Recent content by leefan

2.8 grains of Titegroup is what I use with Berry's 100 grain FBRN plated bullets to make a soft-recoiling load for my wife to shoot in her Bersa Thunders. She has shot hundreds of those reloads with no issue. 2.9 grains produces a felt recoil similar to Federal American Eagle in the Bersas. 3.0...

I unwisely bought a nano tumbler and it is shockingly cheesy. Rough cut threads. Rough edges on the plastic. Junky springs. I use it for dedicated polishing of finished rounds. I have no expectation of ever getting my money's worth before it dies a richly deserved death. It already sounds like...

One good reason to polish after loading.

Joneb, thanks for the additional advice. Have powders on the way and will post the loads I get for the next guy who asks my question, and any cycling issues I experience with an AK.

3GunEric, thanks for that link. My books are getting a bit long in the tooth at 3-5 years old. Good to know you've been having success with it for so long.

Joneb, ah yes, thanks, I see that now in the books for .223 and 7.62X39, but not for .308. Do you know if it works for that? Re the bullet weight, I want to go with the more-or-less standards: 123 for 7.62X39, 55 for .223, 150 for .308. Basically I find I do well for my simple paper-killing...

Kaldor, ain't the sheer genius of the smart folks here amazing? Makes me want to ask them "What do women want?" Thanks again to all who responded. I am off to seek Holy Grail powder at the LGS's.

Toprudder, you are too kind. Let me tell you a story about stupid. When I decided to start reloading, I went to CowBellahs to see what they had. Most prominent pistol powder and most deeply stocked was Titegroup. Must be the one! Hodgdon had loads for all seven pistol calibres I have, so I never...

Dr, Zubrato, you did answer the question, and most gently, I thought. But simple minds seek simple solutions. So though you didn't quite say it, I will remember "Diversity is pow(d)er(s)." And when you said "don't settle on a powder that works in all three calibers but isn't very good in any of...

Joneb, excellent advice, thanks. I really want to avoid having two rifle powders, like I would avoid having two wives. Or even three, heaven forfend. It is bad enough thinking about remetering and retesting to change to only one new powder, I think doing that for two or more would take all the...

Chris in Va, interesting about the Varget, thanks. More searching to do and maybe designing a sixth grade science fair project to test it. But as you say, the hardest part may be finding it. Typically, I didn't realize how stupid my question was until I read all the learned responses here. I did...

Carbine85, thanks for the recommendation, good to know, especially since both powders are available now. May have to kiss CFE223 goodbye.

Robert101, thanks, I wondered why Varget didn't turn up in my searches. Will look again. Yet another mythical Hodgdon powder.

SlamFire1, that is good to know about those powders. I'll dig a little deeper online, but my books don't list them for the 7.62X39. I spit coffee on the screen while reading your post as I flashed on how my crappy shooting would become "outstanding" with if I reloaded with those powders, though.

Jmorris, thanks for that burn rate link. Hodgdon took their link down and I was just about to go looking for another one. Very informative. CFE223 is not on the list, so I gotta go find a newer one. From what I have read online, what you said works because the ratios of case mouth area to case...