Quote Originally Posted by Pacomdiver View Post
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.