What a great ending for a Monday

[JSAND]

Just finished cleaning up all the pistols and the shotgun. I spent the afternoon loading up a bunch of 40 S&W rounds, my first reloads and my first cast boolits even though they were bought off of gunbroker; 180 grn RN. I loaded up a bunch of different loads and then wound up not even breaking out the chrono, just killed a bunch of strips of plywood. Made several loads with Unique and WSF they all shot good in my CZ 40B, :grin: my daughter started out making smoke with her little pocket police but got interested in the auto when it started going off. I had also loaded up a bunch of Trail Boss rounds that she really enjoyed going through. My son was busy shooting clays with the shells we loaded up on Saturday. I just keep wishing that I had started doing this a long time ago. At the end of the day when your drinking a beer and scrubing weapons down, :drinks: you know its a good thing, and I am thankfull that I did start loading and casting. Im gonna load up some .243 Win tommorow and try again I just hope I have as good luck with it as I did with the 40 today, also gonna cast up some 30-30 rds as soon as I get my wheel weights melted down.:Fire:

[lylejb]

Sounds like a great day.

It's truly sastisfying when the kids join in and have as much fun as you.

One of the first things I noticed when I started shooting my home cast boolits was how much more accurate they are. I think you'll find that too. I had loaded commercial cast for years, as a less expensive practice / plinking round. I didn't know what I was missing.

I see your loading 40 s&w. I would say to watch carefully for bulging base on the brass. I know your CZ is probably fine, but if you are like me, you might get into brass from range pick up, ect. If you ever get any brass that came from a glock, watch out. Glock has some 40 pistols that have large / loose chambers and oversize feed ramp cuts. This can cause a bulge near the rim, and weakens the brass.

Welcome to the addiction:grin:

[hammerhead357]

Good on you for taking the young ones out it is a lot of fun and gets new people involved...Wes

[JSAND]

lylejb,
Yes sir, I am using range brass or once fired that I bought off of gunbroker as well, kind of skeptical about the once fired part, I have heard that alot of the Glocks really expand the cases. Several of them were much more difficult to deprime and size than the others, when I got one of those I really checked it out, would I be better off just throwing those out? So far it has been a small percentage but I have only reloaded 200 of a 1,000 cases. I have been tempted a time or two to just melt these bought boolits down and recast them in my mould but they have shot real good with no leading issues so far, my dad always used to say: "if it aint broke; don't fix it" so will wait until I melt down my WW and will make my 30-30 and 40 boolits then. Thanks for the info.

[JSAND]

hammerhead357,
I could not agree with you more, it is great to see our children and any of the younger generation for that matter, develop an interest in the things we are passionate about. Shooting was always a passion of mine and have made it available to my kids if they wanted it, from an early age. They have both taken to it, and they both show enthusiasm towards reloading, we'll see. Its alot of fun watching them bust clays and put lead on paper.

[chris in va]

Forgive me for being uninformed, but you said 180gr RN for your 40S&W. Doesn't it usually take a flat nose/truncated boolit?

[JSAND]

I don't know to be honest, my Lee mould is a flat nosed SWC, haven't researched to see if I could find the mould that makes these boolits, with that said they are definately round nosed looks like ball ammo (what we called it for the 45 and 9mm in the army) I plopped it on my digital scale and got the 180, can't remember what grn they were supposed to be as listed on Gunbroker.

[hammerhead357]

Jsand I too have tried to involve all of my children is shooting so far the two boys are the only ones to do much. My 10 year old daughter likes to shoot but is just starting.

The 14 year old son likes shooting of anysort but right now is very envolved in 4-h shooting sports. Mostly trap, skeet, 5 stand sporting clays and whiz bang. He is also interested in reloading and casting so may have a good start with him.

His older brother likes to shoot but never expressed any intrest in relaoding. He did shoot 4-h trap for a coulple of years but now is working and doesnt have time for anything but work, women and well you get the idea.

Now about the 40 S&W I think you can use about what ever type of boolit you can get to feed proberly and on the proper weight. I have a H & G 40 cal. mould that is just a 40 cal version of their #68 for the 45 cal. I don't have a 40 cal at this time but have thought of getting one so may do so at a later time. That way I can give that mould a workout...Wes

[JSAND]

hammerhead357, yeah, my 16 yr old boy is in the 4H archery and we are thinking about doing the shotgun events this year, he enjoys it and only shows slight interest in reloading, more into the shotgun shells than pistol or rifle. The 13 yr old girl loves it all, she loaded a couple of boxes of the 20 gauge for me this past weekend. and wants to do the pistol after shooting it yesterday. The trail boss is a good powder for smaller kids, she is a little thing and handled it well. Tried the 20 gauge once, it is still a little to heavy for her and she didn't like the recoil. And yeah, you need to work that mould, its a real good reason to get another gun.