What did you do today in the world of reloading?

[Polkwright]

I decided to ignore all the other stuff I have going on and finish loading all those .38 HBWCs. I've managed to shoot 200 of them before I could finish loading them but here's a stack of 800. The cool thing is they are so short they actually fit better in 9mm boxes than they do the .38 boxes. I've got some more boxes somewhere. I'll have to look again. After I finished I cleaned up the press and the dies. I'm afraid I've been spoiled by coated bullets. Those lead HBWCs are filthy. I think I'll try some more coated WCs. Acme has one with no lube groove that I've shot a few of.

On a sadder note, I lost an old friend today. My original brass-tipped Dillon primer pickup tube I got over 40 years ago with my first RL450 gave up the ghost. I think the plastic expanded. I kept having primers getting sideways in the tube and jamming things up. I ordered some of the new Dillon ones. I'm not impressed. They give you spare parts with them. That's not a good sign. Oh well. Via con dios amigo. Thanks for all the reloads.

 

[deemus]

I like those wadcutters. I have about 200 loaded rounds left, which is the last of the box I bought many moons ago.

 

[Polkwright]

I like those wadcutters. I have about 200 loaded rounds left, which is the last of the box I bought many moons ago.

I happened to run into one of the empty ammo boxes that I last used with my previous batch. It still had the label. It was dated 2017! They were the Hornady HBWCs.

 

[xkon]

I've been using the newer dillon pickup tubes like you just ordered for awhile. They work, but the plastic end caps do leave a bit to be desired. The plastic feed/retaining lips can be a bit finicky if they get bent on both the pick up tubes and the feed tubes for the presses. Probably why Dillon includes the spares

 

[Txmark]

I've been using the newer dillon pickup tubes like you just ordered for awhile. They work, but the plastic end caps do leave a bit to be desired. The plastic feed/retaining lips can be a bit finicky if they get bent on both the pick up tubes and the feed tubes for the presses. Probably why Dillon includes the spares

I’ve been using this versus the Dillon tubes. It works pretty well and speeds up the tedious process of picking up primers. I bought mine at Cabelas, but Amazon has them too.


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[Polkwright]

I’ve been using this versus the Dillon tubes. It works pretty well and speeds up the tedious process of picking up primers. I bought mine at Cabelas, but Amazon has them too.


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I've seen those but I'm not in that big of a hurry. I like the break from the monotony of running the press. Hell, I still use the manual primer feed from my 450 so I guess I don't deal with change well. Or I'm cheap. Or both. I did do the frame upgrade. Not that much left of the 450. The ram, the handle. The lower piece between the swing arms. I wore out the 450 swing arms and just replaced them a couple of months ago. If the manual primer feed ever breaks they don't have parts anymore. I do have a spare from 450 #2 which I sold without a priming system after I did the frame upgrade.

I know a lot of guys buy multiple machines but I only shoot 400 rounds a month. I tend to buy 1,000 bullets and load them all. Once I get stocked up on ammo I just stop reloading for a while. I honestly don't enjoy it much but in my view it's necessary for a variety of reasons. The biggest one being continuity of supply. I've been shooting the same loads for 40+ years.

So I've got a weird looking Dillon because a lot of it is old.

 

[Coon]

I finally got my act together and put the Hornady to work. I loaded about 500 .45. autos with 230 gr. FMJs over 7.4 grs. of Win. 244. Just a plinking load, but I’ve been lazy about doing it.

 

[rp-]

Sild a pair of presses to another member. Just ordered the lee 6 station progressive press, a couple shellplates, dies, and a bullet feeder. Looking to simplify my process for handgun loading while adding bullet feed and an M-die into the process.

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[rp-]

I received the new 6 station press yesterday and set it up with the bullet feeder and case feeder. Tonight I'll give it a small run and see how it does. I gotta say I'm impressed with the bullet feeder. Very simple design bit works great so far in testing.

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[c.tiberius]

Playing with subsonic 7.62x39
50 yards groups and velocity.
Gotta load 10 of the 11.7 to see accuracy and do a load of 12.5 to see if I’m close to 1050FPS


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[Coon]

I purchased a mini cutoff saw at HF for cutting brass cases.

 

[paknheat]

Did up a batch of 7.62x39 for a buddy.


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[Coon]

Playing with subsonic 7.62x39
50 yards groups and velocity.
Gotta load 10 of the 11.7 to see accuracy and do a load of 12.5 to see if I’m close to 1050FPS


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So, you start with 3 shots of each load, then load 10 of the one you like best and shoot for groups? I'm not being a smarta**, I'm seriously trying to learn the method.

 

[alternative]

I received the new 6 station press yesterday and set it up with the bullet feeder and case feeder. Tonight I'll give it a small run and see how it does. I gotta say I'm impressed with the bullet feeder. Very simple design bit works great so far in testing.

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I predict you will like it.

 

[rp-]

So, you start with 3 shots of each load, then load 10 of the one you like best and shoot for groups? I'm not being a smarta**, I'm seriously trying to learn the method.

That's about right. When I work.up a load I'll load 5 rounds at each powder interval and shoot to see what groups the best. Then I'll load that charge and change seating depth in groups of 5 and see what works best there.

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[Coon]

That's about right. When I work.up a load I'll load 5 rounds at each powder interval and shoot to see what groups the best. Then I'll load that charge and change seating depth in groups of 5 and see what works best there.

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Got it. Thanks. When it's written out like that, it makes perfect sense. I used to load for my deer rifle like that, without the seating depth changes. Now, I'm just trying to get the best groups in every rifle that I load for. I quit reloading for a few years and needed a kind of reboot.

 

[c.tiberius]

Got it. Thanks. When it's written out like that, it makes perfect sense. I used to load for my deer rifle like that, without the seating depth changes. Now, I'm just trying to get the best groups in every rifle that I load for. I quit reloading for a few years and needed a kind of reboot.

What RP said…
As you can see in the box on top, I did load 5 round for each powder charge but I decided not to shoot every one of them as I was expecting a bit higher velocity from each load.
So now that I know that 12gr didn’t reach my desired speed of 1050 FPS , I’ll probably remove the bullets and up the charge on them. I didn’t use a crimp die so a kinetic puller will help with that
I’m only redoing the 10 loads of 11.7 gr because it was the most accurate , lowest SD and best tone thru the suppressor. I’ll play with the seating dept on those and the 12.5 batch that I’ll make.
Not really a professional in reloading, I just like to find loads that work for the different bullets that I have.


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[rp-]

I got my brass back from Deavis friday so I'm pretty overwhelmed by that much brass coming back. I'll manage though


I setup the lee 6 station press with sizing, powder, expander die, bullet feeder, seating, crimping. I was having trouble with the flaring though using the lyman M-die where the bullets would fall over on the cases. Today I moved the m-die to the 2nd position and the powder to position 3. Fixed the problem.

I have a few hundred primed cases from last year's 9mm run so I removed the sizing die for now to run some though. Overall it's easy to use and was very easy to change the die positions due to the die bushings. I've ran about 50 rounds through it and have had a couple issues with timing and 1 issue with the bullet feeder not dropping. I think I'll be able to iron out those issues though once I'm a little more familiar with the press.

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[Eastexasrick]

I am stuck in town for a few days so I went by Cabela's in Allen just to look at shit. They have Varget in stock, $64.99 per POUND.
No LRP in stock.

 

[deemus]

I am stuck in town for a few days so I went by Cabela's in Allen just to look at shit. They have Varget in stock, $64.99 per POUND.
No LRP in stock.

They haven't had LRP for a very long time. I'm beginning to wonder if its like the Academy thing where the employees are buying all the primers up.


But the Varget and H4350 being priced at $60+ is must stupid. Several other powders in the $40-$50 range, then those two over priced. Crazy times.