What did you do in the reloading room today?

Hi Guys,
I spent the afternoon loading up a variety of both 9mm and 38 special. I used Bullseye in both. I also worked up a few 9mm using Power Pistol which is the first time I've used that powder: meters well. Nothing to write home about, I guess, but...

Elmer
 
Since been casting all those bitty .311 round balls, loaded 9 ea in a 12 ga hull x 26 rds. Tomorrow might load some with 6 ea .375 round balls. Target is getting hit with a full cylinder from a 1851 Navy revolver at once and at a higher velocity!

CD
 
Elmer said:
Hi Guys,
I spent the afternoon loading up a variety of both 9mm and 38 special. I used Bullseye in both. I also worked up a few 9mm using Power Pistol which is the first time I've used that powder: meters well. Nothing to write home about, I guess, but...

Elmer
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Power Pistol is the first powder I tried in 9mm and 40. It is still one of my favorites in those calibers. For my 9mm 16" carbine, it is all I use now.
 
I have been spending so much time lately getting comfortable with the M&P platform in ……………..45 and 9mm that I have been neglecting my 1911. Shot a bunch of 200 gr swc's and found out that I am running low...as in only about 250 left. Loaded them and have to order more tomorrow.
 
Nothing much, just cleaned a few guns after a trip to the range, and deprimed all the brass.
 
The salt-bath annealing kit came in today, so I just spent some time trying it out. Had everything up and running in short order, figured out the right setting on the Lee pot (5.5) and knocked out 115 cases in short order, I liked the results. I was using a small tub of water to drop the hot cases into, I need to use a deeper bucket next time as some of the water was splashing out.

I will load up some of this brass, along with some that has not been annealed, take them to the range and see how they compare.
 
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Prepped and primed 1200 .223 cases, waiting on bullets from Butter.

Need to buy more CFE223, or H335, or Tac...they seem pretty interchangeable for plinking loads. Anyone near Charlotte interested in an order from Powder Valley?
 
9146gt said:
Try Blue Collar Reloading.

Tom
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I do buy from Brandon, but I didn’t see him at the last show in CLT and can’t wait for the next show to come around.
 
Cleaned the guns after the range trip today, decapped and sorted the brass. Yesterday, I had a young friend come by to visit and showed him my reloading setup. I think I may end up teaching him how to reload. It would be very advantageous for him, as he likes the old military guns and calibers.
 
I loaded 178 gr. ELD-X into IMI Match .308 from 40 gr. to 43 gr. of H4895 in .5 gr increments w/ BR-2 to test. Even though I have M118 mags, I've kept them to 2.80" for now. I'll tweak seating depth later.

Hopefully I'll get to the local DNR range Saturday but as of right now it looks like the weather might not cooperate. If I'm rained out, I'll load up a second batch using IMR 4064.
 
Setup my salt-bath annealing kit once more, and this time got into a little better rhythm. I knocked out about 400 cases of 223 in short order. I think it is about on par, speed wise, with an Annealeze, maybe a tad faster, but it is more manual in operation. I like the fact that I can control the temp within a few degrees. I may end up getting a PID controller for it.

Now I just have to size and finish processing the brass. Not one of my favorite tasks.
 
Sized all the 223 brass that I annealed. I switched up a little this time, though, as I used a Redding body die, along with a Lee collet neck sizer. I like the idea of sizing the neck down to a mandrel instead of the normal way, I think it will work the brass less, and might have less runout as well.
 
WT Hell. Cleaning out some corners and among other things found a gallon pack of cleaned and tumbled and deprimed .45 acp. Started to prime them and ….SMALL PRIMERS!! Found 200 out of about 900. Who and how did they get in there?

About 12 years ago I went through the 5 gallon bucket of .45 brass and separated all the of head stamps that I did not want to reload and kept them separate. Also, the few small primer cases. Been scratching my head and figured it must have been me..suprise…

Everything appears to be once fired. Evidently I missed that pack when I started back reloading. All sp's were Federal.

Sheesh, all 45 sp's and 380's are banned from my range.
 
I'll take your .380 :). I know what you mean trying to separate them from 9x19. Don't shoot my CZ83 that often and my mold is only a single cavity Lyman. Found one small primer .45 last week when getting ready to load. Deprimed it and chamfered the case mouth to use as a .451 punch for cutting .410 wads. Anymore will go into the scrape bucket.

CD
 
I’ll trade range pick up .380 for your .45acp SPP.

I just unpacked a heat sealer. Planning to package up 223 rounds, 30 to a pack. It’ll take a few minutes, but it’ll make packing for the range much easier.
 
Howland. My post was a "tongue in cheek" rant. I forgot that that odd pack had not been checked.

It is not a public range, it is mine. So, at my age and on my range logical does not carry much weight...lol.

I do have friends, mostly female, who shoot the 380, but they have to sign an agreement that they will carry those awful little things elsewhere when they leave.

And, I do keep the 45 sp brass in separate bags, just in case I might need them. Nothing against them, they shoot just fine. I just don't like them in my regular reloading rotation.
 
separated 3500 pieces of bras and de-primed about 800 45acp.

In the past week loaded about (single stage press);
500 45acp SWC 200gr and 500 LRN 230gr
300 38sp DEWC 148gr and 200 LRNFP 158gr
350 9mm LRN coated 125gr

Also I have been stripping the finish on my musket stock that I am building. I screwed up and I am now fixing my screw up.
 
I made a stupid mistake. I started sealing loaded ammo into 4mil polyethelene bags, 30 rounds to a bag. Was working in the shop which is 80 degrees and relative humidity of 40%. Turns out that the dew point for the air I just sealed in those bags is about 50 degrees. No, I didn’t put a desiccant in each bag, there isn’t room. Probably won’t store ammo below 60, but you never know and condensation in the bags would likely be problematic.

Seems that maybe I should leave this project for winter.
 
I've been known to trade LPP 45 for SPP, as I actually prefer small primer 45.

Blazer used to be large primer, but some years ago they switched to small primer. I've run across both. I've actually seen a new box of Blazer 45 that was large primer, probably old stock. Speer, RWS, and Federal all make both sizes, and the "WIN NT" brass is small primer AND crimped.
 
De-primed 646 pieces of 38sp brass. Cleaned and re-lubed press.

While typing this I realized I should probably raise the small fridge up off the floor. Everything else is up.
 
I will probably be moving some of my stuff out of my reloading shack and into the house tonight, in prep for the coming wind and rain.

For everyone down south and east, good luck and stay safe.
 
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Harnessed the power of the hurricane to make up some 380 test loads. I've had these 90gr Speer JHP slugs in my loading box since the early 90s, figured they're aged enough to load now. Using period correct HP38 too.

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Deprimed some 300BO, fired up the homegrown annealer and got them ready for the next step.

Made 50 rounds of .223 full power with @Butter 's bullets to test out if it ever stops raining.
 
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