What did you do at your reloading bench today?

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  • teratos

    My hair is amazing
    MDS Supporter
    Patriot Picket
    Jan 22, 2009
    59,775
    Bel Air
    Tell her to look at all the honey projects you can do (only took me a year to get around to replacing the plywood seats that rotted out of her chairs).

    That’s what I tell her!
     
    Started tooling up for my 350 legend handloads. Finally got all the components. Ordered the brass in February and the last of it came today. 500 virgin starline cases. Had to order them from 3 different vendors. Got Hornady. 165grn FTX flextips Now to find what powder works best. I have lil gun, H110, CFEBLK or win 296. Those are my options.. for now.
     

    davsco

    Ultimate Member
    Oct 21, 2010
    8,607
    Loudoun, VA
    recently bought shockbottle hundo 100 round chamber checkers for 9mm & 40 and have 38 super on order. these are nice for two reasons. one is you can scan across them to look for primers not fully seated or rounds not fully settling into the 'chamber.' other is they pretty easily can be dumped into 100 round ammo boxes (such as mtm).
     

    Todd S

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Feb 4, 2012
    1,555
    Glen Rock, PA
    Started tooling up for my 350 legend handloads. Finally got all the components. Ordered the brass in February and the last of it came today. 500 virgin starline cases. Had to order them from 3 different vendors. Got Hornady. 165grn FTX flextips Now to find what powder works best. I have lil gun, H110, CFEBLK or win 296. Those are my options.. for now.


    I’m using the FTX also. So far I’m leaning towards H110 as my favorite powder. Still not happy with any load yet.


    Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
     

    IronDuck

    Active Member
    MDS Supporter
    Jan 11, 2021
    488
    Frederick ish MD
    Bench build still not done. BUT Loaded my first 10 rounds of 223 today! Thanks to all the members who offered advice and suggestions! Bigcity BIG thanks again for the gear and primers and powder and lead, did I mention primers!
    Proud to say, I only screwed up the first round, (that I am currently aware of), didn't get the primer set deep enough. How do you remove that or can I just repress it again??
    I used the LEE Pro 4000, but hand cycled it, ran each brass through individually, hand set the primers into the press. I installed the shell casing, auto feed loading tubes onto the press this week. I did a little cold cycling of it. I didn't get many good feeds from it. The brass would drop and not sit well, or not seat, or two shells would drop at the same time. Probably rookie operator errors. Not going to give up on it, but wanted to load something today!

    Took me about 2.5 hours to load those 10 rounds! talk about anal retentive tendencies! Hand dipped each powder measure with Lee scoops, none of them gave me the exact load I wanted. Ended up using the 1.3cc and .5cc that almost got me the 24 grain load. I will get the auto powder feed set up soon.
    Lyman's 50th E. recommended 62 grain FMJ be loaded with min 23.5 VARGET powder. I pushed that to 24 or 24.1 way under max hot load. Checked my loads TOO many times, in the digital scale, onto the balance beam scale, into the brass, back onto the digital scale, back into the brass. Not every load like that but enough. Measure, run remeasure etc..
    Maybe today but for certain tomorrow, I will send them through the pipe and down range. Single round first, if/WHEN that goes well. It just so happens, I have a 10 round clip for my black rifle, silly I know, but I bought it in MD so... but anyway want to make sure they cycle! I will let you know if I did it right. Then make more and find out how accurate I can get them.
    223 REM Once used brass
    62-grain Midway 224 FMJ
    24 Grain load Hodgdon VARGET Powder
    Primers CCI Small Rifle No. 450
     

    trickg

    Guns 'n Drums
    MDS Supporter
    Jul 22, 2008
    14,584
    Glen Burnie
    Proud to say, I only screwed up the first round, (that I am currently aware of), didn't get the primer set deep enough. How do you remove that or can I just repress it again??
    Here's my take - I wouldn't try to further seat the primer - not when it's a loaded round. You "could," and maybe even be successful in doing so. But if for any reason that primer decided to pop off?

    Your best bet would be to pull the bullet, re-press the primer as just the primer, and then load it again.

    I was loading some military once-fired 9mm and had a couple where the crimp wasn't completely removed and the primer seated a bit hard, preventing the shell plate from turning on my Dillon - a high primer will do that. In those cases, I was successful re-seating the primer and moving forward, but I'd never do that on a loaded round.
     

    IronDuck

    Active Member
    MDS Supporter
    Jan 11, 2021
    488
    Frederick ish MD
    Here's my take - I wouldn't try to further seat the primer - not when it's a loaded round. You "could," and maybe even be successful in doing so. But if for any reason that primer decided to pop off?

    Your best bet would be to pull the bullet, re-press the primer as just the primer, and then load it again.

    I was loading some military once-fired 9mm and had a couple where the crimp wasn't completely removed and the primer seated a bit hard, preventing the shell plate from turning on my Dillon - a high primer will do that. In those cases, I was successful re-seating the primer and moving forward, but I'd never do that on a loaded round.

    Thanks FYI, my ARness made me verify each primer was seated correctly prior to advancing, so the round has only the primer set.
    If I understand you, that means I can put it back in and repress, Face shield and gloves on. Man when did I grow so careful!

    thanks again
     

    PowPow

    Where's the beef?
    Nov 22, 2012
    4,712
    Howard County
    Thanks FYI, my ARness made me verify each primer was seated correctly prior to advancing, so the round has only the primer set.
    If I understand you, that means I can put it back in and repress, Face shield and gloves on. Man when did I grow so careful!

    thanks again

    If you're wearing all of that, you might as well go the extra mile and protect your ammo from COVID. Wear a mask or two.
     

    platekiller

    Ultimate Member
    Jun 7, 2011
    1,780
    Martinsburg, WV
    Got my swage kit for the app. Set it up and started to swage some 223. My hornady bullet feeder die came in too so I started to get that set up but had to stop for a bit.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     

    Archeryrob

    Undecided on a great many things
    Mar 7, 2013
    3,062
    Washington Co. - Fairplay
    Was bored for Easter and found some scrap saw dust board in the back of the garage the right size. Made the measurements and ripped on table saw them marked for holes and used the forsner in the drill press. Glue it all up and now have a 100 bleacher block for 30 caliber. Had to use 5/8” for the holes as the 30-30 flanges are just over a 1/2”
     

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    Christmas came. Went to my brother's house to pick up some things i've ordered that I had shipped to him...2 pounds of H110, 5 pounds of lil gun 2500 180 grn 40 cal pills, 500 165 .355 pills for my 350 legend, 5000 147 grn 308 pills, 500 100 grn hornady .6mm bullets for my .243, 500 virgin 350 legend brass and 5000 CCI SPP...
     

    IronDuck

    Active Member
    MDS Supporter
    Jan 11, 2021
    488
    Frederick ish MD
    My first 10, 223 reloads worked like a charm. Shots were nice, clean, bolt actions were smooth, target grouping at 25 yards was little left of center but tight, (for my skill level). Empty brass casings looked good, primers dimpled even and consistent. Success, my reloading can commence.
     

    platekiller

    Ultimate Member
    Jun 7, 2011
    1,780
    Martinsburg, WV
    My first 10, 223 reloads worked like a charm. Shots were nice, clean, bolt actions were smooth, target grouping at 25 yards was little left of center but tight, (for my skill level). Empty brass casings looked good, primers dimpled even and consistent. Success, my reloading can commence.


    Now the fun begins and you can produce it in bulk.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     

    Melnic

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Dec 27, 2012
    15,278
    HoCo
    Sized/flaired about 500 of the 1700 45acp I got on a recent trade on friday listening in on 2 zoom calls.
    I have a pair of ear muffs with an audio input jack, piped my phone into it so I could hear music, pod casts or even a zoom call I have to listen in on for work :)
    I think I'll look for a version with bluetooth.
     

    Raypa

    Member
    Jul 3, 2020
    38
    Just finish my first 50 round batch of 9mm after a successful 15 round test with various loads from 3.6gr to 4.4gr using Red dot.Settle on 4.0gr for this 50 rounds as all seems to be working good wish me luck.
     

    trickg

    Guns 'n Drums
    MDS Supporter
    Jul 22, 2008
    14,584
    Glen Burnie
    Was bored for Easter and found some scrap saw dust board in the back of the garage the right size. Made the measurements and ripped on table saw them marked for holes and used the forsner in the drill press. Glue it all up and now have a 100 bleacher block for 30 caliber. Had to use 5/8” for the holes as the 30-30 flanges are just over a 1/2”
    Nice! That was a nice job you did on that. I might wind up doing a similar thing when I start reloading for rifle - I can see how a bleacher block would make things a bit easier than a flat block.

    I got my Lee APP today, but the swage kit won't get here for another day or so - I ended up ordering that from another company because I couldn't seem to find a single vendor that had both the Lee APP and the swage kit. I didn't realize that the 4-tube case feeder didn't come with it, but I can see how the 4-tube feeder and case collator could speed things up a fair bit with the APP. After all, the whole point of the APP is to make quick work of basic case processing - for $25, the case feeder seems like a no-brainer.
     

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