are better than sizing and priming everything then stopping, etc.

 

[TrashcanDan]

Do most people just do it like an assembly stage doing one or two steps a night?

Maybe i should try FL sizing and priming on one night, and then powder measuring and seating another time.

Maybe i should buy the lee auto drum powder dispenser

On a single stage way back when, yea it was an assembly process over a few days if it was 100 or more, which it usually was.
And that was with the powder measure.
A remote mounted measure would speed things up a bit, you could go from powder fill to seat in one swoop.

 

[mac1911]

Tonight i primed, full length sized, powder measured, seated and crimped 150 8mm mauser rounds. Damm i am tired. Most of my time comes from measuring out powder, and cleaning the lube off all the cases after FL sizing. Took hours...

Do most people just do it like an assembly stage doing one or two steps a night?

Maybe i should try FL sizing and priming on one night, and then powder measuring and seating another time.

Maybe i should buy the lee auto drum powder dispenser

batch method works well for me. I plan a few days here and there to do certain things.
Brass cleaning, I will round up and clean all the brass I can find , sort what needs to be and pack it away. For 223/308/3006 i will let brass stock pile again before another cleaning round.
2.trim brass: dont like it so I will pick a few nights and trim as much brass as I can in 1.5hrs.
3. I do keep a lot of brass is trimmed and ready.
I also dont trim my brass until its over the max.
Most of my brass was trimmed down to min and then i set my FL die to just set the shoulder back .
-.003" or so for brass dedicated to one rifle or set to the rifle with the tightest chamber.

 

[Mudflap621]

why does your wife hate that you're learning?

wait until you start getting up early in the morning to start reloading and don't come upstairs until it's time to go to bed.

sooner than later you'll start peeing in bottles in the reloading room like the rest of us and eating MRE's for lunch so you don't have to see/deal with your wife and her 'honey-do' list.

for thread relevance, I finished swaging my .223 mixed headstamp brass for 'plinking' ammo, this morning. the dillon super swager with the 'spring method' moves things along pretty quick. it was really easy to adjust and I barely noticed the time as I did 500 cases.

she doesnt hate that I’m learning she hates it’s another thing to do in the basement haha

 

[PL-52]

Involve her, let her, sort, clean ,prep ,deprime or are you using it as a way to socially separate? AKA getting the f==k outta Dodge before she goes postal.

 

[Mudflap621]

Probably second option at this point lol.

 

[mac1911]

she doesnt hate that I’m learning she hates it’s another thing to do in the basement haha

shes not to found of any gained knowledge either...... " god damit what else will he learn"

 

[mac1911]

Involve her, let her, sort, clean ,prep ,deprime or are you using it as a way to socially separate? AKA getting the f==k outta Dodge before she goes postal.

i tried that, first thing my wife said was...... "Is sorting the part YOU dont like to do, no thanks"

 

[SJan]

I loaded some 230 grain .45 with 3.9 grains of Clays

I chrono the loads today, the .45 was way short of major.

what type pf 230g bullet? and what oal?
With coated lead and a little on the short side, 3.9-4.0g clays should make major. With clays being inversely temperature sensitive, you will need more powder to make major in hot weather. I have loaded at 4.3g with 230 ibejiheads 1.22"

With an identical bullet profile seated to the same oal, and the same powder charge, coated lead will be faster fps than jacketed, and plated will be somewhere in between.

 

[PL-52]

LOL I tried letting my last senora help me . She sorted shottie shells into calibers. I now have boxes marked diez y dos and veinte. Like I was supposed to know that I own'd a diez y dos caliber loading machine!!

 

[nstassel]

what type pf 230g bullet? and what oal?
With coated lead and a little on the short side, 3.9-4.0g clays should make major. With clays being inversely temperature sensitive, you will need more powder to make major in hot weather. I have loaded at 4.3g with 230 ibejiheads 1.22"

With an identical bullet profile seated to the same oal, and the same powder charge, coated lead will be faster fps than jacketed, and plated will be somewhere in between.

Right around there (1.22) Sean but these are plated Xtremes. I have some coated 230 Ibiji to try too. It was only loading the 9mm back to back that I realized the coated are evidently faster than plated. I think in the long run I'm going to switch to swc if they feed well.

 

[38ExtraSpecial]

Tonight i primed, full length sized, powder measured, seated and crimped 150 8mm mauser rounds. Damm i am tired. Most of my time comes from measuring out powder, and cleaning the lube off all the cases after FL sizing. Took hours...

Do most people just do it like an assembly stage doing one or two steps a night?

Maybe i should try FL sizing and priming on one night, and then powder measuring and seating another time.

Maybe i should buy the lee auto drum powder dispenser

I do steps as I need them or as the brass becomes available.

I generally tumble as soon as I have enough of that specific brass to fill the tumbler.

I’ll lube and full length size/deprime

Then back to the tumbler to remove the lube.
Sometimes I get media trapped in the flash hole. Not to worry though I use a universal decapping die Inverted in my left hand and drop the brass in with my right hand. The media pops right out

Off to the RCBS bench primer to prime them all up.

These steps pups be done all in one day or done all at different times. It really depends on how much of that specific brass I have to process and how much of a need I have for that ammo.

Depending on the type of ammo and bullet I will then expand the necks with an M die for cast bullet use.
All of this prepped brass goes into 1/2 gallon containers just waiting for the last steps.

Now when I’m ready to load I drop powder from a measure. Seat. Crimp if the cartridge calls for it.

This always gives me a step or two to do so I don’t get bored but I generally don’t get caught without prepped brass. So when I need to load it’s fast, powder drop and bullet seat. Done.

Of course this is all depending on what I have for brass quantity on hand. When I start up with a new cartridge and only have a range trip worth of brass or less I do exactly what you did.

 

[DW357]

I loaded a few hundred rounds of 44 mag and tumbled a few hundred 44 mag cases. Looks like I’ll load up that brass too...

 

[jek]

Trim. I dont measure the length to try and determine which need to be trimmed, I just put them all through the trimmer

What caliber are you referring to? I never trim .45 acp and rarely if ever do 9mm. When I first started loading I thought they would need trimming, but I found the .45 acp either stays the same or shrinks a bit and the 9 mm lengths don’t change much either.

 

[headednorth]

What caliber are you referring to? I never trim .45 acp and rarely if ever do 9mm. When I first started loading I thought they would need trimming, but I found the .45 acp either stays the same or shrinks a bit and the 9 mm lengths don’t change much either.

I was referring to any bottleneck rifle cases. Shes loading 8mm, iirc. Ive never trimmed any non-bottleneck cases.

 

[mac1911]

I was referring to any bottleneck rifle cases. Shes loading 8mm, iirc. Ive never trimmed any non-bottleneck cases.

I trim 30 carbine , its the only strait wall cartridge I reload for that "grows"

 

[Fixxah]

why does your wife hate that you're learning?

wait until you start getting up early in the morning to start reloading and don't come upstairs until it's time to go to bed.

sooner than later you'll start peeing in bottles in the reloading room like the rest of us and eating MRE's for lunch so you don't have to see/deal with your wife and her 'honey-do' list.

for thread relevance, I finished swaging my .223 mixed headstamp brass for 'plinking' ammo, this morning. the dillon super swager with the 'spring method' moves things along pretty quick. it was really easy to adjust and I barely noticed the time as I did 500 cases.

Inhated the super swager. Sold it after one session. Unless the brass is from the same lot, you will have a bunch of rounds with primers not seating all the way. I have an ammo can full of high primered cases that I have to pull apart and use the weldon but on.

 

[mac1911]

I loaded some 230 grain .45 with 3.9 grains of Clays and 147 grain 9mm on 3.4 grains of n320. The 9mm is my usual recipe with xtreme and some new blue bullets I'm trying for the second time.

I chrono the loads today, the .45 was way short of major. Out of my TRP I got an avg 640. Pf 147000. That's almost max too, may switch maybe to wst.

The weird thing happened with the 9mm which I shot out of a CZ pcr 3.9 inch barrel. The blue bullet had to be loaded a bit shorter to stay off the lands.
Blue bullets 147 gr 1.12
899
911
910
894
897
894
910
895
913
Avg 902
Pf 133000

Xtreme 1.15
821
841
849
806
840
848
838
709
826
Avg 834
Pf 122600

The blue bullets would've saved me a dq at a sanctioned match. Btw that same load makes 130 out of a full size CZ or X5. Softer exterior I guess makes the bullet easier to send down the barrel? Shorter oal I shouldn't think would make that much difference.

Clays is my go to powder for 45, although its not for anything trying to max out velocity with if anything its for soft loads. What id Major PF 160? so you need what min 725fps with a 230gn ?
I shoot a lot of cast loads. 4.0 grains of clays gets my 230 grain cast RN over 750fps out of my SW1911 but jacketed Hornady flat points are just breaking into low 700s.

 

[nstassel]

Clays is my go to powder for 45, although its not for anything trying to max out velocity with if anything its for soft loads. What id Major PF 160? so you need what min 725fps with a 230gn ?
I shoot a lot of cast loads. 4.0 grains of clays gets my 230 grain cast RN over 750fps out of my SW1911 but jacketed Hornady flat points are just breaking into low 700s.

I need 165. I'm way off at 3.9.

 

[76Too]

Inhated the super swager. Sold it after one session. Unless the brass is from the same lot, you will have a bunch of rounds with primers not seating all the way. I have an ammo can full of high primered cases that I have to pull apart and use the weldon but on.

i haven't started hand priming the batch yet, but i picked the heaviest crimped LC type brass in the batch and adjusted the swager to that one. Some of the commercial stuff still went through the swager with zero resistance, so I feel as though it wasn't set TOO aggressively so as to damage the primer pockets.

i'll be hand priming sometime this week and will report back.

i really HOPE this thing works...it's SO much nicer to use than the alternatives.

i'll probably still use a Weldon DB14 for my 30-06 stuff because it's so easy, but I don't think it'll work in the tiny small primer pockets of 5.56/.223.