Converted about 300 5.56 cases to 300 B/O.
Chamfered and deburred 300 of these, by hand. The first 250 seemed to go quickly by the last 50 were painful.
I am working up some .44 mag loads and wanted some input. My load is 240gr XTP, federal brass, federal magnum primer, 24gr of W296 and a decent crimp. The COAL is 1.585, the brass was a little short when I started and I have to seat it to get it to the cannelure.
Its not the hottest load but while rechecking my powder weights (I check every 5 rounds) I noticed that I had bumped the scale and had 26.5gr of W296. So at least a few of my loads have over 24gr and they are all mixed up. Should I weigh each bullet and cull out the heavier ones, or not worry about it and if I get a couple fireballs I'll now why. My biggest concern is blowing up my S&W and my hand. Will this set up with 26.5gr of 296 be a bomb or just hot? Thanks in advance.
I am working up some .44 mag loads and wanted some input. My load is 240gr XTP, federal brass, federal magnum primer, 24gr of W296 and a decent crimp. The COAL is 1.585, the brass was a little short when I started and I have to seat it to get it to the cannelure.
Its not the hottest load but while rechecking my powder weights (I check every 5 rounds) I noticed that I had bumped the scale and had 26.5gr of W296. So at least a few of my loads have over 24gr and they are all mixed up. Should I weigh each bullet and cull out the heavier ones, or not worry about it and if I get a couple fireballs I'll now why. My biggest concern is blowing up my S&W and my hand. Will this set up with 26.5gr of 296 be a bomb or just hot? Thanks in advance.
I am working up some .44 mag loads and wanted some input. My load is 240gr XTP, federal brass, federal magnum primer, 24gr of W296 and a decent crimp. The COAL is 1.585, the brass was a little short when I started and I have to seat it to get it to the cannelure.
Its not the hottest load but while rechecking my powder weights (I check every 5 rounds) I noticed that I had bumped the scale and had 26.5gr of W296. So at least a few of my loads have over 24gr and they are all mixed up. Should I weigh each bullet and cull out the heavier ones, or not worry about it and if I get a couple fireballs I'll now why. My biggest concern is blowing up my S&W and my hand. Will this set up with 26.5gr of 296 be a bomb or just hot? Thanks in advance.
Agree, pull em.. this is one of the reasons that I use a loading tray/block and have a defined method for charging, then seating the boolit. Should I run across the same issue (and yes, I have knocked the scale and bumped the charge weight as well before), I can easily dump all the powder back into the powder measure and start over.. nothing lost but a little time. Another reason why I still load old school on a single stage press.
Yeah, ok. Back to the drawing board. I may just pull the bullets and toss the brass. After renecking, reflaring, reseating, and recrimping I'm not sure if the brass will like it. I have enough brass anyway. Also In order to avoid being on the cusp of over pressure I'm going to go with 22gr of 296, that way if I'm a little over it won't be too bad.
You keep going back to being over.
You need to find a way to keep from being over.
A quality electronic scale and accurate powder hopper will go a long way in helping you achieve this.
That is why I use a loading block and throw the charges, set the charged cases in the block and after I have the block/s full, I seat. I use a Uniflow powder measure and it's accurate. I use a balance beam scale (had too many issues with electronic scales over the years) and on occasion, I have bumped the .1gr slide and knocked it out of whack a tenth or two.. Since I check every 10 or so rounds, I usually only have to dump a handful after realizing it was the scale, not the powder measure, and even though it is only a tenth or two, I want my charge weights consistent, so I dump the last row or so of cases back in the measure and reset the scale and verify that the measure is correct and the operator erred.. lolYeah, I'm using an old rock chucker. That's a good idea about doing all the powder then seating all the bullets. I have an old AMT autoscale and I usually hit the button and while it dispenses I'm seating the bullet. It would take longer to do all powder then all the seating but at least I could dump the powder if I make a mistake instead of having to guess how many I fudged... New to reloading so I don't quite have my rhythm down, plus this is my first time to .44 mag. The crimping part and seating depth are a little more confusing that with .308.
An RCBS Uni-Flow will allow you to set the charge weight to within 10ths of a grain.
After it's set you can throw many hundreds of charges straight into the case without having to check the powder weight all the time.
I check after every fifty rounds, but it's not required. Cuzz it never changes.
PS: That's a big sumb!tchin scale you got there. How old is it?