What did you do in the reloading room today?

[prsman23]

I have been working on a pile of .308 - .762 brass for weeks , I see the end of the project but my hands need break .
Strangely enough I don't have a 308 ........

Yet!


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[toallmy]

Yet!


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Yep everything is ready but the chamber being finished .

[prs]

Well, last night I had a problem with my Lee LoadMaster. By the general reputation, you may say, "So, that is not unusual?" But, it is unusual; this press has loaded bushels of ammo over the years with very few problems once I got it lined out (bought it used years ago and it was a wreck). Recently started loading 44-40. First cycle I tried last night resulted in case not aligning with size die station 1. I did not even mash the frail case mouth, I caught it in time. The carrier bolt was loose and carrier out of alignment. Corrected that and then noticed the case feed height was slightly too low, not causing a problem yet, but it can -- another couple of nuts were slightly loose. Checked and serviced the press, all good. Finished loading my remaining supply of bullets, now I need to find time to cast and powder coat more. Until now, this press has had no problems;not so much as misalingned primer.

prs

[onelight]

Sounds like routine maintenance to me

[Texas by God]

I want to cast boolits but it will be 104 actual degrees out there. I also need to pull down some horrible 38-55 RB experimental loads that I assembled recently. They suck accuracy wise but feed from the magazine..

[Mal Paso]

Well... Now I have a new mold... But the 2 cavity GC one.

That's for the best, that 4c runs away with the pot.

[44Blam]

Loaded up these three mini slugs:


I'll take them to the range and see if they will cycle/shoot. Pretty sure it will go fine.

EDIT:
They are just a hair under 1 3/4". The intended shotgun is a Mossberg 590 A1. The tube holds 8. By my calculation, I should be able to get 12 in there for 12+1. Slugs.

[Crash_Corrigan]

My experience with the Loadmaster was the opposite. I got everything up to snuff except for the blasted primer feed mechanism. No matter what I tried nothing worked consistently with that in 100 loadings : 1 or 2 ended up with sidewise primers, 5-9 cases came thru without a primer installed. I shudder to think of all that spilled and wasted power and wasted time because Lee killed the goose when they turned that piece of plastic loose amungst us.

[toallmy]

Loaded up these three mini slugs:


I'll take them to the range and see if they will cycle/shoot. Pretty sure it will go fine.

EDIT:
They are just a hair under 1 3/4". The intended shotgun is a Mossberg 590 A1. The tube holds 8. By my calculation, I should be able to get 12 in there for 12+1. Slugs.

I load a few short slugs like yours and they run fine out of my 500 , but if you're planning on a self-defense load you can make them not feed properly .

[sailcaptain]

Rebuilt my RCBS Trim Pro.
I put those empty pill bottles to use. A few pieces of scrap wood, 1 1/2 Inch auger bit, some light sanding and the bottles slide into the holes. Great for all the loose screws, extra parts and what have you we all collect.
Nice rainy day project and keeps all flat surfaces from becoming catch-alls. The new one is ready for some final sanding and mounting.

[Texas by God]

I cast a pot full using 3 moulds in tandem Friday night; all Lee. The C309170 and TL 430 SWC turned out beautifully, the C309150F had wrinkled noses so I will recast them after cleaning and inspecting the mould. Last night I PC’d the 44 boolits. This is one of my favorite moulds and I’m itching to try it in my 44-40. I also loaded a few .30 Remington rounds with some leftover boolits to try.

[prs]

I just came in from making 40# of Mav Dutchman 44-40 boolits. I only have one 6 cavity mold in that flavor, so it went a little slow as compared to using two. When I use three 6 cavity molds it is hard to keep each mold up to ideal temperature when tending the two 20# Lee pots; adding alloy, fluxing, resetting the flow rate. But, with two molds, I can manage all of that pretty well. I noticed today that my main pot, which is on a PID controller, kept getting the "OPEN CIRCUIT" warning every 10 minutes or so. It seems the Lee thermostat has topped out at 710 degrees F; probably due to age/use. 715F was my PID target anyway, so I just ran the pot without the PID. I will get a thermostat or by-pass the aging one. My second pot just keeps a hot supply of alloy that I can dip over to my main pot. That 40# represented the last of my scrap lead alloy. I have only a couple pounds of tin left. What is up next is RotoMetals 90:5:5 "Lyman #2" cut in half with their pure lead to yield 95:2.5:2.5 or there abouts.

prs

[prs]

My experience with the Loadmaster was the opposite. I got everything up to snuff except for the blasted primer feed mechanism. No matter what I tried nothing worked consistently with that in 100 loadings : 1 or 2 ended up with sidewise primers, 5-9 cases came thru without a primer installed. I shudder to think of all that spilled and wasted power and wasted time because Lee killed the goose when they turned that piece of plastic loose amungst us.

Yep. Your experience seems to be common and mine rare. Mine was an absolute wreck when I got it second hand, the previous owner was showing me his his new Dillon which was running well. I noticed the Lee LM laying in the corner and asked about it, he said it was not worh 10 dollars, I offered 20 - he kept his 9mm dies. I got my 45 Colt dies and started having trouble right away. Followed all the directions. Called Lee and Mr. Lee, the elder, helped me over the phone to get it set up and sent parts free. Still had some trouble keeping index and flipping/missing primers on occasion. Things got worse called Lee again and I think it was the younder Mr. Lee that had me check for a cracked carrier when I described an audible click each stroke. Sure enough, it was spit. They sent me a care package of parts along with the carrier. It ran perfectly, original style primer fixture, for quite long time, then primer fails. By then folks on the SASS board reported imoortance of keeping the primer collection tube and primer seating well clean. I modified mine to pass the spent primers out of the bottom of the ram and into a clear hollow tube that I can empty. That was the end of my problems. The new and improved primer fixtures were awful until the last version, I still use my original versions. It is at least 20+ years old. I would get a new Dillon or Hornady right away if it broke down. 30-30, 32 SPCL, 40SW, 38SPCL, 357 mag, 44-40, and 45 Colt. I won't recommend it becasue so many folks have trouble with them.

prs

[cwlongshot]

Prepped more 350 Legend brass!!

I emptied about 100+- yesterday.

[talon7825]

Actually, I spent 3 hours cleaning and putting stuff back where it belongs. I get so excited I find myself reloading till something else comes up, then just have to leave and the stuff I said I would put back I don't. Will do better. ( yeah right)

[talon7825]

Those are very nice. Look forward to the results

[shtur]

Deprimed and resized a couple hundred 38 special cases. Will take advantage of the sun and high temps to outside air dry after wet tumble tomorrow.

[cwlongshot]

Mounted new bases and rings on a RARR. IM REALLY LIKING THE leupold Dual Dovetail. They are bank safe solid.

CW

[lightman]

I just finished sorting the equivalent to 2 20mm ammo cans of mixed brass for a buddy. He let me have whatever I wanted out of it for sorting and selling it for him. Now I'm trying to straighten up my loading room before I start the next project which is prepping 1000 223 cases to load.

[kmw1954]

lightman I wasn't given a bucket load but working at the range in the past couple weeks since I bought my Savage Axis 223 I have developed a horrible case of the Bends. I now have almost 3 gallon ice cream pails full of 223. I have sorted most of it so far into 3 groups; crimped primers, non-crimped primers and LC brass.

The non-crimped and LC I will keep for myself and the crimped is going to a friend. He is already equipped to deal with the crimps, I'm not.