What have you done in the reloading room today

I spent most the afternoon trying to make a seating stem blank for a Hornaday die..... it's only my 4th project ever, and I'm crossing my fingers it works.... the left is the material I used...

AJC1 said:

I spent most the afternoon trying to make a seating stem blank for a Hornaday die..... it's only my 4th project ever, and I'm crossing my fingers it works.... the left is the material I used...View attachment 1194252

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Very interesting... what is that going to be used for?

45/30-06OKIE said:

Very interesting... what is that going to be used for?

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A buddy is trying to seat a flat nose bullet and the tapered stems are not giving desired results

PO2Hammer said:

I just had to tell someone

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Good job, my man.........................
Looks like you got yourself a keeper loading..................

Walkalong said:

.32 Cal seater plug and stem for a Hornady seater die body.

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Are those your creations or factory. My lathe is super slow so I can't get the surface finish I would like with carbide.... is this like welding being a welder or a grinder

AJC1 said:

My lathe is super slow so I can't get the surface finish I would like with carbide.

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How slow is super slow....?
Caress the carbide tip to be EVER SO SLIGHTLY rounded, that should help with surface finish (and cutting oil).........

ETA:

I'm only a novice metal working wannabe--------Emory cloth can also be your friend....

Loading a coffee cup full of 300BLK with H110 and 220gr SMKs.



Stupid quiet out of dad's 300blk AR and Remington 700. These SMKs were cheap cheap from American Reloading so we are delegating them to 300Blk plinking/fun ammo.

I had a loooong day today (left the house 3:45 this morning-got home at 6:30 tonight) , so I’m not doing much tonight. Put my new mics on the bench. Don’t store em closed. Test pins aren’t here yet.
Put the new bullets(seconds) on the shelf.
Put primers on the shelf. And then made a post about it on THR… and I think I’m done.

Ahh, let's see..........
Not much.
Sized some 9mm brass.
Did some spent primer removal on the drill press in the garage.

Sorted what is probably my last ever bucket of wheel weights. The local place closed up, much to my dismay.
I had spent a good deal of time cultivating a relationship with them - even making trotline weights out of zinc wheel weights for them, so they wouldn't complain about missing the lead.

The end of an era. Dam shame.

Also tumbled some 38 Spl brass, and neck-sized 69 pieces of 7.62x54r.

Sorted and put away the brass I tumbled yesterday. Ran 200 9mm with 124 Match Winners and N320 through the Six Pack Pro. 8 loads from being done it jammed up big time and it took me a half hour to figure out that somehow the spent primer chute got plugged and spent primers built up until it jammed it up. Cleared it, and finished the last 8.

45/30-06OKIE said:

Loading a coffee cup full of 300BLK with H110 and 220gr SMKs.
View attachment 1194290

View attachment 1194291
Stupid quiet out of dad's 300blk AR and Remington 700. These SMKs were cheap cheap from American Reloading so we are delegating them to 300Blk plinking/fun ammo.

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Those are almost comical. Where does the powder go? If I didn’t know they work, I’d think it was a prank.

I’m in the reloading room trying to resist some more mad scientist vibes. I also found a stash of 135 grain cast bullets for my 30-30.

Loaded some .22TCM with TCM powder (9.7gr). Max is listed at 9.6gr, but I worked up. Put TCM brass in the tumbler.

Removed the trigger from my BHP in preparation for the Apex wide flat trigger that’s arriving on Wednesday. Treated the trigger bar lifter pivot points with liquid moly. Everything is prepped and ready to assemble.

IALoder said:

Sorted and put away the brass I tumbled yesterday. Ran 200 9mm with 124 Match Winners and N320 through the Six Pack Pro. 8 loads from being done it jammed up big time and it took me a half hour to figure out that somehow the spent primer chute got plugged and spent primers built up until it jammed it up. Cleared it, and finished the last 8.

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Putting those two things together... I just realized that large primers will plug... or get stuck... in the neck of a 5.56mm in the tumbler. My RockChucker spits primers everywhere, very often they fall into my brass bucket (where I drop my sized brass, under the press.) Some of them wind up in the dry tumbler media... which isn't a problem with .308 brass... but it can be with 5.56mm brass!

DMW1116 said:

Those are almost comical. Where does the powder go? If I didn’t know they work, I’d think it was a prank.

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It's only 9gr of H110 and at the coal were running there's actually a fair amount of room.

Walkalong said:

I made them, as well as a set for a 300 BLK seater. Definitely not carbide.

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I was referring to my tooling. Hss bits work better at the geriatric speeds my ancient lathe turns at...

Loaded up some test rounds of .40S&W. 155 XTPs over AutoComp. Now, if the weather would just cooperate long enough to shoot them...

6 more test loads of 45/60, 5 rounds each.

AJC1 said:

Are those your creations or factory. My lathe is super slow so I can't get the surface finish I would like with carbide.... is this like welding being a welder or a grinder

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I use 5-10% Co cutters most of the time. The key with any metal cutting is having sharp cutters. I've even hand stoned my cutters when I need to start shaving <0.001", doing barrel/chamber fitting. I did buy a good tool grinder and set it up with a diamond wheel so I could sharpen my carbide cutters when needed. I also use a lot of inserts so I don't have to sharpen and just rotate the insert to a fresh cutting edge. These are life savers if your doing thread work.

Cutting oil can make a big difference. Since your running on slower speeds use a lighter oil with lighter cuts and see if that helps.

45/30-06OKIE said:

It's only 9gr of H110 and at the coal were running there's actually a fair amount of room.
View attachment 1194305

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I loaded a dummy in .308 with Lapua Scenar 220gr bullets. It too looks wild.

Mounted a 1x scope (Utah banned any with magnification) , installed a cheek riser.