What did you do in the reloading room today?

[deertrout]

Finally got some better weather so I hit the local gravel pit after work last night. Was very rewarding to see all the bullets I made work as intended. Got a couple charge weights (24.0gr and 24.3gr) that performed really well so I'm gonna load some more of those up to do a head to head with a larger sample size. The 24gr was really promising, had a SD of 11.3 but the 24.3gr group was about 100fps faster and just as precise with a SD of 31.4 which I thought wasnt too bad. 24.6gr shot well, too, but I saw some stretching of the brass near the case head. I'm pretty sure they're ok but I don't have any experience so I'm gonna back away from there for my next round of testing. Doesn't make sense to me to be so hard on the brass if I'm not getting anything extra out of it.

This reloading stuff is fun!

 

[wyosam]

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Finally got some better weather so I hit the local gravel pit after work last night. Was very rewarding to see all the bullets I made work as intended. Got a couple charge weights (24.0gr and 24.3gr) that performed really well so I'm gonna load some more of those up to do a head to head with a larger sample size. The 24gr was really promising, had a SD of 11.3 but the 24.3gr group was about 100fps faster and just as precise with a SD of 31.4 which I thought wasnt too bad. 24.7gr shot well, too, but I saw some stretching of the brass near the case head. I'm pretty sure they're ok but I don't have any experience so I'm gonna back away from there for my next round of testing. Doesn't make sense to me to be so hard on the brass if I'm not getting anything extra out of it.

This reloading stuff is fun!

Yep, beating up brass doesn’t really have a meaningful benefit- real world difference in the velocity difference is probably inconsequential. If I want to get that extra velocity, there is probably a cartridge that does it. If not, sounds like a great excuse to wildcat one that will.


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[JF_Idaho]

Full prep (anneal, size, tumble, trim, chamfer, debur, clean pockets, prime) on 126 pieces of Creedmoor brass for some incoming 200 143 ELD-X in a couple days.

Gonna start keeping my bolt and gas gun brass separated. Some of that gas gun brass gets hammered. Tossed about 20. And it was all mixed so had to f/l everything.

 

[Torque]

One more step finished. Next step is to sheath the ceiling with OSB. Then, on to sheath one side of the walls and spray insulate.

 

[Houseminer]

Reloaded some .45 200gn Xtreme plated SWC test loads with 700-X. 10 each 4.8, 5.0, 5.2 and 5.4 grains. I thought I had it figured out at 4.0 grains because I got burnt powder from 4.2-4.6. But after reading I thought I'ld work it up to the max.

 

[MallardSX2]

I have been buying up low priced dies like crazy lately.

Jackpot.

 

[30338]

Keep getting light primer strikes on my 9.3x62. The original smith, well known on the fire, chambered it stupidly short. Second smith, well known guy in the Springs, lengthened throat but appears to have bumped shoulder slightly.

So now expanding brass with 375 sizer, then necking down to 9.3 with false shoulder. Apparently not quite enough to keep pin from pushing forward. So now seating cheap 286 Hornady into the lands for second test. If this works, will do that with 100 brass and be set. If it doesn't work, I guess I may have a 30-06 with serengeti chamber built.

But I know a guy that is a professional now....

 

[DakotaBPNW]

Loaded up the rest of my 26 Nosler brass with 156gr Bergers over Retumbo. They’re doing right at 3,300FPS. Nosler brass is absolutely horrible stuff, luckily this gun really only gets used on hunts so I’m not real concerned with brass or barrel life

 

[deertrout]

Ran into my first quality issue in the reloading room last night. I'm working on a load for .223 50gr TSX and have narrowed down my charge to either 24.0gr or 24.3gr. I don't have a ton of .223 brass, but I have about 1,000pcs of 5.56 brass that I am hoping I can use for .223 reloads. So I'm going to load 10 rounds at each of those two charges with 2X fired .223 brass and 10 rounds each with the 5.56 brass. That way I can figure out which charge is better in each brass type and also compare brass types head to head.

I got through brass prep and started priming (CCI 400) in press with my rock chucker supreme and was getting a 5.56 case here and there where the primer just didn't want to go in the case, it felt like hitting a wall. This threw me as I swaged the primer pockets. I grabbed some of my 2X fired .223 brass to see if the 5.56 brass was the issue and ran into the same thing. So I did what any self respecting man will do, I fiddled with the position of the primer on the press, I cleaned all of the surfaces that are touching the case or the primer, I pushed harder. A few went, but they went really hard. I tried using a hand primer pocket reamer but it didn't seem to make any difference.

I just loaded the 2X fired brass with the same primers, different box. Gonna try the original box tonight and see if its something with that particular box of primers. I'm also gonna run the 5.56 back through the swager and double check that it was setup right. I read a lot of negative reviews on the in-press primer arm on the rock chucker, so I ordered the Frankfort hand priming tool, should be here Monday if I can't get this figured out on the rock chucker.

 

[6MT]

I put the finishing touches on my HD tumbler unit.

The barrel is a 6” diameter piece of pvc pipe with a cap for the bottom and a neck for the top. Sealed with a clamp held rubber cap. The barrel is 18” in length. The motor is a 1/3 HP wired for 110V. The stand and rollers are also heavy duty.

 

[sierracharlie338]

I put the finishing touches on my HD tumbler unit.

The barrel is a 6” diameter piece of pvc pipe with a cap for the bottom and a neck for the top. Sealed with a clamp held rubber cap. The barrel is 18” in length. The motor is a 1/3 HP wired for 110V. The stand and rollers are also heavy duty.

Nice work man!

 

[Slick8]

Cleaned and organized the bench.
Completed 7 SAUM brass prep and about to start 338 RUM prep for new build due soon.

I have the whole house/attic/yard spring cleaning bug so shooting hasn't been too active lately.

 

[deertrout]

Cleaned and organized the bench.
Completed 7 SAUM brass prep and about to start 338 RUM prep for new build due soon.

I have the whole house/attic/yard spring cleaning bug so shooting hasn't been too active lately.

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Love that setup! I'm working off a L-shaped bench right now but have been thinking a U-shape would be the way to go.

I worked through my primer issue last night. Not sure I understand what exactly the root cause is yet but I'm pretty sure I got some primers with a slightly oversized OD. There's something else to it, though, and I think its with the 5.56 brass. Even though I swaged them, they still need the primer pockets reamed and cleaned, and even then, I'm denting some of the primers when they go in. No issues at all with .223 brass and the new primer box. But the other box of primers did give me a hard time in the .223 brass, so that's why I'm thinking the primer OD is also part of my problem.

Loaded 30 rounds last night, 10pcs of .223 w/ 24.0gr H335, 10pcs with 24.3gr, and then 10pcs of 5.56 brass resized to .223 with 24.3gr. Based on my ladder test, 24.3 is the right charge, but I wanna give 24.0gr a chance. The 10pcs of 5.56 will tell me if I can treat .223 and 5.56 brass the same for this powder/bullet/rifle combo. I'm hoping I can as I have a bunch of 1X fired 5.56 brass and only about 75pcs of .223,

 

[JasonWi]

Received my in-line fabrication 4” mount and attached my COAX press last night. I didn’t bolt it down to the bench yet ( I’m getting the hardware tomorrow) but it’s slowly moving along.

Shop is still in the unpacking process, but it’s getting better organized each week

 

[sierracharlie338]

Cleaned and organized the bench.
Completed 7 SAUM brass prep and about to start 338 RUM prep for new build due soon.

I have the whole house/attic/yard spring cleaning bug so shooting hasn't been too active lately.

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Nice. I’ve been so busy with kid stuff I have not had time to shoot much lately either.

 

[sierracharlie338]

Received my in-line fabrication 4” mount and attached my COAX press last night. I didn’t bolt it down to the bench yet ( I’m getting the hardware tomorrow) but it’s slowly moving along.

Shop is still in the unpacking process, but it’s getting better organized each week

I’ve got one of the taller ones for my RCBS. Really like those

 

[UnckleBob]

I loaded up 39 rounds of 280 Rem cases to be fire formed.

Last night, I discovered what was wrong with my Dillon sizing 223. (The owner is a moron). And successfully sized about 50 rounds of 223.

Tomorrow, I get to fix my priming system and powder drop.

 

[IDVortex]

Wife is gone for the week, so my time to move into our spare room in the apartment and set up a reloading area. Bought a butcherblock and got it stained, going to mount it to the top of the tool chest and have a good spot to mount my press to it. Got a decent amount of work to get done to get some loads worked up before spring bear, otherwise shooting factory.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

Last night I loaded up some hunting rounds for my 30-06 and my 6.5 creedmoor.

-30-06: 180g partition, 62g h4831, cci primers, lapua brass on its second loading.

Got about 2650fps out of my 18” 30-06 today. That will work for the uses that rifle is set up for.

6.5 creedmoor: I loaded 140g ELDMs with 41.5g h4350, cci primers, Peterson brass.

Both were loaded to max book length, I sat there and trickled each one, I’m still a bit skeptical about not trickling up to the perfect amount but maybe I need to get over that.

 

[Bucks&Bulls]

I did a quick 50 of 38 special tonight and did some 45 case prep.