Tried to load some 223 on my Pro 2000, it worked fine but I am too sick with flu, so back to bed.
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Tried to load some 223 on my Pro 2000, it worked fine but I am too sick with flu, so back to bed.
Weighed bullets, pan lubed about a 150 38-55s, prepped brass with 9 test loads, Sized and seated 50 of those pan lubed and checked throat of Ballard to find it was gonna shave lead off 'grooved sized + 0.0015' bullets. Now pondering what to do about the throat.
Well, just kind of stood there and looked at all of the stuff I have loaded and wishing I had the time to get to the range and make some empties. Then start to reload and restart the looking again.:)
I just unloaded 1000 "mistakes"! Not mine, though! A friend ask for my cast bullet carbine load, and I guess we had a mis-communication. The load would not function his rifle but I thought it would work mine, so I traded him an equal number of cases. But I found that it would not function my rifle either. My bullet puller would not grip the bullet, so I used the trusty linemans pliers. Now I have 1000 junk coww bullets to add to the stash, a coffee cup of unique and 1000 primed cases for the work. I'm pretty sure these were cast from older coww.
And today I found out just how nice the Lee 6 cavity mold is. I had a pile of 9mm boolits in no time!
Cast my first 45-70 bullets tonight. Used the Lee single cavity 405 gr HB single cavity mold.
The bullets measure .4585 and weight an average of 398 grains. I'm new to the 45-70 and to casting for it.
http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14...08bf757dc7.jpg
Yeah, only 24 of 30 passed muster.
Started wet tumbling my brass, wow what a great deal. Been working the 444 and now the 45-70, such a beautiful job it does, almost want to unload the last batch of both and clean the brass... ;)
nice boolits Drdarrin! those oughta thump. I would think you could go with a pretty soft alloy for that one.
Amazing, ain't it?Quote:
And today I found out just how nice the Lee 6 cavity mold is. I had a pile of 9mm boolits in no time!
Wrapped Christmas presents because it's easier to do on the counter.
Loaded 300 rounds of 38 special last night. Now time to heat up the garage and load another couple hundred.
Finished sorting my bucket of wheel weights yesterday.
Loaded 50 rounds of 9mm with 4.8 gr of HP38 behind a Lyman 356402 for my 7 year old grand son to shoot next week.
Cast, sized and lubed some 9mmMak boolits. Wish I had sprung for the six cavity mold!
My old RCBS pot was leaking like a Lee! I could not take it... RCBS sent me a pot and metering pin, got them installed today and even had the right rivets. Followed up by building my first PID controller. All went well and boy does that hold the lead spot on! I can't believe that it can predict the rise and fall of the melt temp and hold it as well as it does. I will build one that I can use with my sizers next, that way one of us can cast and one can size at the same time.
It was a good day.
Matt
Attachment 125001
Attachment 125002
Good job! Its also nice to hear another positive customer service review for RCBS. They sent me parts for my old Junior press a while back FOR FREE! I didn't even think there were parts available because the press was purchased in 1978 or '79.
Was wiring up the PID to your pot difficult?
Yesterday was my "small caliber" reloading day. Made up a box of 380 acp, 38 s & w, and 32 acp. Very rarely shoot these calibers, maybe twice a year. Have three boxes of each now.
Also loaded up a box of 40 s & w, with heat treated bullets with 22bhn. I shot off a prior box of these under 4.5 grains of Bullseye. Do not let anyone tell you that shooting harder boolits do not make a difference for the 40. Big difference. Greatly improved groups.
Today, I do nothing. Read and surf.
Taco, it was very easy to build. I decided not to use an internal terminal strip, the parts all have screw terminals large enough for 2 wires so I used the SSR terminals for power distribution and the 110v outlet on the rear for distribution points. I do have 2 outlets on the rear, both are controlled so I have a spare incase one goes bad. I can make minor wiring changes and set 1 up to be always hot and one to be controlled. I may do that to plug in a hot plate. My RCBS only draws 640 watts of power so a 15 amp circuit has plenty left to give. Including the case and the extra TC I think I have about $64 in the controller, the case was $20 so I could save some there. The connection to the TC on the pot is made with a panel mount type K TC connector set, I would not hard wire it since the will make it tough to use the controller on any other device.
Cleaned up and arranged my stuff that's been lying around since summer. Found lot's of stuff I had "lost". Finding some of them was like real Christmas present.
Sized and trimmed 50 pcs .308 cases. Loaded 100 rounds on .357 Mag. Sized and lubed some cast bullets...
Made some "electric work". Nothing fancy, but had to do it to get power to Hornady Auto-Charge.
Oh that was a good day.
Cast up about 800 of the lee 452 200gr swc. Now I'm out of ingots though :-/
I cast up a hundred or so Ideal 308329 testers from a new to me mold and made up a couple of dummy cartridges to see how they compare to my chamber cast in various sizes for my M28/76 accuracy project. They look cool, and actually look like they might work well despite their reputation.
I've been casting a lot of 225462 bullets and today was another day of casting and inspecting .
Jack
Not really the reloading room, but almost........Drilled 10 big bolt holes in the concrete walls going into my new "Storm Shelter".
Attachment 125079
For this to be mounted.......
Attachment 125080
600 lbs, so everything has to be perfectly level so it hangs/open/closes perfectly. Can't wait to get it placed. Room is all 8+ inch reinforced concrete (ceiling included) and should withstand everything short of an airstrike. Climate controlled to keep moisture down.....All that's left is trim work and rifle racks after the door is in. :bigsmyl2:
Attachment 125242
AND........it's hanging!!! Bolts anchored and jambs ready to mortar.
Walked by it on the way out of the house on my way to work.
Finished some 30 cal. gas checks. Loading some 170 grn. 30 carbine ammo for the TC.
Mugs
I spent yesterday shooting and cleaning guns. It has rained on and off all day - a good day to be in the loading room - warm and dry. I loaded the following (all with cast boolits!):
.308 Win. - 30 rds.
7.62x54R - 20 rds.
7.5x55 - 20 rds.
8x57 - 20 rds.
7.62x38R - 100 rds.
.357 mag. - 100 rds.
It never gets old.:bigsmyl2:
Stamped my ingots today.
Resized some .223 brass .
Jack
Since Business is slow, I'm off work for the next 10 days ! So Today I reformed another 60 cases of 30-06 Federal Brass into 8 mm. Can Never have enough of 8 mm !
About now I have almost 300 cases that need to be blown out to my GEW98 Chamber & I don't think I have that much Culled boolits!
Tomorrow I may have to get to casting more since in the Northeast were are going to be in the 50's with rain
Tonight's reloading room project was getting a rare old mold back into use. A little judicious grinding on some Lee handles and some new replacement pins put it back into useable condition. For your enjoyment, a Belding and Mull 311190 with a few sample bullets(199gr, .301 nose, .305 1st band, .311 2nd, .312 3rd, .313 4th, .313 bottom):
Attachment 125157
Loaded 170g Lee FPGC in 30-30. Some with pinko commie lube and some with felix lube. Powder is 27.3g IMR 4895. This load has done well with pinko lube but I just wanted to see if felix would do better/different.
Working on .223 brass getting it ready for reloading, I need to get the shooting stuff ready for season, and then start thinking about fishing.
No biggie,
Yesterday I reloaded (qty. 25) 12ga 1oz #8 shot for my next weekend trip to the skeet field. Today if I'm in the mood I'll resize and decap some 38 special nickel plated cases.
Been putting away hunting and camping equipment in there the last few days, even cleared out some big stuff to the storage container for more elbow room in there. Have some moulds that need breaking in, today might be a good day for that.
Cast about 150 TL452230-2r and modified my new bench chair from Sears to suit me better. Had to reduce the legs on this bar stool type workbench chair by 3 in. but it still adjusts up another 5 in.
I cast the Lyman sabot for my 12 gauge. It's hard to get pure lead. And awhile back I must have used some that had more tin in than I thought. They weighed 475-480 grains where they should be 525 according to Lyman.
So, I remelted the lightest batch, about a pound of sabots with some dental lead, roof sheeting lead, and plumbers lead. I keep the ingots in separate buckets and blend them when I cast sabots.
So, today, having mixed the light weight sabots with the above lead, I ended up with 36 beautiful which weighed 489 grains =/- 1.5 grains. It's still not 525 grains. But I am close to concluding that if I want pure lead for the 525 grain sabots I will have to buy pure lead ingots from Roto Metals.
I'm not ready to do that. And the 489 gr. sabots have proven they are very accurate.
Happy casting, and a happy and blessed New Year.
MichiganMike
Spent the whole weekend in the reloading room. 500+ 44mag polished, sized, primed just need belled and loaded. About 300 or so 44 special same way. Just finished priming 200 two two three's. .