What is your Winter Reloading Project this year?

[MakeMineA10mm]

O.K., I'm cheating a little, because I actually started in September/October, but after shooting my home-cast boolits in pistols for 25+ years, I decided I needed to try casting for rifles.

My first project is a 30-06 load for my '03 Springfields. I've come quite a-ways with the help of some really good and smart guys in the Miltary Rifles w/ Cast forum here. Read the Harris article, and I've got my "light load" (with pistol powder and only with power of a pistol -- mainly used for extreme short-range target and small game) about dialed-in.

Next step is the 200-yd "Mattern Load" as Harris calls it. Last night, I sorted through my stashes of 30-06 cases, and combined the fired ones along with the ones I fired from my test loads this fall and got them in the tumbler, resized, and re-primed. Then, I got out my weight-segregated Saeco 315s I cast up last fall and got the gas checks glued on with Super Glue. (Another little gem of an idea I found here at Cast Boolits.) I'm leaving them unsized and will be hand-lubing them before seating them. I also lined up the advice I got from the guys in the Miliary Rifles with Cast forum and have several powders to load and test out. Might get to that later this afternoon.

Once that is all taken care of, I've got a new 30-40 Krag (Model 1896 Rifle) which I bought in a face-to-face with a fellow member from cast boolits here. (Terry -- who is SUPER nice, as is his wife Brenda. Great people!) Already had cases and dies for it, which I've bought off people from.......... yes, you guessed it, Cast Boolits!

This is one great place, isn't it?? :bigsmyl2:

[DeanWinchester]

My Ruger .308 is getting a J-bullet enema. I am developing what I hope to be a very accurate CB load using a 200g Lee. It's been a lot of work, but a heck of a lot of fun so far!
If this works out well, all my J/loads will go into deep storage for use during zombie apocalypse scenario or just to collect dust.

[Wayne Smith]

Should get the first stage of my benches done today! Second stage will be the finish frontal pieces - and then the shelving. Not exactly a "reloading" project, but one that will make my reloading much easier and available - and allow me to teach as well.

[deltaenterprizes]

I have started on a LEE style .410 shotshell reloading set up. I have the sizer, ejector/priming rod and decapping/ wad inserter rod complete. I now need to work on the crimp started and crimp parts.

[Hip's Ax]

As usual I do a lot of reloading in the winter. Been sick lately and stuck in the house so I got a LOT of reloading work done in the last week or two. Finished prepping brass and loading 100 .223 600 yard loads for my AR match rifle (service rifle class) and about 200 rounds of 303 British for the rifle I use for mil surp bolt rifles matches. I was about to start playing with loading up some cast loads for various rifles but I have to go back to work Monday. :(

[Bent Ramrod]

I have a couple of .38-55 Highwalls to get loads up for. One is fairly original, with a somewhat scuzzy bore and a headspace problem hopefully fixed by a breechblock bushing, the other is a marriage of a rebored original barrel, a bushed musket action and an as-yet unfinished stock. The last mentioned seems very promising -- 1 to 1-1/2" groups with the Ideal 375248 at 100 yards with 15 gr 4759 and 22 gr 4198, respectively. I'm using a Lyman Jr. Targetspot 8x for load development, but hope to switch to a Winchester A5 once things settle in. I'm also hoping the rifle's performance will inspire me to finish the thing, a project which has been stalled for at least 10 years.

Unfortunately, after that promising start, there has been nothing but wind, rain and cold (and all permutations of each) here in sunny southern California on every free day I've had available for shooting. Currently it doesn't get above freezing until ten in the morning, whereupon the wind picks up. I'm no longer the tough frostbitten Northerner who came out of the Michigan blizzards 40 years ago; I've mostly been shivering around my casting furnace running up stocks of 375248, 375166 and 375300 for future applications when this Ice Age is over down here.

[Doc Highwall]

My project is to design a set of floating expander's that will work in both my 30-30 Win and my 308 Win to control bullet seating tension.

[elk hunter]

I hope to host another casting/reloading day for friends. I generally make up a big pot of chili and a pan of cornbread for lunch and put on the twenty cup coffee pot. It's amazing how many bullets get cast and rounds loaded considering how much BULL gets tossed about by four to eight guys.

Other than the above, no gun building or reloading/casting this winter, as I'm busy building a motor for one of my old trucks.

[82nd airborne]

Am I the only one that loads and casts all year?

[Eutectic]

I load, test and shoot all year... Almost daily in fact... We have REAL winter here in the northern Rockies, so I cast only when really necessary (like a new mold) Keeping temps where you want them are tough as I don't cast confined.

I shot some cast boolit tests this morning in fact... It was minus 15F. It amazes me how you can take a 60F gun from the basement out to shoot on a morning like this morning and have heat waves in your sight picture before firing a shot!

Eutectic

[mooman76]

I'm falling behind on mine but that's nothing new. I mostly have a few rifle calibers to load for and try. A new 7mm boolit to try out in a couple tempermental 7mm mausers. I still want to work out which one of my rifles to load and shoot that will shoot well as a primary rifle to shoot. If I get one of my 7mm rifles to shoot well that would solve that. I had trouble with my M1 carbine. Mostlt I just picked the wrong boolit and I need to find one that shoots well enough for regular plinking. I'm sure I have one just need to load some up and try them. I haven't really shoot allot of cast in rifle so really I just need to get going on that. I need to replenish allot of my pistol loads that I depleted and I'm still working on getting my nagant pistol to shoot better. I also want to tear down my Nagant pistol and work it so the action isn't a 200# trigger. Some of it will be worked this weekend.

[btroj]

My goal Is to get 3000 or more rou da of handgun loaded. And to cast another 2000 or so handgun bullets. The rifles are easy to keep up with the those dang handguns sure go thru a heap of lead.

[oldhickory]

Just one project? I have several lined up. First I need to trim and prep about 3,000 .30/06 casings, (yeah, I really like my 06's!). Then I can start in on the .223 and .45 auto. I need to re-arainge the place and buils shelves...Just got the old summer kitchen re-wired today![smilie=w:

[btroj]

I am only allowed one self determined project at a time. Seems my other half spend most of her time coming up with plenty of others for me!
I am sure most of you understand.

[MakeMineA10mm]

My project is to design a set of floating expander's that will work in both my 30-30 Win and my 308 Win to control bullet seating tension.

Doc! When you get this figured out, please make at least two, because I'll buy one from you!! I've been struggling with this the most in my cast loading of 30-cal rifles, and if you can make a workable solution, I'd be indebted to you!! :mrgreen:

[Doc Highwall]

I have a workable solution that I made for my 308Win now I am going to make it slightly longer to accommodate the longer neck of the 30-30Win and make them .309", .3095" and .310" diameters to allow different neck tensions. These I am going to make out of steel and have them titanium nitride coated instead of solid carbide. This will go with my .310" .3105" and .311" sizing dies to see how it affects accuracy. Now when I want to see how a bullet .0005" larger affects accuracy I will be able to keep the same neck tension or keep the same bullet diameter and just change neck tension. This testing will also be done with pressure test/strain gage at the same time.

[MakeMineA10mm]

Nice!

Are you using a bushing-style sizer die, like the Redding, to adjust your neck size diameter?

I'm thinking I can just use my regular sizer and if I had a set of elliptical expander balls, like your talking about, in a separate die body, I could adjust the neck that way. It would definitely work the brass more than your method though, because all mine would be sized down to the smallest size, and the worked back up to whatever expander ball would be desired... Still, it would work, I'd think.

What die body are you using? (I'm presuming your doing this in a separate step, rather than in the sizer, but these could be assembled on the decapping pin replacing the neck expander ball, couldn't they?)

I'm loading for 30-40 Krag, 30-06, and 30-30 for now. Oh, and 303 Brit. I also have 7.7 Jap and 7.5 Swiss, but I've just played very little with them so far.

I hope you start a thread when you get these done and include some pics!! :-)

[troy_mclure]

im planning on working up a cast load for the 5.7x28mm, but got to wait till spring when the mould is done for that.

also working up a load for my ar15, but again waiting to get enough interest in the ar boolit for that.

my noe .401-200gr mould should be doen in a month, so i can start working up a load for my 10mm.

[1Shirt]

Guess the goal would be to load every empty case that I have by spring. Have a large number sized and primed, and need to get them finished. However, have probably 4-5 times that number ready to be sized, deprimed and primed. Just don't believe you can ever have to much brass even if you don't have it all loaded.
1Shirt!

[Tazman1602]

Nope.



Am I the only one that loads and casts all year?

[btroj]

I too cast and load all year. I just want to use this time of year when it is tough to get to the range to get ahead on my casting and loading. I tend to load handgun in bulk, but not rifle.I like to keep more rifle brass unloaded as I am much more likely to want to load it for a specific application.
I do have 400 plus 405 plain base cast for the 45-70. I will probably end up casting that many more as the year goes by.

[Doc Highwall]

This is the topic I started on my dies and how I modified them.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=90241

[BSkerj]

I just recently put in a order for a Big Timber Sharps 45/70 and now am gathering up the components so I will be ready when it is done. It will be awhile so I have plenty of time. In the meantime reading everything I can get my hands on about Black Powder cartridge loading and shooting.

[MakeMineA10mm]

Thanks Doc; I'll be reading that next!

I have and do reload all year long, but casting is situational. My casting set up currently is outside, and in my neck of the woods, it's too cold in the Winter generally. (It's too hot in many parts of the Summer too, so it's hit-and-miss there.) Spring and Fall is open season on casting for me. If I were to move my casting to a heated out-building, that would be perfect, but no heat for now...

[TCLouis]

357 Herrett in a 10" and 14" tube for the contender.

I want to find a load for both barrels using my LAR45's 35-180 RNFP GC GB boolit of long ago and the 35-220 grain FP GC GB boolit from last year.

I need minute of deer heart load from both of them.

That will keep me out of trouble for part of the winter anyway.

Then there are the RCBS 30-150 FP GCs to get worked up in the 30-06 and 30-30 . . .and then the 120 PBs in .265 for the 6.5 TCU.

[geargnasher]

Lessee here, finished developing a keeper load for the 45/90 Shiloh today, put a new scope on Dad's .22 Marlin, doped out a new custom mould and load for .45 ACP and then ran 900 through the Pro1000, designed a new boolit for most of my .45 Colts, almost finished my long-term #4 rolling block rebuild, straightened the terribly bent-from-the-factory frame on Mrs. Geargnasher's Model 36 Smith, developed a load for my NEF Buffalo Classic, plus several general casting/reloading sessions to restock the ammo coffers. Busy week.

Gear

[.357]

Find some time to load, cast, and shoot!

[94Doug]

Right now, I am working on this 35 Whelen project...but none of the other projects are forgotten; there are just so many. My son is doing a project for highschool that has cast boolits involved in it. He wants to try using 3 different lubes and test out the results on targets, so that is my main one, I guess. I hope I get an A.

Doug

[MakeMineA10mm]

Right now, I am working on this 35 Whelen project...but none of the other projects are forgotten; there are just so many. My son is doing a project for highschool that has cast boolits involved in it. He wants to try using 3 different lubes and test out the results on targets, so that is my main one, I guess. I hope I get an A.

Doug

Be sure to present your (I mean, HIS) report here first, so we can criticize (I mean, HELP!)... :mrgreen:

[Harter66]

I really want to get my Mauser started and work out the 38/357/357 rifle loads w/ the new SWC bullet . Maybe find a Carcano stock and bbl of oppertunity for 7.62x39 or a 38-357mag/max. Get a house deal done so I don't have to move the lead horde again start the 59 Ranchero restoration . Maybe I should pick just 1 to start with.

[MakeMineA10mm]

Yes, I've found if I think about all the things that should be done, I never start them. I've gotten really invigorated this winter. I think there's a few things involved - 1) this website abounds with good information, assistance and encouragement; and 2) my daughter is finally getting old enough that she's getting a little independent, and so I have free time once again.

I had a REALLY good day today (over more than just this hobby, too)!!

I got all 1000 pieces of my "LC 5" 30-06 brass processed in citric acid and about half of it or a little more is done in the tumbler and looks like brand new brass! Another couple days (wrapped around work now that vacation is over), and the rest will be done with the cleaning stage...

Also got 19 rounds of my last test loads of 30-06 light loads w/ pistol powder done. (Why 19? I'm using the culls from my weight-sorted boolits, and this is how many underweight boolits I had to use for this load.)

Got all of my commercial 30-06 brass cleaned, resized and deprimed, and re-primed and sitting there waiting for the next step in my casts boolit loads: the 200-yd load. Also found a half-can of 1970s Hercules 2400 hiding on a back shelf, so I'm in business with enough powder to at least test "the load" of 16.0grs. Also dug up my can of IMR-4227. (I got it, 3031, 7625, and a can of something else from a guy who bought it at a garage sale -- all sealed, unopened, full cans from about the late 70s/early 80s.) Also super-glued gas checks on my weight-sorted boolits, so all that remains is to open up the case necks, charge with powder, and seat, and I'm ready for more adventures with the '03 Springfields!

To top it all off, a buddy calls me and we find our schedules let us meet up today. He had bought a bunch of stuff at an auction and had no use for about half of it. I ended up getting a Tipton Rifle Vice, 400 rds of processed 30-06 arsenal brass ("LC 54"), 1000 M-2 Ball 152gr FMJs, 60 pieces of 44 Spl. brass, an M-15 grenade launcher sight, some cleaning rods (1 is I think for an M-14, two others are for AK-47s), an M-16 cleaning kit in the nylon Alice case, some lead (he knows I'm a caster!! :mrgreen: ), and a few assorted odds and ends... All for the princely sum of $70!

Did I mention I had a really good day today?!?!? :bigsmyl2:

[lyktohunt]

Trying to get my Win 94 32-40 to shoot boolets that do not enter the paper sideways or not enter the paper at all.

[MakeMineA10mm]

Find some time to load, cast, and shoot!

I've actually started a blog to motivate me to do this. I know I have the time, I just need to prioritize and plan correctly to spend the time, at the right time, to get things going. By blogging it, I'm giving myself some good pressure to encourage myself to do something each day or two so I have something to write about...

Everyone's situation is different, but I finally have a little bit of time for me. I also need to quit spending as much time in front of a TV or this little screen here... (Sorry, Ken!!)

:holysheep

[HollowPoint]

For the longest time I've been looking for a light weight 30 cal bullet mold to use as a high-speed fragmenting varmint load. (100 grains or less)

My original plan was a two stage affair.

I had planned on making my own light-weight bullet mold but when I crunched the numbers; buying the material and doing the work myself would have cost more than buying and modifying one of the cheap Lee two cavity aluminum molds.

I bought a Lee 100 grain .32 cal round nose plain base mold and added some length on the tail to hold my gas check. Since I wanted to keep it at-or-about 100 grains, the added weight on the tail would have put me over my intended weight so, I added a modified cramer-style hollow pointing fixture.

This modified hollow pointing fixture is similar to the ones that Eric over at the hollowpointing services website uses. It's a pretty slick setup. My hats off to Eric for coming up with it.

The second stage of my plan was to complete the Boat-Tailed Gas-Check-making jig I've been working on and off with for the past couple of months.

I want to modify the bases of the 100 grain cast bullets from the .32 caliber mold I mentioned above so that I can use these Boat-Tailed Gas Checks on them.

I finished up the work on the bullet mold today. Now I have to get started on the Boat-Tailed Gas Check jig.

It may be a bold and possibly unattainable goal but, I'm hoping to be able to drive these little bullets up to 3000 fps.

I can just imagine the comments that my previous sentence may bring forth but, I HAVE A PLAN.

Wether it pans out for me is yet to be seen.

If it does work I'll post my results under a new thread titled: Fragmenting BumbleBee.
Heck, I'll post my results even if it doesn't pan out. I know some of you guys are like me in that we learn more from our failures than we do from our successes.

I tip my hat to all the other guys who were bold enough to post their plans or intentions. May you succeed beyond your wildest expectations.

HollowPoint

[MakeMineA10mm]

NICE post! Wish we had a "like" button here!! :smile:

[rtracy2001]

My reloading/shooting project this winter is building my first rifle. (I have umm several rifles, this will just be the first that I have built myself). I picked up a cheap turkish mauser and I am rebarreling to 308 win, installing it in a sporter style stock that I am refinishing, and I am still undecided as to the metal finish, I may blue it, I may use the heat cure paint that Brownell's sells. I am doing as much work as I possibly can myself (my regular gun smith seems a little put out at that, but I think it is fun). So far the only things I probably won't be doing myself is turning down the bolt handle (no welder, and I don't want it forged) and maybe finish reaming (costs more to rent a reamer than have a smith do it.)

[thegreatdane]

wow, HollowPoint, that was a nice post. "like" also.

[firefly1957]

I am working on swaging dies for a pointed 60 gr bullet for my 256 Win. Mag. the biggest problem I am having is expanding the spent 22 case to the larger diameter. Then working up a accurate load to use in ten inch Contender.

[Wayne Smith]

Should get the first stage of my benches done today! Second stage will be the finish frontal pieces - and then the shelving. Not exactly a "reloading" project, but one that will make my reloading much easier and available - and allow me to teach as well.

Put the final finish coat on the top last nite. Got to make the front pieces, but have all the original holes drilled. Need to screw the inserts underneath, make powder measure stands and locate them and screw them down, move everything up to the gun/reloading room. Also gotta count my bolts and make sure I have enough! Then need to make the shelves, but gotta wait for some good weather to get the planer out and plane down some 5/4 wood for that.

[steg]

Smelting is done outside, can't take the cold anymore, so thats out, casting is done in a confined space using a drawfan, that cools the house down too much, so thats out, reloading is mostly loading favorite known loads, can't get to the range to experiment on new loads, so to me winter is just about boring downtime..........................steg

[thehouseproduct]

Guess the goal would be to load every empty case that I have by spring. Have a large number sized and primed, and need to get them finished. However, have probably 4-5 times that number ready to be sized, deprimed and primed. Just don't believe you can ever have to much brass even if you don't have it all loaded.
1Shirt!
+1:lovebooli

[Jailer]

New to casting so just casting away and plan on loading in the spring when the weather breaks a bit. Also playing with my new swaging dies making jacketed boolits for the Glock with the goal of having enough done by the time winter is over to shoot up this summer in IDPA.

[clodhopper]

Smelting alloys gathered over the summer, some wheelweights, some lead mined from out door range, and some splatters from the indoor range.
My long range rifle is 700 action whith everything but the bolt and reciver non remington.
Krieger .22-250 1 in 8 twist barrel. I shoot those dastardly 75 gr AMAX bullets.
I put an accuracy international magazine system on it last spring, with 5 or more tapered 22-250 shells in the mag, the point of the bullet was to low to feed.
Just had the chamber reamed to .22-250 ackley improved.
I need to go to the range and do some fire forming, then some load rework is due, I do not want to burn up the barrel any faster than before rechambering, but would like to get back to 3250 FPS.

[captaint]

I have a brand new Win Miroku HiWall in 38-55 that I need to get together at least 3 or 4 loads for. I bought the gun a year ago and was waiting (really) for, like 8 months for new Starline 2.125 brass. They only produce this about twice a year,max. Anyway, I got the brass, got the 1911's out of my system for a while and it's time for some loa development. I'm considering cheating and getting in touch with Buckshot and/or Doc Highwall. I'm guessing they could be a real time saver. Probably a powder saver, too. It'll be fun.... enjoy Mike

[MakeMineA10mm]

Smelting alloys gathered over the summer, some wheelweights, some lead mined from out door range, and some splatters from the indoor range.
My long range rifle is 700 action whith everything but the bolt and reciver non remington.
Krieger .22-250 1 in 8 twist barrel. I shoot those dastardly 75 gr AMAX bullets.
I put an accuracy international magazine system on it last spring, with 5 or more tapered 22-250 shells in the mag, the point of the bullet was to low to feed.
Just had the chamber reamed to .22-250 ackley improved.
I need to go to the range and do some fire forming, then some load rework is due, I do not want to burn up the barrel any faster than before rechambering, but would like to get back to 3250 FPS.
I've always felt a fast-twist barrel with a big-powder capacity case and those heavier bullets would make an awesome long-range varminter. I was thinking of a 220AI or maybe a 220 Arrow, but 22-250AI would be excellent also, with better/easier brass issues than a 220-based gun.


I have a brand new Win Miroku HiWall in 38-55 that I need to get together at least 3 or 4 loads for. I bought the gun a year ago and was waiting (really) for, like 8 months for new Starline 2.125 brass. They only produce this about twice a year,max. Anyway, I got the brass, got the 1911's out of my system for a while and it's time for some loa development. I'm considering cheating and getting in touch with Buckshot and/or Doc Highwall. I'm guessing they could be a real time saver. Probably a powder saver, too. It'll be fun.... enjoy Mike

Both of those guys have more smarts in their little finger than I'll ever have, not to mention, they're both darn good machinists!!



For those of you interested, I've started a reloading blog here: http://glocktalk.com/forums/blog.php?u=585. It's not as much about the reloading as it is about my personal journey from full-time father with two jobs to the same situation, but with an older, more-independent daughter, so I now have time to re-engage the hobbies in a bigger way. [smilie=w: I started it to give me some self-imposed, external motivation to keep at it and try to do something each day, for recreation.

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Well, I am close to a year into this project of casting rifle boolits for hunting in my RUGER 45/70, so am think'in about what powder (s) I need to try to see if I can get my groups to tighten up a bit. So, that is one project.

Second is a friend, who I have been mentoring with casting/reloading.

AND THIRD, another big family - many boys who want to learn the "hows" of reloading.

Bit deep and cool to be heading for the bench - shoot'in - at this point, so time to think about my test loads, and teach others.

AND, OH YES, there are the unfinished tests with my Old "flat bolt" RUGER 243 and the 55gr Nosler Balistic Tip "J" bullets. Man O man do they ever go fast!!!!!![smilie=w:

Keep em coming!

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[MakeMineA10mm]

Hey Crusty,
Don't know if you've tried it yet with your 45-70, but RL-7 has a great reputation for use with Cast Boolits in big, straight-walled cases like the 45-70. I use it in my 444 Marlin.

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Morn'in, "makemineA10mm"

Yep, tried the RL7 and in fact used it for hunting this past Fall.

If I can get the groups a bit smaller, it would be good as the velocity is well up there in my #1.

3031 ran into compression problems before I was where I wanted to be.

4198 was OK. RL7 seems best at this point, but want to try some 322 and hope for better groups.

Tried some others also.

OH and as far as projects, this isn't reloading, but goes under the reloading bench, gathering equipment and soon material for some Oak trimmed/faced under the table drawers. 6 drawers on the wife's side of the room and 3 on mine.

The rest of my side is taken up with my under bench receiver system for loading tool mounting.

Keep em coming!

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[thehouseproduct]

Guess the goal would be to load every empty case that I have by spring. Have a large number sized and primed, and need to get them finished. However, have probably 4-5 times that number ready to be sized, deprimed and primed. Just don't believe you can ever have to much brass even if you don't have it all loaded.
1Shirt!

I'm running into problems with this goal. All my ammo cans are getting full and I'm running out of primers. :-)

[MakeMineA10mm]

[smilie=s:

Me too. I'm making progress, but it is slow...

I've been processing 1000 30-06 brass for loading for my M-1s, M-1903s, etc.:

http://glocktalk.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1066&pictureid=4032

http://glocktalk.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1066&pictureid=4034