What have you done in the reloading room today

[Shovel]

Cleaned up more - still trying to pick up after a 20 year hiatus.

Decapped 150 each 7-08 cases for my Tikka (light rifle) and Rem 700 (heavy rifle) metallic silhouette rifles. Tumbled 150 of the Tikka brass for 4 hours in walnut, the necks and interiors look cruddy and make me contemplate getting a pin tumbler for stuff like this. Have the pile to do for the 700.

Found I still have 1.5K each of Sierra 130 and 150gr HPBT match 7mm to load with. The 150 are for rams at 600M.

Found 200 new R-P 7-08 cases in boxes. Need to size and trim these.

Found my "missing" Springfield 03A3 rifle in the back of the safe - no idea of the pedigree but it it has a bunch of NM parts on it and a ordinance 3-51 (not air-gauged barrel) on it. WIP

Noticed I had a load tab in my book for a 6.5x55 Swede - sure enough, have a perfect Carl Gustafs to go with my 2- 7.5x55 Swede K28's.

Found my 22-250 dies in an old box, so I can do 220 Swift, 22-250, and 5.56 - wondered what I'd do with all the 50gr bullets I have - now I know.

Been away from the sport too long.

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

Is that an 18” or a 22” cubit?

Yes.

 

[Charlie98]

8/10ths of a cubit

God: ...and it will be 300 cubits, by 50 cubits, by 30 cubits.

Noah: Right, right... got it. Hey, God...

God: Yes?

Noah: What's a 'cubit?'


(Edited because I'm a moron...)

 

[Arkansas Paul]

Brave at 16F this morning. Did you get out?

I did. I traipsed around the woods for about an hour looking for squirrels. They had more sense than I did this morning, because they were nowhere to be seen.
After that, I set up a target and shot a little.
I made a mistake. The .58 Hawken I have is my father's and it has been in his closet for the last 15-20 years without being touched. I should have given it a good cleaning but just loaded and shot. Bad idea. It was VERY hard to load. I only fired a few shots. I'll give it a good scrubbing before trying again.
I didn't get to shoot the .54 cal at all. Apparently someone dry fired it before I got it because the nipple was flared out and wouldn't accept a cap.

We'll try again soon.

 

[AJC1]

Fought the good fight to load cast 6.5x55 sweed. Primed 100 prepped ppu cases and made myself a 2 step expander mandrel from a grade 8 bolt... results over excuses around here...
a little much for my first experience with this cartridge, i think not loaded a ladder of 160 cast from 17.5 to 19.0 4227 at 3.050.

 

[Charlie98]

Boy, howdy! Those are some old primers you got there!

 

[stonebuster]

That's pretty hot for 158gr. Let us know how they work out!

They're pretty thick copper plated 158gr. Hodgdon data reads 4.3grains HP-38 max 38spl for XTP jacketed & 4.6 grains max 38+P. Usually go with 4.3 grains with no problems. Shooting them in Ruger Service Six & GP100 357 Magnum.

 

[AJC1]

Boy, howdy! Those are some old primers you got there!

They were posed to show I'm using up old stock....got 3 hundred of those left.

 

[Buzznrose]

I also work in stages, brass prep first, then priming, today was just loading the prepped cases. I took some breaks during the session so I didn't get too fatigued and make a mistake. I like the plastic ammo cans they're cheap (like 8 bucks). I always scoop rounds out of the bigger cans into smaller ones for range trips.

I particularly like those small plastic cans. They are very handy!

 

[nettlle]

My kerosene space heater in my reloading room (garage) bit the dust last night. Just got home with a new one and put it together. The Lizard Litter in my Thumler's UV-10 is about 4 years old now. Although it's still working good (used it last night) I got a guilty conscience and put new in.

 

[Charlie98]

My kerosene space heater in my reloading room (garage) bit the dust last night. Just got home with a new one and put it together. The Lizard Litter in my Thumler's UV-10 is about 4 years old now. Although it's still working good (used it last night) I got a guilty conscience and put new in.

I use the same stuff (ZooMed, I think...) and I throw that stuff out at the drop of a hat.

Interesting thing with the lizzard bedding... it's dusty like gangbusters. My Lyman has a perforated lid, so if I forget to drape a towel over it... the entire garage will be covered with superfine dust/dirt in just a few hours. Crazy...

 

[nettlle]

Lizard Litter is very dusty when it's new. That's the reason I put off changing it. After a few runs with Nu-Finish the Nu-Finish seems to coat the walnut grains and the dust goes away.

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

I shot the next two tests of the 110gr Winchester Kinetic .38’s. AutoComp is definitely in the running but HS-6 is out. My 64-3 looks like it’s blued.
I will say both met the specs and were plenty accurate at 25yds. So far W244 is still looking best.
Now I get to tumble some really dirty brass. And clean some really dirty guns.

 

[45/30-06OKIE]

Using the tumbler to try to get most of the really built up junk off this 5.56 Federal Lake City ammo from like 2013 according to the headstamp. I don't remember the circumstances of how these got this bad but I took random cartridges out and shook them and they sound like powder was moving around in them so we'll see how they clean up.

 

[bigpower491]

Finished my evening loading some primers into APS strips for my next sessions. 200 spp and 300 lpp. Gonna do a big run of 45 Colts here this week

 

[lightman]

Wow, I've never even seen 6000 .380s.

It was a pretty good size box full.

 

[Nasty Canasta]

Got my progressive press going after a long break & cranked out 2-3 hundred 9mm using mixed range brass & was checking them all along the way for powder weight & OAL-all good. When I was looking at them as I transferred them from the press to storage container I noticed a short one that the bullet had pushed in on & started going through all of them trying to push the bullets in & found almost a 100 that had almost no neck tension & every single one of them was Blazer brass. Never had issues with Blazer but something changed with the brass wall thickness & they weigh a bit less too. Pulled all of the collapsed rounds & salvaged powder & bullets.
Spent yesterday culling all of the Blazer 9mm from my stock that was probably about 20% of my range pick up brass, not fun but I feel comfortable moving forward now & will look at what it will take to reload the Blazer with correct neck tension down the road if I need to.
For now no 9mm Blazer brass reloads for me.

 

[Buzznrose]

God: ...and it will be 300 cubits, by 50 cubits, by 30 cubits.

Moses: Right, right... got it. Hey, God...

God: Yes?

Moses: What's a 'cubit?'

LOL…you mean Noah?

 

[Buzznrose]

Got my progressive press going after a long break & cranked out 2-3 hundred 9mm using mixed range brass & was checking them all along the way for powder weight & OAL-all good. When I was looking at them as I transferred them from the press to storage container I noticed a short one that the bullet had pushed in on & started going through all of them trying to push the bullets in & found almost a 100 that had almost no neck tension & every single one of them was Blazer brass. Never had issues with Blazer but something changed with the brass wall thickness & they weigh a bit less too. Pulled all of the collapsed rounds & salvaged powder & bullets.
Spent yesterday culling all of the Blazer 9mm from my stock that was probably about 20% of my range pick up brass, not fun but I feel comfortable moving forward now & will look at what it will take to reload the Blazer with correct neck tension down the road if I need to.
For now no 9mm Blazer brass reloads for me.

I use a Lee factory crimp die on all my 9MM. It occupies slot 4 on my Dillon 550 toolhead. Works great so far.

 

[BKS]

Straightened and cleaned some. Found 50 more pieces of 45-70 brass and some 50 Beowulf. Deprimed and cleaned them.

 

[Big-bore-bob]

will look at what it will take to reload the Blazer with correct neck tension down the road if I need to.

A lee undersized die fixed this issue for me.

 

[horsemen61]

Primed 50 6.5 Creedmoor cases

 

[horsemen61]

Since I got to stay home today due to Ice on the roads it’s a reloading Day! I am starting with loading 50 rounds of 6.5 Creedmoor and we shall Go From there I will keep THR updated with my antics!

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

What have I done? Nothing today. I didn’t even get around to loading up the tumbler with yesterday’s empties.

 

[Charlie98]

LOL…you mean Noah?

Yes... that's the guy! I knew that didn't seem right...