James Fonteneaux
Member
This has been a very industrious holiday weekend around here for me. I'm pleased to report the passing of two very important milestones in reloading. Yesterday, I loaded the last of an 8lb jug of CFE 223. I suppose before I go too much further a little history is order. Sometime in 2015, I decided that I needed to get into reloading. The ammo scare was on, things weren't available like they had been, and I decided that I was going to take action... So I ordered up some once fired brass off of Etsy (Yep, the arts and crafts site) and got down to business. Well, that was the plan. At the time, I only had a single stage press, and I'd ordered about 2000 spent rounds. So, in the intervening years I have learned a LOT about reloading .223. (Mainly thanks to the people on this forum)
1. It is cheaper and easier to buy 1000 rounds of plinking ammo
2. Rifle case prep is more work than reloading for pistol.
3. The RCBS three way cutting head is a Godsend.
4. A progressive press is awesome, once you figure out how to use it.
5. Finding a rhythm and flow to how you like to load takes time, but once you get it, you're golden.
6. Case prep eats up most of the process time, the actual loading goes fairly quick.
7. It is a very enjoyable way to spend your time, especially if the weather's bad.
8. Building your own rifle and shooting ammo you've loaded is awesome!
9. Perfecta brass is weak.
I realize this will be old news to a lot of the people on this forum, but I still consider myself to be a newbie, and I'm pretty excited to be where I'm at.
So to date, I've loaded over 2000 rounds of practice ammo, all 55 gn FMJBT. I've shot it out of a few rifles with great results. My next project is to up my game in accuracy, so I've got to measure the chamber throat on one of my rifles and I'm going to tailor loads to that.
I've gone from a single stage Lock 'n Load press, to a Lock 'n Load AP Progressive Press and a LEE Challenger single stage for decapping. The progressive press took a while to learn, but I think at this point I'm getting the hang of it. The key is to go slow and watch everything close, then build speed.
So here's the dirty bits that came in the mail. That box was FULL, I never thought I'd find the end of it. It was so awesome to throw that empty box in the trash today.
And here we go, the finished product. Accuracy is good, but I'm also using these across about 5 different rifles with different twists and barrel types. Most importantly to me, they go bang every time. So now that I've finished off the CFE 223, what's in store? I'm going to explore a few different powders. I've got a pound each of BLC-2, Varget, H335, and some TAC on the way. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone here for their insight and wisdom. I lurked for a long time before I joined, but I'm glad I did. Everyone here has been awesome and there is so much information.
Oh, and those are SPENT primers in that glass jar!
1. It is cheaper and easier to buy 1000 rounds of plinking ammo
2. Rifle case prep is more work than reloading for pistol.
3. The RCBS three way cutting head is a Godsend.
4. A progressive press is awesome, once you figure out how to use it.
5. Finding a rhythm and flow to how you like to load takes time, but once you get it, you're golden.
6. Case prep eats up most of the process time, the actual loading goes fairly quick.
7. It is a very enjoyable way to spend your time, especially if the weather's bad.
8. Building your own rifle and shooting ammo you've loaded is awesome!
9. Perfecta brass is weak.
I realize this will be old news to a lot of the people on this forum, but I still consider myself to be a newbie, and I'm pretty excited to be where I'm at.
So to date, I've loaded over 2000 rounds of practice ammo, all 55 gn FMJBT. I've shot it out of a few rifles with great results. My next project is to up my game in accuracy, so I've got to measure the chamber throat on one of my rifles and I'm going to tailor loads to that.
I've gone from a single stage Lock 'n Load press, to a Lock 'n Load AP Progressive Press and a LEE Challenger single stage for decapping. The progressive press took a while to learn, but I think at this point I'm getting the hang of it. The key is to go slow and watch everything close, then build speed.
So here's the dirty bits that came in the mail. That box was FULL, I never thought I'd find the end of it. It was so awesome to throw that empty box in the trash today.
And here we go, the finished product. Accuracy is good, but I'm also using these across about 5 different rifles with different twists and barrel types. Most importantly to me, they go bang every time. So now that I've finished off the CFE 223, what's in store? I'm going to explore a few different powders. I've got a pound each of BLC-2, Varget, H335, and some TAC on the way. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone here for their insight and wisdom. I lurked for a long time before I joined, but I'm glad I did. Everyone here has been awesome and there is so much information.
Oh, and those are SPENT primers in that glass jar!