PowPow
Where's the beef?
Worked up another Valkyrie ladder thanks to having to change powders due to shortage, again!
That just means you'll have more versatility for that rifle.
Worked up another Valkyrie ladder thanks to having to change powders due to shortage, again!
LOL! Glass half full? Magazines all full!That just means you'll have more versatility for that rifle.
Finally found a Lee Pro-4000 set up for 45 ACP at a Lee distributor in stock. The also had the shell plate and expander/powder die in stock. So I ordered them. They came yesterday. I got the press mounted to my bench and set up last night. Verified the powder charge again this evening and then loaded 200 rounds of 45 ACP after dinner. It sure is a lot faster than my single stage press. I have to say I like it a lot. I also found the powder measure throws the powder I am using on the money (at least the 20 or so I weighed). I think going forward I will weigh a lot fewer.
Maybe tomorrow I will have some time to set it up for 9 mm and give those a try.
Jack
Thanks for the advice. A friend of mine has three of the pros1000s. He has loaded thousands of rounds on his. I will have to look at the lee website and see if parts are available. I was really surprised to find the pro-4000 and conversion stuff for sale given the way reloading components and equipment are just not available.
Jack
Tried out a more conservative approach in processing my 223/556 brass range pick-ups. Before, I processed everything all in one go, but ran into brass with small primer pocket holes and berdan cases (rare) which broke a fair bit of decapping pins. I also convert 223/556 brass to 300 blk, so it's an added plus getting those sorted out:
Sorted 300+ 223 brass. Roughly half of it separated for 300 blk conversion. The rest of the brass was lubed up and ran through the decap/resize die. I then case gauge them for max case length, putting the allowable lengths back on trays, and separating the ones that need to be trimmed. Finally, I separate the commercial non-crimped cases from the crimped ones. The crimped ones are then swaged. Of the 300 brass, I came out with 76 readily reloadable pieces for 223. The brass that needs to be trimmed + 300 blk convertibles are saved for another processing session.
Set up my Giraud for 7.62x39. Trimming a few hundred 7.62x39 cases should be a good project for a few evenings.
Commercial brass like pmc and gfl stick out as always being non-crimped. Hornady, Winchester, FC, PPU are hit and miss, but I can sometimes spot pockets that have been flared or swaged in the past due to having a countersink. Military headstamp brass are always assumed crimped.So I am curious. What is a good way to tell what is crimped and what isn’t?
I found out the hard way all FC 223 brass (and I assume 5.56) is crimped. It doesn’t visually look like it to me though. Some mil brass is obvious crimped. I sort of assume any 5.56 brass is.
Or is it more “you figure it out over time”
I’ve noticed PPU and Remington 223 brass is not crimped and primes like butter (not loose though) in my press.
Commercial brass like pmc and gfl stick out as always being non-crimped. Hornady, Winchester, FC, PPU are hit and miss, but I can sometimes spot pockets that have been flared or swaged in the past due to having a countersink. Military headstamp brass are always assumed crimped.
Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk
Commercial brass like pmc and gfl stick out as always being non-crimped. Hornady, Winchester, FC, PPU are hit and miss, but I can sometimes spot pockets that have been flared or swaged in the past due to having a countersink. Military headstamp brass are always assumed crimped.
Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk
How in the world did I not know about that brass? I ordered 1k of it, and threw in some of the 69gr 224 projos for testing purposes. I guess I'm now in the 7.62x39 loading game for real...I am still waiting on my Lyman bushing so I can use my xpress case trimmer for 7.62x39 and 6.5 Grendel. Not hard up as I’ve got a lot of Starline new brass for the later and some new primed FC and some mystery “maybe improperly resized” primed brass for the later.
Still trying to figure out what is wrong with the RMR mystery junk brass. The double handful I’ve checked on my case gauge and OAL gauge checks out fine. Checking with a .310” FMJ it might be that the necks were sized to .308. I haven’t put calipers on any of the necks. But the base barely makes it in to the case mouth. Seems like it’ll seat, but might just need to be run through a bit to be neck sized.
I’ll definitely check every case before loading any of it, but really happy I picked up 500 cases pre-primed for ridiculously cheap. Sort of wishing I’d gotten 1k cases, but hell it’ll take me years to load and shoot the 100+500 I have as I only have an SKS in it and tons of steel cased still. Also only have 250 projectiles…so I’ll need to wait till .310/.311” bullets are something approaching available again.
How in the world did I not know about that brass? I ordered 1k of it, and threw in some of the 69gr 224 projos for testing purposes. I guess I'm now in the 7.62x39 loading game for real...
I agree that it sounds like a quick trip through a neck sizer and/or expander die would sort them out fine if the only problem was the neck being too small in diameter. (The NOE .312x308 expander looks perfect for this...) And if they're gauging correctly out of the box, I can't imagine they're unsalvageable unless there's some other horrible problem (very possible!).