Well, here I am, dipping in the toes

[armoredman]

Well I have to say the "fill it until it crunch's" went SO hard against very long term standards of weighing charges...I tried, I did, but I went back and weighed everything to make sure it was all 30 grains, but I am getting ahead of myself.

First. The SPG lube. Yes, that's a cat food can, it's what I had available, don't judge me for recycling. I doubt the fired boolits will smell like cat food.



The lube directions, (SPG Tropical), say wait 45 minutes...really? The stuff was solid in a few, but I waited. Do note - I put WAY too much in...this will cause trouble later.



The 45 caliber cookie cutter tool LAGS made for me, what an awesome guy!



As cut. See all that excess above the lube groove?



Now this is where a lot of time was wasted - cleaning the excess off. However, note that large lube groove is full of nice back powder lube, unlike the last ones...



Here we go, hours of work, trial and error for this. And cleaning.



So, lets get started, shall we? And we start with something different - homemade powder.





And the final product - I made others with the other powder, of course.



I only made 5 of each, just to get an idea how they group, worth exploring or no. I tried like HECK to use the "load it until it crunches", by my scale kept wincing...so fine, I measured every load to 30 grains. With home made powder I doubt I could overload it, at all, BUT, I would like to be able to do repeatable accuracy, and knowing the powder charge might help.
I won't get back out to the line for a bit, but we'll see.

[Wayne Smith]

I understand the fear of the 'crunch', but I must say, after filling some 45-70 cases the same way the 44-40 ones didn't bother me so much!

[armoredman]

So, we went today. The wind was so insanely strong that I had to tie four bags full of rocks to the target stand to keep it from tipping over. The hearing protection kept my hat on! But make it we did, with just 10 rounds to try, to see if I had wasted my time or am on to something. I also need to point out all the powder used here is homemade, not by me, but someone who really knows guns.



I soon found out that Bore Butter was more like soup - it was apparently past it's shelf life. Oh well, I still smeared a little on the cylinder pin.
First up - what I nice shiny revolver...like that's gonna last.





Meh. I do have to claim some slop due to wind action.



Next set. Remember that nice shiny wheel gun?



Now this is where it gets interesting. I saw shot 1 impact, then shot 2, while holding a mid target hold. So I moved to my usual with everything else 6 o'clock hold, and look at 3-5.



To say I am interested in exploring this some more might be a wee bit of an understatement. That's pretty darn good once you see what I did. I asked my son to verify that was two in one hole - he did. The wind flapped the edges back and forth.

It was so windy out, though, after I fired that last five, we packed up and beat feet.
Now, I forgot the bowl of dish soap and water, BUT, as soon as we got home, (we live quite close), I dumped them into a small container and shook them with dish soap and hot water. When I get over to the reloading room tonight, I will tumble them and compare. New Starline nickel brass, BGTW.
Thanks for coming along!

[Nobade]

You are getting the hang of this stuff. Pretty soon the addiction will be strong and you will be fully immersed!

[armoredman]

With some suggestions from the fine folks here, I'll kinda combine a few threads. First I was having the darndest time cutting the boolits out of the lube. A WONDERFUL member here sent me a tin that is miles better than my cat food can, (and I will pay him back soon!), for pan lubing. The boollit is a 200gr Lee from soft range recovery lead.



Members here suggested several things that made it go far smoother, such as chamfering the cutter;



And lightly tapping it into the expander die to get JUST enough flare to go over the boolit and cut it free. Older pics for reference.



That worked PERFECTLY. Thank you!!!

Next was another suggestion, of just score the side about 1/8th inch down. OK, I happen to have a 1/8th inch washer and a sharp nail.



Ya know, if I get a cuppa black in the morning, it better not be this! In all seriousness - I hate that coffee cup.



Loaded to the top of the brass, then tapped, ensuring the powder ain't gonna fly out, since I lack a drop tube. Interestingly enough, a full case generally tapped down to 1/8 below the neck. You can even see some of the light score marks on the nickle brass.



Boolit seated, and wiped off.

My, that's some fine looking rounds!



The funny thing is if I added all the time up from casting to lubing to loading, I probably spent several hours on these 20 rounds. They'd BETTER work right...

[Barry54]

Fine looking cartridges indeed!

I bought some 20 gauge hulls to use up some Pyrodex R/S that’s been sitting around collecting dust. I assume the brass will clean up the same from it? I use stainless steel pins in a wet tumbler. A couple of pumps of dish soap and a pinch of lemishine. Then a double rinse afterwards.

[Griff]

I've been shooting BP in a Colt SAA revolver in SASS competition since 1985, my most recent go to load is 28 grains of either 2F or Goex Cartridge (NLA), and a 225 grain boolit cast from a RCBS 45-225-CAV mold. Since they mostly get used in a levergun these days, I prefer a bullet with a good crimp groove. I size & lube with SPG in a Saeco lubri-sizer and load on my Dillon 550C. Nowadays I save these for the rifle (Uberti 1873 Short Rifle w/half round/octagon 18-½" bbl.) and shoot the Cowboy45Special with a 160 grain RFN powder coated bullet, powered by APP in the pistols, (when I'm not using my preferred cap & ball 2nd Gen Colt 1851s). Last year I started wet tumbling and really like the results. I've tried felt wads and don't really feel they do anything to aid accuracy, but just take up space. I use a waxed card wad (½" cut from a paper milk carton) under the bulleet to keep lube migration at bay, no problems in the 35+ years I've been doing this, as I usually only load once a year and fill a GI can. But to ensure the card doesn't stick to the base of the bullet, you need to wipe the bullet base clean of any lube. I do my size/lube operation right before I load for a couple of reasons, 1st to make sure lube doesn't get fouled with dust, etc. as my storage for bullets is usually old paper powder cans with the tops cut off, and to ensure that the bottom of the bullets don't get lube on them. (As they come off the lubri-sizer, the bottoms get wiped off on a paper towel before being stacked in my bullet bin for placement next to the Dillon. No, no bullet feeder for me).

[armoredman]

Now that was one thing I didn't do - I didn't wipe off the bottoms of the boolits. Oops. Guess I'd better shoot them up next weekend. I was thinking about the cardboard wads, but how do you make them, a cutter from the craft store?

[veeman]

I use Walter wads. No work involved. Guess I'm getn lazy in my advanced age.
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1010391437?pid=514488

[Griff]

Now that was one thing I didn't do - I didn't wipe off the bottoms of the boolits. Oops. Guess I'd better shoot them up next weekend. I was thinking about the cardboard wads, but how do you make them, a cutter from the craft store?

I use a General Tools # 1280J Hollow Steel Punch

[country gent]

Sacrifice a case to make a dipper, Trim it the 1/8" short that your scribing, attach a handle and dip your charges. You dont even have to use one of these cases. A range pick up 308 30-06 or other cut off to give the charge with a handle soldered on.

[armoredman]

Double tap, weird.

[armoredman]

That would be cool, except I lack those tools to make the tool. That's why I show the Lee dipper I am using.
A hollow steel punch, great idea. I kept thinking paper hole punch and wasn't getting anywhere.
Walter Wads? Are they grumpy like Walter? I might have to try some of them just in case.
REALLY stupid question - any idea how long it will be until the lube dumdum here left on the bottom of the boolit will affect the powder?

[nuclearcricket]

When I first started to load BP and was in need of a drop tube I went to the hardware store and ran across an 18" chrome plated sink supply line. Being a machinist I have the skills to make some of the things I need. The one end of the supply line is fitted with a plastic seal, I took out the seal and turned the flare off and made an aluminum funnel to fit. The plastic seal has the same inside diameter as the outside diameter of the line, so I made a stand and used the seal to allow me to adjust the tube up and down. Been using it for years and have not had any problems with it. The stand was easy enough, some scrap wood screwed together, one as a base, and 2 pieces to hold the tube.
My cost was minimal. The funnel would be the hardest part but there are all kinds of funnels out there am sure you would fine one that would fit and work.
A suggestion on your lube pan, empty and clean it, place bullets in and pour in the lube. From there you may be able to keep lube from the base of the bullets. Also once the lube sets up, you may be able to tip the lube and bullets out of the pan and then just push the bullets out. That will help keep the base clean.
Sam

[indian joe]

Now that was one thing I didn't do - I didn't wipe off the bottoms of the boolits. Oops. Guess I'd better shoot them up next weekend. I was thinking about the cardboard wads, but how do you make them, a cutter from the craft store?

I tack a piece of towelling or doubled flannellette to the loading bench - damp one half of it with WD40 and keep other half dry - couple of quick wipes and the bases are clean shiny and dry

[veeman]

I use an old dish towel, drape it over a knee and swipe the bullet over it before it goes in the box.

[SSGOldfart]

Humm you can make a wad punch, just use a deprimed case and sharpen the mouth like you did with the cookie cutter but don't flair it then just wack it with a hammer on a piece of wood to cut the cardboard,and use a long nail through the primer hole to push out your wad.yep not fancy but it does work and it's cheaper then a punch.
please keep use updated on this thread. thanks.

[armoredman]

Too dadgum hot to shoot, hopefully the powder doesn't degrade too fast.
I think I will try the deprimed case punch idea, might work very well.