Speeding up production

[firebrick43]

I really enjoy reloading, maybe slightly more than shooting. Year or so ago I bought a lee loadmaster and then happened onto a xl650. Now Ivan really crank out the ammo( take my time and check everything and still manage 500+ hour). Shooting a lot more to!

Well then comes the drugery. Wiping the cases and boxing then. Today I tried a tip listed some where here about dumping loaded rounds into a towel and pouring some solvent on them and rolling them back and forth. This worked wonderful!! I used rubbing alcohol as I didn't want the house to smell of mineral spirts.

Anyways it still takes some time to box them. The 380auto's you can sort of dump on the box and shake them but my revolver shells are to long. I use Dillion or midway 50 boxes for every thing. Is there a tool to help out with boxing?

[Doby45]

Yhea, put them in ammo cans. I have an ammo can for 45ACP, 9mm, 40cal, 223, 357SIG, 38SPL, so forth and so on.

[firebrick43]

I can't do that.. Bad doby! Bad! Sorry couldn't resist.

I hate loose shells and I typically throw just a hundred or so in the panniers of my motorcycle when heading some where to shoot.

He'll I have reloading OCD so bad that I can't bring myself to reuse cardboard boxes, use mixed headstamp brass. Any more I just order new starline brass in 1000 lots and keep every thing together and tracked.

[Doby45]

LOL, I understand. To each their own. I am not OCD about my ammo storage but I am about other things. :)

[btroj]

I just dump them in empty coffee containers or bins. I put them in ammo boxes when getting ready to go to the range. This is for ammo I load in large amounts. Small batches of ammo for testing, hunting, etc I put right into ammo boxes.
To each their own, I am just not that picky about keeping it all in boxes. Heck, I take an empty bag to the range and all empty cases go in that for sorting at home.

Brad

[HATCH]

I got plastic bags from ULINE. They are large enough to hold a 30rd AK magazine. I can put 100 rounds of pretty much any ammo I reload in each bag.
Then I put a label on the bag with whats in it, the boolit, powder and powder amount.

[jmorris]

If you have OCD (or a competitive shooter) you already have each round in your hand as you casegauge just set them in the box after.

If you want to speed up get a bullet feeder for the 650, 100 rounds takes 3 minutes to load.

[scb]

At one time someone was making a hand tool that looked like a big fork. It was made so the body of the cartridge would fall thru the tines and the case would be caught by the rim. The fork would hold 50 rounds and you just set them in the box.

[firebrick43]

At one time someone was making a hand tool that looked like a big fork. It was made so the body of the cartridge would fall thru the tines and the case would be caught by the rim. The fork would hold 50 rounds and you just set them in the box.

Ooooooooo!!!! I like that idea. Anyone know what they are/were called?

Thanks

Jay

[CATS]

Toss them in a zip lock bag. Store them in an ammo can. Put the bags in a gallon zip lock bag when you want to carry them on your bike. You can still sort by times fired and by load without messing with boxes. Much quicker.

[Mk42gunner]

Stripper clips work well, if your case head is compatable. I use 5.56 clips for anything with a .223 size case head, they also work for .32 S&W Long, H&R Magnum, 9mm, .380 wil probably work.

7.62 clips will work for a whole lot of cartridges.

Robert

[a.squibload]

You talking about Organizing Cartridges Disorder?

[thebigmac]

When I had the chance to expand my hobby and make money , I found many Police Officers who wanted reloads. With used boxes (used once), the first thing I bought was the fork.. Retired now, but after 40 years I still use it for .38's & .357's. Works great, and saves time.. Just scoop them up, shake and put 50 into a box:CastBoolitsisbest:.....bigmac

[noylj]

Now, to voluntarily step on a land mine--
Unless you're loading in the 55k + psi region, lube on the case is NOT going to effect anything. Again, back in the '60s and '70s, it was "known" that you had to remove most of the lubricant from high pressure rifle rounds being fired in some to the weaker milsurp guns (particularly hot loads in SMLEs), but nobody worried about normal rifle and pistol rounds.
Nor did they worry about semi-auto rifles.
The thing was, I NEVER saw any tests on bolt thrust ever performed--just mentions of this. The bolt thrust, in the real world, is the reaction to the gases and bullets being pushed out of the rifle (action/reaction).
If there is bolt thrust, your case will not be as severely stretched in the web region as the forces are spread over the whole case wall surface (case wall not being locked to the chamber) and, if there is bolt thrust, the case may be elongated enough to require full length sizing and pushing the shoulder back--thus producing very short case life.
In pistol rounds, you have a lot less case wall surface area, no bottleneck to cause case stretch, and a lot less pressure.
Then, there is the question of why you are lubing pistol bullets when you surely have a perfectly good carbide sizing dies.

[firebrick43]

Sorry, should have been a little more specific. I do use one shot on my pistol cartridges because it saves wear and tear on my arm and my dillon press even with carbide dies. But the lube I am actually cleaning is lee liquid alox. I am using ranchdog TL bullets in my 380 rounds and dip just the heel but there is some that still is exposed.

[jmorris]

I figure anyone that doesn't lube all cases to be reloaded have either never tried it on pistol cases or don't use spray lubes.

Just post load tumble to remove the lube, a few minutes will do the trick.

[noylj]

Bullet lube?
If you are getting so much LLA on the case, you are using too much LLA.
Don't know why you would dip lube (I have pre-heated bullets and dipped them in melted wax/petrolatum, but not LLA), but, if so, thin with equal volume of Mineral Spirits (not the "green" mineral spirits but the real thing) or naphtha. Run the base of bullet against the container of lube so you re-use it and set the bullets down on alumnum foil or wax paper. If you can easily see the LLA (you have amber or golden brown bullets), you KNOW you are using too much lube.
Next, you should try Recluse's formula of 45% LLA/45% Johnson Paste Wax/10% Mineral Spirits. This gets rid of a LOT of the tackiness.
I tumble lube in mass. I place about 500 bullets (on their side) in a casserole pan, squirt out a little LLA, and then shuffle the bullets around like dominoes. If after a minute, all the bullets are not shiny and wet looking, I squirt a little more LLA and shuffle them around some more. Generally, after a minute, they are ready to be poured onto aluminum foil and left for 12-24 hours.
They then go in a cardboard box for storage.
I use one or two light tumbles (with 24 hour dry between) and never had more than 0.001" build up on my seating stem and never had any reason to even think of cleaning the cases or bullets.
IF you keep the lubed bullets in a box (whether tacky or not) and you put your loads into a box, even overly tacky bullets are not going to pick up dirt or cause any problems down range or any where else.
Try to relax and don't use so much LLA and don't worry about the lube on the bullet and simply see how they shoot and then tell yourself if you are worrying about something that is of no consequence and you would have more fun by worrying about things that really mean something.

[jmorris]

When I had the chance to expand my hobby and make money , I found many Police Officers who wanted reloads. With used boxes (used once), the first thing I bought was the fork.. Retired now, but after 40 years I still use it for .38's & .357's. Works great, and saves time.. Just scoop them up, shake and put 50 into a box.....bigmac


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