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

[Mbaker78]

mbaker, i have the same problem, i go to the range with ammo and come back with a bucket of empty brass, LOL. i have loaded the 9 and 45 CCI aluminum cases to see the feasability, they work fine for cast bullets, dont know if id make factory charges with jacketed in them, but figured i could down load them for subs . years ago, i did a torture test of the boxer primed wolf 45 cases, i loaded and shot them, got to 7 reloads and gave up. i still had the original 25 test subjects. i didnt lose any in the test, so they are a good cantidate

with the 550, i used to do runs of at least 1k at a shot for the common stuff 9,45,223,308,and B/0. i hope to up that with my new 650, i just loaded up 50 9mm test rounds in less than 5 minutes with the lee 120g tc bullet with 2 different charges of unique, 4 and 4.5g to see if my various 9 mils like it

i use a concrete mixer to wet tumble brass, i do about 3k 9mm or 2k 223 at a shot since i dont wanna overload it. if i put too much in, the dawn foams too much and comes over the lip, so i use a small rubbermaid tote to catch any "burps". i have reduced what i use to a teaspoon and a partial teaspoon of lemishine per run

You run much larger batches than I do... I’m lucky to be able to buy 500 bullets for a given caliber at a time, but that should improve once I get a space in the garage set up to cast. I’ll tumble somewhere around 1000 40 or 45 cases, 750 or so 223, and maybe 800 300aac at a time. But I only use a frankford arsenal wet tumbler.

[Danth]

Picked up a bunch of 308 at the range and found them to be Berdan primed. Excellent opportunity to try out converting to Boxer. First swaged the bases and formed into 6,5 x 50. Next built a Berdan tool to extract primer. Tomorrow will drill cases to take primer punch, seat bushing in primer pocket, swage bushing to accept small rifle primer. A lot of work, but just want to try something new.

[b2lee]

What a wonderful day in the reloading room. Got everything all nice and tidy for a change. Loaded up 250 300blk using 150 plated flat nose/base and 250 with the lee 230gr boolit powder coated. Going to shoot both suppressed. I've shot the 230gr ones earlier this year and I asked the hog if it was a good boolit...but the guy just wouldn't talk. Interested in seeing how the 150gr plated do, but again...I don't think the hogs will be very helpful...atleast not verbally.

[Mbaker78]

What a wonderful day in the reloading room. Got everything all nice and tidy for a change. Loaded up 250 300blk using 150 plated flat nose/base and 250 with the lee 230gr boolit powder coated. Going to shoot both suppressed. I've shot the 230gr ones earlier this year and I asked the hog if it was a good boolit...but the guy just wouldn't talk. Interested in seeing how the 150gr plated do, but again...I don't think the hogs will be very helpful...atleast not verbally.

Are you loading the 150s subsonic? What’s your preferred load, if you don’t mind sharing.

[b2lee]

Are you loading the 150s subsonic? What’s your preferred load, if you don’t mind sharing.

I'm running Lil'gun in a pistol length adjustable gas system. I ran the load down as far as I could go without keyholeing at 100 yards. I get a slight keyhole at 200 yards.

Normally I run the 150's at 1850ft/s with Lil'gun but I wanted to play with a light weight subsonic that would cycle...but this gun will cycle a sneeze it seems.

I'll probably shoot the light weights on some coyotes and see what the data says on some meat targets

[lightman]

Wasn't planning on doing anything but I came home with a tub of range brass. So, I'm sorting and resizing brass!

[Mtman314]

Picked up brass Sunday. Sorted it that night. Got to bed at 1 am. Monday evening I made it back in and started tumbling a gallon bag of 223. Pulled that and tumbled 3/4 a gallon bag of 45 acp. Resized the 223. Put 223 back in and sized the 45 acp. Got to bed at 1. Was asked if I had a gf down there. Answered could all be. Got up this morning a fired up the tumbler. Will size and tumble as I go. Until my buddy calls. Gotta make the tools to scrape and tan two deer hides today.

[b2lee]

So I got some 308 brass in from a trade yesterday. I deprimed, I swaged the primer pocket...I full length sized....I trimmed...I chamfered...I deburred...then I stuck them in the wet tumble and got them shiny as can be...I put them in the food dehydrator and got them all nice and dry....I primed them....I reached for the Varget...DOH!!!! I'm out.

I drove around today and couldn't find anything to reload 308 with, much less Varget. Guess I'll put in an order on powder valley and wait all week

Guess today I'll just finish up the 40S&W I got in...already deprimed, washed and dried...throw them in the Hornady LNL and bust out a 1000 real quick...I don't think I'll run out of pistol powder in the next 10 years...but I can't keep Varget on hand to save my life.

[Pacomdiver]

B2lee,
where are you located? i see varget and a good assortment of powders at all my local shows. one of my local shops has it but more expensive than the shows

[b2lee]

I'm in Northern Kentucky

[lightman]

Have not done anything in a few days. Trying to keep this thread alive. I sorted 1-1/2 buckets of wheel weights last Tuesday and have not been able to stand up since then. Guess I sat hunched over on a plastic milk crate for too long. Danged ole wore out back! The good news is that if feels more like a sore muscle than a pinched nerve. More good news was that the lead to junk ratio seems to be holding up pretty well around here. I estimate 75-80% lead out of these buckets. And the steel weights seem to be taking over from the zinc which I see as a good thing.

[b2lee]

Well...in the middle of a Severe Weather Alert here in Northern Kentucky I decided I would continue reloading some 40S&W. I get everything together and before I pour powder in the hopper I notice I have ZERO small pistol primers....WTF? So I drive 15mins up the road to Field & Stream because at 7:30pm who else is open? They were sold out of only small pistol primer but they had large and rifle...but I have enough of those. They had a sale on some 12ga for clays and some 500bricks of 22lr so picked up a few of each.

Got to the parking lot and decided...what the heck...I'm already 1/3rd of the way there...so I drive 30miles north to the Cabela's on the North side of Cincinnati, OH. Snowing like a mofo...but I get there and not only did they have a ton of primers...but they had 4lbs of Varget as well....Sorry to anyone else looking for Varget this week...I bought them all....a few other goodies in the cart and headed home....only took 37mins vs the normal 35mins to get home....everyone was well behaved and driving a decent safe speed on I-75.

Now...time to go reload some 40S&W and tomorrow it will be 45ACP and maybe some 5.56.

[Mbaker78]

I’ve been to that very cabelas, I’m just another hour north of there, they probably had more in stock but they’re only allowed to put so many cans out front for whatever reason.

How much snow did you end up getting? We got roughly 6” just north of Dayton.

[b2lee]

We got maybe 4 inches...then the rain set in and washed away most....then it snowed another inch over night....very disappointing.

[Mbaker78]

Its about perfect here now, the roads are clear but the rest of the ground is nicely covered.

[lightman]

Weighing the wheels for a Pinewood Derby car! Guess what time of the year it is?

[Mbaker78]

I still have a couple of my pinewood derby cars from probably 30 years ago.

[lightman]

Me and the Boys have had a few winners over the years. My oldest Son is a Scout Leader now. And WOW, things have really changed. An aluminum track, electric release, a light tree like you see at the drag strip, remote control, electronic finish line. Its even connected to a lap top and displays times and speeds projected on the wall. I built the wood track that we used, had a manual trigger to release the cars and had 2 spotters at the finish line. Brings back good memories. Youtube has really caused the cars builds to become advanced too!

Ok, back to reloading.

[b2lee]

After receiving some brass in the mail from several of you fine gentlemen this week.

Today I processed 5.56, 300blk, 45ACP, 40S&W and 308.

1. De-primed and wet tumbled All
2. Primer pocket swaged the 5.56, 300blk and the 308.
3. Resized the 5.56, 300blk and the 308.
4. Trimmed,deburred, chamfered the 5.56 and 308....get the 300blk tomorrow...using a drill press and a Little Crow Gun Works WFT.
5. Primed and loaded the 308 including a taper crimp. 175gr smk with Varget
6. Ran all 308 through a case gauge.
7. Loaded another 500+ 40S&W in the Hornady LNL AP.
8. Seperate factory crimp die on the 40S&W on the RCBS IV.
9. Checked all 40S&W in a Shockbottle case gauge 100 at a time.
10. Took down 2 40S&W that didn't pass QC at the end.

Tomorrow....maybe I'll get a little more serious and get something done

[SafetyJoe]

What are you using to swage the brass with? Are you using a dillon super swage or the hornady LNL swager?

After receiving some brass in the mail from several of you fine gentlemen this week.

Today I processed 5.56, 300blk, 45ACP, 40S&W and 308.

1. De-primed and wet tumbled All
2. Primer pocket swaged the 5.56, 300blk and the 308.
3. Resized the 5.56, 300blk and the 308.
4. Trimmed,deburred, chamfered the 5.56 and 308....get the 300blk tomorrow...using a drill press and a Little Crow Gun Works WFT.
5. Primed and loaded the 308 including a taper crimp. 175gr smk with Varget
6. Ran all 308 through a case gauge.
7. Loaded another 500+ 40S&W in the Hornady LNL AP.
8. Seperate factory crimp die on the 40S&W on the RCBS IV.
9. Checked all 40S&W in a Shockbottle case gauge 100 at a time.
10. Took down 2 40S&W that didn't pass QC at the end.

Tomorrow....maybe I'll get a little more serious and get something done