What did you do in the reloading room today?

[44Blam]

Was gifted 4000, 38 special nickel plated police, once fired cases, sorting found mostly Winchester, about 10% Federal and some other head stamps. First batch were cleaned de primed and sized, ready to load. Second batch of 2000, need sizing and de priming,then will be ready to reload after belling and priming. Loading light @ 3 gr BE, and 158 gr lee pc’d boolit,Eastwood Ford light Blue.

I found 2 38 special cases in some brass I was sorting the other day. No idea how those guys got in there...

[fcvan]

If you are intending for your AR to cycle, none of the faster powders will maintain enough of a gas pulse for cyclic operation. I did my original tests in a Mini-14 which operates at a gas volume less than required by my AR 15s. H110 is slower, but I never tested that powder. While conducting my initial tests, a Thompson Center Contender single shot was used as they are hell-for-stout. Primers were blown out and primer pockets as well. I went back to the loads that did not blow primers and they would not cycle the Mini. I now have a H&R Handi Rifle for testing, also hell-for-stout.

My successful tests for Mini and AR full function utilized H4227, a load right out of Lyman manuals. Utilizing the Lyman 225-415 55gr GC mould. Although I did not have my chronograph that first day, the ESPC GC boolit showed 1" grouping at 2250fps from a 16" bbl.

Later, I purchased a NOE 225-62-RN PB mould for ESPC with this above listed load. Although the boolit shoots fine through the Mini 14, it would not cycle the AR15. I believe that may be due to reduced pressure relative to the slick powder coated boolit. I tried to incrementally increase the charge until full cycling of the AR15. I achieved that but as the load increased the groups spread. I believe that was a result of the base obturation with higher pressure.

I will try a stiffer alloy for later testing but for now I have a great load for the Mini 14, the Handi Rifle (which clocked 2450 from it's 24" bbl) and an AR15 pistol with it's shorter gas tube system. I know, silly, but my brother built one so I had to. It is obnoxiously load with factory loads . . . but I like it Not so with the H4227 load . I get 110 or so boolits for a pound of alloy so at 3$/pound for hardcast it should be good. Whereas 55gr FMJ poke clean holes through a tin can, the lead boolit shreds it, tears it, really makes the can react . . . I like it It also bangs steel without damage to the plates.

Oh, this thread was about 'what did you do in the relading' I sorted my AR15 cast ammo from my Mini 14 ammo, I headed to the range shortly.

[Hossfly]

820 fps slow but show nuff accurate at 50 yards

What kind of velocity do you get with that load?

[JM7.7x58]

Well today I ...

Smelted 25 pounds of Lino scraps and Lino saw chips. I cast four boolits from this batch and pencil tested them, they tested at a HB pencil, about 14-15 BHN. This is a little lower in hardness than what I was hoping for. This was a dirty smelt. There was a lot of trash mixed in with this batch of scrap.

Then I smelted 40 pounds of fishing weights. Cast four boolits and pencil tested them, they tested at a 4B pencil, about 9 BHN.

Then my Coleman stove quit working. I dismantled and cleaned the burner, dismantled and cleaned out the generator tube, and then reassembled everything.

And then I ...

Smelted 25 pounds of pewter. I made these into 1/4" thick coins in my full size muffin pan. I still have two grocery bags full of pewter that I did not smelt. I have enough and should probably stop buying this stuff.

After I did all of the above, I then organized my lead stash. I marked all my ingot batches with a unique identifier. Examples: three taps with a philips screw driver, or one tap from a .223 case, or two taps from a .38 case. I have gotten a lot of lead in small batches and just want to keep it segregated.

JM

[cwlongshot]

I formed 40 35 Whelens from once fired RO ‘06 brass for my buddy. Cleaned & uniformed primer
Pockets then de burred flash holes. Lastly I annealed the Neck & Shoulders.

Then I squeezed 4-500 230g NOE cast bullets.
Momma sent the lil dog down to get me to go to bed about 11:30... It happens loosing track of time I mean.

CW

[David2011]

Found that a big strong magnet is a great tool for picking COWW up out of old buckets. It was much faster than trying to dig them out with a gloved hand. I don’t like digging through WW with bare hands.

Getting ready for the move, I bought lots of new 5 gallon buckets and made sure that each bucket weighed 70 pounds. I can stack them 3 high but at 100 pounds each it was a struggle to lift just one to stack into another due to old injuries. I did some separating and organizing while I was at it. Culled lots of big truck zinc and some steel.

A couple of weeks ago I organized the boolits and brass. A friend stopped by and today we loaded the little boxes into U-Haul book boxes trying to keep them in the 60-70 lb range. Those 4x4x4” boolit boxes can get heavy fast.

[robg]

Cast some 405 gr 45-70 ,190gr 357 mag,and 160gr 308 boolits .only about 70 of each as the sun came out and it got too hot to carry on .

[UKShootist]

Today I weighed various makes of brass for my 30-06 rifles now I'm starting to take them semi-seriously. The brass was all cleaned, polished but not deprimed.

Federal Brass Average weight 203 grains

PPU brass Average weight 191 grains

FNM brass Average weight 185 grains

Hornady brass Average weight 176 grains.

I thought this interesting as it must affect the case internal volume and therefore pressures.

[44Blam]

Loaded up some test boolits!
Finally got some of my Accurate 40-180Hs loaded. I had the lube grove removed and powder coat them. They weigh in right around 187 grain - I like this.

Gonna go unload them tomorrow.

[Michael J. Spangler]

Loaded 50 each 44 special with RCBS 44-250K and 50 each 45 Colt with NOE 453423
Can't wait to try the new 44 special 1894 Marlin tomorrow night.
Me thinks I need to load some more ammo though as that won't last me very long.

[robg]

Sized and gas checked the 308 and 357 mag boolits I cast yesterday.

[Texas by God]

Helping a cousin out to turn a 30" fc 870 Wingmaster into hopefully a trap smasher.
The wood will be gorgeous from the looks of it.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

[Tom W.]

Puttered around just a bit and decided to prime twenty 30/30 a.i.cases for no apparent reason.....

[cwlongshot]

Looked and looked for the Contender base I put up for safe keeping...

[robg]

Sized trimmed and expanded 25 x 45-70 cases .sorted the boolits I cast and gas checked .

[WardT]

Sorted large and small primer 45acp

[cwlongshot]

Looked and looked for the Contender base I put up for safe keeping...

Continued looking and looking... Cannot find it, BUT I did fond a Burris Gloss blue base!! (Same only gloss and Burris instead of Matte and Leupold.)

Im sure to find it now, i ordered another yesterday AM so dont really need it now.

So I got the dot mounted!

CW

[robg]

Cast some more 357/308/45-70 boolits .range Sunday.

[Txcowboy52]

Finished loading some 10MM rounds. Cleaning my entire bench off . Putting things up . Convert my press back to .45ACP , Dillon 650. Thinking about loading some light plinking rounds in 9mm on the other press, after I finish cleaning up , I should say if I ever finish! Lol

[ThomR]

I powder coated around 1,100 160 grain bullets for 300 blackout. Now I need to size them.
Tomorrow I'm going to drive up into the mountains to check out a place I saw on google earth. Looks like people shoot there. Here's to hoping I score on some brass cases.