What did you do in the reloading room today?

[letrbuck]

The progressive press is a whole different experience. Loading was a bottleneck when I was shooting too much ammo to run through a single stage press.

I picked up a new dillon 550 about a decade ago in a yard sale for DIRT cheap, finally moved back into a space where I could set it up about a year ago. Hawt dayum are dillons a game changer

 

[Harvey_NW]

Prepped 100 pcs each of new Alpha 6 Creedmoor, and ADG 7 PRC brass to load up some test loads today and try to get out to shoot soon. I have always just ran new brass over an expander to even everything out, and load it up.

First time using Alpha brass, seems very uniform and high quality. It does have extremely tight necks for new brass, I ran them over a .241 mandrel and it was a fair amount of force to open them up. Seems like good brass though.

Second time using new ADG and this time I'm less than impressed. My 6.5 brass was near perfect, but this 7 brass is atrocious. Lots of deformed necks, uneven neck lengths, and pretty loose. A .281 mandrel would barely touch the largest deformities but luckily I had a factory ball for 7mm in another die set to round them out. I'm not too concerned on first firing and breaking in a new barrel, but I'd be pretty pissed if this was a new lot of brass for a known rifle.

 

[wildernessrimfab]

For example: is Hornady Match brass different from American Whitetail, or Federal GM brass different from Fusion?

Not sure about others, but Hornady is the same for all ammo lines in a given cartridge.

A response to that exact question from Hornady is in this thread:
https://www.longrangeonly.com/forum...the-same-brass-for-various-bullet-types.8678/

 

[49ereric]

Shot the 06 today testing couple of loads with Sierra 180 RN for groups. Still no consistency with the surplus 4831.
I had loaded 3 rounds up with W748 and they shot well.
Load some more up later today with W748 and play with the lengths.
Shot the new 223 savage 110 trail hunter again to get rounds thru the barrel @120 so far and it seems to be shooting the Speer 50 grain tnt better, when my old eyes cooperate.

 

[Sinistram]

As the year comes to a close, I'm rooting through the shelves to see what's there, what needs to be processed, and what needs to be loaded. Today I discovered a stash of 9 .416 Trophy Bonded Bear Claw bullets I had from an experiment years ago. I don't shoot that bullet anymore (solely due to the positively eye-watering cost), so I loaded them up for some practice with Reloder 15. Cleaned another box off the shelf.

 

[Sinistram]

Shot the 06 today testing couple of loads with Sierra 180 RN for groups. Still no consistency with the surplus 4831.
I had loaded 3 rounds up with W748 and they shot well.
Load some more up later today with W748 and play with the lengths.
Shot the new 223 savage 110 trail hunter again to get rounds thru the barrel @120 so far and it seems to be shooting the Speer 50 grain tnt better, when my old eyes cooperate.

I absolutely love that 50gr TNT in the 223. Mine will send them hauling ass with a max charge of H335 and make a fingernail size group at the same time. Why pay more?!?!

 

[Slick8]

Loaded a batch of 145 CE Lazers for a 300 yard ladder test in the morning.

 

[49ereric]

I absolutely love that 50gr TNT in the 223. Mine will send them hauling ass with a max charge of H335 and make a fingernail size group at the same time. Why pay more?!?!

Speer 50 gr tnt are getting more expensive like everything else. I bought them for breaking in the barrel well (200-300) before trying hornady 60 grain #2270 & #2275.
I have a 100 Hornady #2270C and hoping they shoot well enough for cheap shooting.
Available cheap bulk quantities.

 

[HGL]

Loaded up some 88 gr ELDm for a pressure ladder in my .223 wylde, 18" tube, 1-7" twist. Mainly out of curiosity's sake on an 18" barrel.

Loaded 22.4 grains through 24.2 grains of 8208 XBR, nosler brass, BR4, .005" jump/kissing the lands.

22.4 gr = 2534 fps
23.7 gr = 2651 fps (got heavy bolt lift and some ejector swipe)
Pulled the rest.

It shot a fairly decent group though, considering it was fourteen shots spread over 1.3 grains in .1 grain increments.

88 gr on the left, 69 TMK middle, 75 Amax right for comparison.

 

[Sinistram]

Speer 50 gr tnt are getting more expensive like everything else. I bought them for breaking in the barrel well (200-300) before trying hornady 60 grain #2270 & #2275.
I have a 100 Hornady #2270C and hoping they shoot well enough for cheap shooting.
Available cheap bulk quantities.

Yeah, my information might be a bit outdated on those. I laid in a huge supply about two years ago when they were $11.99/100 from Midway. I haven't had to buy them since then, and likely won't for a while, but I hear ya'!

 

[7SAUM-J]

Worked on some .270 load development for a buddy’s rifle. His gun hated H4350 with the 145 eldx. Let’s see what H4831SC does.

 

[49ereric]

Yeah, my information might be a bit outdated on those. I laid in a huge supply about two years ago when they were $11.99/100 from Midway. I haven't had to buy them since then, and likely won't for a while, but I hear ya'!

I just bought a 1000 hornady #2270C under 12 cents delivered. 30% off doesn’t come around often.
Cheap Blasting bullets at the very least.

 

[7SAUM-J]

This dang ruger american 6mm creedmoor has become one of my favorites. 95 tmk’s testing coal length today.

 

[MD97756]

This dang ruger american 6mm creedmoor has become one of my favorites. 95 tmk’s testing coal length today.

What stock is that?

 

[7SAUM-J]

What stock is that?

It’s the Magpul Hunter Lite

 

[MD97756]

It’s the Magpul Hunter Lite

Thanks!!! Looks great

 

[7SAUM-J]

Thanks!!! Looks great

Thanks. For as cheap as it was I’m very pleased with it so far.

 

[Mule3006Elk]

Finished fire forming my first 20 pieces of 300 WM Lapua brass. Prepped and ready to go. Checked the entire order of operations: anneal, FL resize, mandrel, trimming, chamfer/debur, ect. NO concerning runout induced for any of the operations. Only 0.0005 with the mandrel operation. Very pleased. I still have to check the final step > bullet seating. I'll save that for a another day.

Addendum Bullet TIR (10 rounds loaded): 2 (0.000 TIR), 1 (0.001 TIR), 3 (0.0015 TIR), 4 (0.002 TIR). I'll take that

 

[Sinistram]

Continuing with my winter "optimization" efforts, I found partial boxes of 29 x 200gr and 44 x 300gr 44 caliber bullets. Loaded each up with heavy H110 and light W231 charges, respectively. Two more boxes consolidated and ready to blast.

 

[waspocrew]

Sized and primed 100 pieces of Lapua 22/250 AI. Barrel has 850 or so rounds down the barrel, checked distance to lands with the 85.5 gr Berger and they are way out there to touch lands. Jumping about .100 to seat at the neck/shoulder junction.

Still deciding which powder, but probably RL-23 since I have 30+ lbs on my shelf haha.