What did you do in the reloading room recently?

No reloading for 2.5 years due to moving house and having kids. On the plus side my 1 year old is super interested in the “tools” - knows how to swage 5.56 primer pockets, and knows you need a grease gun to lubricate a dillon 650.
Was wondering what happened to ya lol. Hadn’t see your posts in a bit.
 
First time I heard someone telling me about that, I thought they were pulling my leg. As I recall they were talking about working up a 22-250 with something like 40 grain varmint bullets and they couldn't figure out why they weren't even on paper at 100 yards. Somehow they eventually pieced together that the bullets were coming apart somewhere between the muzzle and the target.

Are you speaking figuratively, or could you actually see the bullet disintegrate? I can't even see the shot string on a skeet range, so I envy those with eyesight that allows them to see vapor trails and stuff like that, that I can only see on video.
If you find that your bullets are tearing them selves apart you can see it sometimes as an by stander if its happening at close range
I have 2 personal experiences so far
1. 50 grain varmint bullet through. 1/7 223 AR pushing 3000fps the twist is. Just to fast.
2. Went through the same issue with some early Hornady 30 cal ballistic tip bullets. Those I did not see but eventually started getting random shards on target at 50 yards when I was trying to figure out whats going on.
Hornady put out a video on it …I cant find it at the moment.
 
Sweet. 4000 ft/s 22-250 birdshot!!!!

First time I heard someone telling me about that, I thought they were pulling my leg. As I recall they were talking about working up a 22-250 with something like 40 grain varmint bullets and they couldn't figure out why they weren't even on paper at 100 yards. Somehow they eventually pieced together that the bullets were coming apart somewhere between the muzzle and the target.

Are you speaking figuratively, or could you actually see the bullet disintegrate? I can't even see the shot string on a skeet range, so I envy those with eyesight that allows them to see vapor trails and stuff like that, that I can only see on video.
The 22-250 was designed around fast light bullets and had a slow 1-14 twist so you could push 40-55 grain bullets well past 3000fps a 60 grain bullet out of a 22-250 was “heavy” for its time. The old timers would tell you its to heavy and time to up your caliper.
Its all a balance between bullet design, jacket thickness for jacketed , velocity and RPM.
This is why if your shooting cast out of something like a 1903a3 or a M1a or even A AR your limitted to around 120-140,000 rpm
Vs say a old rifle designed before jacketed bullets will have a much slower twist
 
Like the case gauge loading blocks 👍

I load a LOT of 9mm, and I chamber check, (or case guage), every round. I have 7 hole blocks from EGW for 9mm, .38spcl and .357sig. The 100 hole blocks aren't cheap, but it's just so much easier to check 100 at a time. 45 is new to me, just started loading it, so I don't have a 7 hole block for it, just bit the bullet and bought the 100 round one.
 
I load a LOT of 9mm, and I chamber check, (or case guage), every round. I have 7 hole blocks from EGW for 9mm, .38spcl and .357sig. The 100 hole blocks aren't cheap, but it's just so much easier to check 100 at a time. 45 is new to me, just started loading it, so I don't have a 7 hole block for it, just bit the bullet and bought the 100 round one.
I have those shockbottle hundos in 4 calibers. If you consider the cost of them to be about $1 per hole, they are actually much more affordable than the EGW or Dillon case gauges.
 
I have those shockbottle hundos in 4 calibers. If you consider the cost of them to be about $1 per hole, they are actually much more affordable than the EGW or Dillon case gauges.

Great. Just fcking great.
Now I'm thinking about getting them in .38 & 357Sig.
Thank you so very much.
 
I was getting ready to load some mixed headstamp 9mm, and ran a magnet through the brass before loading. This case came out. Does anyone know this headstamp? The case is brass in color, even though the lighting of the picture doesn't appear that way.

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Seems to like this one:
View attachment 547052

I'm calling this load development finished. As I went up in powder load from here, the groups started opening up. May have been me getting tired and my form going bad, but... this seems pretty good, considering. Brass looked fine here, no ejector swipes or extractor scrapes, no abnormal pressure signs on primer.

24.7 grains of IMR 3031
50 grain Z Max seated to 2.260" OAL
CCI #41 primer
Lake City 2009 brass trimmed to 1.760", shoulder bumped back 0.004"
3027fps five shot average, 22fps SD
16" Colt 5.56 1/7 carbine barrel, standard handguards and front sight gas block
4x fixed power optic
100 yards

247_3031_50gzmax.jpg
 
I'm calling this load development finished. As I went up in powder load from here, the groups started opening up. May have been me getting tired and my form going bad, but... this seems pretty good, considering. Brass looked fine here, no ejector swipes or extractor scrapes, no abnormal pressure signs on primer.

24.7 grains of IMR 3031
50 grain Z Max seated to 2.260" OAL
CCI #41 primer
Lake City 2009 brass trimmed to 1.760", shoulder bumped back 0.004"
3027fps five shot average, 22fps SD
16" Colt 5.56 1/7 carbine barrel, standard handguards and front sight gas block
4x fixed power optic
100 yards

View attachment 549720
Not bad!
 
I'm calling this load development finished. As I went up in powder load from here, the groups started opening up. May have been me getting tired and my form going bad, but... this seems pretty good, considering. Brass looked fine here, no ejector swipes or extractor scrapes, no abnormal pressure signs on primer.

24.7 grains of IMR 3031
50 grain Z Max seated to 2.260" OAL
CCI #41 primer
Lake City 2009 brass trimmed to 1.760", shoulder bumped back 0.004"
3027fps five shot average, 22fps SD
16" Colt 5.56 1/7 carbine barrel, standard handguards and front sight gas block
4x fixed power optic
100 yards

View attachment 549720
Your probably pushing those 50s to their RPM threshold with thst 1/7
I have some 50 grain noslers tipped that wont do well much past 2800 fps with any powder out of 1/7 match barrel
 
Your probably pushing those 50s to their RPM threshold with thst 1/7
I have some 50 grain noslers tipped that wont do well much past 2800 fps with any powder out of 1/7 match barrel
I hadn't tried calculating that before, but I'm coming up with 311,348rpm average.
Fastest chrono from that test series was a 3058fps at 24.9 grains, so that comes out to 314,537rpm, I think.
I guess I could try to see how fast they can go before they go poof, but I'm at the upper limit of the load data for .223. :)

I played around with .223 vs 5.56 load data with AA2230 and 55g fmj bullets, but I didn't see any particular area where they really grouped well, and as I crept up on max 5.56 load data I was getting fairly pronounced ejector swipes on the brass, with a lot of brass shavings under the extractor when I went to clean the bolt. Same as I get with real Lake City m193 in this one.
 
It’s been a while since posted around here but been staying busy reloading mostly for the precision rifle stuff. Mostly 223 and 6.5 creed. Just finished a 6BRA build so loaded up 25 to test for fireforming.

Lapua Brass
IMR 4064
Br4
Hornady 105 HPBT

If these run around 2750-2800 I’ll proceed. Got 300 pieces of brass to form.
A808ADC5-7845-4F3D-927D-39AEE80D6D1A.jpeg
 
Looked for my special Swedish 5mm Training ammo barrel for my Uzi…..DAMN IT!!!! I put it an ammo can diagonally along with loose training ammo a couple of years ago and evidently didn’t label or mis labeled the can. Now I get to open every can in the building……that’s going to take a few days. ( insert head bang emoji here ).
 
any specific reason why you went this way and not with 6 Dasher? just curious as i plan upon doing a 6 Dasher this winter, with norma long neck brass.
Biggest reason was the added steps to fireforming. From what I’ve read and been told most dasher brass isn’t totally formed until at least two firings. Than you have to deal with false shoulders or jamming bullets during the process and seems a lot more things to go wrong and ruin expensive brass.

The BRA is chambered .004” shorter to the shoulder than the BR case therefor there is no need for false shoulder and jamming as the case has nowhere to go.

Alpha does make both bra and dasher brass now but I’ve read a lot of mixed reviews. I didn’t wanna spend big money on brass and have issues so went with Lapua br brass. I’m expecting to be able to hit 2900-2925 so why the added headaches for another 50 FPS. If I was dead set on a dasher I’d probably run alpha as there is no forming needed.

If I was more interested in speed I woulda went straight to a 6 creed but I’d rather have consistency and almost twice the barrel life. I feel the bra is the sweet spot between speed and barrel life but we will see this is first custom build.
 
Got my new press (Pro Chucker 5) installed/setup with one caliber. Will be setting up for the others (five total) soon. Waiting for one more die plate, powder actuator and two more powder measures to arrive (ordered the wrong count with the press). Need to run some brass through to make sure what I setup for the spent primers works. With the Inline Fabrication mount, the press sits over the bench. Which means the primers won't drop into a container as the spent primer tube sits. I put a hole in the bench top, cut some gas line (CO2) to bridge to the container under that (in a drawer) and will see how it work. If I can align the catch container reliably without the tube, I'll remove that.

PXL_20211211_183212944.jpgPXL_20211211_183352081.jpg

I did order the item from Inline Fabrication that goes between the stand top plate and press that will allow me to use some storage bins to catch the brass. It comes with two, so I'll use the other for either projectiles or brass. Eventually I'll get the brass feed setup for the press itself. I do have the pistol projectile dies (either already, or coming) for 45ACP and 9mm. The ones for rifle are more $$, so will see how much I need those later. I also removed the shelf that is part of the mount since it would block the spent primers from dropping clear.
 
image.jpeg

After opening about my hundredth can, I finally found it!........and it wasn't even in a can like I thought, it was in a bin on a shelf along with some other cherrished items. This barrel is truely UNOBTAINIUM and I'm so glad I found it....I've got cases of the practice ammo to shoot up......about 2 cents per round.😊

For those not familiar, this is a special barrel for an Uzi subgun, used to shoot the pictured ammo. The ammo has a 5mm steel bb embedded in bakelite. It's not toy ammo, it can be lethal.
 
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If you find that your bullets are tearing them selves apart you can see it sometimes as an by stander if its happening at close range
I have 2 personal experiences so far
1. 50 grain varmint bullet through. 1/7 223 AR pushing 3000fps the twist is. Just to fast.
2. Went through the same issue with some early Hornady 30 cal ballistic tip bullets. Those I did not see but eventually started getting random shards on target at 50 yards when I was trying to figure out whats going on.
Hornady put out a video on it …I cant find it at the moment.

A guy at my club is into all the weird and wildcat cartridges. One day I was there and he was shooting his .14 caliber something or other (they were necked down 5.56 cases) [I used to give him some of my IMI cases because he said they were the best for making into the .14] and the bullets were disintegrating before the target. His chronograph had them at around 4500 fps.
 
A guy at my club is into all the weird and wildcat cartridges. One day I was there and he was shooting his .14 caliber something or other (they were necked down 5.56 cases) [I used to give him some of my IMI cases because he said they were the best for making into the .14] and the bullets were disintegrating before the target. His chronograph had them at around 4500 fps.
Sounds like a smaller version of 17 remington
IIRC 17 rem needed 1/10 twist or slower?
 
Got my new press (Pro Chucker 5) installed/setup with one caliber. Will be setting up for the others (five total) soon. Waiting for one more die plate, powder actuator and two more powder measures to arrive (ordered the wrong count with the press). Need to run some brass through to make sure what I setup for the spent primers works. With the Inline Fabrication mount, the press sits over the bench. Which means the primers won't drop into a container as the spent primer tube sits. I put a hole in the bench top, cut some gas line (CO2) to bridge to the container under that (in a drawer) and will see how it work. If I can align the catch container reliably without the tube, I'll remove that.

View attachment 550931View attachment 550932

I did order the item from Inline Fabrication that goes between the stand top plate and press that will allow me to use some storage bins to catch the brass. It comes with two, so I'll use the other for either projectiles or brass. Eventually I'll get the brass feed setup for the press itself. I do have the pistol projectile dies (either already, or coming) for 45ACP and 9mm. The ones for rifle are more $$, so will see how much I need those later. I also removed the shelf that is part of the mount since it would block the spent primers from dropping clear.
Very cool press ! Does the Uniflow drop automatically or do you manually charge the casing ?
 
VERY good weekend. Made 100 30BR cases (necked up Lapua 6mmBR Norma cases to 30 cal., turned necks to 10 thousandths, sized, trimmed to 1.5", uniformed flash holes, wet tumbled). Loaded 25 (118gr 10 ogive BiB bullets over 33gr H4198, BR-4 primers). Took these to the range and managed three 5-shot groups in the 3s and 4s at 100 yds! Definitely my best results to date.

New benchrest rifle (thanks to an NES member). Never had a 2 oz trigger before (grin). This one is going to be FUN!!

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