Grab a hand primer if you can.
Speeds things up, one less thing to think about.
Do a batch of 1 or 200 and you're off to the races
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What did you do in the reloading room recently?
- Thread starter DW357
- Start date
Grab a hand primer if you can.
Speeds things up, one less thing to think about.
Do a batch of 1 or 200 and you're off to the races
Mudflap621
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Nice! Have you ran any of the Brazos yet and if so what’s your load? I ordered a sample pack from them in .357 to try through my PM9 as I’m getting a lot of leading through that barrel. I rolled up 100 with titegroup and another 100 with some sport pistol. The leading was a lot less than the acme .356 projos but It’s still quite a bit more than I think is acceptable. I did notice that the Brazos are quite a bit softer than the acme as well. I dunno what my next direction is going to be to try and remedy this. I was looking at ibejiheads and maybe trying a .357 or .358 from them being a little harder than the Brazos.
84ta406
NES Member
I have not tried these ones in 9mm. I have the 115gr .356, my plan was for 5.1gr of CFE pistol @ 1.100. Thanks for the heads up about leading, I'll have to load a handful before going to the range today and see what it looks like after. I have no leading with Blue bullets so if these suck I'll be swapping back to those or a plated bullet again. I love shooting, not spending hours cleaning lead from a barrel. I'd rather spend more on projectiles as my time is limited.
Mudflap621
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I don’t know if it’s the bullets fault yet as only tried the acme and Brazos so far. My issue is after slugging the barrel on the pm9 it measures .356 so I’m thinking that’s why my original acme were leading like crazy in it as they weren’t sealing the bore. The Brazos a thousandth over were better for sure but still not great. I agree I’m already sick of cleaning the lead if I can’t figure something out I’ll just go to a jacketed myself for couple more cents.
The Value press is lees redesigned classic, this guys powder stand is pretty cool also. The Auto drum is cheap enough though
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKNDpzzoE0s
I got the value turrett. Went down to the basement and just ran 100 rounds in 40 minutes. Im getting better......moved some of my components to different spots to make things more efficient. What I'm liking the most is with the dies set up I can go down and just run a few rounds and actually have completed amo. With the single if I had a few minutes spare time I rarely ended up with finished ammo....just batches of shells in different stages of completion. I'm going to like this.
With the single I was 50 rounds an hour.
Does the pm9 have polygonal rifling ? They are not always lead friendly. Adds another level of finding that zone for correct alloy, velocity and pressure
Mudflap621
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No it’s got traditional lands and grooves. My glocks have the polygonal rifling and seem to be leading a tad less. Seems the majority of the lead is towards the muzzle so this would mean gas blowing by correct?
it can be a lot of things heres some good reading to get on track.
Mudflap621
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Thanks good read. I’m still not totally ready to give up kinda like the challenge. Gonna order up a couple more samples to try out Different size and hardness.
Tried a couple of hand primers and didn’t feel they saved much time overall. I kept pinching my hand with the Universal primer when trying to do large quantities because I kept trying to speed up. May have got used to it, but found the turret press much easier. They do come in handy for small quantity rifle rds.
try easy things like a better lube ?
If your using commercial cast bullets the alloy and lube might be to hard. can you recover some of your bullets from the berm? Bet the lube is still well intact.
If your running coated bullets I have no idea. Have not played around with coated and I probably wont.
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Mudflap621
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both have been hi-tek coated
then I lean on size and lack of lube.
Do they have lube grooves ?
If you can recover some of the bullets and see whats going on with them you might find a answer ?
How quickly are you seeing lead? I posted about my 1911 leading with bullets known to bew the wrong size but it still took aprox 500 rounds to really start showing.
Mudflap621
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No lube grooves. Next time I go I’ll try to recover some bullets. I shot cpl hundred rounds between a Glock and the pm9 and both leaded up. The acme have a hardness of 16 and the brazos 13. My next batch I’m gonna run a hotter load and see if that helps at all. Maybe the bullets aren’t sealing to the bore with the middle road loads I’ve made up. I’ve still got a lot of the acme left but I’m running out of the Brazos.
Yea, I used to use it while watching t.v.. Knock out 5 or 600 at a sitting. Can take some getting used to and I broke the handle a few times, but it was plated plastic. I did end up with Arm-Wrestler like forearm(s) though, so that was a bonus.
One thing I have realized is this new turret is going to make me use powder faster 
I cracked a brand new can of 2400 last night after i got the press set up. It's currently half gone! I made 250 rounds between last night and this morning. Never made that many rounds in 24 hours so I had to do the math because I didn't believe it. One can of powder is 7000 grains. 7000÷16 grains per round of 357 is about 437 rounds. Yup.....I went through a little over half a can in 24 hours.
I cracked a brand new can of 2400 last night after i got the press set up. It's currently half gone! I made 250 rounds between last night and this morning. Never made that many rounds in 24 hours so I had to do the math because I didn't believe it. One can of powder is 7000 grains. 7000÷16 grains per round of 357 is about 437 rounds. Yup.....I went through a little over half a can in 24 hours.
One thing I have realized is this new turret is going to make me use powder faster
I cracked a brand new can of 2400 last night after i got the press set up. It's currently half gone! I made 250 rounds between last night and this morning. Never made that many rounds in 24 hours so I had to do the math because I didn't believe it. One can of powder is 7000 grains. 7000÷16 grains per round of 357 is about 437 rounds. Yup.....I went through a little over half a can in 24 hours.
50 BMG hurts the powder supply. I get 29 rounds from a pound.
pastera
NES Member
Titegroup and sport pistol are relatively fast powder - if you have something slow like autocomp or CFE Pistol to try go for it.
Some guns simply don't like the faster powder with coated bullets - my mp9c will lead up like crazy with 231 but loves autocomp and CFE (same bullets and comparable load levels)
Artie
NES Member
Coated over 500 bullets this morning. The bronze needed 2 coats and the candy apple red was 3 coats. My $10 toaster oven isn't convection and found that setting at 420 (never reaches 420) degrees and baking for 15 minutes worked perfect. Both wipe test and smash test passed. I did 2lb loads with 3ml of mix of 20ml of hi tek to 110ml of acetone. I ruined 2 lbs of bullets trying to figure it out. Still have to try the black, really like the bronze, wouldn't buy red again.
i sold my 9mm I was casting for SW 52-2
Lee 358-125 Range Scrap sized to .357 and tumble lubed or 2500 lube. Loaded with Clays to just under 900fps. Nice load and bullet. Trace lead deposits at 350+ rounds. No idea what Bhn my Range scrap is. Its all pistol range lead from moztly FMJs so its pretty soft.
Smelted the last of my dirty pure lead at 49lbs. Then smelted 50lbs of clip on wheel weights throw a pound of 95 solder in that's what is in the pic. That leaves me 249lbs pure, 100lbs flashing and 40lbs of plumbing ingots. 50lbs of lino type and 25lbs of mono. And 10lbs of pewter time to figure out what cocktail to make probably hytek the ww and go from there
Attachments
that there i call poormans lyman #2 that should cast great bullets for almost anything shy of high velocity stuff..
old guy at local scrap yard used to give me a few more pennies per pound for the spring steel from Wheel Weight Clips. Along with a good price on the empty copper jackets from range scrounge lead.
New crew there now gives lowest scrap steel price for almost anything steel under 1000lbs.
Price on old copper jackets was still decent.
junk brass cases took a dive to under .80/lb
i kept the brass for a future cash in.
Not going for anything high velocity just some plinking stuff
84ta406
NES Member
My .300 RUM uses 90gr roughly of Retumbo powder. Only plus side is I never need more than one case of 50 loaded at a time lol.
