What have you done in the reloading room today

Mmmmm oysters

 

They make a good general purpose bucket for small projects - and for collecting oysters and clams, if you’re into that kind of thing. We have lots of Gulf oysters and clams this time of year.
The buckets themselves I got at a local fishing store - I think they were $1/each but it was so long ago I have no idea how much they might be now. Some of the local urban-farming style hippies... er, I mean “hobbyists” use them for growing mushrooms so they’re probably $50 now.
Looks like there might be right around 1000 casings to process - all pretty clean so they’ve probably been tumbled in corn media at least once. Won’t hurt to tumble them again.

 

Sometimes you just have to call it!

I was that way (...currently AM that way) with my 5.56mm brass. About 8 different lots, in various stages of process, and misplaced sticky notes. Finally, I just dumped it all in a bin... and started over. EVERYTHING gets fully processed...including sizing (already done,) and trimming (in the process.) Most will have to have the primer pockets cut, too. *sigh*

 

Yup. Funny thing is, after I dumped the bins into the bucket, I went to bed and slept like a log. I guess it was bothering me at a subconscious level.

 

Those things happen. I gotta tumble the 1000 40s I found a couple weeks ago and size em. Then the dreaded sort. The good thing, beside my missus leaving out of state for the next 6 days(Yes. Yes. Yes) is they're mostly federal, so the sorting should go fairly quick. Only working til noon Sunday, so I'll FINALLY get some range time

 

Trying to decide if I sort these on the way out of the tumbler or on the way out of the sizing die. I’ve done both and and when working with big batches both seem just as fast and efficient. Of course, more fun is to sit down at the dinner table and sort into boxes with my wife. She loves puzzles and head-stamp match-up is a fun game for her.

 

That looks like enough brass to make your elbow sore!

 

I fine tuned the Dillon and ran about 100 9mm's through it. Emptied out the powder measure and put the loose components away until this Tornado Watch/Warning passes through.

 

Got around to cleaning the Henry 357 from last Saturday's outing. I had already checked out the barrel with my flashlight and pro-shot bore sight thing so I didn't expect any surprises and didn't get any.

Just a few common specs of lead that happen when shooting cast bullets, no long slivers or the like that would indicate a problem with the home cast plain base bullets I put together.

I'll be putting together some 357 mag soon with the 182gr HP GCs to give those a go. Sometime soon I need to load some 30-30 with the homecast GC hitek coated as well. Sill haven't processed any of the that new Starline 30-30 brass I have. And when that Accurate mould comes In I'll need to have some 38-55 brass prepped to test seating depth, OAL, crimp die setting, function, etc. after I get some casts made and coated.

So much to do!

Tomorrow I'm getting out to the range with some 45-70s to run another test of N120 with the 396gr homecasts. Depending on how that goes I'll probably decide on my load and stop chronographing them and just settle. I'm thinking it'll be 25.4gr.

There's also an annual swap meet at the range tomorrow. Not sure if I'm going to bring cash or peep my head in. The only thing I'd really be interested in is if somebody had a G2 Contenter or Encore receiver with a rifle stock set and I'm not sure that I'd even see one.

Oh, and one last thing. One of the RSOs is a guy a bit younger than me (about 10yrs if I recall) who shoots competition pistol and just recently got into reloading himself. He said he was having issues with light strikes on primers with his SP CCI so I'm going to swap him 200 of my Federals for his CCI tomorrow to try and see if that resolves the issues.

 

I loaded up 50 rounds of .22 Hornet....11.0 grains of Lil' Gun pushing 45-grain Midway SP Spitzers. It was my first time with components that small....tedious work.

 

Tumbler full of 9mm. Trying to finish the .380 fmj 95 rmr unique loads up..tonight. have done a few each night. Between wife n dogs...lol. has not happened

 

That’s the only place I have to sleep - between wife and dogs

I’ve found the hours between 2300 and 0400 to be my most productive.

 

Try sleeping with a Great Pyrenees!!!

I am not a fan of using the word Never, but you'll never win the battle over sheets/covers with one of those!

That being said... I put together a range bag of assorted mrf's rounds for an outing with the 30 Carbines tomorrow, if the weather doesn't squash it.

I have some testing to do. I picked up 1,800 rounds of Tula for darn near free and some Mags.
The Mags feel good. I'm hoping the carbines eat the Tula. That's a lot of blasting ammo!

Worst case, I shoot what I know works and hopefully have a fun day.

 

Try sorting them in old dog treat or coffee ground containers, then later put them in quart zip lock bags and put a lable on the INSIDE of the bag. I sometimes get up in the middle of the night and do that stuff too.

 

Weight sorting anything is as stimulating as counting sheep. If that doesn't make you sleepy nothing will. It's only something I do when trapped inside during the winter.

 

I use the heck out of ziplocks. We keep them around the house for about anything that needs putting away.