What have you done in the reloading room today
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Bearded Phil
Member
Loaded 100ea 357 Mag for silhouette this coming Sunday.
I had been testing N110 13.0gr and 13.3gr with the new coww alloy 158gr (146gr now actual) HP cast Hitek coated bullets from this season of casting.
13.0gr was the old best charge, and while both looked really good, I'm going with 13.3gr for this match as they seemed to group best with the least vertical dispersion.
I'm taking a week of vacation next week, so I have a lot planned to be prepped for a few weekday trips to the range while I'm off:
A box of 50ea 357 Mag for silhouette practice Monday when there's no other matches happening and I can shoot the swingers.
40ea 38-55 with 254gr cast/hitek PB, a ladder of N120. Testing on paper at 50yrds
80ea 45-70 with 398gr cast/hitek PB, good ol' 24.9gr of N120 (these will be 200yrd steel rounds)
And possibly some 38spl if I have time, trying out N320 for the first time. Not sure what bullet yet. I have a S&W M28-2 coming to my local FFL this week. I'm going to check out the cylinder throats when I get my hands on it and see how they measure. If they look good probably cast/hitek coated. If they seem tight or irregular probably 158gr XTPs.
I already have 40ea 38-55 with 275gr cast/hitek loaded for another round of ladder testing, plan will be to shoot 38-55 on paper and swap to 45-70 for steel. 40rds each for each rifle on two consecutive days.
It's going to be busy evenings to get everything together, but a whole lot of fun when I'm at the range. Also, a lot of annealing and tumbling in my future, haha.
I had been testing N110 13.0gr and 13.3gr with the new coww alloy 158gr (146gr now actual) HP cast Hitek coated bullets from this season of casting.
13.0gr was the old best charge, and while both looked really good, I'm going with 13.3gr for this match as they seemed to group best with the least vertical dispersion.
I'm taking a week of vacation next week, so I have a lot planned to be prepped for a few weekday trips to the range while I'm off:
A box of 50ea 357 Mag for silhouette practice Monday when there's no other matches happening and I can shoot the swingers.
40ea 38-55 with 254gr cast/hitek PB, a ladder of N120. Testing on paper at 50yrds
80ea 45-70 with 398gr cast/hitek PB, good ol' 24.9gr of N120 (these will be 200yrd steel rounds)
And possibly some 38spl if I have time, trying out N320 for the first time. Not sure what bullet yet. I have a S&W M28-2 coming to my local FFL this week. I'm going to check out the cylinder throats when I get my hands on it and see how they measure. If they look good probably cast/hitek coated. If they seem tight or irregular probably 158gr XTPs.
I already have 40ea 38-55 with 275gr cast/hitek loaded for another round of ladder testing, plan will be to shoot 38-55 on paper and swap to 45-70 for steel. 40rds each for each rifle on two consecutive days.
It's going to be busy evenings to get everything together, but a whole lot of fun when I'm at the range. Also, a lot of annealing and tumbling in my future, haha.
Bearded Phil
Member
Scratch that, IPSC Nationals are going on all week.
I guess these cases will be loaded with either 158gr or 185gr solids for testing on the main range.
AJC1
Member
Spent hours trying to get theses cases uniform, and ready. Some I annealed twice to get the shoulders soft enough to push back. With the light loads I'm running I don't expect them to really push forward on the ones that are further back. I had done some forward thinking at one time and I found an noe two step expander I had forgot in my drawer so that was a pleasant surprise. Now the only expander I don't have is 7.7. Anyway noe-269-163-fn sized to .266, seated over 14.0 grains of 2400, running about 1500 fps x100 samples.
Hooda Thunkit
Member
2500 fps?
AJC1
Member
Typo fixing it.
Mixing Red Bull with 2400?
I had a couple hours this morning before the Dr appointment (no surgery; but no lifting for six weeks and some really extensive therapy) I had to tinker with the new progressive some more. I believe I’ve got it all up and rockin!!! I do have to develop the habit to watch the powder cop etc. had a couple close ones. But!
I also decapped the rest of the mess of range brass I’ve been messing with for a month. It’s clattering about in the wet tumbler right now.
GeoDudeFlorida
Member
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2020
- Messages
- 11,084
No surgery: Good!Mixing Red Bull with 2400?
I had a couple hours this morning before the Dr appointment (no surgery; but no lifting for six weeks and some really extensive therapy) I had to tinker with the new progressive some more. I believe I’ve got it all up and rockin!!! I do have to develop the habit to watch the powder cop etc. had a couple close ones. But!
I also decapped the rest of the mess of range brass I’ve been messing with for a month. It’s clattering about in the wet tumbler right now.
Extensive rehab: Meh.
I flipped a coin, rolled a D-8, and consulted The Magic 8-Ball and still can’t decide which powder to use for this season’s pig shoot in the .357Mag RBH.
2400
No.11FS
W296
No.9
4100
Blue Dot
HS-6
Unique
I’ve used them all over the years (except No.11FS, it’s new to me) and they all work well. Different upside/downside considerations but they all work and they are all sitting on the shelf.
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shoebox1.1
Member
AJC1
Member
Used up the small batch of 6.5 I had casted up, and I had rejected a bunch for fill out and wrinkles. I cranked up the heat and got to it.... I just finished, so I haven't culled yet, but the first drop on the towel was perfect, I sill recycled them but right to making good bullets. The sprue will show the heat level...
1976B.L.Johns.
Member
2400 or Unique.
I am still "old school".
Not much.
Went to the "Strange Range" not expecting to see any recent activity with all the snow we got.
Boy, was I surprised!
Someone plowed the snow (not my job) and I picked up a couple hundred + of spent brass.
Washed the mud off, separated the different cases and it is now drying.
Hope to get back to my 38 specials tomorrow.
Hey! Use care out there!
B.L.
Partly in the reloading room, partly in the shop, did the swap out in the reloading room, took it off and reinstalled it in the shop.
I installed a flat trigger shoe in a Tac Sport Pro. (You can get it already installed in the new Pro X that took the Tac Sport Pro's place)
Springs were small and tricky to get on the new shoe.
Checks out at 7+ Oz at the top of the shoe and 6+ Oz at the bottom of the shoe. Smoooooth.
I installed a flat trigger shoe in a Tac Sport Pro. (You can get it already installed in the new Pro X that took the Tac Sport Pro's place)
Springs were small and tricky to get on the new shoe.
Checks out at 7+ Oz at the top of the shoe and 6+ Oz at the bottom of the shoe. Smoooooth.
AJC1
Member
I tried a flat shoe like that for the first time in my 6x45. I really like the feel. Trigger tech makes a single stage now that the milspec is 4.5 pounds. The weight isn't ideal for a match gun, but it was a trial thing. Giving up all the other bad stuff like miles of travel makes the 4.5 lbs not really a big deal. They have a Dimond version for over 3x as much that I wanted that adjusts much lower but I didn't want to be in over 300 to try something... I've herd of bix but not shot one. I think we buy more things that we get a positive experience from testing. If a buddy has a Douglas barrel that shoots amazing, I think we jump on that over krieger or vise versa.Partly in the reloading room, partly in the shop, did the swap out in the reloading room, took it off and reinstalled it in the shop.
I installed a flat trigger shoe in a Tac Sport Pro. (You can get it already installed in the new Pro X that took the Tac Sport Pro's place)
Springs were small and tricky to get on the new shoe.
View attachment 1202749View attachment 1202750View attachment 1202751View attachment 1202752View attachment 1202753
Checks out at 7+ Oz at the top of the shoe and 6+ Oz at the bottom of the shoe. Smoooooth.
CQB45ACP
Member
Decapped, wet and dry tumbled, and length measured all 45acp cases recovered from yesterday's range session. (Nearly 150)
Still in the midst of my case longevity exercise (aka, test) using the same batch of 50 Winchesters since late May 2023.
These 50 have now been shot 21 times each for sure with no noticeable damage or wear and tear beyond headstamps getting dinged up. But even that isn't too bad--must be pistol dependent. How many times did I use cases before test began? Who knows? And for that matter, I haven't a clue how many times they were used before I acquired them via various means.
The Winchesters didn't appear to shorten further in length nor did primer pockets shallow further but I didn't spend a great deal of time measuring either. You may recall they all began at .894" and longer and are now below .890"
I had added 50 Herters to test and shot them yesterday, but have decided to drop them in lieu of the custom cut down Win Mags, twenty of which I also shot.
Win Mags all still measure .900" or a very little less (maybe .8995"). I attribute difference in length to measuring sloppiness not shortening but we'll see over time. SAAMI max is .898"
As an aside, for those of you like me who hate losing cases at the range, you can imagine how freaked out I was each time I saw one of my Win Mags spinning potentially beyond my recovery distance. Fortunately as I reported earlier, I did get them all.
Still in the midst of my case longevity exercise (aka, test) using the same batch of 50 Winchesters since late May 2023.
These 50 have now been shot 21 times each for sure with no noticeable damage or wear and tear beyond headstamps getting dinged up. But even that isn't too bad--must be pistol dependent. How many times did I use cases before test began? Who knows? And for that matter, I haven't a clue how many times they were used before I acquired them via various means.
The Winchesters didn't appear to shorten further in length nor did primer pockets shallow further but I didn't spend a great deal of time measuring either. You may recall they all began at .894" and longer and are now below .890"
I had added 50 Herters to test and shot them yesterday, but have decided to drop them in lieu of the custom cut down Win Mags, twenty of which I also shot.
Win Mags all still measure .900" or a very little less (maybe .8995"). I attribute difference in length to measuring sloppiness not shortening but we'll see over time. SAAMI max is .898"
As an aside, for those of you like me who hate losing cases at the range, you can imagine how freaked out I was each time I saw one of my Win Mags spinning potentially beyond my recovery distance. Fortunately as I reported earlier, I did get them all.
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shoebox1.1
Member
All my starline brass 38 and fifty 44 spc on the impaler for drying. Looks like hand loaders bday cake!
CQB45ACP
Member
Theyre on that goofy looking green thing? Oh I see...it's the "impaler"
shoebox1.1
Member
Yes. Lol. Good buy for a buck
"So, Mr Impaler; may I call you Vlad?"
Hooda Thunkit
Member
Poked around a bit in the reloading cubby. Cleaned up a few pieces of pickup brass; I usually decap, then for the more common stuff i toss it in a bin.
Those bins mostly get moved around a bunch, because their purpose in life is to get in the way. Their secondary purpose, hardly ever used, is to give away a quart bag of whatever to someone who thinks they need it. When I get tired of moving the buckets they go to the scrap yard.
The less common stuff gets bagged, and I either trade it off or give it away. I hardly ever sell brass.
As I sit here contemplating the brass scrap, it occurs to me to build a furnace to melt it into ingots. Those ingots must have more value than just raw cartridge brass.
I bet I've got enough junk around here to build one.
I wonder...
Those bins mostly get moved around a bunch, because their purpose in life is to get in the way. Their secondary purpose, hardly ever used, is to give away a quart bag of whatever to someone who thinks they need it. When I get tired of moving the buckets they go to the scrap yard.
The less common stuff gets bagged, and I either trade it off or give it away. I hardly ever sell brass.
As I sit here contemplating the brass scrap, it occurs to me to build a furnace to melt it into ingots. Those ingots must have more value than just raw cartridge brass.
I bet I've got enough junk around here to build one.
I wonder...
stonebuster
Member
Finished 500 rounds of 38spl range ammo today I've been working on for the last three afternoons on the Lee Classic Turret press. The usual 158gr Xtreme RNFP over 4.3grains HP-38 & Winn SPP. Good bad weather project.
GeoDudeFlorida
Member
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2020
- Messages
- 11,084
GeoDudeFlorida
Member
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2020
- Messages
- 11,084
GeoDudeFlorida
Member
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2020
- Messages
- 11,084
I did something similar: 250rnds of .38Spl W-W and R-P brass loaded with SyA SPP, 4.2gr Unique and a 158gr Valiant LSWC-BB.
I’m down to about 700+/- 50 of those Valiant’s. Not a bad bullet but the bevel base makes it hard to find a good load that checks all the boxes. 4.2gr Unique or 3.5gr Bullseye are both good.
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