Thanks for the input. Press and supplies have been ordered!

[92GreenYJ]

Thanks for the input. Press and supplies ordered! updated with Q's

Just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for their advice and input on my other thread a few weeks ago.

I got the ABCs of reloading last week and read it cover to cover. I am back to about page 184 of the sub forum here in my reading. As I said I will be starting out loading for 45 ACP and will move on to load for my 270 WIN after a while as well.

I just placed my order with Kempfs for their Lee Classic Cast Turret press kit and the Lee loading manual with the 45 ACP four die set. Then I placed an order with Midway for Lees case conditioning kit and the Lyman digital scale they have on sale. Already have brass, Winchester large pistol primers, bullets both lead (I think home cast) and jacketed. And I have some powder ready to go when the press comes in.

So look forward to more newb questions from me in the next few weeks I am sure

 

[J_McLeod]

Welcome to reloading. Hope you enjoy it.

 

[RustyFN]

Congrats and welcome to reloading.

 

[john16443]

Good choice of equipment to start out with. I've just retired my Lee turret last month, but it could be set up in a minute. I'm in Ramona, so if you need any help or want to see how it all works in person, PM me.

 

[92GreenYJ]

thanks john. I appreciate the offer. I've been reloading 12 gauge on an old versamec for a while and had pretty good results. And despite being 5 days away from picking up my S&W 22A from Turners for my cheap plinking gun i still want to keep my 45 barking without blowing 4 bucks every time i empty the mag

 

[RandyP]

If you don't already have one, a digital or dial caliper is needed (my $10 Harbor Freight digital works quite well) plus you may want to buy a kinetic bullet puller (plastic hammer deal) to correct any errors.

 

[CHALK22]

Randy up there has two more good suggestions. And hey! My sister lives on Tourmaline in PB! Took my 1 yr old to Sea World last October. And when it comes to gun laws, I am glad I live in Montana! Also, you won't be disappointed with your Lee product. I started out on a Deluxe (gasp!) Turret, and still use it today for a few loads. Welcome to your new addiction!

 

[ArchAngelCD]

Welcome to reloading, I'm sure you will enjoy it.

Check everything twice and have fun...

 

[accrhodes]

Congrats and have fun.

 

[grubbylabs]

Sounds like you are going to have some fun with your new stuff. I prefer the dial calipers from Harbor freight, they seem to last longer. The digital ones work well when they work, but I have gone through 3 of them in the last year.

The bullet puller is also a great idea.

I am so glad I left California, I can go buy a gun any time I want to, and take it home with me that day.

 

[snakeman]

It's always a nice reward when you load up a fresh batch and it shoots better than factory ammo! My most rewarding reloads have been 22-250 used to take a few foxes and bobcats. I don't load for my handguns yet though. It gets addicting I started with 221 fireball then escalated lol.

 

[92GreenYJ]

Well I already have a HF dial caliper. I have several other expensive hobbies already that require tools such as this. Namely offloading and my Jeep, my ATV, my motorcycle, RC cars, etc.

Got my shipping notices from Kempfs and Midway today so I hit the garage and started doing some prep. Cleaned off my work bench, sorted my big old bucket of brass and have a batch in the tumbler as I type this.

Oddly as I was going thru my bucket I found a box worth of silver cases. I'm assuming aluminum but I'm not sure. I am fairly sure they aren't reload able, however I just had a crazy idea to try and make a coaster with them to keep me occupied until my press shows up.

 

[john16443]

If those silver cases are shiney, they're nickle plated and can be reloaded. They may not last as long as brass cases before you see splits at the top, but they are good to go. If they are a dull gray color, they are mostl likely aluminum that was used by Blazer. These shouldn't be reloaded as they don't have the ductility of brass. Note I didn't say they couldn't be reloaded, some people have done it just to say it can be done. When you buy this ammo, the box clearly tells you not to reload these cases. I think they are also berden primed, making it a PITA to do so anyway.

 

[92GreenYJ]

Yeah they are shiny. So nickel plated. I do have a box worth of Brendan primed aluminum 45 Colt cases. (I'll likely load this caliber eventually as well) maybe I'll make something cool with those instead.

My plan is to finish sorting out my materials today and finish tumbling and inspecting my brass. Then sort by head stamp and such. I'll post up later this evening with some more questions I am sure

 

[92GreenYJ]

OK, first round of questions.

Now I already have some supplies and a tumbler. Been tumbling my load of 45 brass since yesterday. at least the cases that have been deprimed. I spent the morning sorting thru all the stuff I have on hand. So here is what i am curious about.

1. I have 27 of these. they mic out to .451 and as far as I can tell are lead. Are these SWCs? Weight is unknown at the moment. will weigh them when I get my scale from Midway.


2. I have 493 of these. They Mic out to .452. Lead. think these actually may have been home cast as the friend i acquired them from had casting molds in his equipment (which i stupidly didn't grab and his wife has since sold. He passed away several years ago and I got a few supplies from his stuff. mostly bullets and brass as well as a tumbler.) anyway what type are these considered? Again i don't know the weight.


3. I also have 98 45 cal .4515 185 Gr. FPJ match bullets and 96 45 Cal .45s 185 Gr JHP Power Jacket Bullets. From my research thus far as I understand the jacketed bullets do not need to be lubed to be loaded but the lead bullets above will. Correct?

4. As I was sorting the lot of brass I have and tumbling it, I came across id guess a good 100 cases or so that are i am guessing oxidized (as far as i know brass does not rust). I went ahead and tumbled them over night to see if I could get the oxidation off of them. Some came clean, others did not. Are these safe to use? If not I figure i can use some of it to make my Dummy set up loads and use the rest to make some beer coasters or something. They look like this



5. Last but not least. I sorted the good brass that I know is usable and clean by headstamps. I seem to have the most of WCC76 at 274 ea. I also have 56 RA56, 52 WRA45, 14 FC45, and a few other random headstamps. I haven't quite figured out what the deal is with headstamp sorting yet in my research of old posts. I know that some cases may be slightly different thicknesses internally but thats all. So what exactly is the deal on different headstamps?

 

[OldCavSoldier]

OK, first round of questions.

Now I already have some supplies and a tumbler. Been tumbling my load of 45 brass since yesterday. at least the cases that have been deprimed. I spent the morning sorting thru all the stuff I have on hand. So here is what i am curious about.

1. I have 27 of these. they mic out to .451 and as far as I can tell are lead. Are these SWCs? Weight is unknown at the moment. will weigh them when I get my scale from Midway.


2. I have 493 of these. They Mic out to .452. Lead. think these actually may have been home cast as the friend i acquired them from had casting molds in his equipment (which i stupidly didn't grab and his wife has since sold. He passed away several years ago and I got a few supplies from his stuff. mostly bullets and brass as well as a tumbler.) anyway what type are these considered? Again i don't know the weight.


3. I also have 98 45 cal .4515 185 Gr. FPJ match bullets and 96 45 Cal .45s 185 Gr JHP Power Jacket Bullets. From my research thus far as I understand the jacketed bullets do not need to be lubed to be loaded but the lead bullets above will. Correct?

4. As I was sorting the lot of brass I have and tumbling it, I came across id guess a good 100 cases or so that are i am guessing oxidized (as far as i know brass does not rust). I went ahead and tumbled them over night to see if I could get the oxidation off of them. Some came clean, others did not. Are these safe to use? If not I figure i can use some of it to make my Dummy set up loads and use the rest to make some beer coasters or something. They look like this



5. Last but not least. I sorted the good brass that I know is usable and clean by headstamps. I seem to have the most of WCC76 at 274 ea. I also have 56 RA56, 52 WRA45, 14 FC45, and a few other random headstamps. I haven't quite figured out what the deal is with headstamp sorting yet in my research of old posts. I know that some cases may be slightly different thicknesses internally but thats all. So what exactly is the deal on different headstamps?

The red-stained brass is probably safe to reload, but, if you have a ton of it, play it safe and scrap it. (I have a very cool Civil War style cavalry belt buckle made out of reclaimed cartridge brass...there are tons of things you can do if you want to!)

 

[Blue68f100]

Some mfg brass is thinner than other. Most have a slightly different case volume. If your reloading for accuracy you want every thing as even as possible, the reason some sort. I normally sort mainly to inspect the brass. The smaller case volume impacts how I set my powder cop die up.

But for practice ammo no need.

 

[res7s]

OK, first round of questions.

Now I already have some supplies and a tumbler. Been tumbling my load of 45 brass since yesterday. at least the cases that have been deprimed. I spent the morning sorting thru all the stuff I have on hand. So here is what i am curious about.

1. Are these SWCs?
It is a form of a SWC.


2. think these actually may have been home cast as the friend i acquired them from had casting molds in his equipment (which i stupidly didn't grab and his wife has since sold. He passed away several years ago and I got a few supplies from his stuff. mostly bullets and brass as well as a tumbler.) anyway what type are these considered?
Those are SWC's. They were swaged. The bullets in the first picture were cast.[COLOR]

3. I also have 98 45 cal .4515 185 Gr. FPJ match bullets and 96 45 Cal .45s 185 Gr JHP Power Jacket Bullets. From my research thus far as I understand the jacketed bullets do not need to be lubed to be loaded but the lead bullets above will. Correct?
Yes you're right. Jacketed bullets do not need to be lubed. The swaged bullets are probably already dry lubed, but it wouldn't hurt to hit them with a little more Lee Liquid Alox/White Label Xlox. You may prefer to pan lube the ones in the first picture.

4. As I was sorting the lot of brass I have and tumbling it, I came across id guess a good 100 cases or so that are i am guessing oxidized (as far as i know brass does not rust). I went ahead and tumbled them over night to see if I could get the oxidation off of them. Some came clean, others did not. Are these safe to use? If not I figure i can use some of it to make my Dummy set up loads and use the rest to make some beer coasters or something. They look like this
I'd probably just use them to set up. I think they are probably fine, but anytime I have ANY doubts, I don't do it.

5. Last but not least. I sorted the good brass that I know is usable and clean by headstamps. I seem to have the most of WCC76 at 274 ea. I also have 56 RA56, 52 WRA45, 14 FC45, and a few other random headstamps. I haven't quite figured out what the deal is with headstamp sorting yet in my research of old posts. I know that some cases may be slightly different thicknesses internally but thats all. So what exactly is the deal on different headstamps?

Unless you're loading near maximum loads, with 45 acp non-match grade ammo, I wouldn't really worry about it. The thing you will need to do is look down in the cases and check to be sure they are all of the same basic type.
Different brands(lot numbers of the same brand will vary as well) of brass can have different internal capacities and this will cause changes in pressure. If you are pushing the redline, you don't want to put that load in a smaller capacity case, or make ANY substitutions. If you do, you will need to drop back down to your starting loads and work back up.

 

[92GreenYJ]

good to know. I'l mostly be doing target practice ammo. I'll use the worst cases for dummy and set up and load the rest if i feel comfortable with them. Thanks for the fast responses guys. All I can really do now is stare at the stuff and keep doing research until my press comes in next week

 

[res7s]

I sincerely hope those bullets fit you gun. If they don't you might be able to trade them for bullets with a more usable diameter.

For best accuracy cast bullets need to be .001-.002" over your bore diameter, most of the time.

 

[92GreenYJ]

they will be fired out of my Ruger P90T.

 

[john16443]

If the chamber dimensions of your Ruger P90 are as generous as they are on my Ruger SR9, the bullets should work. It looks to me like they were really made for a 45 revolver, maybe they're 45 colt rounds, but if they're not over 250 or so grains, they should be useable. I've put 250 grain jacketed Hornady soft points down the SR9, Sierra has published data for their 240 grain version and I used the low end of that data with Bullseye.

 

[92GreenYJ]

They may very well be for 45 Colt actually. The guy I got them from did load those rounds as well. I stupidly didn't get the dies for it though as I do have a Beretta revolver that shoots 45 Colt as well that I will load for at some point too.