What did you do in the reloading room today?

Toprudder said:
Sorry for your friend.

This is why I don't keep large amounts of reloads in any one caliber. Components are a lot easier to deal with than reloaded ammo in a situation like this.

Will you save the powder from these pulls? It is hard to look at powder and identify it with 100% certainty.
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Thanks,

I have saved some for the moment, they were marked power pistol and VVN110, but will probably put it on the lawn since I have plenty of powder. It’s less than a pound in total, why screw around for $20 even though I’m 99% certain of the identification.
 
trimmed some .308 brass, and then went to the Lee Precision website and ordered some new cutters for my Lee power quick trimmer that I purchased second-hand lol.
Threw in a couple of other things I need, and paid $7 total including shipping.
 
Ran off 600 rounds of 9mm practice ammo using 124gr Acme new style coated bullets and Vectan BA 9 1/2 powder. Really liking the BA 9 1/2, clean, soft, accurate and consistent. Only took a little over an hour start to finish including replenishing primers and brass on the Loadmaster. Say what you will about them, Ive got three, and the main one I use runs like a Swiss watch. :D
 
Loaded up 10 rounds of 308 win using IMR 4895 to test at a 100 yards for a 300 yard bullseye shoot that a friend is putting together. Hand reloads only. Should be interesting since I have never done a shoot like this before.
 
Put together a couple of batches of .45 Colt loads tonight: 255 gr LSWC Badman coated bullets and 200 gr RNFP ACME coated bullets, both over Alliant Red Dot. I tried to meter the powder at first but I could not get consistent measures so I ended up loading with the dippers. That's okay, too. Still enjoyable.

regards
Elmer
 
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Got these beauties in today. Gonna roll some tomorrow.
124 truncated cone flat point match winner. First time trying these.
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Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk
 
This pass weekend I unload 80 rounds of 45 70. Loaded back 50 tonight. Need to load another 50 with a different powder. Waiting to order 2 stand alone dies one seating and one crimping for the 45 70 so I can start testing the 530 gr bullet.
 
DRFury said:
Upgraded from the handheld:
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Nice, and congrats. I told you the first time I saw it, that the first picture was a nice "gateway" set up. You're toast and regardless of what others on this Forum may say, I don't think insurance will accept deprime, clean/tumble, Resize, Prime, Charge with Powder, Seat Bullet, Crimp, Box, Load into magazine, Fire, pick up spent brass, Repeat, as a 12 step program.
 
Prepping a couple MFRB of .223 brass. It’s a crazy amount of work vs pistol, does anyone really reload .223 for plinking? I could see doing a few hundred for serious target shooting, but the cleaning, decapping, full length sizing, swaging the primer pickets, good lord I could have loaded 5,000 9mm in less time.
 
JimB said:
Prepping a couple MFRB of .223 brass. It’s a crazy amount of work vs pistol, does anyone really reload .223 for plinking? I could see doing a few hundred for serious target shooting, but the cleaning, decapping, full length sizing, swaging the primer pickets, good lord I could have loaded 5,000 9mm in less time.
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Yes, but I had to decide to go all in. I can now do it in 2 passes on a 550. First pass decaps, sizes, swages (replaces the primer punch), and trims with a RT1500. Second pass just loads normally. I even modified a 550 head to be able to use a powder check die since I can’t see in the case well even with light and mirror.

I did a couple thousand rounds with the Dillon swager and a drill press trimmer. Arguably the second fastest methods for those, but I am too impatient. Now it is only about 2-2.5 the time of pistol loading (more setup, and case lube spraying, plus 2 passes).
 
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Yeah, the brass prep for 223 is a pain. But, once the swage is done it never needs to be done again (as long as you can recover your brass). And I believe trimming, once done to the min trim length, probably does not need to be done after the next firing or two. Even for my semi-auto rounds, I bump the shoulders back about .004" so hopefully they won't grow as much for each firing and may not need trimming as much.

I had been using my turret press to do all my rifle rounds, but I have moved the main operation for 223 over to my 550 now. I still decap and size on my LCT, and do all the brass prep before it goes into the 550. The first station on the 550 has a Lee universal expander, to flare the mouth slightly for flat base bullets. All the other stations are normal operations: #2 powder drop, #3 bullet seat (I have a Forster micrometer die), and #4 crimp - if needed.
 
With range pickup brass and losing my own often I don’t even try to keep my prepped brass separate. Not enough of it and if I mess up the press hangs on a pocket or I load a long piece of brass.
 
JimP42 said:
With range pickup brass and losing my own often I don’t even try to keep my prepped brass separate. Not enough of it and if I mess up the press hangs on a pocket or I load a long piece of brass.
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I'm planning to mark the bases of the loaded ammo, figure that way I can sort brass quickly into an easy pile and a hard pile.

I'm not going to sort by headstamp for plinking ammo unless you guys tell me that I really should.
 
When I need non-plinking brass I sort out the LC as I put them in the press. Otherwise I don’t headstamp sort 223.
 
JimB said:
Prepping a couple MFRB of .223 brass. It’s a crazy amount of work vs pistol, does anyone really reload .223 for plinking? I could see doing a few hundred for serious target shooting, but the cleaning, decapping, full length sizing, swaging the primer pickets, good lord I could have loaded 5,000 9mm in less time.
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Yep, I have loaded several thousand just for plinking. I buy everything in bulk so my prices are way lower than off the shelf but I also do it for the hobby, keeps me busy when the weather is bad and I cannot get outside to mess around.
 
I've seen prepped 223 brass for about 10-12 cents each, already sized, trimmed, swaged, etc. I've sometimes considered going that route.
 
Toprudder said:
I've seen prepped 223 brass for about 10-12 cents each, already sized, trimmed, swaged, etc. I've sometimes considered going that route.
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But do ya trust ‘em?
 
Every piece of brass that I have (that I have dies for) has been tumbled and resized. The rifle brass also has been trimmed. Some of the 223 and 308 have not been decrimped. The problem that I have is that I shoot the same brass over and over until it is worn out.
 
Toprudder said:
I've seen prepped 223 brass for about 10-12 cents each, already sized, trimmed, swaged, etc. I've sometimes considered going that route.
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Just bought a small lot of .308 that was pre-swaged, sized but not trimmed. was an okay deal but I'll likely start with raw fired cases next time. Only did this to bump up the amount of .308 for my AR I have on hand.
 
For .223 brass at .12 and commercial fmj bullets at .08-.09 and primers at .025-.030 it’s getting awful close to just buying plinking ammo. I’m gonna reload some for the experience, but then just stockpile components when it’s cheap to do so.
 
9 mm is like that also. If f you shoot 115gr it is cheaper about to buy when it’s on sale. However, I like to shoot 124gr and can’t usually find it cheaper than about .25-.30 a round. In that case I can load it for half the price. It also keeps me proficient in case the day comes when I can’t find anything on sale.
 
DRFury said:
9 mm is like that also. If f you shoot 115gr it is cheaper about to buy when it’s on sale. However, I like to shoot 124gr and can’t usually find it cheaper than about .25-.30 a round. In that case I can load it for half the price. It also keeps me proficient in case the day comes when I can’t find anything on sale.
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same here. 124 is much more accurate to me in most of my firearms. Of course, that's the original projectile weight that Georg Luger designed the cartridge with
 
I do like pretty brass!

This morning a ground down the sharp edge of a Lee decapping punch, hopefully it’ll reduce the number of 223 mouths that get dinged by the universal decapping die.

Speaking of which, I like RCBS dies, but for some reason that I don’t understand it seems like each die that takes a decapping pin/punch has its own unique thread size and pitch.
 
Loaded up a batch of .38 Special +P using Speer 158 gr LSWC-HP over Alliant Bullseye powder. Bullseye meters exceptionally well, I think. Lee load data.
 
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