A new "what are you doing in the loading room today" thread

[lightman]

Nothing lately. My loading room caught some of the overflow from the kitchen remodel and I don't have enough room to move around in there.

I have a buddy coming over this morning to cast. We cast in my shop and I leave the melting pot and hot plate on the work bench.

[WarEagleEd]

I mounted my Redding T-7 press to a board for subsequent clamping to my reloading bench. That is all I have done lately.

[b2lee]

I was soooo bored that I took 5k rounds of 40 S&W and ran them back through a 100 round shockbottle to both gauge them and to double check my count listed on a sheet in my ammo boxes.

I put vinyl caliber stickers on my ammo cans...that took all of 5mins.
I cleaned off the work bench...as in Murphy's Oil and a rag...now that is being bored.

[WarEagleEd]

I was processing some .45 ACP brass for reloading before I left for my deployment. When I got back I couldn't remember if I had sized them or not and I left no notes. I looked them over today and found one dented case mouth, so I don't think they have been sized. I plan on doing that this weekend, but I'll see how that goes.

[Mbaker78]

I’m off the next 7 days, so hopefully I’ll get some loading and unloading done, now that the weather is somewhat decent.

I can finally start in on the box of 223/5.56 brass (roughly 1200 pcs) that needs sized and trimmed, it’ll be a good chance to put the frankford arsenal trim and prep center though it’s paces.

Going to mount my new scope on the 308 tomorrow, and take my son out to test and sight in his AR that he built himself. Should be a decent week off work.

[b2lee]

I'll actually be at the range today. I need to shoot and record data on a lot of stuff I've reloaded this month. 300blk 150 plated subsonic, 300blk 165gr subsonic, 308 168gr bthp, 9mm 124gr jhp, 9mm 124gr powder coated, 40S&W 180gr jhp, 40S&W 180gr powder coated, 40S&W 185 gr swaged jhp from 9mm brass, 45acp 230gr JHP, 8mm mauser hunting load, and finally a lot of testing on my 22lr to .224 bullets that I swaged. Need to make sure I can run at the speeds I want and not have jacket seperation.

[b2lee]

5+ hours of shooting today...over 800 rounds...wow..I am super happy...now I have something to reload

[Mbaker78]

I took my son out to test and sight in his AR. It doesn’t cycle, so I have to troubleshoot the gas system and see what’s going on :/

Maybe later tonight I’ll mount my scope so I can get it to the range Saturday.

[WarEagleEd]

I cleaned some LC .30-06 brass. I planned on going to the range today, but I didn't make it.

[Mbaker78]

I’m planning a range trip today, I want to see how the new scope does on the 308.

[lightman]

Unfortunately nothing. Still have the overflow stuff from the kitchen remodel stashed in my room. Having withdrawal symptoms! I have picked up some brass and I'm trying to get a buddy or two together to smelt some scrap lead. If it will just quit raining!

[Mbaker78]

Didn’t make it to the range due to a serious lack of sleep. But I did end up sizing somewhere around 1000 pieces of 223, sorted them to see what needs trimmed, now they’re ready to go into the tumbler (or be trimmed first).

I decided to try sizing on the pro1000, it does seem to speed things up pretty well.

[Mbaker78]

Got all of the brass trimmed and tumbled, it looks like my prep time is right around 20 seconds a case from fired dirty to ready to prime and load.

Finally made it to the range to unload some ammo, turns out my last batch of 40s&w wasn’t seated deep enough (about 10-15 thousandths too long) and jam every shot. Hopefully I can just bump them down with the seating die.

My once good subsonic load for 300aac now doesn’t cycle since the barrel change, it’s ejecting the spent case but not picking up the next one. But at least they seem to be stabilizing, so I’ll try them with the can and see if that helps them cycle.

My 308 shot beautifully with the new scope. And the 223 shot extremely well, getting a few 2” groups at 100 yards with just a red dot.

Now I have a bunch of brass to sort...

[b2lee]

Today I'm swaging 40S&W 185 xtp jhp's using some 9mm brass that have about 10 reloads on them. I got about 100 done and my goal is 500 due to the fact I'm completely out of 40S&W bullets. I also have some 380's that I may still use the 125gr lead bullet and produce some hp's that have a lead tip exposed and be a few grains lighter than 185.

I've been doing these particular boolits for about 10 years now and they hit like a mule on pcp. I'm using an old CH swage die...but also using a BTSniper cup base, BTSniper XTP die, a Lee Die converted to a seater die...and a Lee Die converted to dome over the XTP cut to soften the edges. I may...or may not use the cannaeure tool to make them look cool. I use a Hornady taper crimp die after loading to smooth out the mouth flaring for guaranteeing proper function in my semi auto.

It is a lot of work...but fun and rewarding...those that do this type of stuff understand.

[b2lee]

I ended up doing a shallow XTP cut and a nice roll over on the base...made 500+ today...I like the nickle plated ones the best...here are two of them

40swage.jpg

[lightman]

Nothing much lately! Hopefully the contractors will finish up our kitchen remodel today and I can get rid of the overflow that found its way into my room. I did sort through a large styrofoam cup of brass and another large cup of wheel weights that a friend brought over. Most of the brass ended up in the scrap bucket but most of the weights were lead. Networking works!

Did I mention withdrawal symptoms?

[DukeInFlorida]

The 40's that I make on BT Snipers tool set are best at 165 grain bullet weight. In my mind, and according to lots of police development data, that's the ultimate 40 bullet weight. In order to get them to form the best, I have to cut my 9mm luger cases down in length to get the cores to fill out properly. I use a 105 grain (380 auto cast bullet as the core) I find that cutting them to the same length as the 380 auto (.680") does the forming perfectly. I did that rather than use 380 auto cases directly. The 105 gr core, plus the cut down 9mm case yields a sweet 165 grain swaged .40 bullet.

While the nickel plating is pretty, it's a little tougher on your lands and grooves. I use plain brass that is fully annealed, and then formed. Longer barrel life that way.

I use a pristine (never been used for lead) Lee dipper style casting pot for the annealing. Get it glowing for about 10 minutes, than drop into a bucket with water to cool down enough to handle. Then SS pin tumbled to get that scale and crap off the cases prior to doing my swaging.

I also make bazillions (that is a word, right?) of 45 acp bullets, made from .40 S&W cases as the donor jackets. My target weight for those is 230 grains. Same process, anneal, SS pin clean, and then swaging operations.

BTW, get yourself one of Chuckbuster's Cannelure tools (he's a vendor sponsor at castboolits). He calls it the UCT. It does sweet work of making a nice cannelure for crimping your swaged bullets into. I was involved in the original design of his cannelure tool, and can tell you it beats anything else out there on the market.
Link: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/foru...06-Chuckbuster

Today I'm swaging 40S&W 185 xtp jhp's using some 9mm brass that have about 10 reloads on them. I got about 100 done and my goal is 500 due to the fact I'm completely out of 40S&W bullets. I also have some 380's that I may still use the 125gr lead bullet and produce some hp's that have a lead tip exposed and be a few grains lighter than 185.

I've been doing these particular boolits for about 10 years now and they hit like a mule on pcp. I'm using an old CH swage die...but also using a BTSniper cup base, BTSniper XTP die, a Lee Die converted to a seater die...and a Lee Die converted to dome over the XTP cut to soften the edges. I may...or may not use the cannaeure tool to make them look cool. I use a Hornady taper crimp die after loading to smooth out the mouth flaring for guaranteeing proper function in my semi auto.

It is a lot of work...but fun and rewarding...those that do this type of stuff understand.

[b2lee]

I have an old CH Cannelure Tool that I use. The Chuckbuster looks better.

I anneal the same way...with my second Lee pot. I was using a fireplace popcorn popper for the longest time.

On cutting down the 9mm brass...what kind of jig do you use to cut it down with? Something like the one we all use to cut 5.56 brass down to 300blk? I've been wanting to do that since the 185's take up so much of my case capacity and I have to really mindful of my charge weights.

Also, I need to get me a 40S&W to 45ACP die...been wanting one for years but other projects get in the way.

I have a set of Corbin dies for making 22lr into 5.56 projectiles. And yes...I made a Bazillion of those.

[Mbaker78]

Duke, a neat little caveat to those weights is that I have a load worked up using the exact same charge of HP-38 for both the 165gr 40 and the 230gr 45. Mind you, this is with xtreme HPs though, so it might be different. Just thought I’d point it out

[b2lee]

Since it was raining all day....on my day off....I decided to pour some 230gr 45ACP semi wadcutters....new mold...took about 10 pours to get them looking good...but they turned out great....going to powder coat them and load them up tomorrow...only did about 300...my attention span went away and went on to do something else....SQUIRREL!!! ...and I'm gone...heh