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What did you do in the reloading room recently?

I got about 20 of those kitty litter buckets from a customer of mine. I kept 6 or 8 for the shop and gave another 5 away, because who needs more that 7 buckets? This guy, that's who! Wish I had them all back. Ever since I started RO-ing at the clubs indoor range, I'm bringing home beaucoup brass.
 
Sure a bit cleaner to work with and they make firing up the furnace a bit less necessary...

Still make a few cast bullets now and again, however...
 
mac1911 said:
View attachment 138614View attachment 138615
Heres a few of the dozen or so I dropped the other night just to see hown they would come out. Wheel weight alloy with a touch of 70/30 tin solder
Plenty hard enough for my use I add a touch of tin in hopes of better mold fill out. I might use a little softer alloy as these come up a little light. The sprue plate is not snapping off clean and leaving a touch of lead on the bases and not smooth?

Click to expand...

does it leave a sheared off bump on the base? do you have pics? sounds like you're not cutting the sprue fast enough, which is hard to do when the mold is still cold once it heats up a bit you have a little more time.
if the sprue is sheared off with a little bump then it's too cold. if the sprue is cut flush but has some grainy holes in it then it was too hot and some of the base came off with it.
it's hard to get right in between but for all intents and purposes they shoot all shoot pretty well

nice looking bullets by the way. what velocity are you looking to shoot them at?
 
NavelOfficer said:
Sure a bit cleaner to work with and they make firing up the furnace a bit less necessary...

Still make a few cast bullets now and again, however...
Click to expand...

you're right about that. I just can't bring myself to buy bullets, at least for pistol ammo. I like to shoot a ton weekly so I try to keep it frugal and stick to my cast handgun loads and rifle loads. are the bottom round 30 carbine? what bullet is that?
 
Decided to get serious with reloading, after working through my Lee Turret and a hornady AP. Waiting
for the big boy DL 1050 to arrive on Friday with some accessories and MrBulletFeeder from Double Alpha. A friend on NES is building me a bench, and I got the ultra mount from Inline Fabrications.

Dry tumbled about 1000 rounds 9 mm mixed brass in the garage today - no neighbor has said anything about the sound yet )

I am mostly loading 9 mm with 4.2 grains of VV N320 under RMR HP 115 grain bullets. Got a good deal on them a while ago.
 
Michael J. Spangler said:
does it leave a sheared off bump on the base? do you have pics? sounds like you're not cutting the sprue fast enough, which is hard to do when the mold is still cold once it heats up a bit you have a little more time.
if the sprue is sheared off with a little bump then it's too cold. if the sprue is cut flush but has some grainy holes in it then it was too hot and some of the base came off with it.
it's hard to get right in between but for all intents and purposes they shoot all shoot pretty well

nice looking bullets by the way. what velocity are you looking to shoot them at?
Click to expand...

Yeah, just leaves a little nub in the center. I have not used the mold much. I set the mold on edge of the lee pot like I do with all my other lee molds. I only casted about 30 bullets. First 8 or so came out wrinkled. I'm sure I will work it out. The sprue plate itself has a different feel vs the other lee molds.
The sprue plate screw is different than my others also as it can only be tightened a certain amount . My other lee molds you can tighten until the sprue plate won't move?
I smack the sprue plate when the sprue hazes over same as my other molds.
 
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Michael J. Spangler said:
you're right about that. I just can't bring myself to buy bullets, at least for pistol ammo. I like to shoot a ton weekly so I try to keep it frugal and stick to my cast handgun loads and rifle loads. are the bottom round 30 carbine? what bullet is that?
Click to expand...

Yes, .30 Carbine brass. That's a Lyman 311410. Until I bought some of the plated FN, I used this as my primary plinker in .30 caliber and in 7.62x39/54R, .303 Brit, 7.7 Jap and 7.65 Arg. It drops around .313", so I just size it accordingly.
 
mac1911 said:
Yeah, just leaves a little nub in the center. I have not used the mold much. I set the mold on edge of the lee pot like I do with all my other lee molds. I only casted about 30 bullets. First 8 or so came out wrinkled. I'm sure I will work it out. The sprue plate itself has a different feel vs the other lee molds.
The sprue plate screw is different than my others also as it can only be tightened a certain amount . My other lee molds you can tighten until the sprue plate won't move?
I smack the sprue plate when the sprue hazes over same as my other molds.
Click to expand...
yeah if you didn't cast for a long session it was probably just sucking the heat out of the cast into the mold too fast. once you do a bigger session with it you will notice a difference.

NavelOfficer said:
Yes, .30 Carbine brass. That's a Lyman 311410. Until I bought some of the plated FN, I used this as my primary plinker in .30 caliber and in 7.62x39/54R, .303 Brit, 7.7 Jap and 7.65 Arg. It drops around .313", so I just size it accordingly.
Click to expand...
looks like a cool little plinker. I have the lee 314 90 grain SWC for my 32 S&W long and was thinking of trying that for a plinker in 308.
how do you like the plinking loads in the rifle rounds? I haven't tried any yet but think they would be cool. Are you using rifle powders or small charges of pistol powders?
 
Michael J. Spangler said:
looks like a cool little plinker. I have the lee 314 90 grain SWC for my 32 S&W long and was thinking of trying that for a plinker in 308.
how do you like the plinking loads in the rifle rounds? I haven't tried any yet but think they would be cool. Are you using rifle powders or small charges of pistol powders?
Click to expand...

I use the 100 gr commercial LSWC in .30 caliber, too. I just run them through the Lee sizer (.309") and run them in .308, 7.5 Swiss, etc. They aren't the smoothest feeders, but in a pinch they will work. I run them since I have a few boxes of them and don't shoot anything in .32 caliber. Some have been loaded in .32 S&W for a friend.
The 311410 feeds better due to it's profile and with 6.0 to 8.0 grains of Unique, 452AA , 700-X or take your pick, you get a lot of economical fodder that shoots better than I can. Maybe you wouldn't use them for hunting, but for dinging steel or punching paper, they work just fine. Plain-based cast bullets generally are kept below 1200 fps, so you're not looking to push them too hard.





Most of my trigger time is with my scoped m96 and the Lyman 266469 LRNGC. With 7ish grains of Unique that's 1000 rounds per pound of powder.

 
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My Zero 125 gr JHP 9mm bullets, Xtreme 124 gr HP bullets, and Xtreme 124 gr HPCB bullets arrived yesterday.

Last night I began loading up some of the Zero 125s using the same COL as my 115s (1.13") and tried to chamber it into my CZ75b. To my surprise the slide wouldn't go into battery. I did a quick google search with Zero 125 gr JHP and CZ's and found out that CZ's have short throats/free bores? This causes the bullets to rest on the grooves/lands in the bore.

Reading other forums, many CZ owners said they can't load them longer than 1.10" so I tried that length and they chambered perfectly. Glad I did the plunk test before heading out to the range after work today.
 
I got the 650 set up to run 300 BLK today and cranked out a few hundred rounds.

IMG_0504.jpg
 
Made about 70# of roofing and plumbing lead ingots.
Did a little machining for someone on a couple lee molds.
The .501 440 grain molds.
One I milled off the base to get rid of the gas check shank and the other I used a ream to remove the gas check shank. He wanted to try some plain base and figured I could give it a shot.
They came out ok.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Michael J. Spangler said:
Made about 70# of roofing and plumbing lead ingots.
Did a little machining for someone on a couple lee molds.
The .501 440 grain molds.
One I milled off the base to get rid of the gas check shank and the other I used a ream to remove the gas check shank. He wanted to try some plain base and figured I could give it a shot.
They came out ok.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Damn those are purrrty. Got any heavy 357 mag gas checked bullets? ~180 gr?
 
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I wish I did.
I'm going to start playing with 357 (I almost always load 38s for 99% of my shooting) I want to see how fast I can push (and have accuracy) a 358156 or similar 160ish grain bullet out of my 4" 686 and out of my 16.5" Marlin 1894. If I'm not happy with the velocity and weight combo then I plan on going for a 180ish grain mold. Probably the NOE 360-180 WFN for my main 357 load. I like 358429 Keith bullet but it's too long to feed in my 1894 unless I seat it really deep and crimp over the front driving band. Not something I want to do.
If you want to try out some of the Keith 358429s let me know. They drop around 175 grains I think. Plain base but they're hi-tek coated so you should be able to push them fast without any issues.
 
I installed a new dryer and washer, and moved the laundry center to the opposite corner of the basement. This was LONG overdue, and opened up the reloading/armorers bench area. Does that count?
 
jtnf said:
I installed a new dryer and washer, and moved the laundry center to the opposite corner of the basement. This was LONG overdue, and opened up the reloading/armorers bench area. Does that count?
Click to expand...

Yes it does.


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I got the 650 set up to run 300 BLK today and cranked out a few hundred rounds.<br />
<br />
IMG_0504.jpg
<br/>
Any reason you are using Hornady powder mrasure on the blue?

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk
 
I just built a quick and dirty toolhead stand for my proliferating 550B toolheads (too late for pix tonight).

I got my 550b a few weeks back and I'm up to three toolheads now (223/5.56, 45auto and 38/357). Next ones to get are 380acp and 9x18 mak.

The guys at the reloading counter at Shooter's Outpost love to see me coming their way. One of the guys even recognized me from the last time I was in there a week or two back.
 
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EddieCoyle said:
I got the 650 set up to run 300 BLK today and cranked out a few hundred rounds.

IMG_0504.jpg
Click to expand...

What are you using for Powder? I am liking lil gun a lot.

I loaded up 500 rounds of 9mm but did have a little excitement with a weird charge level - in between a regular charge and a double. weighed it and it was spot on. Turns out there was a moth cocoon in the bottom of one of the cases. I inspected every case after cleaning them. Must have gotten in there after cleaning and before I put them into a ziploc bag.
 
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Jim, would you please describe your setup to use Hornady powder measure on Dillon 650? It would be useful for a lot of people loading stick (not ball) powder on Dillon presses. I would guess, you are using Hornady Case Activated Powder Drop ( http://www.midwayusa.com/product/591344/hornady-case-activated-powder-drop ) and powder die. Also, do you use a powder through die, or do you expand the case in a separate step? Do you use The Universal Powder Through Expander: http://www.powderfunnels.com/products.html
 
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Michael J. Spangler said:
I wish I did.
I'm going to start playing with 357 (I almost always load 38s for 99% of my shooting) I want to see how fast I can push (and have accuracy) a 358156 or similar 160ish grain bullet out of my 4" 686 and out of my 16.5" Marlin 1894. If I'm not happy with the velocity and weight combo then I plan on going for a 180ish grain mold. Probably the NOE 360-180 WFN for my main 357 load. I like 358429 Keith bullet but it's too long to feed in my 1894 unless I seat it really deep and crimp over the front driving band. Not something I want to do.
If you want to try out some of the Keith 358429s let me know. They drop around 175 grains I think. Plain base but they're hi-tek coated so you should be able to push them fast without any issues.
Click to expand...

Oh nice! I might take you up on that offer. I enjoy trying different bullet weights/shapes for something new. I'm pretty sure my Lyman book has a good amount of load data for lead 170-180 gr bullets. I'd be using 2400 or H110 for these.
 
tons of data on that specific bullet design too.
I might load a handful just to mess around with. I did load some in my 1894 in 38 Special brass at one point and had decent results. I remember reading that they like to be pushed fast.
something to do with the length of them and needing the higher velocity to stabilize in a standard twist or something.
 
A few hundred or so rounds of 9X19 using 115gn Xtreme Bullets over HS-6 powder and 40 rounds of .30-06 using 168gn Hornady HPBT over Benchmark powder. Also sorting dirty range brass of 9X19, .45ACP and .40S&W. Not a lot, but good "me time" in the basement.
 
I emptied most of my .38SP +P loads at the range on Friday. They were nice and spicy out of the 642. Now that I know it's a good hot load I'll be making more. It's a nice comfortable load out of bigger wheel guns.
 
JackO said:
Jim, would you please describe your setup to use Hornady powder measure on Dillon 650? It would be useful for a lot of people loading stick (not ball) powder on Dillon presses. I would guess, you are using Hornady Case Activated Powder Drop ( http://www.midwayusa.com/product/591344/hornady-case-activated-powder-drop ) and powder die. Also, do you use a powder through die, or do you expand the case in a separate step? Do you use The Universal Powder Through Expander: http://www.powderfunnels.com/products.html
Click to expand...

I like the Hornady measure because it's better than the Dillon powder measure for certain powders (stick and fine ball powder). I use the case-activated powder drop, for which I bought several extra lower assemblies (a.k.a. "powder dies" - http://www.opticsplanet.com/hornady...-assembly-quick-change-powder-die-050074.html) that I leave in the toolheads. Then, you only have to loosen one thumbscrew and a spring to move the powder measure from toolhead-to-toolhead.

I use the (non-expanding) powder funnel that came with the powder measure. There's no expander die for the .300 Blackout, but when I load straight-walled cases with a similar setup, I use expander dies rather than powder through expanders (PTEs).

Since I like to make good ammo, I would never, ever use a universal PTE in place of a caliber-specific PTE or expander die.
 
NavelOfficer said:
LBT has a 180ish grain FNGC bullet...

http://www.lbtmoulds.com/moulds.shtml

My brother cast this, but he doesn't do retail orders. Perhaps I can grab some next trip to VT, but it's still not worth the effort to ship for what they're worth.
Click to expand...

Seems there are a few variants of the 180 out there. NOE makes on LBT and I know there has been a croup buy or two. I think the original group buy was lee.
All very good bullet molds. I can't wait to get one.


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