What clever little things have you "invented or discovered" that you can share?

Yes...and painting the inside of the press frame white helps too

Primer catcher

Just putting up a pic of my "invention," using a car cupholder and a Hodgdon one pound powder jar to catch spent primers from any press with a tube for that purpose.



Works really well, and it's easily enough accessed to not make emptying it a pain in the butt. Plus it's more or less impossible to knock it over and spill everywhere.

For anybody that reloads and shoots muzzle loaders using Triple 7 or Pyrodex pellets--

Save the boxes the pellets come in to store finished rounds. 50 Cal Pyrodex boxes work great for .45 Colt. Triple 7 for .45 ACP.

A brass plumb bob and a plastic tap hammer work perfectly for making out of round case mouths perfectly round for reforming your cases that used to get crushed in the die when you try to re-size them. This has saved me hundreds in brass that would have been trashed. I have two, A small on for diameters .17 to .25, a medium sized one for everything else. You can also unscrew the tip for 380 and 32 auto and other short cases to fit down on the case mouth firmly.

A few years ago I purchased a Cannon gun safe for my firearms storage needs. Well, a couple of weeks ago a cousin and I were in the cave looking at my rifles. He said that he recently purchased the same type of safe (only a larger one) and he noticed that his rifle stocks were marred/scuffed near the bases in the same area as mine. We looked a little closer and there is a sharp lip (running horizontily) on the base trim of our safes.

I was pondering as to how to protect the stocks of the long guns and wound up getting some old rubber washing machine hose (the hose that connects the washing machine to the house wall plumbing), cutting it to length, and cutting a split down it lengthwise and fitting along that sharp bottom lip of the safe. No more marring/scuffing has occured.

Hope this helps someone else, just an idea and suggestion.

The Dove

So thats where all those scratches come from.
Thanks!

The blue buckets hardware stores sell chains out of are great for storing lead (wheel weights or boolits). And most stores will give them away for free when they're empty/almost empty. They're about as strong as a bucket gets, since they are made to hold 100 lbs of chain. Keep one in your trunk and swing by tire shops on the way to/from work once a week or so.

easy die organizer for those who can store them out in the open. Its a grill accessory you find on sale during the summer for doing stuffed jalapenos. It will hold 7 3-die sets. 12 bucks and ill never have to fuss with a die case again....still working on an idea fir shell holders...

For Pistol users who experiment with varying weight recoil and other springs: You probably have that old box of parts with springs that you don't know the spring weight.
I made a crude recoil spring weight checker.

1. Measure the recoil spring "pre-load" length: The length of the spring when mounted on the guide rod in the pistol. (I took the spring out and cut a small dia dowel until it just slipped in between where the spring seats.)

2. Measure the length of "slide travel" when the slide is "fully" retracted. Subtract this from the pre-load length. THIS GIVES THE LENGTH OF THE SPRING WHEN THE SLIDE IS FULLY RETRACTED. = Length at spring weight.
I cut a piece of "dowel" to this length to use below. (The length of the red line)

3. Mount the spring on the post shown above. Place the weight holder (square board--or whatever) on top of the spring , and add weights until the spring just touches the dowel cut to the fully loaded spring length.

4.Weigh the board "with" all the weights you used. This is your spring weight.

It's not accurate to the ounce and requires balancing the upper board that holds the weights; but it's close to actual spring weight.

I tested some recoil spring very similar but I just pushed against a set of scales.

Scythe, that is awesome. I am gonna have to look for one of those. Any idea if they will fit with hornady twist lock rings on them?

Amazon here i come!

Primer pocket cleaner

So I am new to reloading and have read through the whole thread. Thank you for all of the great ideas! I know you don't have to clean primer pockets but I do. I was using the lee cleaner that you have to turn and after doing a few hundred rounds my hands were killing me. Solution- put the hand held cleaner on the drill. A short squeeze of the trigger and your done!

i'm sure lots of folks have discovered this, but the trays from factory boxes of .45 ACP are perfect as loading trays for .30-06 family cartridges. probably a lot of other rifle cartridges, but those are the only ones i've tried.

The best loading trays are still Herter's, if you can find them. Perfect size and plastic is still soft and pliable as it was 50 years ago. Sometimes you see them at gun shows for like a dollar. Far superior to anything being made today.
You drop it you only have to pick up the one piece, unhurt. Drop one of the brittle crap they sell today.
Same thing with the Herter ammo boxes, plastic still soft and pliable. Goes to show they could build a good product today, they just choose not to.

chalk.. the outer diameter of it is 1" on the holes. The only way to know is to check... there isn't a tight enough fit to store it on it's side.. which is what I was hoping.

Thanks Scythe. I made a pass through the Home Depot this weekend hoping to find early BBQ stuff, but no dice. I will probably end up ordering one from Amazon or something. Still a great idea! I also like that you have LEE dies in there!

New to reloading and picked up some used equipment. Well I hate sweeping, so tonight I decided to make my own spent primer catcher. Used a container that held staples used to hold electrical wires in place. Cut it up, perfect fit, and no sweeping. No auto dispenser here, but I dont mind emptying it to the garbage after de-priming see attached pics

shoot14me said:

About 40 years ago I was just learning the in's and out's of reloading. The fellow who was mentoring me was 80+ years young. He would load match quality 45 acp ammo for a top shooter on the United States air force pistol team. When he finished loading the rounds on his Star Machine and Tool mfg. progressive loading press he cleaned the rounds of any crud on the cases in a very easy way. I've heard tell of tumbeling loaded rounds to get the gook off but I'm not suicidal and neither was my 80 year old friend. His solution to get the cases bright, shiny and looking like new was to lay out an old bath towell, spinkle on some Coleman stove fuel and fold the towell over the cartridges lying on the towell. Then he rubbed the rounds between the layers of the towell a few times and they would come out looking like new. The Coleman fuel was used because of it's purity and fast evaporation properties. All traces of crud disappear as if by magic. It goes without saying-NO SMOKING is a cardinal rule while doing this. I've been using this method now for 40+ years with complete satisfaction.

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With This logic ALL the Factory Match ammo, or just target ammo for that matter, that travels from a factory on a truck that vibrates for hundreds if not thousands of miles in back of a truck has to travel the same distance using the same speed (MPH) and use the exact lane choice so that all the bumps are the same so this simulated tumbling action can be to ensure the match ammo is all uniform and the performance, burn rate, POA etc, is affected. IMO, I think NOT.. [A simple experiment will show that driving with a bucket filled with tumbling media and brass will be polished by simply placing the media and brass in the trunk of a car or in the truck bed of a pickup. Try it put a 100 or so cases, tie it down so it wont move (to prevent any dampening) and over the course of a tank of fuel or two, you will have polished cases. The bumpier the route, the better for best results, however thats not my point...............................] To sum it up, The point is, that ammo shipped via truck, car, etc is just as much, if not more vibrated/aggitated (IE: TUMBELED ) than a few minutes or a quik clean up with live rounds in a tumbler.
One could argue that ammo being shipped is not touching each other on this journey from the factory because its boxed up for commerial sales. However there is lots of ammo that is shipped loose in a box or in ammo cans and free to move and bounce around along its journey.

In case anyone else happens to see, I"ll just go ahead and disclose that I posted this same comment in a older thread however I thought I would try to stir the pot a little over here. d(*_*)b

Lots of good ideas and some Solutions out there gentlemen!! Much appreciated. Now I have a reason to go to hardware store and put a couple of these Solutions to good use on my reloading bench...



>> B.B.

chalk - You'll also notice that I've started replacing those crap rings on them with ones that can be locked to the die. My .308 is on the far right... and it's 1/2 done... my 30-06, which isn't in the pic, has already been done...the .40 and 9mm will be done.

Added this oak powder measure bracket to hold my powder measures. My balance beam scale is housed in the next cabinet for eye level reading.

Scythe, I guess I never really had any problems with those LEE rings. But that also might just start another lock ring flame war......hehehe...

CHALK22 said:

Scythe, I guess I never really had any problems with those LEE rings. But that also might just start another lock ring flame war......hehehe...

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SSHHHH don't tell anybody but the more I use them the better I like them!

SSHHHH don't tell anybody but the more I use them the better I like them!

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Same here. I put better rings on dies that need to be precise (cannalure crimping dies), but for flaring dies and such, Lee rings seem to do fine.

I bought some.. and if I was using a turret.. the lee's would be perfect. As long as you take the dies out by putting the wrench on the ring.. they work very well. I may have started, but I have more lock rings than I have on my lee dies.. because the replacement isn't worth the hassle of resetting up my dies. Someday I will

I also add a drop of loctite to the threads on my dies so that the lock ring has an extra insurance not to move. I also put a drop on the decapping pins and all seating rods and everything else that has threads. It helps them not to work loose and also helps on the handle that likes to work itself lose after a while too.