Tested my 380 loads from earlier in the week.  3.5 gr. of CFE Pistol, 100 gr. Xtreme.  Turned my wife's G42 into a single shot.  Several light primer strikes (using CCI 500's).  Had one round that wouldn't fire at all.  Bullet set back quite a bit.

Will try to bump up the charge on the CFE, but also going to try Power Pistol

Finished up the bottom half of the bench.  On to the shelves.  This thing is turning into a lot of work.

Loaded 20 77gr smk r-p brass #41 primer 23.0 h4895

Fired 50 rds of converted 6.5 Creedmoor, they shot well so Ive decapped them and have them in the tumbler.

Going to load up 50 for an OCW with 4451.

Tested my loads for my 6.5x47.

Seems to like a bit of jump with the 130 Hybrids, 0.02" of jump actually. 5 shot group was 0.439 MOA. I am tickled senseless with that considering I am using converted 6.5 creed cases and large primers and it is the first load I tested.

Thought I found some HAP projectiles in the wild today, but they were loose in baggies of 100 and the owner did not know what weight they were I left it alone.

Bought a K's worth on Winchester small pistol and found out that Sierra is making the V-Crown's for Sig

I put a couple coats on the top only.  I'd like to but frankly I'm too lazy and this bench is cutting into my shooting time.

Tested my first batch of loads for my .223 MVP and it looks like 55 gr vmax over 24 gr of tac is the ticket...very impressed with the results and proud of myself. Next will be trying to get a load for 69 gr smk.

Been glad to do it, I might be a little, uhm, off but it has been a mighty fast 30 years and I'm still having fun.

I reloaded a bunch of primer tubes, will make some more 9mm after a bit and I need to start tumbling a batch of .38 Special brass.  Tomorrow I should be able to test my latest .380 ammo for velocity and accuracy.

Finished the old ladies powder coat job.  She's super excited and already has a bunch of her ladies league shooters asking on the facebook where she got them.    

Still need to get them loaded up and make sure they are as accurate as we'd like.  

Here they are riding piggy back on the Dillon tumbler to static coat.  and then on to baking.  

Picked up 500 bulk Hornady 55gr .224 FMJ with CT for 39.99 at my local sporting goods store.

Better than I can find online.

Set up the new turret. Only problems I had were having to rotate the tool head a 1/4" back for resizing and flaring, and getting consistent flare. Either not enough or too much. Never had that problem on a single stage.

I like how you use the tumbler to coat your bullets.  I wish I'd thought of that, but since I haven't started getting into coating bullets yet, I'm gonna grab that technique - and credit Mr. Black for sharing it!  Are you using black air soft pellets to help coat the bullets?

Yessir that is correct on the black airsoft pellets.   I run them on top of the tumbler for 10 minutes in our conditions.     I tried shaking them, swirling them, rubbing them on carpet, all with poor results.

I had seen a bunch of youtube vids where guys were using a vibrating tumbler but putting the powder and bullets in it.  My tumblers are all full of media, and I didn't want to undo them, and deal with cleaning stuff, so I figured what the hell, I'll just tape them to the lid of the Dillon which is super powerful.  Low and behold, worked perfectly.    These coat in one coat and throw in the toaster oven, outside of course.

To keep with the theme of the thread, I resized all those little boogers through a Lee push through die.   That is a tedious process.  

I've got 50 rounds of .300 WM brass in the vibratory cleaner now, another 50 waiting.  I'm going to load some 175 grain Sierra TMK's for load development testing later today, and try them out next weekend.

Went to the range this morning and tested new 308 and 223 loads. I came home with lots of empty brass.

Stopped at the LGS on the way home and picked up 8lbs of Benchmark.

Deprimmed all my brass from this mornings session and started the wet tumbler.

Went to the range today to test out my free Hornady XTP .45 ACP bullets.
Pleasantly surprised with one relatively small 8 shot ragged hole off hand at 10 yards.

Also brang the M1 along for a first time test of my reloading 30-06 endeavor.

Mixed once fired military/commercial brass by me loaded with new M80 147gr FMJBT W/cannalure over 47.5grs of IMR-8208XBR.

For cheap bullets I was quite pleased with the results.

Tested out my first 9mm loads this morning. Got back home and loaded up 300 more. 124gr tcg bayou bullets over 4.8grs of cfe pistol.

I went to the monthly Saxet gun show in hopes of finding some True Blue powder.  I did find it, but...

There were three vendors with powder.  One finally had AA#5 and CFE Pistol (which I had already given up on and bought from Powder Valley, another had some Ramshot powders and good prices, but of course no True Blue, and the third had ONE pound of True Blue but wanted $35 for it.  I didn't want the True Blue that much.

Everybody wanted $35/k for primers, and I only saw Winchester and CCI.  Sad.

It wasn't a total loss; I learned about some issues with holsters (and my less than great right shoulder).  I helped out an ammo vendor who was at a loss for why the personal defense rounds the customer wanted were in shiny, silvery cases - "they're nickel plated, not aluminum".  And I got a lead on some morale patches I "need" (1" tall Texas flag with Velcro backing, for one).  But my stated purpose/mission was not accomplished.

Test fired my 9mm range loads. 100% success, first loads on the turret. Time to crank out another 500.

I'll be working on my next batch of 115 gr 9mm competition ammo in a bit. Still have a bunch of filled primer tubes to work through, once the tubes are emptied I'll convert the press to .38 and work on a 2K batch of wadcutter.  I'll likely only get a couple hundred 9mm put together today before I have to get ready for work.

Loaded a few different charges under Nosler 69gr projectiles to dial in my load.

One of these days I'll go to work and crank out a shitload of 223 with my SS109 projectiles and these Noslers.

Also have 50 147gr Xtreme Bullets sitting over Ramshot Tac to confirm will cycle reliably. 4.6grs was pretty damn quiet with my silencer.

That neighbor that I took off that bullet button crap and installed the correct ones? He stopped by and gave me over 130 .44 magnum reloads. We both agreed I should just pull them and dump the powder.

I don't even shoot .44 magnum either, but someone is about to get very lucky with a pay it forward.

Washed some 30-06 and 9MM fired cases without pins and set them up to dry out.

No pins works just as good without the hassle.

Annealed the 30-06 cases.


Thought about loading some 30-06 for the M1 with some 8208XBR again with a lighter charge weight.

Abandon the load up to repair another Lee decapping pin while waiting for its replacement.

On the lathe I bored out a pin hole in the broken stem, reshaped the end and inserted a .062 hardened drill bit shank with Loctite.

Test fired my first batch reloads in 45acp with success. Just finished loading up 50 more on the dillon square deal.

Took my wife to a new range that opened up in town and we shot a bunch.  Wrung out her new G19 (flawless with everything we stuffed into the mags) She popped off a few hundred 5.56 55gr plinker loads while I 'unloaded' some .308 loads that didn't work out.  (3 MOA sucks, but shooting is a lot more fun than whacking a plastic hammer)  

I put 125 LC 7.62x51 into the tumbler last night so I could do some loading today.

The tumbler died sometime during the night.  One of the wires to the motor broke off at the connector--easy fix and it was back in action in about 5 minutes.  Fortunately the brass was already clean.

Processed and primed 125 LC 7.62x51.

Loaded up and shot 1 round each Varget/168gr BTHPM, 41.0 (min) through 45.0 (max) in 1 grain increments to check function and see if there were any pressure signs.  43.0 crossed the chronograph at 2501, and 45.0 was only 2588....it also had a flat-ish primer and left a pretty good extractor mark, so I loaded up and shot a ladder 43.0 through 44.0--3 rounds each in .2gr increments.

Chronograph stopped working during the first string.  The power switch has loose contacts and the muzzle blast at 15' turned it off.  Used a piece of duct tape to hold the switch ON....I'll get around to replacing it someday....at least I didn't shoot the damn thing this time.  

All 3 round groups were well above MOA until I got to 43.8 and 44.0.  Both groups suddenly shrank to under 3/4" and were around 2550 FPS so I split the difference. I loaded up ten at 43.9 and shot a group.

Cold bore was 1/2" high--it happens every time, and I'm gonna have to start shooting a fouler before shooting groups in the future.  7 went into one hole that can be completely covered edge to edge with a nickel.....and I either got a goofy trigger finger, or the 2 slowest shots (#7 and #9) went off the reservation.

Including the 2 fliers and the cold bore, it's a 1.2 MOA load.  Omitting them isn't an option, especially when reviewing the data.

1) 2574 (high, cold bore)
2) 2549
3) 2539
4) 2549
5) 2539
6) 2554
7) 2496 (low)
8) 2559
9) 2510
10 2554

Average 2542.  ES 78 and SD 23.   Omitting #s 1, 7 and 9 gives an ES of 20 and SD of 7, but cherry picking data is for chumps.  I want real numbers and the most accurate load I can find for this rifle so I ordered some Lapua brass and some CCI BR primers.

It's been a good weekend.


ETA:  Rifle is a Rem R25 mutt with an 18" Faxon stainless barrel

Just finished prepping around 100 or so 308 cases.

Scored 4lbs of Power Pistol at the fun show for $89.99, tax included. Hell of a deal compared to the last 2lbs I bought at Bass Pro for around $32 each.

I loaded every piece of clean 9mm brass on the top of the bench. Dumped another 2k pcs in the harbor freight tumbler to get ready for another loading session in the morning.

Deprimed some 9mm, 45ACP, 5.56 brass and they're getting wet tumbled.

Dry tumbling some boxer primed steel case 9mm, 45ACP, and .223 someone gave to me.

The steel 9mm is the new Winchester "Forged" stuff, coating comes off pretty easy (patchy) compared to the Russian coating.

Cleaned off my reloading/ work bench.....gad...that was LONG overdue!

sorted and polished brass ( dry tumble ) while cleaning guns, and other stuff around the house

Worked up two more loads for the M1 Garand.

Loaded 150 9mm. Lee Classic Turret has cut my time per 50 rounds down to around 30 minutes.

Yesterday I put together a few more 9mm and now have only one more full primer tube, once that is empty I'll convert the press to .38 and crank out some wadcutter. Also ordered some more 90 grain XTPs and two bags of unprimed Starline .380 brass.

wet tumbled and sized about 350 .45acp, will probably do some tumble and sizing of .40 tonight.... or trim my 6.5 Creedmoor brass, 1 of the 2

Bought a box of 130gr Hybrids, 500 CCI SRM primers, and made 28 empty cases of 6.5x47 Lapua for me to reload. My most expensive trip to the range, but Lapua brand ammo sure does shoot.

Decapped, wet tumbled, sorted a couple hundred 38 spl and 357 mag cases given to me by a friend who doesn't reload yet.

They looked once fired.

Free is good!

Finished sizing/trimming and expanding 1000 7.62 cases on the 1050, need to find something to do to workout My left arm.

Thinking about just sizing up the other 7.62 OFB I got laying around, have been doing that SS for the Ruger.

On Sunday, helped the brother in law get set up on my 1050 and he loaded 50 223. Went with H335 and 55 grain Hornady. Staggered up the loads, turns out his rifle really likes 24.5 grains. Cycles the gun nicely and with his switch on his gas block it runs great suppressed or unsuppressed.

I gathered up my 9mm stuff and went to his house, since his 1050 is set up for 9mm. Loaded 1200 9mm Berry's 115 grain over 4.8 grains of Universal Clays.

Had some primer feed issues, and after watching some youtube videos, looks like we are taking his press apart and filing the side of the primer feed plate channel. He has some rough tool marks in there.

8# of WST!!

Loaded up some of those 130 Grain Federal otmrp bulletts.  Went with 45 grains of Arcomp seated 2.775 just below the second ring, moderate crimp.  slight extractor markings but grouped descent for what they are @ 1.25 at 100 yards.  2920 average velocity with an ES of 48.  i stopped there as there was no way i was gonna heat them up any more.  All lake city brass

For the second evening in a row, I have failed to find cast/plated/coated .308 bullets that aren't either 110+ grain round nose or 150+ grain flat tip bullets.  In searching, I first aimed for .310 bullets, but that didn't pan out well, so I looked for .308 bullets.  

I started looking into a way to make my Uniflo and LnL powder measures funnel the powder to where the metering rotor actually picks up the powder.  I have this idea that concentrating the weight of the powder over where the metering cavity opens into the reservoir should make powder flow much smoother, whatever form it is.

I also tried to contact "Southern Shine Tumblers" about their "chip" tumbling media, but Facebook isn't playing nice on my iPad right now...

Found a new (to me) FC headstamp brass today.

FC on top and 11 on the bottom. No NATO cross. Has crimped and sealed primer. No picture because I am a slacker.

Seller indicated it as once fired military brass at $.10 each.

Didn't buy.

My wonderful Wife got me a 38/357 conversion for my Dillon 650       ( gives the 550B a rest LOL  )

converted it from 223 to 38 special

first 100 rounds, 158SWC coated, W-231



this should help feed my plinking addiction

Lubed about 3000 rounds of 9mm.  I ran a few dry casings through the 650 the other day.  That sucked.  Soooo much smoother lubed.

I bought 15000 primers.

LOL

when I process 556 & 762 LC on the XL650/RT1200, i switch arms

switch back and forth, left, right, left, as they get tired

I was, right arm, left arm, both, gotta rotate, helps the back as well.