What have you done in the reloading room today

One adds a prescribed does of powder to ones previously prepped cases, adds an XTP on top for flavor, and squeezes it all together to an exact dimension.

 

Hmmm, I had a picture in my head of rolling up paper cartridges for a percussion sharps carbine.

 

No sir, it was just my slanginess.

 

So this may not be technically reloading but I did work on this while I was prepping .223 brass. I just bought a 3d printer I'm by far not a computer guy so it's been a different type of project and actually quite difficult for me to get this started.

Between last night and today after work while prepping brass I have managed to print a die holder that mounts to my bench. The picture shows this but it's not mounted. I have plans to print a few more. The printing process takes hours so while my printer is making my die holders and soon a bunch of other reloading accessories I'm trimming brass and removing the primer crimps.

 

You say it takes hours to print that, how many hours? Nice project!

 

By the time I set it up and screw it up probably 3 hours. I still obviously don't have it a 100% figured out. It's a good thing to set up, make sure it's going like it should and find something else to do or go to bed.

This picture is currently printing and estimated time is 2 hours and 12 minutes. It's the same die holder in the previous picture. I have plans for reloading blocks and ammo boxes that fit in 30 or 50 ammo cans as well. I just need to get the kinks worked out.

 

What type of 3D printer do you have? I've often thought of getting one. Resin based wet system or a dry one?

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It's a $300 dry printer. Uses PLA , PETG, PVC, type rolls. Big kicker is everything is metric. I had to learn chinese algebra just to assemble it. About 10 solid hours of assembly time if not more. There are a few websites that have downloadble objects but I would like to start creating my own.

 

Nothing quite so exotic. LOL Ran the wet tumbler today, mostly 9mm (about 700). The rest consisted of ~300 cases of .308, 6.5 CM, 6.8Spc, x39, and 5.56. Tomorrow I anneal the bottleneck rifle cases.

 

Setup a new Lee Classic Turret and auto drum powder measure for 9mm and cranked out a couple hundred rounds. Much improved output versus the single stage I have used for years. The auto drum powder drop was very consistent with Win 231. Now what I'm going to do with all my free time!!!???

 

Took the bullet casting plunge and have been building up supplies for the last couple of months. Lyman furnace. Cast a few .45 230gr from the Lee mold designed for Allox for testing purposes. The '80s came flooding back reminding me of the muzzle-loading days and 1000's of cast mini-balls. Received a NOE 502-458 FN-16 four cavity along with 1000 GC in the mail yesterday for the .500S&W.

Set up for powder coating in the shop. Toaster oven and material handling for the powdering process. Plan to use Lee swagging dies. These two (.45 and .50) other than rifle bullets, this will cover everything I shoot on a regular basis. I'll post pictures as they become available....and if it turns out.

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Maddawg2020 have to agree that the Lee turret press is a great way to go for reloading pistol rounds. Simple setup and function, inexpensive and very versatile.

While I have an old school Lee 3 hole turret press that I picked up NOS, unused and paid a premium for because I didn't want the 4th hole. I use it with my Lee 3die pistol dies for load development and for now loading 223 with 2 dies. Works great this way. With the 223 the first station is empty and I prime the cases there, second station has the Lee Powder measure and the third the seating die. On this press I can quickly and easily remove each case and inspect after each operation w/o disrupting the whole setup.

 

Yesterday I prepped 100 220 Swift cases and loaded 10 of them. I shot them at the range yesterday afternoon to test for function and I will load the other 90 today. It was a first, as I've never loaded 220 Swift before.

 

Decapped this many 9mm.

 

Rinse, lather, rinse and repeat!

 

Loaded 200 9mm. I sure am glad I started loading 9mm before the pandemic. Also scored 2 dillon powder measures on Craigslist today.

 

Annealed ~ 300 bottlenecked rifle cases this morning. Sizing and trimming next.

 

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=3696996630367719

Made a reverse indexing rod and set up my lee turret to eject the finished cartridge.

 

Sent 5 loads of brass (.223, .243, .308) through the ultrasonic and dehydrator. While that was going on I sorted out some reloading stuff from a buddy. Last was size/trim/deburr 20pcs .223 brass, almost done with the "lot" of TAC that I'm on, and the next jug is a different lot #. Gonna see what the fps difference is between both.

 

Cleaned, prepped, sized, a trimmed and primed a test set of 223 and 4 sets of 308 brass. I want to confirm my most accurate load for both calibers. I think I had a mix up in the charge weight in 308, so I have 2 loads to test. Tomorrow I'll charge, seat, crimp, & wash. Also, the new powder trickler beats fishing out individual granules of IMR 4064 any day and twice on Sunday.

 

Finished .38 Spl. (found more bullets stuck away, some 125HP!), set up and ran 100 Trap loads, got about 250 more to load, then on to the 83 .223 cases I have primed. I have about 125 bullets left, but 1100 cases coming, so it'll be case prep for a while after that I think!

 

Loading more 9mm Luger (-p).

Berry's 147 plated RN (seating them straight with my Redding comp die )
Blazer brass, Tula primers, 3.2 grains Bullseye, 1.160" oal. (winner of my last ladder test)

Then some 357 bullets in 9mm.

Meister Cast 130 LFP (.357")
Blazer, Tula, 1.020"
3.2, 3.4, 3.6 grains Bullseye, 10 rounds each for a test.

 

Loving those revolver bullets in my 1911.
Meister .357" LRN-FP with crimp groove seated to a stubby 1.020", 3.2 grains Bullseye.
Soft & quiet, feed great in the Kimber, smokey, accurate as I was holding today.