Curiosity

[Big Boomer]

After many years of using walnut polishing media because I liked shiny brass, I transitioned to citric acid cleaning only and follow this regimen:

1. First, deprime all cases by hand, pistol and rifle, with the deprimer stem from a set of Lee dies and a brass hammer. It is at this point that all brass gets inspected. If military crimp has to be removed, I use the RCBS system. Then I use citric acid with a dash of Dawn dish detergent in an old crock pot that really gets the job done. Haven't used my RCBS vibratory tumbler in ages. Fill the crock pot about 2/3rds full of water, add a good tablespoon full of citric acid, turn the crock pot on high heat and add the brass and let it cook for a couple of hours, stirring occasionally. This method virtually eliminates by softening the carbon deposits left in all primer pockets so that when stirring and rinsing any debris falls out of the primer pockets. Do not have to fool with cleaning primer pockets.

2. After drying and sorting, all handgun brass gets loaded either on a Dillon XL 650 (.380, 9mm,
.38 Spl., .357 Mag., .41 Mag, .45 Colt) or an old Hornady/Pacific Projector (reserved for .45 ACP). Do not care for the Hornady/Pacific Pro-Jector priming system so I use an ancient Lee hand priming device (with the round primer retainer) for the .45 ACP and all rifle brass. I load all rifle ammo (.223, 5.56x45, .243, & .30-06) on an old Lyman Spar-T turret press.

3. Trimming is reserved for serious shooting and employs a Forster device, a mini lathe. That includes primarily .41 Mag., .45 Colt and the rifle rounds. I have a large amount of .41 Mag. R-P once-fired brass that I purchased several years ago from a police dept. and several hundred pieces of new Star-Line .45 Colt brass. I was surprised to find that the brass from both the R-P and Star-Line varied in length and that the case mouths were not square with the case body. Could have just been the specific lots I suppose. Sometimes I use the Lee trimming device in a variable speed drill (DeWalt) for large lots of 5.56x45 and .223. After trimming, I use an RCBS de-burring device.

4. Since I am into shooting lead alloy boolits that I cast not only in all the handguns but in the rifles as well, in order to expand the case mouths and necks I had a machinist make appropriately sized neck expanders for .357, .41, .45, 224, .244, & .310 that fit in the Lee Universal neck mouth expander. The Lee neck mouth expander itself is still around somewhere but useless. I only use the die body like a Lyman M die but have only one die body and several expanders instead of several separate die-bodies with expander units. Very handy when you want precision.

5. All boolits are sized and lubed with a couple of Star lube-sizers that I have. My lube is my own concoction of FWFL that seems to work very well for both handgun and rifle ammo. I aim for highest velocity only with the .45 Colt, which is a custom 5-shooter built by Hamilton Bowen. I cast a 340 gr. WLN (Wide Long Nose) gas checked boolit from a mould by LBT (Veral Smith) that rolls along at 1400 fps over a generous load of H110.

6. Several years ago a friend and I purchased large lots of W820, W680 and W844. Old W231, newer TiteGroup, old Hercules 2400, W820 and H110 works well in the handguns according to caliber and powder relative speed required. The W820, W680 and W844 are used in the rifle rounds, depending on caliber.

BTW, Tazman1602: I am totally green with envy!

[largom]

I do very little loading for handguns. All of my rifle brass gets the following treatment:
1. Deprime with universal deprime tool [RCBS]
2. Run through tumbler with Dawn and lemon juice added to water. 30 min.
3. Deprime with RCBS universal deprimer in a designated press
4. Resize in Rockchucker press.
5. Wipe sizing lube from case.
6. Trim to length.
7. Debur case mouth inside and out.
8. Ream primer pocket with Redding reamer.
9. Debur flash hole [inside]. Only needs to be done once, thank goodness!
10. Run through tumbler with corn cob and a dash of auto wax.
11. If new or unknown cases they are then sorted by case weight.
12. If loading cast boolits case mouth is belled with tools I have made.
13. Cases are placed in a loading block. A second empty block is placed a distance away.
14. Powder charge is weighed to 1/10 gr. As case is charged it is placed into second loading block.
15. When all cases have been charged and in second block I inspect the powder in each case with a small flashlight.
16. Boolits/bullets are loaded on my Rockchucker single stage press. Seating die is set using Hornady overall length gage.
I enjoy handloading as much as shooting and I strive to make my ammo as perfect as I can. In some cases I will also turn case necks on new cases.

[David2011]

For all ammo:

1. Clean/polish in corncob with NuFinish and mineral spirits.
2. Size/decap on progressive or single stage press depending on cartridge.
3. The rest. Never saw any reason to clean primer pockets. I'm not a benchrest or 1000 yard shooter and can get sub 1/2 MOA groups with my good rifle without cleaning pockets. That is adequate for all of my shooting.



Tazman,

It will take more than a week to properly clutter that much space. Congrats, it's a beautiful shop.

[David2011]

CHECK, DOUBLE CHECK, THEN CHECK AGAIN!

Regards,

Art

PS - What ya' think of my new shop?

Art,

I noticed a detail that is worth mentioning. The notch for the angled support is brilliant! I assume the other end is the same. That will make the benches so much stiffer and longer lasting!



David

[Tazman1602]

Art,

I noticed a detail that is worth mentioning. The notch for the angled support is brilliant! I assume the other end is the same. That will make the benches so much stiffer and longer lasting!



David

David --
My buddy/contractor is an artist as am I with certain things. When he asked me how I wanted benches done I told him to run with it and give me the bill ---- worth every dime. I can sit on a barstool and not get my knees knocked now....

It's going to take me a month to get all my stuff in there...

Art

[JedYonkers]

Walnut/corncob tumble
Size and deprime ,look for splits etc.
Handprime with lee primer
Auto Indexing turret press with lee powder through dies and dispenser ,weigh the first 5 charges and every tenth or so thereafter.
Seat boolit
Put in box
Mark primer with powders assigned color. My powders get assigned a color ,Bullseye =red, Titegroup is pink etc.Makes it easy to spot I f things get disorganized at the range.

Rifle is more involved but I don't have any that I load for right now other than the 9mm carbine.

[Idaho Mule]

As I suspected we all do "close" to the same. I should have said that I do measure cases, not just automatically trim them all. I also don't always run stuff through the polisher, especially if it is still clean. I do like to "batch" stuff, I guess would be the best way to say it; as in, get brass cleaned, sized, and trimmed so it is ready to load. I load for several 32-20's, and they all seem to like different size boolits so I don't neck expand until I decide which gun they will loaded for. Am also loading for several 303 Brits. (yes, I have a 31 caliber problem) and wouldn't ya know they all like different strokes too, but that's ok, it sure keeps life interesting. I should add that my LEE trimming is done with the 3-jaw universal chuck spun by a cordless drill. Years ago I drove the cutter part into the mouth of a 50 BMG case so I had a handle to hang on to. Looks way cooler than LEE's little wooden ball thing. I have a small LEE press that I de-prime on, and then a Redding t-7 turret that most other stuff is done on, and I use it strictly single-stage, one operation at a time. I appreciate everyone's input, I just may change the way I do some of the process. Oh, Tazman, that is one nice looking gun/reloading shop. Thanks all. JW

[OS OK]

I was just talking about this kind of thing with the contractor and his young helper who are finishing up my new reloading/casting shop above the garage we've built. Last weekend I was finally able to get into my new shop and setup the first press that's going there --- don't get to thinking I'm some rich boy, I've been reloading and casting and building rifles for 30 years and at long last my wonderful wife of almost 37 years and I have a place inside to park our trucks and not have to scrape 3 feet of snow off of them when we have to go somewhere.

My contractor is also one of my best friends, former Marine, and the single person i know whom I can talk guns and ballistics with on my level. Our new friend the young guy (ok, 35 or so, young to me...) has been suckered by us into getting into reloading on the premise he will save money by doing so.....uh-huh, I can hear you all laughing now.

Our young friend had a question "Art can you tell me why if you were reloading 308's on the new 550, a cartridge you seem to know real well, then WHY do you have three loading manuals, one beam scale and one digital scale, and two sets of calipers out?"

My answer was simply "Safety". I NEVER EVER load ammo without checking at least two load manuals and verify my charges three times before I go on a run.

ALL of the suggestions I've heard are great, but I have grown accustomed to all my fingers and have grown fond of them over my 60 years of life -- I hope this post helps some young reloader to retain all of his digits as long as I have.

CHECK, DOUBLE CHECK, THEN CHECK AGAIN!

Regards,

Art

PS - What ya' think of my new shop?

That's a dream come true & awesome shop...doncha love to see a plan come through?

The shop looks well planned out but I'm curious about how and where you will do your case cleaning, casting and or PCing? I would like to combine the three so I can use one large overhead exhaust fan...sorta like one elongated for a grill.
I was sorta spacing out looking at your picture and putting all my junk on your new fixtures and was thinking I'd isolate my fan area over on the left of the door as you enter....what are your plans for those activities?

c h a r l i e

[lightman]

My routine is not too much different than yours. If the cases need trimming or annealed that will change things just a little. I prime by hand, even when I'm loading on the Dillon. I only have one type of powder out when I'm loading. Powder type and weight get checked and verified. Thrown charges get random checks, somewhere between every 10th to every 50th, depending on the powder type and what the spot check shows. I don't inspect my cases or ammo per say, but I observe them during every step, from putting them in the tumbler the first time to boxing them up. If a batch starts getting neck splits it either gets annealed or scrapped. If a batch starts getting loose primer pockets it gets scrapped.

[marek313]

Pet stores sell a ground walnut for 'Lizard bedding' that is too small to stick in the flash holes and it really cleans the primer pockets...good stuff and way cheaper too.

Thats what I use and it works great. Also if you find one with damaged bag like I did it will save you another 20-25%

As for my routine
I dry tumble everything first
Resize and decap in one step. Doesnt make much sense to do it twice.
Clean and inspect primer pockets.
Trim if necessary
Then its off to the press. I use Loadmaster for my high volume pistol rounds and classic turret for rifle rounds. Everything else including priming, flaring etc is done on that press.

[robg]

Dream loading room.

[OS OK]

Thats what I use and it works great. Also if you find one with damaged bag like I did it will save you another 20-25%

As for my routine
I dry tumble everything first
Resize and decap in one step. Doesnt make much sense to do it twice.
Clean and inspect primer pockets.
Trim if necessary
Then its off to the press. I use Loadmaster for my high volume pistol rounds and classic turret for rifle rounds. Everything else including priming, flaring etc is done on that press.

I see what your doing, cleaning the brass before it enters the size die...makes sense but, I would rather not have to clean or deal with the primer pockets at all.

I use a universal Lee de-priming die, then to the vibratory or wet tumbler, then return to stoage until I want to load them again. I'm OCD so I keep brass sorted by headstamp. The only caliber that does run in circles between the pistol and the loading bench is the .45ACP, in that caliber I run two batches of about 500 that I alternate between and I run them until you can't even read the headstamps anymore and then still the brass has not given out...the only way a .45ACP gets out of the lineup is that I loose it or the case mouth splits. I do see primer pockets loosen from time to time and when I set the primer I'll catch that & mark the entire bottom of the case with a black marks-O-lot as that will be it's last go-round, one last loading and then it is culled.
When I pull brass from stoage, or if they go directly to the press, I hand prime and inspect cases at the same time (pistol) and then to the press starting with the size die. Pistol/revolver loading goes either to the Lymann T-Mag II or the LNL depending on size of the run. .38/.357 FWC's go exclusively to the green machine.
Rifle goes to the Rock Chucker exclusively regardless of caliber where it's size, inspect/measure, trim if needed and then on to loading trays with the typical procedures of hand priming, belling them by batch, charging by batch, seating by batch then crimping by batch when they are casts.
Though I have the shell plates for all the rifle calibers I haven't used the LNL for that yet. All my rifle shooting has been experimenting with specific j-types for precision or experimenting with various cast profiles and weights. For the last 8 years since we moved up here to the rancho most of my shooting has been pistol since I can do that here. Other projects have taken my time trying to maintain and remodel this place. This summer will be the first summer that I can spend more time on the rifle...looking forward to that and a change of loading and shooting...might end up with a couple of cast rifle loads I can run on the LNL.

We are all skinning the same cat...just going about it differently but...the cat gets skinned!