What do have waiting for you in the reloading room?

So life happened and I was finishing up post grad schooling and such and didn't spend much time in the reloading room for a couple years.
After school, I'm 2 years into a new career and still haven't done much. I'm now getting back into the swing.

I have a Hornady Lock and Load Autocharge electronic powder dispenser that I got for Christmas a couple years ago and I took it out of the box for the first time the other day and set it up.
I have a Dillon 550 that I bought used about 3-4 years ago that I've never used (got a good price on it and knew I would eventually get back to it). It doesn't have all the parts so I'm going to set it up like a BL550 and just manually do the powder drops.
I'm needing to load up some .30-06 rounds and I can't find any IMR4350 anywhere, so I got something I've never used before. The Sportsman's Warehouse I visited today had Vihtavuori N540 in stock so I picked up a pound. Looks like some load development is in my future.

I'm excited to get back in the game.
 
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Working on loading 1000 45 colt with 250 grain rnfp over clays , I'm through about 150. When I'm done with those I've got 500-600 454 casull cases ready that will receive various loadings, most will be 255 grain swc over 2400 but I'll do 100 300 grain xtp mag over h110 and 50 or so 360 grain wfn over h110 . I had a huge bin of 45/454 brass I'd been neglecting so I started getting it decapped and tumbled last weekend and now to just get it all done.
 
Oh boy! Where to start? During a recent (within 2 years is “recent”, right 😬?) house remodel and addition, my reloading room got packed up and relocated twice. The essentials are quasi set up, but most of it is in boxes until i can build a new bench and install some new storage cabinets. I need to get on that this winter. Seriously.

I’m also currently processing brass from this summer.
 
I take my grandson to the WA GUNS FORUM NEW YEARS DAY SHOOT at the Evergreen shooting range every year. It is an all day event, I need to get reloading ammo for him to shoot there. It's better to have to much ammo then to run out.
 
I’m tempted to start a new thread on this but what’s waiting for me is a decision: do I stick with Winchester components for the Kinetic HE improvement project or do I use what I have on-hand? I have WW brass, bullets, powders but no WW or WO primer and I really don’t want to use the new Win primers out there. They’re not getting good reviews and I have never been a fan of Winchester SP primers.
I figure since Vista owns CCI and Remington, that will put these out of the “factory duplication” circle - but that’s not really the goal anyway.
I have plenty of CCI 500’s and I think I’ll use them.
 
Deciding on testing platforms:
First test of a new, non-booked load is always the T/C. A 10” unvented .357Mag barrel is going to tell me about as much about how a .38Spl is going to perform in a 2” snubbed nose revolver as an actual 2” snubbed nose revolver - lose 50-75fps from b/c gap, then 20-25fps/“ of barrel - as far as pressure and safety is concerned, anyway.
No chrono needed. Just a test for boom v. kaboom and burn efficiency.

Once I’ve narrowed down the powder and seating depths, it’s a toss up: Taurus M85 2” is always a good test platform. So is a 4” M82. I also have a couple of 3” Rossi that I use for testing hot .38’s, but not +P - and my goal is only 825fps from a 2” so I should be well under 17Kpsi.

FFE is no.1, then clusters on target under stress conditions, then velocity. I figure it does me no good to meet velocity goals and then not be able to hit a barn door from the nearest stall. Doesn’t do much good either if I have to smack the ejector with a tipped mallet to eject the empties. So quick reload and recovery are more important goals than velocity.
 
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Well I have been fighting prostate cancer for a few months. Had complete surgery in November and now am trying to get back into a normal routine. Picked up a no. 1V in 25-06 just before the dung collided with the wind maker. Need to work up some loads for that. Did load some 6mm Remington for myself and a long time friend. Mostly I sit in the chair that my grandad left me and look around at all the things that need to be sorted, stacked, cleaned, loaded or gotten rid of. Oh well, beats the heck out of going to work.
 
Dogleg7 said:
Well I have been fighting prostate cancer for a few months. Had complete surgery in November and now am trying to get back into a normal routine. Picked up a no. 1V in 25-06 just before the dung collided with the wind maker. Need to work up some loads for that. Did load some 6mm Remington for myself and a long time friend. Mostly I sit in the chair that my grandad left me and look around at all the things that need to be sorted, stacked, cleaned, loaded or gotten rid of. Oh well, beats the heck out of going to work.
Click to expand...
I have a very good friend fighting prostate cancer right now, over the holidays. It’s rough. I’m glad you’re doing better. Keep positive.
 
I've been in "case prep" mode this last week. Wet tumbled a bunch of 9MM and a hodge-podge of .40, .38, ,357, .45 ACP, .380, 10MM, .308, .300 BO, and some .44 mag and .45 Colt I found let behind. I have all the .40, 10MM, .45 ACP and Colt, and .44 mag de-primed and stored. Working on .38/.357 now. Will do the 9MM last as there are probably 500 shells to process.

And I still want to load up .308
 
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