Michael Tinker Pearce
Member
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2016
- Messages
- 1,574
I try to pick up only my own brass at the range, but things get mixed up and I wound up with stuff I didn't shoot. It happens, but it led me to discover some unusual things when I busted out the new .45 ACP dies and started de-priming.
Like the Sellier & Bellot cases with primers that could not be removed. No, really! I literally punched holes in them trying to get them out, and they are still there. It was only a few, so I just shrugged and tossed them. Or the Blazer Brass cases that were primed with small-pistol primers, probably Magnum? Who knows. Weird.
Setting up the bullet-seating die required some fiddling. I finally got it seating the bullets to just the right depth- and noticed that the cases were wrinkled just below the bullet. (I am the brute squad.) OK, a bit more adjustment needed... Got things set right eventually and headed off to the range to test them out. The loads functioned and fed perfectly, and accuracy was at least as good as I an shoot.
It wasn't my best shooting ever today frankly. I fired the single-shot .22 and the Steampunk Snubby, and while the results weren't embarrassing they were nothing to show off, either. I did manage to fire a decent string of shots with the LDA .45 Carry at the end of the day- 3 strings of five shots each at seven yards, fired as quickly as I could without getting thrown off the range-
The load is a hard-cast 200gr. LSWC on top of 6.8r. of Unique with a CCI 500 Large Pistol Primer. It has some authority but recoil is easily managed in the short .45. I think this is likely to become a standard load for me.
Like the Sellier & Bellot cases with primers that could not be removed. No, really! I literally punched holes in them trying to get them out, and they are still there. It was only a few, so I just shrugged and tossed them. Or the Blazer Brass cases that were primed with small-pistol primers, probably Magnum? Who knows. Weird.
Setting up the bullet-seating die required some fiddling. I finally got it seating the bullets to just the right depth- and noticed that the cases were wrinkled just below the bullet. (I am the brute squad.) OK, a bit more adjustment needed... Got things set right eventually and headed off to the range to test them out. The loads functioned and fed perfectly, and accuracy was at least as good as I an shoot.
It wasn't my best shooting ever today frankly. I fired the single-shot .22 and the Steampunk Snubby, and while the results weren't embarrassing they were nothing to show off, either. I did manage to fire a decent string of shots with the LDA .45 Carry at the end of the day- 3 strings of five shots each at seven yards, fired as quickly as I could without getting thrown off the range-
The load is a hard-cast 200gr. LSWC on top of 6.8r. of Unique with a CCI 500 Large Pistol Primer. It has some authority but recoil is easily managed in the short .45. I think this is likely to become a standard load for me.
When the "new" Unique came out and I'd used up the last of my "old" I backed off from 6.6 to 6.0 and never saw a reason to work higher.
