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What did you do today in the world of reloading?

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  • Mills

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    I have had a box of bullets that have to be 25 years old.
    So today was the day they went under the Blue.
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    Hurley's Gold
     

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    c.tiberius

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    Apr 28, 2015
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    I've been trying some different powders.
    Now I just need to find time and go shoot them.
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    Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk
     

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    rotor

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    My moto as a retired person is one project a day, or less. Today was setting the dies for 9mm LeHigh defense 90 gr. You guys do so much more in one day. Well, we have a bunch of stay home days coming.
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    Dancing Heretik

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    You laugh, but that will work. I've been using ultrasonics for years and the brass doesn't always come out as shiny as dry tumblers, but it's clean and it shoots. The magic is dawn and lemishine.
    Those two along with boiling water in a cheap harbor Freight rock tumbler and NO pins does wonders and is cheap. No pins to lose, sort, filter, or buy.
    That bright shiny brass that comes from wet tumbling is harder to reload than the not so shiny brass that comes from my vibrating tumblers.
    Because perfectly clean brass grabs the heck out of your dies. Go size a handful of super clean brass versus picked up OF brass with no cleaning. OF uncleaned will be easier to size and will not exhibit any sticking. Same with crimping, go put a real crimp on some super clean, ie like new brass, and a few hundred in your die will be sticking and you will have a beautiful brass ring to remove from your die. There will be a nice pop every piece as it struggles to release from your die.

    Carbon acts like a lubricant, remove it and things get sticky quick. Maybe you won't see it if you run 100 pieces but run a few thousand and you notice real quick.
    I always resize prior to cleaning. I did it because I like my loaded ammo to not have scratches on it, nice and shiny. Funny, yesterday I introduced a friend to reloading and he had polished his brass before resizing. It was harder to resize those rifle brass than what I usually encounter.
    I like trying new techniques so for my 6BR I used a benchrest method. I clean out the primer pocket, wipe down the outside with a rag and Balistol, and size without the expander. Then I wipe it with a dry rag and run a brush though the neck before running a mandrel to expand. Ready to load!

    It works great for the low volume shooting I do with that single-shot.
    So many possibilities, so many choices. I think I'm leaning towards the 'benchrest' method.

    If just dry vibrate, there's a lot of lead left in the media being reused over and over again. If wet tumble, problems with using in press.

    Whatever I choose, I'll probably never clean more than 100 at a time. At least, not in the near future.
     

    rp-

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    I'm guessing with your calibers you won't be shooting 1000 rounds a month so a $30 Frankford Arsenal tumbler is probably more than enough for your needs. Media lasts a long time and it's in the box already so you don't have to buy it.

    Sent from my LM-G820 using Tapatalk
     

    Deavis

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    Good info. I was mostly wanting something bigger. I have the small FA tumbler now and I only do about 200 223 at a time. Maybe 500 9mm at a time. Then there's all the sifting and dust. I figured the wet tumbler might be a little easier and no dust. I'm not worried about drying or draining if I can do more at once and do them in less time. Maybe I'll have to look into a quick dry tumble before sizing and then wet tumbler after to get rid of the lube and clean them up better.

    I've seen a couple people on Facebook talking about tumbling without pins, just soap and water. I've also seen some posts about using steel chips instead of pins. Anyone have input on either of those options?

    Sent from my LM-G820 using Tapatalk

    Pins are great, they burnish the casings so well and clean out the primer pocket too. However, you have to deal with pins and no matter how hard you try to keep them out you are bound to have one carry over. It's not a big deal and on a small scale, whoopie... but in a large scale it is absolutely devastating to productivity.

    Part on part will give you great looking brass on the outside and clean enough brass on the inside. Plus you can run way more brass in the tumbler than with pins. The key is choosing a good compound. Everyone in reloading is cheap so dawn and lemishine or whatever internet concoction you fancy will work in part on part just as well as with pins, chips, or in an ultrasonic (the worst of the three, I think). Better solution, literally, is to go buy a gallon of commercial burnishing solution. You will laugh at the internet concotions when in 5-10 minutes your brass is gleaming, tarnish resistant, and never turns pink with less than an ounce of burnishing solution.
     

    SQLGeek

    Muh state lines
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    @Deavis what is your preferred method for cleaning large quantities of brass?

    I am still trying to pick between wet and dry tumbling and the issue of brass being too clean never occurred to me but it makes sense.
     

    avvidclif

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    A cement mixer works great for tumbling brass, kinda noisy, but works. Walnut hulls, a couple of ounces of chrome polish thinned with gas. Sure makes it pretty.

    On another subject. I have an RCBS 9mm carbide die and decapper. The pin in the decapper is marginally long enough to decap abt 90%. The other 10% needs a longer decapping pin I adjust it down long enough to push the primer out the next case the pin holder bottoms on the case. Kinda knocks a hole in reloading speed. Thinking seriously about a different brand of die.
     
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    Jakashh

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    Made 51 rds of 38 special.

    148 gr HBWC over 2.7 gr of titegroup.

    Might need to re-up on small magnum primers soon. Never had much on hand since I rarely do this.

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    Steven Walker

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    Aug 14, 2017
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    Setup Lee APP. Use for depriving and then in the wet tumbler. Prepped 500 .44 Magnum Brass.
    Waiting on the rain to move forward.
    Loaded 500 .45 ACP yesterday. Bought Powder and Bullets locally. Ready for some quality time in the Shop.
     

    TheMailMan

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    A cement mixer works great for tumbling brass, kinda noisy, but works. Walnut hulls, a couple of ounces of chrome polish thinned with gas. Sure makes it pretty.

    On another subject. I have an RCBS 9mm carbide die and decapper. The pin in the decapper is marginally long enough to decap abt 90%. The other 10% needs a longer decapping pin I adjust it down long enough to push the primer out the next case the pin holder bottoms on the case. Kinda knocks a hole in reloading speed. Thinking seriously about a different brand of die.

    Dillon. The decapping pin sticks out so far you'd think it was designed by John Holmes.
     

    rp-

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    A cement mixer works great for tumbling brass, kinda noisy, but works. Walnut hulls, a couple of ounces of chrome polish thinned with gas. Sure makes it pretty.

    On another subject. I have an RCBS 9mm carbide die and decapper. The pin in the decapper is marginally long enough to decap abt 90%. The other 10% needs a longer decapping pin I adjust it down long enough to push the primer out the next case the pin holder bottoms on the case. Kinda knocks a hole in reloading speed. Thinking seriously about a different brand of die.
    Never heard of this before. I have done at least 6k on the 9mm Lee die. Only problem I've ever had was my arm getting tired.

    Been processing 223 on the Frankford machine a few nights this week. I can get 100 or so done in a sitting before my fingers hurt. While I don't think it's really any faster than doing things 1 process at a time with a drill, I do like that each case is completely prepped before I start the next one. I may try to trim some with the WCT and then finish them later on the prep machine but I don't think it'll be any faster.

    Everytime I process 223 brass I'm thinking more and more about driving up to Deavis and paying him to run it through his machine

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    Jakashh

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    Magnum primers for 38 Special? It doesn't hurt anything but is unnecessary.

    May be easier to find though.

    I always use standard primers.

    I bought them for 357 mag when I had a gun that shot it at the time. Don’t have that gun anymore, just a 38, so I use it for this now.

    Plus I think it’s all gander mtn had 4 or 5 years ago lol.
     

    SQLGeek

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    Small pistol primers seem pretty hard to find right now. They can be had but you'll need to do some shopping around.

    I picked a fine time to try and start doing 357.

    Actually found my reloading bench today. Might try and get some .45 done tomorrow.
     

    Dancing Heretik

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    Aug 8, 2018
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    The good news is that we put in an offer on a house that has a garage with a little cubby/room big enough to have a dedicated reloading area. Crossing my fingers.

    The bad news is that Fedex has been holding some of our packages (including my Hand Press). One of the people at Fedex doesn't seem to realize that we are Essential/Open for Business.

    They're supposed to be checking on it. So, hopefully Tuesday we'll be getting a bunch of packages that have been missing.
     
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    GasGuzzler

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    I cast about 150 Lee 452-255-RF (weigh in at about 261-262) for my .45C Uberti Cimarron Evil Roy. Even ran them through my LAM II with a .454 die and home made lube then coated them with BLL. After that I made a run of Lee 312-155-2R for use in 7.62X39. I have gas checks for them but did not install them as my only sizer die is .310" and I'd like to use a .311" ... that I must order.

    I'm contemplating selling off my PID controlled LAM and dies in favor of the Lee APP but that means I'll have to go to all tumble lube (meaning some new molds) or start powder coating.

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