What have you done in the reloading room today

Wife and I went shooting this AM.
Came home, got the tumbler up and running.
Decapped this mornings cases and cleaned the guns, all while spinning/drying loads of brass.
(4) ~gallons~ of 6.5 CM and (2) of 223 pictured below:

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I finally got the last bucket of range brass cleaned, sized, measured, & beveled. I need to flare and prime them tomorrow and will load the rest of a box of Berrys 147 grain projectiles. The load for my Shield with these bullets and Winchester 231 is the most accurate range load I’ve found for it. 231 is my favorite pistol powder right now. I’d put it on my cereal if not for the chance of a rather severe Pop Rocks style reaction.

 

Ran the wet tumbler today.



Now in the dryer (dehydrator)

 

Got the new Lyman 266673 mould in today. It looks like they thickened the sprue plate? Haven't mic'd it..... or cleaned it but will obviously.

Sposed to be gorgeous weather tomorrow,a lovely day for casting. Will get pics.

Gonna try an experiment,can't really objectively do this with a mould you've been using?

After cleaning,and a cpl heat cycles..... gonna try to measure,and then "predict" what diameter/s this 6.5 is gonna drop. Yeah,yeah... alloy enters the picture but,I'm so dang close(usually with rifles) to Lyman #2 that I feel it's worthwhile.

This dope "may"(don't mean will) come in handy down the rd,WRT evaluating a mould "for sale"?

 

Finished up 3k rds of RMR 9mm 115 gr jrn range loads with 4.3 gr Titegroup. Been busy in the workshop with Christmas projects and almost ran out of range loads. These will keep my wife and I shooting till mid January. Time to order more projectiles for 9, 357, 45 and 223, as I will need to get after 357s and 45s shortly.

 

Loaded 25 rnds 9mm 115 gr fmj Speer and 25 rnds 9mm 147gr jhp Everglades for load testing.

 

300 rounds of 223 over the weekend

 

Brass cleaning day for me too. Putting a fan on 357 cases to dry after a couple hours in the FART.

 

In the southern sun during the summer they dry fast. Now that it has cooled off I bake them at 250 for an hour. No plans to clean bulk range pickups during the winter.

 

I’ve used the oven trick before too. It’s pretty dry this time of year in the northeast. The fan method takes a little more time, but it’s pretty easy.

 

New Lyman mould does have a thicker sprue plate,@ .175";

Opening the mould "vault"(roll around mechanics bttm box)I grabbed the first Lyman which is a 225415,to check the plate. It was "thick",so put it back and then started down the line. Checked 10 or so and they were all .125"...... none of these are newer than 2000? Many are much older.

Then the lightbulb came on.....

I made the sprue plate for that 415.... doh. It came with 2 problems. The holes were too big for that small of bullet,further... they weren't centered over the cavities. I addressed both by making 1/2 dz "blanks",one of which is on there.

So,the new Lyman/s has a thicker plate. And no,you won't need to mic them to tell the difference. Noticeably thicker. Don't need to write a novel on why a thicker(to a point) plate makes sense. And,don't need a dissertation on how "flatness",and heat retention makes a little thicker plate more desirable.

 

OK, got 50, 6.5's cast up. The #'s are all deadnuts dimensionally. Very pleased with this new mould from Lyman. On the side of it is 09-21. Will assume that's their production date. Put it this way,there's a nice card/letter in the kitchen that's going in the mail tomorrow addressed to their customer service. In effect,congratulations for them cracking a line drive homerun with this mould. No,ifs,ands,or buts about it.

Moving fwd;

Found a 17/64",which is .2656..... made in USA,NOS chucking reamer on evilbay. Less than $10 to the door. This will be for making the lube sizer die. These H&I dies new'ish,go for 30+ dollars these days.... IF,you can find one. I've made quite a few.

In the meantime,trying to get the jam/OAL figured out on the 6.5X54MS,I needed to get some GC's crimped on. I've used this setup (below)before,and it is way nicer than words can describe. Think,adjustable bullet sizing dies,yeah..... THAT cool. There are reasons to use this,and there's reasons to not. Just showing it, it's up to the individual on how you decide to proceed. It is a Yuasa 5C collet indexer. They're pretty std equipment in the shop,nothing fancy about them. You preset the ID,then a lever engages to close the collet. I'll leave it at that.

 

So your installing gas checks with a standard 5c collet. No doubt it would work but not lightning fast.

 

Soooo.. you had your reloads cat scanned...

 

Yes,like I posted.... until the reamer comes in. Which should be here a few days,then will make the H&I sizer die.

 

Responded to someone who wanted to store their brass in containers that previously held salted food.

When are the moderators going to post a sticky warning people that storing brass for anything other than the shortest length of time in containers that have salt residue are putting their brass - and their health - at risk?

 

Hi i...
Separated brass from Sunday's shooting session and loaded up three tumblers with dirty brass. One each with .41Mag, .45Colt and .44Spl brass. Probably run a tumbler of .44Mag brass tomorrow.

Started to load .44Spl ammunition. Discovered that I only had 60 cast LSWC bullets...pretty sorrowful inventory control on my part. I loaded up one loading block of 50 rounds with 6.6gr of Unique and 240gr commercial cast coated LSWC. Not a big issue...I have an ammo can 1/2 full of previously loaded .44Spl cartridges. Will need to purchase some more .44 caliber bullets very soon. Probably should have a serious discussion with my inventory control analyst...he sure failed this time. Very disappointed...probably put him on written warning pending dismissal.

 

Why do I find the 41 so cool despite zero chances to shoot one.

 

Loaded about half of my remaining 147 grain Berrys for my Shield with a minimum charge of Winchester 231.

Debated with myself about trying some target loads in 357 magnum with CFE Pistol, but decided to sleep on it. It would be nice to find a use for the CFE Pistol, since I have come to prefer 231 for 9mm. The target loads with 231 shot so much over my expectation I think it’s worth a try.

 

Loaded my second ever batch of coated lead bullets for the .45. It is nice not directly handling lead.
I actually trimmed the brass to a uniform length to get a uniform flare from the expander. It was an experiment that worked but it was a lot of effort for a minor benefit.

 

Last night I pulled out 25 LC'21 .223 cases and 25 Winchester .308 cases. Then looked through load data for 155 bthps with N135(VV recommends trying N135 with 155's after all) and the Data is all over the place. I think I have my charge range figured out though!

 

Intrested in what you decide. I loaded a ladder with 165s but haven jerked the trigger yet. My powder is old 2018 so I plan to burn it up. I also loaded up some 75 hornadays in 223 and those are also waiting on me....

 

The .41 Magnum is The Source. It'll change your life, swear to God.