Had 12 6 round moon clips for my new 10mm revolver, so I made 72 rounds of some pretty stiff 10mm loads and filled them all.
Had 12 6 round moon clips for my new 10mm revolver, so I made 72 rounds of some pretty stiff 10mm loads and filled them all.
Finished loading the box of 230gr Xtreme HP bullets (roughly 300), then switched the press over to blackout and loaded up 90 rounds of 240gr subs. I think tonight I’ll load up some 458 socom and see if I can get some of the bugs worked out on that upper.
I’m planning a range trip next week, should be decent weather, maybe my new scope will be in before then.
I have about 5 guns that need to be sited in, including the new Ruger. Just can't seem to find the time. Between doctor visits of mine, taking my mom to hers, and an attack of sciatica, I just can't seem to get out to the range.
Today was the first real range trip I’ve had this year... I burned through a lot of ammo...
Went to the range and burned up a bunch of 10mm and 223 and spent yesterday loading 300 223 75 grain bullets. Today is 10mm for loading between visits to the hospital.
Loaded 200 10mm today. The primer stud on the 550 broke so I guess I will be loading 300 blackout for the rest of the day. I called Dillon and they are sending the part plus a couple of extras. I can't complain the machine has been working for the last 18 years.
I love my 550. It's not the fastest but it works well for me.
Got a PID controller for my RCBS Pro Melt casting pot. Running it through it's "auto tune" function, whereby it checks to see what kind of amperage it needs to most accurately control the Pro Melt. It does that by bringing the pot up to it's set temperature, and then down to room temperature, THREE TIMES! Glad I only had the pot half full of alloy. The heating portion goes fast, and is quite accurate. However, the cooling down part if painfully slow. Wish this was winter here in Florida, instead of SUMMER. I have a small fan blowing on the pot to assist with the cooling rate. The room is up to 92 degrees. Wowser. And, I still have another whole cycle to get through.
When the controller gets tuned to the pot, I'll be able to start an Excel spreadsheet, by mold, and document the exact proper operating temperature. By setting that on the controller for each mold, I should be able to eliminate the trial and error setup every time I run alloy through a different mold. Been drooling forever to get one of these, and this one is an excellent one. I got it in a Group Buy at our sister forum, CastBoolits.gunloads.com. The price was right, and the quality of the workmanship is par none.
If you find yourself needing/wanting a PID controller for your casting pot, contact HATCH at CastBoolits:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/foru...TCH-Automation
Administrator - Ammo Brass Trader
NRA Life Member
NRA Certified Metallic Cartridge Reloading Instructor
Author of a book on reloading
ILSA MEMBER http://www.internationallawnsteelsho...ssociation.com
NRA RANGE SAFETY OFFICER
Not just today, but this week I resized about 700 223/5.56 cases, swaged the primer pockets and trimmed them. Today they are getting tumbled and hopefully tomorrow I will load them.
Just about every week, sometimes every day, I'm going thru my brass stash and depriming, sorting and tumbling cases. This batch of 223's is for a Prairie Dog shoot!
I am still waiting to get over another aspiration pneumonia that I picked up...AGAIN! I almost feel like I can make it to the range and not cough my lungs out, but I still have no energy to like walk out and post some targets. Dang it, I have a new 10mm revolver for 3 weeks now, and I STILL haven't even fired it! I have like 3 pistols with scopes I need to zero in. All my reloading is all caught up, I need to make me a BIG old pile of empties to process.
Sorry to hear that you are under the weather. Hope you get back on your feet soon and to the range.
The brass fairy made a visit to me today. I was cleaning out my car trunk and I came across a bag of 100 PRVI Partizan .303 Brit cases. I have NO idea why they were there or where they came from. Anyways I decapped them all and threw them in the wet rotary tumbler. They are cleaning up now.
I was thinking I may feel good enough to finally get my butt to the range, when I looked at the weather prediction. Heavy thunderstorms tomorrow, Wed., Thurs. Fri. and Saturday. Ya win some, ya lose some.
Cappie, you are getting old and forgetful!
At least I REACHED old to get to forgetful!
Continuing to swap out my cardboard boxes of reloads to plastic cases. Wideners just had a sale on plastic cases so I just got of box of new ones in. Continuing to final process my mystery .303 Brit cases by trimming them all to length, and chamfering inside and out.
Spent the last three days making an Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet for all my reloading. Got tired of trying to remember which manual had what recipe with this weight projectile and this powder. Finished up the rifle, and got to 10mm on pistol. It's been a LONG time since I created a data base and it's taking me way longer than it should. I should finish it all by today. So instead of searching for the manual it will all be in one three ring binder.
In the very early 1970's, when I first started reloading, I had all sorts of sheets of paper tucked in my reloading books. Was always seemingly losing them.
A few years ago, I dug them all out, and correlated them by dates, and built an Excel spreadsheet for the exact same purpose that you did. I have included formulas for doing standard deviations on velocities for those times when I am seeking specific velocities. Other times, I have lots of comment tags for my load development for rifle cartridges to go with specific rifle barrels. I make new entries every time I reload a cartridge, even if it is a dupe of something I did just a few months earlier. That way, I have documented every single reload session.
I just recently also build a separate spreadsheet for my entire gun collection. As I get older, I am sure it will someday help my family deal with my massive collection, especially military vintage rifles. I have included comments about how I came to own the various guns, modifications (if any) that I have made to them, reload guidance (I do a lot of cast boolits for rifles and pistols) pointing to the excel spreadsheet for that, and advice on what I think the gun is worth (should my kids decide to part company with any of these fine guns. It would also serve to help with any insurance claims or loss of any type. I am adding images of the guns, including closeups of serial numbers. All of this easy to do in an excel spreadsheet.
Also, recently, with my acquisition of a PID controller for my casting pot (as previously reported), I have also built a new Excel spreadsheet for PID controller settings. That is going to save me a ton of time when casting!
I'm happy to hear that you have done the right thing. For those less Excel friendly, you can do the same thing in a three ring binder. Have a tab for every caliber, and start documenting your reload sessions. Tape smaller sheets onto the appropriate areas to add detail to any reload data that requires it.
And, most importantly, refer to your documented reload data when you begin your next reload session. No need to reinvent wheels or make reloading mistakes.
Administrator - Ammo Brass Trader
NRA Life Member
NRA Certified Metallic Cartridge Reloading Instructor
Author of a book on reloading
ILSA MEMBER http://www.internationallawnsteelsho...ssociation.com
NRA RANGE SAFETY OFFICER
Spmewhere I downoaded a phone app that is basically a gun DB, It has what gun, what caliber, serial numbers, where bought, final dispositions if they were sold, traded, gifted, stolen, or lost. I haven't started using it yet but it looks kind of cool. Finsished all my Excel data bases. I mean dudes, it's been so long since I made one it was almost learning how to do it again. So I have been continuing swapping out my cardboard boxes of reloads for plastic ones. I still have ammo I made in 2006. (I went a little overboard making my practice .357 magnum .38 special DEWC loads.}
Last edited by gandog56; 05-30-2018 at 05:26 PM.
All my "high volume" ammo goes right into ARMY type ammo boxes, BULK. 380 auto, 9mm, 38 Specials, 357 Magnums, 44 Specials, 44 Magnums, 357 Sig, .40 S&W, 45 ACP, 223 Rem (on stripper clips), 300 Blackout (also on stripper clips), etc, etc, etc. . I have dozens of easier to handle BULK boxes of ammo that I can take to the gun range. Nothing more sad than feeding a semi auto, and emptying a 50 box in three mags!
The only stuff that goes into plastic boxes are the specialties: 25 ACP, and all the custom matched ammo that is load developed for specific handguns and rifles.
Administrator - Ammo Brass Trader
NRA Life Member
NRA Certified Metallic Cartridge Reloading Instructor
Author of a book on reloading
ILSA MEMBER http://www.internationallawnsteelsho...ssociation.com
NRA RANGE SAFETY OFFICER
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |