What did you do at your reloading bench today?
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Hmm. I’ll need to see what neck tension is. I went through them all. Of 500 cases, I ended up with about 1/3rd seemed perfectly sized, no flaws other than some with proud primers that set fine (all cases with proud primers were sized correctly). 1/2 appears like the shoulder was set back too far. I’d estimate in the range of .001-.003”. Those are going to get loaded light. About 30 cases were over .003” set back too far on the shoulders. Those I’ll probably also load light, but figure they’ll go in the range bucket or get recycled rather than reloaded again.
About 15 cases are total junk. Either shoulder set back an enormous amount (like .020”+ in one case). Or the neck crushed or in two cases the primers are smeared in to the pocket. No clue how those two didn’t pop.
About 10 cases need resizing or triming (shoulder not set back far enough or the neck not sized down enough).
No bonus other caliber cases.
And yeah, I’d guess probably ran some of these in to a .30-30 resizing die at a guess.
I am curious what the actual neck size is. They seem sized right for .310” bullets.
I don’t have powder for 7.62x39. I’ll pick up a pound of something appropriate at some point. Or work up a load for CFE 223. But I plan to load those “light” cases at like the minimum load for whatever. I might even use H110 on the lighter side. If my SKS is a straight pull for the iffier cases so be it.
In the end fairly happy with the whole.
byf43
SCSC Life/NRA Patron Life
Working on some .308 Win. and some .300 WinMag for my son.
He's going 'out west' in August to visit a friend, and is going to do some long range shooting.
The .308 are 'bout ready for powder and 175 MK.
He's going 'out west' in August to visit a friend, and is going to do some long range shooting.
The .308 are 'bout ready for powder and 175 MK.
Rockzilla
Ultimate Member
more brass prep... 45 ACP (LP)
waiting on these to arrive picked up a few 100 these
will do nicely with the 230gr. HST bullets "I just found"
200gr JHP's
waiting on these to arrive picked up a few 100 these
will do nicely with the 230gr. HST bullets "I just found"
200gr JHP's
Not did yet, but soon to be some nice ammo... Postman brought me some brass and boolits today so I can confirm that I will now be at the LRC next week on Friday. 
No, the Bergers will not go into the new brass, it needs to be fireformed (oh yeah, more range time!!), but I needed more bullets to load enough to shoot the LRC and I have prepped brass for that.
No, the Bergers will not go into the new brass, it needs to be fireformed (oh yeah, more range time!!), but I needed more bullets to load enough to shoot the LRC and I have prepped brass for that.
Attachments
Loaded a couple hundred more 9mm, finished my 7.62x39 fire-form loads (11gr CFE, trash bullet), and got my 6.5 Grendel toolhead set up with an initial run of five cartridges (100gr bullet, 29gr TAC, ~2.23" OAL). Not a bad day thus far.
GuitarmanNick
Ultimate Member
Decapped a bunch of brass and it will be run through the tumbler this week.
bigmancrisler
2A Preacher
Loaded a handful of 3006, primed some 30 carbine (which if anyone has projos for that you want to trade or sell or let go please PM me), and washed about 1k processed pieces of 9mm.
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GuitarmanNick
Ultimate Member
GunBum
Active Member
Ouch. The last bulk .30 Carbine loaded ammo I bought was cheaper than that. Glad I hoarded that stuff...
Replaced the broken primer actuator arm on my Dillon 550 today. Thanks Dillon for the fast shipping time. Funny it broke now. It's only been working for 33 years. 
bigmancrisler
2A Preacher
More Powder-Cases Coming
Well, have not been doing very much, several powders and cases on the way. I was in GA last week visiting the #1 Son. Decided to pass on my 100 + year old Model 94 30/30 Winchester to him along with a few hundred rounds of ammo. I also passed to him my Ruger 10/22 with a brick of ammo.
He is retired First Sargent Army with 22 years and 2 Bronze stars with 9 combat badges. He packs a 45 Auto which he only has a couple of boxes of ammo. He did purchase some dies, cases and heads, I was able to get some more too. So when the powder comes in I will be making him some ammo. 50 bucks a box for 45 auto when you can find in GA.
I still have my 30/30, 45/70 and my 22 Henry lever actions. Along with my silver Mossberg, 12 gauge, my single shot slugster, 50 caliber BFR S&W magnum with two 40 caliber Khar CM40 and K40. I did have a 590AI military spec Mossberg 12 gauge and sold it it was never shot.
Pretty lucky since the 50 S&W is a fairly new and I have been able to get plenty of cases and heads.
I also was able to get some hard cast molds for the 30/30, 45/70 and 50 caliber. I did this to expand my capability to make my own rather to rely on the markets. The molds were pricey 4 rounds to each mold and made of bronze. Appropriate lead has been easy to fine and not over priced. I have been able to make a butt load of heads. I did go to a range to test them in all calibers. I was very surprised how accurate the rounds were. The 30/30 molds is 150 grain mold the 45/70 and 50 caliber are 350 grain molds. I killed a lot of paper plates that day. Also, the hard cast does not seam to lead up the barrels like I thought they wood.
Happy Loading
Well, have not been doing very much, several powders and cases on the way. I was in GA last week visiting the #1 Son. Decided to pass on my 100 + year old Model 94 30/30 Winchester to him along with a few hundred rounds of ammo. I also passed to him my Ruger 10/22 with a brick of ammo.
He is retired First Sargent Army with 22 years and 2 Bronze stars with 9 combat badges. He packs a 45 Auto which he only has a couple of boxes of ammo. He did purchase some dies, cases and heads, I was able to get some more too. So when the powder comes in I will be making him some ammo. 50 bucks a box for 45 auto when you can find in GA.
I still have my 30/30, 45/70 and my 22 Henry lever actions. Along with my silver Mossberg, 12 gauge, my single shot slugster, 50 caliber BFR S&W magnum with two 40 caliber Khar CM40 and K40. I did have a 590AI military spec Mossberg 12 gauge and sold it it was never shot.
Pretty lucky since the 50 S&W is a fairly new and I have been able to get plenty of cases and heads.
I also was able to get some hard cast molds for the 30/30, 45/70 and 50 caliber. I did this to expand my capability to make my own rather to rely on the markets. The molds were pricey 4 rounds to each mold and made of bronze. Appropriate lead has been easy to fine and not over priced. I have been able to make a butt load of heads. I did go to a range to test them in all calibers. I was very surprised how accurate the rounds were. The 30/30 molds is 150 grain mold the 45/70 and 50 caliber are 350 grain molds. I killed a lot of paper plates that day. Also, the hard cast does not seam to lead up the barrels like I thought they wood.
Happy Loading
I need to get my reloading bench, workspace, and brass organized. I put off reloading because I couldn't find primers. Now I have primers, but I haven't messed with the reloading stuff in a good bit - I went down to my workshop the other night with the idea of doing something, and couldn't even really figure out where to start, so I didn't wind up doing anything.
So I shot a bunch of reloads today. Had my first empty case. Whoops. Really no idea how I could have managed it. So now I get to go back and weigh the rest of the reloads in that batch.
To me what is most interesting, it seemed like a bad primer. Just a click. Ejected the round, very good primer indent. Tried firing it again. Nada. I took it apart when I got home (it took many whacks from my inertia hammer). I guess a nice tight crimp in to the crimp groove held it in place when the primer went off, because the back of the bullet was sooty and the anvil was stuck to the back of the bullet. I am surprised that the crimp was able to contain the pressure of the primer without dislodging the bullet at all. Upside, even if it had punted the bullet in to the lands, the function was so radically different I knew darned well something was wrong and I would have yanked the bolt to check the barrel. Prefer that not happening again though. So I am going to do better about checking cases that the powder actually dropped.
I also need to get testing on my reloads to tighten down accuracy. The dud was a 62gr cheap armscor bullet reloads. I haven't narrowed down accuracy on them yet, but they shoot about 3MOA out of my 16" (which is a bit of an accomplishment, blasting 223 and 5.56 tends to shoot 4-5MOA out of my 16"). I finally ran it over the chrono in my 20" and checked accuracy. Not fantastic, but my 10 shot group (I normally shoot 5 shot groups) ran to about 2.5 inches at 100yds. Fairly good distribution without any real noted fliers, more of a horizontal than a vertical spread, 7 out of 10 were in less than 1.25 inches.
I also ran some 69gr RMR MBTHP loads to work one up. I think I really like these bullets. I have yet to work up any other match loads in .223 (well, really in any rifle. Though I am starting to explore 6.5 grendel as well). The 16" with an awkward semi-off the bench, elbows sort of on the bench shooting position with a red dot at 50yds the accuracy seemed pretty good for 5 shot groups. Running maybe 2", with a a flier opening those groups to the 2", which I am pretty sure was me pulling the shot. I'd think it would be closer to 1" groups with the red dot. Which, sadly, for my 16" is pretty decent. The only load its met it liked is Hornady Black 75gr, which it will shoot MOA for 5 shot groups. So I know the rifle CAN manage it, it is just super picky.
Testing in my 20" (which is generally pretty accurate, a number of match ammo will shot sub MOA out of it) showed about 1.2-1.6" groups. Best seemed to be at 25.2gr of CFE223. I don't trust the chrono data I have on that one though, as I had 2 at about 2820fps and 3 rounds it claimed were 2200fps or so. The 24.5gr loads showed about the same 2800fps and the 25.8gr loads shows 2960fps (hornady says a 20" should only push 2900fps with a 26.4gr max load. So all of that chrono data to me is suspect). Though the thing is, when I was shooting with my 16", I'd kissed the chrono with a bullet right near the end of testing the same 24.5, 25.2, 25.8gr ladder and it knocked one of the sun shades loose and didn't have a chance to reset the chrono for the 20" testing. The velocity data from the 16" appeared good till I knocked the sunshade loose for the final group (first round was an error...because, you know, I shot my chrono and then the rest of the group showed a little low compared to the 25.2gr group).
Anyway, happy enough with it to buy more of RMR's 69gr match bullets. But now I need to tune my load. Zero in on the powder charge as well as swapping around primers. I sort of suspect magnum primers might increase accuracy just a bit as CFE223 is a spherical powder (I was running CCI SR. I have some CCI SRM and #41). Though it remains to be seen (but I will test it).
To me what is most interesting, it seemed like a bad primer. Just a click. Ejected the round, very good primer indent. Tried firing it again. Nada. I took it apart when I got home (it took many whacks from my inertia hammer). I guess a nice tight crimp in to the crimp groove held it in place when the primer went off, because the back of the bullet was sooty and the anvil was stuck to the back of the bullet. I am surprised that the crimp was able to contain the pressure of the primer without dislodging the bullet at all. Upside, even if it had punted the bullet in to the lands, the function was so radically different I knew darned well something was wrong and I would have yanked the bolt to check the barrel. Prefer that not happening again though. So I am going to do better about checking cases that the powder actually dropped.
I also need to get testing on my reloads to tighten down accuracy. The dud was a 62gr cheap armscor bullet reloads. I haven't narrowed down accuracy on them yet, but they shoot about 3MOA out of my 16" (which is a bit of an accomplishment, blasting 223 and 5.56 tends to shoot 4-5MOA out of my 16"). I finally ran it over the chrono in my 20" and checked accuracy. Not fantastic, but my 10 shot group (I normally shoot 5 shot groups) ran to about 2.5 inches at 100yds. Fairly good distribution without any real noted fliers, more of a horizontal than a vertical spread, 7 out of 10 were in less than 1.25 inches.
I also ran some 69gr RMR MBTHP loads to work one up. I think I really like these bullets. I have yet to work up any other match loads in .223 (well, really in any rifle. Though I am starting to explore 6.5 grendel as well). The 16" with an awkward semi-off the bench, elbows sort of on the bench shooting position with a red dot at 50yds the accuracy seemed pretty good for 5 shot groups. Running maybe 2", with a a flier opening those groups to the 2", which I am pretty sure was me pulling the shot. I'd think it would be closer to 1" groups with the red dot. Which, sadly, for my 16" is pretty decent. The only load its met it liked is Hornady Black 75gr, which it will shoot MOA for 5 shot groups. So I know the rifle CAN manage it, it is just super picky.
Testing in my 20" (which is generally pretty accurate, a number of match ammo will shot sub MOA out of it) showed about 1.2-1.6" groups. Best seemed to be at 25.2gr of CFE223. I don't trust the chrono data I have on that one though, as I had 2 at about 2820fps and 3 rounds it claimed were 2200fps or so. The 24.5gr loads showed about the same 2800fps and the 25.8gr loads shows 2960fps (hornady says a 20" should only push 2900fps with a 26.4gr max load. So all of that chrono data to me is suspect). Though the thing is, when I was shooting with my 16", I'd kissed the chrono with a bullet right near the end of testing the same 24.5, 25.2, 25.8gr ladder and it knocked one of the sun shades loose and didn't have a chance to reset the chrono for the 20" testing. The velocity data from the 16" appeared good till I knocked the sunshade loose for the final group (first round was an error...because, you know, I shot my chrono and then the rest of the group showed a little low compared to the 25.2gr group).
Anyway, happy enough with it to buy more of RMR's 69gr match bullets. But now I need to tune my load. Zero in on the powder charge as well as swapping around primers. I sort of suspect magnum primers might increase accuracy just a bit as CFE223 is a spherical powder (I was running CCI SR. I have some CCI SRM and #41). Though it remains to be seen (but I will test it).
I've had my in-laws living with me for the last almost 6 weeks. That's put a crimp in my reloading. I did get some 69gr match loads worked up for basic safety/velocity testing.
I do plan to get some reloading in this week. I want to get my App setup to run some primer pocket swaging on my otherwise fully processed 223 and 5.56 brass. I'll probably sit down and load up a bunch of 9mm after I mess with that some.
I also really need to get setup up for, and run some .308 and .30-06 reloads and test them. At least the .30-06 should be simple. I just want a decent 150gr FMJ load (sadly, I only have FMJBT) and SP load. The SP might work out the best as I have 150gr SPFB bullets.
So much to do, so little time.
Started priming some 7.62x39 cases last night with salvaged LRPs. Going OK thus far. Probably not going to have a ton of time to reload for the rest of the month due to work and personal stuff...
bigmancrisler
2A Preacher
Idk what gun your shooting your 3006 out of, but my garand seems to really like Hornady 150gr fmjbt (#3037) with 39.6 gr of H335
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