What did you do at your reloading bench today?

Sticky · Apr 21, 2021

Has anyone tried rice for dry tumbling? I have seen some that do and it looks like it works well. No dust, etc.. I use corncob if I dry tumble and I also use wet.

A primer pocket swager will remove the primer crimps from cases. There are fancy ones, but I use an old RCBS die that fits my press. It works fine and I have used it on various rifle and pistol. Not sure I'd want to have to do 1k of them like that tho! :lol2:

Melnic · Apr 21, 2021

Great, you can start with white rice and end up with brown rice for extra fiber!

I loaded up 200 rounds of 45acp last night to try to catch up with the 1911 shooting I have been doing.
Now realize I need to mold some more SWC bullets.

trickg · Apr 21, 2021

Sticky said:
Has anyone tried rice for dry tumbling? I have seen some that do and it looks like it works well. No dust, etc.. I use corncob if I dry tumble and I also use wet.

A primer pocket swager will remove the primer crimps from cases. There are fancy ones, but I use an old RCBS die that fits my press. It works fine and I have used it on various rifle and pistol. Not sure I'd want to have to do 1k of them like that tho!

The Lee APP with the swage kit makes pretty quick work of that. I'm waiting on a primer pocket go/no go gauge from Ballistic Tools before I move forward with cranking those out - I don't want to ruin them with too much swage, but once I have that, knocking out the crimps in the primer pocket is going to be pretty quick.

Muleskinner · Apr 21, 2021

Finished 600 40 S&W and started on 500 300 BO subs.

guzma393 · Apr 21, 2021

Loaded up 50 350 legend rounds for my ruger american ranch on my progressive.

Sticky · Apr 21, 2021

Melnic said:
Great, you can start with white rice and end up with brown rice for extra fiber!

I should edit that to add.. I discourage anyone from consuming said rice after use..

Seriously, I have seen some using just plain white rice. Easy to find.

trickg · Apr 22, 2021

I did (apparently) an unspeakable and awful thing today: I mixed/blended 240 gr of what was left of a pound of W231 with a new pound of Hodgdon HP-38.

I posited the question last night on "Reload Nation" - a FB reloaders group I'm part of. You'd have thought I was asking it if was ok hold a lit stick of dynamite between my legs given some of the responses I got:

:omg:

DOMT EVAR MIKZ POUDERZ!!!!!! ERMAHGERD!!!!! :omg:

There were a few guys who were like, "I dump old powder in with new all the time - I bet I have cans with grains from the 1990s floating around in there."

So for those who may not know, Winchester W231 and Hodgdon HP-38 are the exact same powder packaged differently.

The battle continued to rage with some guys almost getting nasty about it, so I decided to cut to the chase - I called Hodgdon directly and asked a guy in their technical department about it.

He basically told me what I had thought; that HP-38 and W231 were the same, and even if they were from different lots, as long as I made a point to blend the two together pretty well (and he thought that just 240 gr was hardly worth even worrying too much about) that it would be perfectly safe.

I posted what I learned from the guy at Hodgdon....and some old phardts STILL wanted to argue about it! Unreal.

So yeah - apparently there will be a nuclear explosion the next time I reload with that particular bottle of HP-38.

Pinecone · Apr 23, 2021

trickg said:
I took the 50 lb bag of coarse ground corn cob bedding that I got from the Co-op and dumped it in the woods. I tried unsuccessfully with several different methods to grind it finer, but it's so lightweight, it resists just about everything and was more of a pain than it was worth.

I use the bigger stuff to tumble loaded rounds to remove fingerprints and lube.

No holes to get stuck in.

Pinecone · Apr 23, 2021

trickg said:
I did (apparently) an unspeakable and awful thing today: I mixed/blended 240 gr of what was left of a pound of W231 with a new pound of Hodgdon HP-38.

I posited the question last night on "Reload Nation" - a FB reloaders group I'm part of. You'd have thought I was asking it if was ok hold a lit stick of dynamite between my legs given some of the responses I got:

There were a few guys who were like, "I dump old powder in with new all the time - I bet I have cans with grains from the 1990s floating around in there."

So for those who may not know, Winchester W231 and Hodgdon HP-38 are the exact same powder packaged differently.

The battle continued to rage with some guys almost getting nasty about it, so I decided to cut to the chase - I called Hodgdon directly and asked a guy in their technical department about it.

He basically told me what I had thought; that HP-38 and W231 were the same, and even if they were from different lots, as long as I made a point to blend the two together pretty well (and he thought that just 240 gr was hardly worth even worrying too much about) that it would be perfectly safe.

I posted what I learned from the guy at Hodgdon....and some old phardts STILL wanted to argue about it! Unreal.

So yeah - apparently there will be a nuclear explosion the next time I reload with that particular bottle of HP-38.

Yeah, there are those kinds of people.

When I am done with a can of powder, and the measure gets low, I just add from another can of the same powder. Nothing has gone BOOM so far.

trickg · Apr 23, 2021

Pinecone said:
I use the bigger stuff to tumble loaded rounds to remove fingerprints and lube.

No holes to get stuck in.

I only have one tumbler - I tend to stick with just a single thing. I suppose I could have saved that for tumbling loaded ammo, but it was so coarse that it didn't even like to sift easily through my cheapo FA tumbling sifter - the one that you use with a 5 gallon bucket.

trickg · Apr 23, 2021

Pinecone said:
Yeah, there are those kinds of people.

When I am done with a can of powder, and the measure gets low, I just add from another can of the same powder. Nothing has gone BOOM so far.

I think part of the issue for some of those guys comes from the fact that the labels are different, regardless of the fact that the powders are the same.

I suppose that on one hand for the reloaders who do go that extra step to never put powder from an older can into a newer one, they'll never ever run the risk of accidentally putting something in the wrong canister. There was one guy who is meticulous to the point where he actually records the powder lot number in his reloading data. I can understand that too. For me this is all range-fodder loads. It doesn't need to be that meticulous.

I will say that I once accidentally dumped some Bullseye from a hopper into a canister of Unique. Once I realized what I did, I scolded myself, then I dumped it on my lawn and bought a new can of Unique. Of course that was when I could get Unique at several different LGS's that were still operating at the time - I think I got my last can at Bart's Sports World in Glen Burnie.

Melnic · Apr 23, 2021

Other people do it, but when I have powder in a hopper/powder thrower, I have a painters tape with the powder type on it. I keep the closed bottle next to the thrower. When dumping it back in , I make sure painters tape label matches bottle, dump in and put label on top of the bottle to use again.

Yup, there are LOTS of types of reloaders out there who vary with how much they stray from a pristine sidewalk over to a partially grassed over trail.
I try to make sure it takes 2-3 mistakes before something really goes bad. If you only allow 1 mistake to make something go bad, things are more probable to go bad.
Trying really hard to NEVER push max pressures, is one way to lower probability of bad things.

trickg · Apr 23, 2021

Melnic said:
Other people do it, but when I have powder in a hopper/powder thrower, I have a painters tape with the powder type on it. I keep the closed bottle next to the thrower. When dumping it back in , I make sure painters tape label matches bottle, dump in and put label on top of the bottle to use again.

Yup, there are LOTS of types of reloaders out there who vary with how much they stray from a pristine sidewalk over to a partially grassed over trail.
I try to make sure it takes 2-3 mistakes before something really goes bad. If you only allow 1 mistake to make something go bad, things are more probable to go bad.
Trying really hard to NEVER push max pressures, is one way to lower probability of bad things.

I tend to be pretty cautious. One way I know what's in the hopper is that as soon as I get done with a batch of loads, whatever they may be, they get recorded in my reloading ledger. That way if I have forgotten what powder was last used, I only have to reference the ledger to see what's in there. I like the idea of painter's tape - that's a bit more definite.

I'm also right there with you on the idea of not pushing max loads. For the loading I do, I pick powders where there's a decent amount of variance between min and max, and then try to find something comfortable in the middle of that range. That way if my thrower throws a 10th or two light or heavy, it really doesn't matter.

I recently did some 125gr jacketed bullets for 357 with 2400. 2400 offers a huge variance on that bullet weight - all the way from 13.0 to 17.7 according to my Lyman manual, so I chose 15.5, which gave me a lot of room on each side. (Interestingly, the Lee manual has a start of 17.0 and a max of 17.6 - it would be nice if the manuals would at least try to agree.)

John from MD · Apr 23, 2021

Melnic said:
Other people do it, but when I have powder in a hopper/powder thrower, I have a painters tape with the powder type on it. I keep the closed bottle next to the thrower. When dumping it back in , I make sure painters tape label matches bottle, dump in and put label on top of the bottle to use again.

Yup, there are LOTS of types of reloaders out there who vary with how much they stray from a pristine sidewalk over to a partially grassed over trail.
I try to make sure it takes 2-3 mistakes before something really goes bad. If you only allow 1 mistake to make something go bad, things are more probable to go bad.
Trying really hard to NEVER push max pressures, is one way to lower probability of bad things.

RULE NUMBER 1. Only keep one can off powder in your loading area at any given time.

Harrys · Apr 23, 2021

Well spent the morning at the DOCs given a good bill of health. Just finished separating head stamps of 45/70, Starline, Federal and Remington. I came across 2000 rounds some new and some once fired. Yep now an official hoarder.

Squaregrouper · Apr 23, 2021

I loaded a bunch of my secret Grendel recipe. Going to zero them both at 200yds and load a bunch more.

Harrys · Apr 24, 2021

My Rig

Working on sizing 45/70 cases, typically I size then to 2.045 using Barns 350 gr. and Hornady ftx 325 gr. Built the trimming rig and can use with any drill. It really cuts down the case trim times.

Pinecone · Apr 24, 2021

trickg said:
I think part of the issue for some of those guys comes from the fact that the labels are different, regardless of the fact that the powders are the same.

I suppose that on one hand for the reloaders who do go that extra step to never put powder from an older can into a newer one, they'll never ever run the risk of accidentally putting something in the wrong canister. There was one guy who is meticulous to the point where he actually records the powder lot number in his reloading data. I can understand that too. For me this is all range-fodder loads. It doesn't need to be that meticulous.

I will say that I once accidentally dumped some Bullseye from a hopper into a canister of Unique. Once I realized what I did, I scolded myself, then I dumped it on my lawn and bought a new can of Unique. Of course that was when I could get Unique at several different LGS's that were still operating at the time - I think I got my last can at Bart's Sports World in Glen Burnie.

I agree.

And if you do accidently do mix powders, it is no longer powder, it is fertilizer.

Pinecone · Apr 24, 2021

John from MD said:
RULE NUMBER 1. Only keep one can off powder in your loading area at any given time.

That is what I do.

Except, I do leave powder in different Dillon heads. But I ONLY load 231 in .45 ACP, so the powder in the the hopper on the .45 ACP head is 231.

Pinecone · Apr 24, 2021

trickg said:
I only have one tumbler - I tend to stick with just a single thing. I suppose I could have saved that for tumbling loaded ammo, but it was so coarse that it didn't even like to sift easily through my cheapo FA tumbling sifter - the one that you use with a 5 gallon bucket.

I only have one also.

I dump the media I am not using at the time into a plastic bag.

I have two sets of media to use. One is the coarse pet bedding. The other is finer grade (normally Lyman media).

I need to figure out what size the Lyman media is. And order some bulk of that size.

BTW, the corn cob pet bedding I had will not clog primer holes. It might click the primer POCKET.

The big issue is, with .223 brass, it sometimes packs the case full. Pistol brass is fine with the coarser media.

What did you do at your reloading bench today?

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