What did you do in your reloading room today?

[6MT]

Too damn cold to shoot this weekend. I’ve loaded everything I had that was prepped. What’s a fella to do?



Just added a small shelf on the lower right to hold a few items and get them off the main work space.

[KazIce]

Was going through my new brass and found a few with dents like this. Fairly sharp edge. Should I discard or will it be ok? Other interesting note is that both bags of 50 contained 53 shells. It’s for a 7mm rem mag if that matters. Thanks!


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[Nyksta]

Originally Posted by KazIce

Was going through my new brass and found a few with dents like this. Fairly sharp edge. Should I discard or will it be ok? Other interesting note is that both bags of 50 contained 53 shells. It’s for a 7mm rem mag if that matters. Thanks!


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The dent will fireform smooth. After you check trim length, you can chamfer the corners which will eliminate the sharp edge at the mouth. When theres 53 brass in a bag of 50, it speaks to the level of quality control. You have their brass, now its your task to turn it into your brass.

[obsessed1]

Sharpened up all my axes and hawks. Though about loading up a few more for the 30-30 and 45-70....maybe Tomorrow.

[waldedw]

Yesterday I finished off the 60 - 300 RUM cases that I prepped, also did 165 - 223 start to finish, this morning I finished off the 79 - 257 WM brass that I had all prepped and ready to go.

Now I'm cleaning off my loading bench, going through boxes and plastic containers cleaning and chucking some crap away and sorting out the stuff I still need.

Got a few test loads to load yet for my 6.5 PRC, just want to try a different powder with those 142 NABLR, always something to putts with in the garage at the lading bench.

[pjb274181]

I resized 144 casings of 270 win. And along the way managed to jam a casing into the resizing dye such that it took way too much effort to get it out. How often to our simple tasks end up taking much more effort than originally envisioned?

[badbrass]

Finished off the Canon! 50 caliber. What do you think?

[KazIce]

@Badbrass That cannon looks awesome!

@Nyksta thank your for clarifying on the dent. You summed it up perfectly. Surprisingly the lengths are consistent at 2.491-2.493 on the brass. My lee hand trimmer gets me 2.492-2493 so at least that part is good.


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[elkhunter11]

500 rounds of 410 skeet loads this morning, and another two sessions should use up my empty 410 hulls.

[pjb274181]

I pulled bullets from about 20 300 Win Mag cartridges that I didn't think I'd shoot, and then reloaded 17 others that I'll try and determine what provides the best grouping. I had some Hornady 165 grn Interbond and some Swift Scirocco II 165 grn bonded. So using IMR 4831 and Federal large rifle Magnum primers I loaded:

3 @ 69 grns Hornady
3@ 70.5 grns Hornady
3@ 72 grns Hornday
4@ 70.5 grns Swift
4@ 72 grns Switft

I only had the 17 primers today thus the odd numbers.

[obsessed1]

Loaded up 50 45-70 rounds and 50 30-30

[justsomeguy]

Deprimed about 500 rnds (11 yr old makes great lever puller!), washed and dried 3 batches of brass, started sizing 270 once-fired I had purchased, got 6 cases in and got one stuck!

Foreshadow...tomorrow I get to try out either the 3 wrench trick or the RCBS stuck case remover kit I've had for a decade and never had to use!

[waldedw]

Got those 18 test loaded this morning for the 6.5 PRC with the 142 NABLR, while cleaning stuff out I came across another 34 brass for the 223 so loaded them also.

Got a batch of brass in the tumbler now and 3 more batches waiting to go in, all 7mm rem and 270 win brass then I can hit the press again never seem to run out of stuff to do.

[David Henry]

Well I finally did it, took the plunge and ordered a new reloading press. A Redding Big Boss 2 is on it's way from Prophet River. I came to the realization that I had been wanting this new press for far too long now and as I will be turning 60 this year I decided it was time.
My Rock Chucker that I have came to me used about 30 years ago and my Hollywood Gunshop, Universal is an old brute as well. Now to decide whether to mount it on the bench or build a free standing pedestal.

[6MT]

Spent some time on Sunday loading some 45-70.

Steps 1 & 2. After firing, I de-cap and then wet tumble to clean. Then a couple of hours to dry the cases. Now...on to case prep.

Step 3. Full length resizing to bring the fired case back into spec. With the big bore case, I’ve found that lubing is very important. I use a pad and then wipe the lube off with a towel after sizing.



A quick check with the case guage shows a perfect fit.



Step 4. Trimming. For me, a very important step. To get a consistent crimp later on in the process, the case length must be consistent. For the 45-70 case, I trim for 2.100”.



Step 5. Priming the case with some BR2’s from CCI. For me, I gave up on hand held priming units a long time ago after a failure just before a match. So I use my Co-Ax press primer.





Step 6. Time to flare the neck to accept the bullet. It might be hard to see, but the case on the left hasn’t been flared. The one in the middle has, and the one one the right shows a bullet placed into the case neck after being flared.



Step 7. Now, we’re ready for powder. My powder charge for the 300gr bullet for my Marlin 1895GBL rifle is 50gr of IMR4198.





Step 8. Time to seat that bullet. It’s important that you seat for a consistent OAL. In this case with the 300gr bullet, I aim for 2.5250” COAL.



Step 9. Lastly, it’s time to crimp the neck. Because of recoil in a tube fed magazine, a crimp is necessary. To have that bullet move in the case during recoil could lead to you having a bad day.



So, not too complicated. It’s actually fun for me. Your methods might be different then mine, but it should give the same results.

Now....I can get back to doing this...

[catnthehat]

pulled a busted case body out of my 6mmmBR last night, about to go in and finish loading a bunch of ammo for tomorrow - my own 6mmBR and 6.5/284 as well as some 243 that belong to others to confirm groups that were shot with them the other day.
Cat

[aardvaark]

So I found some 180gr RN Hornady bullets. And loaded 1each starting at min book and up to .5gr under max book, going up in .5gr increments. Of CFE223. At book coal. To test for pressure signs. And went out and shot them. No pressure signs anywhere. Then back to the bench and loaded 40 rounds at .5gr under max. Now it’s ready to go out and play, make some noise.

Never had a 30-30 lever gun, wanted one for years, finally got one. Love how it shoots. Actually did this yesterday.

[catnthehat]

More loading today, 6mmBR, and some preliminary test loads for Zippo's
6.5 STW AKA " the money pit"
Wildcats and custom rifles are the very same as Hot rods, mud boggers, bikes and boats !
Cat

[Pathfinder76]

I discovered that my new Lapua 223 brass has only three thou neck tension and my new ADG 7MM Rem Mag brass has two. I don’t know if this is a new trend, but I usually expect a lot more.

[duceman]

great day! turned necks for a bench gun.
lubed a large coffee can of 222 brass.
loaded 500 of said brass and prepped for the rest, looks to be around 250 more clean ready to go.
do those tomorrow then switch to 223 for 700.
perfect way to help a sprained ankle heal.

[brewster29]

Loaded forty 223 rounds. Prepped 220 once fired 223 cases.

Too cold to shoot so I made a big batch of bratwurst. Cold weather makes getting your meat and grinder cold enough very easy. Just leave it outside for 45 minutes. Thanks to bat119 for the great recipe.

[trooper]

I had rotator cuff surgery on the 6th of January so the reloading bench has been ignored, until today. A while back, I ordered a Frankford intellidropper and got a chance to put it to use this evening. I loaded 10 .308 federal cases with CCI200 primers, 43 gns of Varget with my new intellidropper and seated 150 gn fmjbt western munitions projectiles .005" off my rifles lands... All done with my right arm, the left one being supported with a inflatable barrel sling and quite immobile.

[catnthehat]

Made a dummy round for a 44 Russian cartridge for RPAL training purposes, checked some older load data for my new to me- once again 1ton Fclass rifle, will do some loads for that this afternoon and maybe get some more primary loads for the Zipppo's 6.5STW
Cat

[elkhunter11]

Finished my skeet loads, have over 4k of 28 gauge, and 3k of 410 loaded. Picked up some more powder , and supplies are really drying up.

[Northwinds]

not a fun day by any means .I happened to be filling the shot hopper on my Spolar loader when my phone rang.I jumped and dumped about a ounce of shot on my primer track.2 hours later all the shot and dust had been removed from the tracking and life began to be fun again.New life lesson,always cover the track up when refilling!!

[waldedw]

Not near as much fun as northwinds just finished the last of the 270 win brass, resizing and trimming 208 brass all ready to load now, got some 7 RM stuff to sort, finished the last 100 rounds of 204 yesterday, just about caught up, a couple more cold days and I'm done. Had to crank up the furnace in the garage yesterday with that dam wind howling, got cold in there

[teledogs]

Over the last few weeks I changed scopes on my coyote rifle, went from a high magnification target turret scope to a simple 3-10 hunting one and had the easiest sight in after my bore in procedure. Picture included of my first shot at 100 yards after bore sighting. I had also picked up an after market metal magazine for my T3 that needed some filing as it made contact with the bolt, seems good now and dummy rounds cycle good! Sewed my front swivel to the sling and with any luck I can get out for yotes next weekend.

[catnthehat]

Well it's one more coffee for me then get after the big Ruger No.1 that I have soaking in Wipeout from last night . Bore scope didn't show too much gunk in there, but I wanted to start with a squeaky clean barrel today when I do initial zeroing at 500 so I can go straight to 1 K with it tomorrow !
Cat

[6MT]

Newest edition to the loading room. A new wet tumbler. It is an Extreme Rebel-17 rotary drum style.



A shameless knock-off of the Thumler’s Tumbler Model-B. Except that the drum rides on heavier axles that have captured roller style bearings instead of the plastic bushings on the Thumler’s unit. Thus the number reference of “17”. It will handle 17 pounds maximum as opposed to the Thumler’s 15 pounds. And the motor that they chose spins much faster then the Thumler’s unit. In fact my estimation is that it spins two and a half times faster.

I thought about this and decided to try and step that motor down to the same speed of the Thumler’s motor. I believe that the brass would have suffered and would probably turn out peened to he11 after being subjected to that much faster agitation. So I installed a continuously variable ceiling fan speed control switch. And you can see above the box I mounted it in.

So here’s the “cleaning” station on my special Lapua “branded” (read: stickered) cabinet.

[510-Gem]

Hammered out a few bench bags out of an elk hide I had tanned a while back. Hand stitched with synthetic sinew and a glovers needle. The smaller squeeze bag is filled with rice and the bigger bag is filled with aquarium rock and rice. Nice little cold snap project to pluck away at on the couch.




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