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

[blackhawk357]

some I loaded this week for a friend. I have found them to be extremely accurate out of a model 29-2 three inch barrel.

[SafetyJoe]

Unique is one of my favorite powders for my cast lead bullets. It seems to be accurate for a lot of different calibers I've tried. Examples are 357 mag, 44 mag and even 308 winchester. When it comes to 308 win between 13 and 15 grains using 130 to 150 grain cast lead bullets gives me very good accuracy using my TC Compass bolt gun.

For 357 mag and 44 mag in a lever action you get decent velocity which usually increases the efficiency in terms of kinetic energy per grain of gun powder used. Many bottle neck calibers like 223 or 308 loaded with jacketed bullets pushing at or near their typical factory loadings for velocity only give you around 50 ft lbs muzzle energy per grain of gun powder used, but a 357 mag or 44 mag 16" carbine using unique powder can give you around 100 ft lbs muzzle energy per grain of gun powder. That's twice the kinetic efficiency.

[seeker]

Finished sorting by head stamp a bunch of 38 special & 45acp brass that's listed on my trading post. Now I'm doing the final inspection on 8000+ pcs of nickel plated 40 s&w brass I'm wanting to get rid of.

Seems like the public shooting range I go to has been very slow for activity this year. I'm thinking it's because of inflation and the bad economy. Most people don't have enough extra cash to spend on shooting guns. If I had to guess it seems like it's been about 50% less brass I've been getting this year.

The only brass I have been finding is steel cases.
The loading room...? I've been playing with 45-70 all summer. With the price of Varget at $59.99 the last time I visited the lgs, I've been working on more economical loads. I found data for pistol powders that shoot great. I have 3#s of Bullseye and I have 2 loads that shoot same POE. 12 grs. behind a 405gr. cast and 11.5 behind a 340 gr. cast. I have a lifetime supply of lead, I cast my own and I shoot my Henry a lot. I'm having a blast.

[SafetyJoe]

The only brass I have been finding is steel cases.
The loading room...? I've been playing with 45-70 all summer. With the price of Varget at $59.99 the last time I visited the lgs, I've been working on more economical loads. I found data for pistol powders that shoot great. I have 3#s of Bullseye and I have 2 loads that shoot same POE. 12 grs. behind a 405gr. cast and 11.5 behind a 340 gr. cast. I have a lifetime supply of lead, I cast my own and I shoot my Henry a lot. I'm having a blast.

Yeah, I've pretty much been doing the same thing. Except I use the software program called quickload o my desktop computer to calculate the data for load data that can't be found published anywhere. If you give me the specifics for the bullets you use and the powders you have I can run the data in the program to see what it says. I need to know bullet weight, bullet length, case length, COAL, case capacity in terms of grains of water and barrel length.
Results will look something like this 45-70 Govt - Bullseye - 405.jpg

[seeker]

Yeah, I've pretty much been doing the same thing. Except I use the software program called quickload o my desktop computer to calculate the data for load data that can't be found published anywhere. If you give me the specifics for the bullets you use and the powders you have I can run the data in the program to see what it says. I need to know bullet weight, bullet length, case length, COAL, case capacity in terms of grains of water and barrel length.
Results will look something like this 45-70 Govt - Bullseye - 405.jpg

Much appreciated.
Bullet weight- 425gr. RCBS 45-405-FN coww
Bullet length-1.0725
case length-2.0920
COAL- 2.51
Case capacity- 77.5 gr. water
Barrel length- 18.43"


Bullet weight-347gr. Lee 457-340-F
Bullet length- 0.8735
Case length- 2.0920
COAL2.5270
Case capacity- 77.5gr. water
Barrel length-18.43"
Thanks a lot, I sure do appreciate this. Have a great evening. G.

[SafetyJoe]

Besides Bullseye powder what other powders do you want to try?


With the RCBS bullet 11.5 grains is the beginning of the yellow zone for pressure at 21,273psi. 12.4 grains is the beginning of the purple pressure zone. 13.6 grains is the max charge at 27,903 psi.

Here's what the 12.4 grains looks like
45-70 Govt - Bullseye - 425.jpg

With the Lee bullet 13.6 grains is the beginning of the yellow zone for pressure at 21,129psi. 14.7 grains puts you at the beginning of the purple pressure zone. 16.1 grains is the max charge at 27,812psi.

Here's what the 14.7 grains looks like.
45-70 Govt - Bullseye - 347.jpg

Not sure why the 14.6 grain chart is still showing up below in this post after I deleted it so just ignore that one.

[Happyguy]

BE 86, a great 10mm powder.

[seeker]

Besides Bullseye powder what other powders do you want to try?


With the RCBS bullet 11.5 grains is the beginning of the yellow zone for pressure at 21,273psi. 12.4 grains is the beginning of the purple pressure zone. 13.6 grains is the max charge at 27,903 psi.

Here's what the 12.4 grains looks like
45-70 Govt - Bullseye - 425.jpg

With the Lee bullet 13.6 grains is the beginning of the yellow zone for pressure at 21,129psi. 14.7 grains puts you at the beginning of the purple pressure zone. 16.1 grains is the max charge at 27,812psi.

Here's what the 14.7 grains looks like.
45-70 Govt - Bullseye - 347.jpg

Not sure why the 14.6 grain chart is still showing up below in this post after I deleted it so just ignore that one.

Much appreciated Safety Joe. Excuse my ignorance but can you please explain "Yellow Zone" and "Purple Zone" I'm thinking start and mid range loads? Bullseye is working real well. I have lots of pistol powders but the only other one I have been curious about is BE-86, which really doesn't have much data outside of Alliant's published data. Even that doesn't have much variance. I like it for 45 Colt but my go to 45 colt powder is 2400. I have a couple of pounds BE-86 in the cupboard and haven't touched it in awhile.

[SafetyJoe]

Much appreciated Safety Joe. Excuse my ignorance but can you please explain "Yellow Zone" and "Purple Zone" I'm thinking start and mid range loads? Bullseye is working real well. I have lots of pistol powders but the only other one I have been curious about is BE-86, which really doesn't have much data outside of Alliant's published data. Even that doesn't have much variance. I like it for 45 Colt but my go to 45 colt powder is 2400. I have a couple of pounds BE-86 in the cupboard and haven't touched it in awhile.

Yeah, starting loads are in the beginning of the yellow zone, purple is mid range and red is the no go above max pressure zone. BE-86 isn't one of the powders listed in quickload. There's a few other powders they don't list like 700x and 800x because the variations from one lot of powder to the next is too much for them to consider it consistent so they don't list those powders. Maybe that's the case with BE-86 or maybe it's not listed because my version of quickload is an older version that came out before BE-86 was introduced.

[lightman]

I started the day by shooting my muzzle loader and then cleaning it. Then I had my youngest Son and 2 of the Grandsons over to load them some 308's for the up-coming Deer Season.

Its good to see you guys posting!

[seeker]

Yeah, starting loads are in the beginning of the yellow zone, purple is mid range and red is the no go above max pressure zone. BE-86 isn't one of the powders listed in quickload. There's a few other powders they don't list like 700x and 800x because the variations from one lot of powder to the next is too much for them to consider it consistent so they don't list those powders. Maybe that's the case with BE-86 or maybe it's not listed because my version of quickload is an older version that came out before BE-86 was introduced.

That's probably it. I'm really happy with these Bullseye loads. Not only because they are so accurate but I have 3 pounds of the stuff and I can get a lot more bang for my buck than I can with rifle powder at what it costs these days. Best to you. G.

[lightman]

A buddy and I made the rounds of most of the local shooting places last week and picked up some brass. But not as much as I expected. I guess the cost of ammo has peoples shooting slowed down.

Most of this brass had been wet and had lots of grass and stuff stuck to it. So I started out washing it, then drying it, then depriming it.

I'll tumble it after the 1st of the year and make some additions to my trade list!