Share Your Tip Of The Day

[davegalesr]

I reload several calibers in a typical setting and I like to have several Lee perfect powder measures set up to accommodate the various charges. I made a turret from an old lamp base and a sheet of plywood to hold the powder measures. A strip of blue painters tape can record the powder charge for each unit. I never fill more than one at a time and empty each when I am done with that caliber (easy to do with the Lee measures). The Lees are cheap and I have found them accurate - even with flake powders that cause fits with my RCBS.

[cainttype]

If your melting pot uses a non-grounded two-prong plug, you become the ground wire. Insulate yourself... Shoes are highly recommended for more than just reducing the burn hazard.

[Westerner]

About the only tip I have for anyone is keep yourself away from distractions. Reloading is serious business, think about the pressures that cartridge is operating under, and how close it is to your extremities when it lights off. One little mistake, one little distraction can cause a catastrophic event. Blown up guns, loss of fingers, vision, even death can occur. Be safe. Be aware.

Very good advise!
When I first started loading my .44 for Cowboy Action Shooting on a new Dillon 550B I had some distractions and problems with the learning curve with the first 1,000 rounds so I bought a electronic scale to weigh each and every bullet after a session of finding the mean weight of 20 cartridges based on the datum of one hand loaded duplicate that was of known quantities. I looked for the difference of 7 grains of Unique powder and found one that was indeed a double charge. One of my Colts would have been trashed. The cost of the Dillon electronic scale was cheep, paid for itself a thousand times over to find that one problem.

[Westerner]

Two guns chambered in 30-06 and 100 rounds for each that had been fired once and reloaded with Barnes bullets for hunting the Condor Safety Zone in CA, of course the rounds are not interchangeable. Close but no cigar. I decided to keep the Ruger #1 and sell off the Ruger M-77 but didn't want to sell the ammo with it so I had a bright idea. I purchased a full length resizing die in 8mm-06 and now they all fit in the #1s tight chamber, problem solved.

[Hawkeye45]

Go back and re-read this series of posts once in awhile. You will be surprised at how much you have forgotten. Now where was I ?

Mr. Ed

[Mark85304]

Only have one container of gun powder on your loading bench at any time and always keep the container for the powder currently loading on the loading bench. When finished, pour the remaining powder back into the container on the loading bench. This will prevent accidentally mixing different powders in a container. I'd hate to have to burn or destroy an 8# container of powder, or worse yet, hurt myself or others because of mixed powders.

[Westerner]

Go back and re-read this series of posts once in awhile. You will be surprised at how much you have forgotten. Now where was I ?



Mr. Ed

Need to get through first read. Great stuff!

[Manchu9inf]

One task at a time. start one phase then proceed to the next. Stay organized!

[Full Mold Jack]

I stumbled on a cheap source of copper wire wool for anyone in Australia or anywhere else for that matter that can't obtain chore boy or other sources of bronze or copper wire wool for barrel lead removal without paying exorbitant shipping costs.

It can be found by searching ebay for "Stainless Steel Solder Soldering Iron Tip Cleaner" and for a little over $4.00 it's landed at your door from China. It' comes in a little stainless steel ashtray type holder. I have checked the wool I ordered and it is 100% copper and not copper plated steel.

[crs7861]

2nd sawdust as flux. Just started casting. Turned 5 lbs. of oxidized metal and junk (dross) back into usable alloy with sawdust. Burns longer than wax and works much better. No more wax as flux for me. I cast/smelt right outside my wood shop. Read: sawdust everywhere.

[Mike W1]

Lots of tips on here. Here's a few things I use in no
particular order. Take a stiff wire or small allen wrench
and put a handle on it to clean your spout. Easier than
fumbling with a plier. Weld a bolt on your Lee pots rod and
put a handle on that. Always there without grabbing a screw-
driver. I used a piece of 1/8' aluminum to make a warming
shelf on my Lee pot, works just fine. My scales sit on lead
weighted boxes with adjustment screws for level and a hole for
the magnfying glass and it's on an eye level shelf. The base
of my pot is built up to get the spout closer to the sprue hole.
Then covered with aluminum with a bent edge. Those little drips
that I do get go into a removeable catch box not the floor.
Take some scrap wood and you get a couple separate areas to dump
your casts and the sprues also go into removeable catch boxes.
Boxes are inclined floors, padded with denim covered sponge
material and when the bullets are cool dump into boxes at the
rear. I have a fan box mounted where I set the moulds to keep
the sprue cutters cooled a little and I find it useful the way
I cast. Mines set up for Lyman moulds but I'd think some of it
would be useful to Lee's though I get the impression it's usually
more of a problem keeping them hot enough. I just like iron!

[hicard]

The best thing I discovered was 30 and 35 cal nose sizing dies for those cast boolits that seem to be too large, above the case, to properly chamber in semi-auto rifles. They work great.

[kbstenberg]

Holly Cow Batman I finally have something to add. Last night I was sizing and lubbing some bullets. Looking around in my loading area for something to store the bullets in. My last session filled up the parts drawers that I keep my completed bullets in. I happened to see one of those disposable plastic boxes with the slide top on it that 22 and 17 cal rimfire ammunition comes in. I have collected dozens of them and wondered what I was ever going to do with them all.
One of the containers was exactly the width and length to hold 100 30 cal bullets. I now have a supply of bullet storage containers. Kevin

[Pb2au]

Use a premium grade of blue painter's tape and a sharpie to clearly label boxes of reloaded ammo. I do this when I am in load development mode and have say three boxes of the same ammo with different loads in each.
When I am done, I keep the winner, that goes into the my load info binder for that ammo, the losers go into the trash. My ammo boxes remain uncluttered with torn labels, scribbled out info, etc.

[ERADICATOR]

I use large coffee cans for storage in my shop. I get my large labels by using a sheet off a lint roller. peel it off the roller, it is adhesive and ready to use. Mark with sharpie.

[cainttype]

Stuck, or sticky, sprues are commonly removed by casters inverting the mold and tapping the handle's hinge-pin until they release...Try tapping in the upright position instead. Often times your sprues will release easier.

[magnetik]

when heat treating boolits in a convection oven.. give them a little more room then I did. took me a long time to make this beautiful piece of artwork. I guess I can use my oven to melt lead in a pinch if I had too. I thought by setting it to 475 instead of max 500 I would be safe... guessed wrong. On top of this.. I stupidly dunked it in the batch of ice water I had ready.. well now I know how much it hardens the lead considering I couldn't break it even in my vise and the chunk won't fit in my 20lb pot for remelting.

[Full Mold Jack]

Oh wow it's a big lead brownie!

[62chevy]

LOL time to get the saws all out and start cutting.

[Expat74]

When pouring lube into a lubrisizer in which all traces of the previous lube have been removed, be sure to install and tighten down a sizing die. Floors and cabinets function as designed without the application of boolit lube.

Ah.. Should have read it this morning :banghead: