What did you do in the reloading room today?

[michiganmike]

Today I cast some bullets for my 338 Federal. The bullet mould was the Lee 220 gr, The alloy was WW. I cast a total of 163 bullets in a relatively short time. Why 163? Because I had to stop and pick up my wife from work.

It seems that the moon was in the seventh house and Jupiter aligned with Mars to quote the song from the musical Hair. Everything went flawlessly. That was due largely because I "read and followed directions."

I pre-heated the mould, fluxed the pot of alloy twice and kept up a steady pace. The bullets needed at most a light tap or two to fall from the mould. Whenever I added more alloy to the pot I fluxed again. They were lovely.

Of the 163 bullets cast:

74 weighed 217 1/2 grains +/- 1/2 grain
53 weighed 218 1/2 grains +/- 1/2 grain
24 weighed 216 1/2 grains +/- 1/2 grain

2 weighed 215-216 and went back into the pot.
4 weighted 219+ and went back into the pot.

6 only had flaws significant enough to go back in the pot.

The 217 and 218 grain bullets have been lubed with BLL and are drying in my shop. I set the 216 grain bullets aside and will add to that lot until I have enough to lube and attach gas checks.

Tomorrow, God willing, I will attach gas checks to the 217 and 218 lots and lube again with BLL.

It was very enjoyable and satisfying to have a casting session go so well. To top it off, both bullets shoot extremely well in their respective rifles. Fun from beginning to end.

MichiganMike

[TXGunNut]

Loaded 20 30-30 try loads to verify one promising load and try a variation of another. Taking a break while deciding what to try next in 300 Savage, will load a few of them next, cast with the cup point pin in my RD/NOE 310-165 RG mould. Range day tomorrow.
All this casting and loading is darn sure cutting into my drinking time lately.

[JWT]

Tried the old Outers Foul Out III to remove lead from my 1884 trapdoor. Showed clean in 5min. Barrel looked clean but in a rifle that old I was expecting more... I did get the staff on the buffington sight to start moving tonight though.

[Jal5]

Been modifying my Lee LM press. Added LED light strip tonite to check powder drops easier. Looks good.

[trails4u]

Loaded the last of my prepped .223 brass....maybe 150 or so. Ran out of prepped brass, so started prepping another 250 cases. No range time in the near future (hip surgery)....so working on the 'concerned citizen' stockpile while I have the downtime. Wife bought me some ammo cans for Christmas....my hip surgery goal is to have one filled with .223 before I'm off the crutches. The challenge at least gives me something goal oriented to do........

[TXGunNut]

Been modifying my Lee LM press. Added LED light strip tonite to check powder drops easier. Looks good.

Pics?

[TXGunNut]

Got the 300 Savage loads done. Load notes caught up as well. Range day tomorrow should be very interesting.

[coxa2]

Cleaned roughly 1000 pieces of 45acp brass. Now to find time to get them reloaded.

[mdi]

Pulled and reloaded 50 .44 Magnum rounds from '96. I had some in the bottom of my .44 ammo can and no longer use the bullet (a dry lube 240 gr. SWC BB). Pulled all bullets, resized and reflared, charged with 9.0 gr. Unique, seated .431", 429421s with my Speed Green lube and profile crimped. I'll use these for my 629...

[HangFireW8]

Tried the old Outers Foul Out III to remove lead from my 1884 trapdoor. Showed clean in 5min. Barrel looked clean but in a rifle that old I was expecting more... I did get the staff on the buffington sight to start moving tonight though.

Might be very little lead, might be oily.

[aquarist]

I did this:

[Outer Rondacker]

Nice.

[websterz]

Last night I loaded up 1204 rounds of 9mm. I used my own powder coated Lee 124 grain truncated cones over 3.8 grains of Titegroup. 800 rounds went into the safe, the rest are for a range trip today with my wife and daughter.

[youngda9]

Strangely pretty.

[Outer Rondacker]

Last night I loaded up 1204 rounds of 9mm. I used my own powder coated Lee 124 grain truncated cones over 3.8 grains of Titegroup. 800 rounds went into the safe, the rest are for a range trip today with my wife and daughter.

Add dinner to it and call it a date.

[gwpercle]

Today is Sunday, the wife and daughter are out of town, it's not freezing and/or raining. Finally got the chance to try out the NOE mould I got as a Christmas present to myself. It's NOE's 358 124 TC GC design , 4 cavity, aluminum . It's a 9mm design but I'm also going to use it in 38special and 357 magnum, the reason for the GC is I want to try softish alloy and +1000 fps speeds. Prior to this I have only had 1 and 2 cavity Lyman and Lee moulds, I cast with a Lyman ladle from an open top Magnum melter. It is a nice mould and not many rejects, no tricks to it. It's much heavier than I expected and glad I didn't get brass, I'm over 60 and need to build up more strength in my left hand. That rascal wore my hand out but I'm learning some tricks to help that.
Very nice mould, I like it . Once heated up , good keeper bullets are the norm. First test run I cast 145, only 4 went back in the pot!
Before I bought it , I tried 3 different Lee moulds to see which design I favored, at $20.00 each that was an investment of 60.00.
The NOE mould wiped out a 100.00 bill, so I'm glad Lee moulds were there to help me decide. If I had blown 100.00 on a mould that wouldn't work in my guns I would be quite upset with myself.

The NOE spue plate, thick, large diameter sprue hole and large angled place to put the ladle spout really helps casting.
I'm going to investigate getting an aftermarket thick plate for the Lee moulds I still use regularly, it makes a big different.

Gary

[Jal5]

Pic of LM with lights sorry for the lousy picture

[goryshaw]

Loaded 40 rounds of .30-06 for a Garand match on saturday. NOE 311299 with 40 gr of IMR 4350 and lubed with BLL.
Resized / deprimed about 150 .223 cases, until one of them got stuck in the die. Have another 250-300 ready to go, need to find my stuck case remover then get to work again. Not really pressing, already have 1k+ primed and ready, and about 250 loaded.

[shoot-n-lead]

Actually, yesterday, but I loaded 100rds in the morning to use when my daughter and I worked on her self defense training, over in the afternoon.

[Outer Rondacker]

Pic of LM with lights sorry for the lousy picture

My I ask what the dowel is for going to the floor? Thanks and It looks good.