What did you do in the reloading room today?

I'm a month or two past due in taking this pic, but I finally (thanks to my wife's Kombucha addiction) collected enough identical glass bottles to store small quantities of projectiles.

Some labels came straight off the packaging, while some had to be made by using logos off of websites or invoices.

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all that time wasted that could have been used to reload :(
 
Tried to load some 55 gr 223.... varget can says 27.5 gr. Guess what barely fits in the case? 27.5 gr of varget with no room for bullet!
Long drop tube and/or tap case on bench after powder drop. It'll probably still be compressed, lots of rifle loads are.

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Are compressed loads more consistent? I have heard many times of the danger of a very light load (lots of leftover space in case) because of the potential for it to all go at once instead of a steady but fast burn. Not sure how much I believe that, but on the other end of the scale, does a compressed load burn more consistently round to round because the powder is always consistently placed, and if so, are compressed loads generally more accurate all else being equal?
 
Set up the Dillon 550 to start cranking out ammo for the S&W 625 (model of '89).
Zero 200gr LSWC
5.0gr Win231
WLP primer
Starline .45 auto rim brass

Loaded up some short line ammo so I can start working out positions with the new optics service rifle.
Sierra 52gr HPBT
25.2gr Win748
CCI400 primer
mixed brass
 
I've been slacking on reloading, but finally sat down and loaded up 135rd of 147gr 9mm on my LCT last night. Gonna try to do another 120-150 tonight.

Just ordered .300blk dies from Brownells and got my new Frankford 4-in-1 case prep machine setup. Just need to grab some heavy bullets and I'm in business.
 
I've been slacking on reloading, but finally sat down and loaded up 135rd of 147gr 9mm on my LCT last night. Gonna try to do another 120-150 tonight.

Just ordered .300blk dies from Brownells and got my new Frankford 4-in-1 case prep machine setup. Just need to grab some heavy bullets and I'm in business.
Loaded up another 150rd of 9mm yesterday. Not a bad weekend, 285rd.

Plus I cleaned about 1k pieces of range brass.
 
My 5 gal bucket of dirty 223 brass was overflowing, so I deprimed and tumbled a batch yesterday. This also gave me a chance to try my new Redding body die. The nice thing I figured out about the body sizing die - you can't get dented shoulders if you happen to over-lube the brass. I then sized the necks with a Lee collet neck sizer.
 
I was having trouble getting the flare out of 38 special without roll crimping and cutting into the coating on coated bullets. So I got a Lee 38 Special Taper Crimp Die and was trying it out this evening with some Blue Bullet SWCs. I think I started out a little heavy and kept backing off until I think got it to where I'm just removing the flare. The picture isn't the best, but shows an early one with the most crimp on the left, getting lighter as you go right.

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I was having trouble getting the flare out of 38 special without roll crimping and cutting into the coating on coated bullets. So I got a Lee 38 Special Taper Crimp Die and was trying it out this evening with some Blue Bullet SWCs. I think I started out a little heavy and kept backing off until I think got it to where I'm just removing the flare. The picture isn't the best, but shows an early one with the most crimp on the left, getting lighter as you go right.

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May I ask why not roll crimp into the crimp groove?
 
May I ask why not roll crimp into the crimp groove?
I normally would, but these particular bullets (Blue Bullets, made here in Kernersville) don't have a crimp groove.

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I also have some plated bullets that don't have a cannelure that I though the taper crimp die would be good for.
 
I normally would, but these particular bullets (Blue Bullets, made here in Kernersville) don't have a crimp groove.

I also have some plated bullets that don't have a cannelure that I though the taper crimp die would be good for.
Well how about that. I haven’t ordered any .358 from them that didn’t, but it’s been a year, looks like they milled out their dies to simplify coating.
 
I went to the gun show today and found some Shooter's World Buffalo Rifle powder. I have been using their pistol powder and really like it. So when I got home I was going to load up 40 rounds of 45-70 and see how the powder shoots. I have used 700X and 800X and thought that powder metered like $hit but I am going to have to give that award to Buffalo Rifle. I almost wanted to get as a scoop to weight out some powder and trickle the rest into the case.
Before the night is over, I am planning to reload 50 rounds of 300 B.O. with Shooter's World Tactical Rifle powder. I hope that it meters better than the Buffalo Rifle powder.
 
I normally would, but these particular bullets (Blue Bullets, made here in Kernersville) don't have a crimp groove.

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I also have some plated bullets that don't have a cannelure that I though the taper crimp die would be good for.
I've seen where some people seat the bullet deeper and roll crimp over the shoulder. In your case, though, that would be a significant reduction in case volume, so I am not sure I would do that.

In any case, this is a good reason why all the cases should be trimmed to the same length; it is hard to get consistent roll crimps unless the brass are all the same length.
 
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Wet tumbled a bunch of range brass. Dry tumbled some other brass. Made another 600 rounds of 300 Blackout brass.

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Finally bit the bullet (figuratively speaking) and bought a Dillon Super Swager. Tested it out last night, seems to do the job very well.
 
How do you guys just " Find " stuff in a drawer ??? .o_O.. :p

I know exactly where ALL my stuff is... Because I don't have anything to lose. :(
 
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Back when ammo was hard to find, whenever I did run across some in stock at a decent price, I bought some. Then I would bring it home to stick it wherever. After a while, I decided to put it all in one spot and take inventory. I had over 8500 rounds. Of 22LR.
 
Back when ammo was hard to find, whenever I did run across some in stock at a decent price, I bought some. Then I would bring it home to stick it wherever. After a while, I decided to put it all in one spot and take inventory. I had over 8500 rounds. Of 22LR.
I sort of did the same thing, but didn't get quite as far as you did - about 6000 rounds. And I only have one single action revolver and one rifle that even shoots it. Should be good to go when the grandkids get old enough to start shooting, though. :)
 
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