What did you do in the reloading room today?

After trading for them from a member here, I sorted about 6 gallons worth of wheel weights. Got about 35lbs of clip ons and 30lbs of stick ons.
 
Loaded up the remaining 300 rounds of 214 Gr Bayou Bullets for 44 SPL. This morning worked up 44 Magnum load for my 240 gr Bayou Bullets and the Hornady 240 gr XTPs. Went to the range later and overall, I’m pleased with the chrono results. I need to test varying my crimp to see if I can tighten up the groups. If anyone has any tips or offer any guidance, please shoot me a PM.

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I hung a 70" 4K TV.

Reality is a I don't have a reloading room. Don't even have a permanent bench for it anywhere. But, that's about to change. Swapping my son's playroom and our bonus room around. Going to claim the closet as a reloading area. It won't be much, but it'll work. It's the closet that has the small access door for the attic. That means we haul all the Christmas decoration out every time we need to get in the attic. Converting it to a reloading area will keep the path clean, so it's a win-win. Reusing some shelving from one spot to install on one wall, build a bench on another wall. Hope to be done by the time Christmas break is over. Not that it's a major construction project, just a lot of junk to move between rooms and figure out what's going where...so we'll work on it a little bit each weekend. (And the TV went in the room where I'm taking over the closet, so I didn't lie)
 
Loaded up 270 rounds of 45acp, with the evil small primer brass :D and used up the last of my 700x powder.

Last night, the wife and I went to the indoor range. I shot my Ruger Blackhawk 44 mag (and a few rounds through my 460). I've been trying different loads in the 44, and last night it was 48 rounds of 240gn plated bullets, with a mid-range charge of BE86. I got a lot of copper and lead in the barrel, for a couple of inches in front of the forcing cone. The last load I had tried was Bayou coated bullets, and had some lead deposits in the same area. I am beginning to think I may need to polish the forcing cone, as it appears to be a little rough with machine marks. The copper was harder to deal with than the lead, so I may go back and do a little more experimenting with those bullets. And I think I may try a faster, cooler burning powder, like Clays.
 
tested some lead in the garage with the 'artist pencil' method. I realize I have 3 grades of supposedly lead wheelweight alloy, 2 of which I did not smelt myself, and 1 that is harder than it should be (TWSS...).

So I guess now I get to get some hydrochloric aka muriatic acid and do the ol Acid Test for zinc. Man.....what a PITA. I'm only buying alloyed lead from known good resellers from now on, or just wheelweights.
 
I read somewhere that someone had found brass-washed steel cases with a CBC or S&B headstamp, I can't remember which it was. I guess I need to find a big magnet to pass over the piles of brass.
S&B, I live dangerously, they take 135pf just fine.

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Sorted, decapped and wet tumbled 5,500 pieces of 9mm and 1,500 pieces of 45acp.
 
I did what I enjoy the most: working up test loads.

44mag w/ plated 240gn bullets and Clays.
44mag w/ plated 240gn bullets and Trailboss.
44mag w/ 240gn XTP bullets and 4227.
45acp w/ 185gn plated and Titegroup.

Once I find a load that works well, making production runs of it is almost boring. Almost.
 
Once I find a load that works well, making production runs of it is almost boring. Almost.

It's amazing how quickly a good load turns into seeking the same group, but at an even lower SDEV or extreme spread.

My wife is always giving me down the road about "haven't you figured that out yet?". To which I can only respond, "It is kind of like your search for the perfect $7.00 bottle of wine, except for me there is hope."

To which her response will inevitably be, "But I don't make the wine."
 
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bought a set of Lee .260 dies for $14 from Amazon Warehouse. They look brand new :D

time to reform some of this .243 brass I got laying around.
 
Cast and coated another pile of bullets. Need to step it up. Want 7-10k by new years so I don't have to mess with 9 next year or at least not monthly.

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Broke the handle/lever on the loadmaster. Ordered a new one from Titan. Ordered new yoke pins as well, figure I might as well rebuild it while its apart.
 
Broke the handle/lever on the loadmaster. Ordered a new one from Titan. Ordered new yoke pins as well, figure I might as well rebuild it while its apart.
Did you try lee first. They have been shiping replacement parts for free
 
Dangit!!! I did NOT need to see that.

Oh, you should definitely "go for it" Toprudder. Mechanical advantage out the ying-yang; smooth as silk; self-centering for low run out; they make great ammo; and they are so pretty to look at on the bench. I got mine for Father's day and don't know why I waited so long.

Yes, it's called "enabling".
 
Whoever told me to buy a Co-Ax to load precision rifle ammo is my new hero! Sooo smooth! If they made a progressive press, I’d have a Dillon for sale!

I recall discussing the Inline Fabrication Curves side linkages with you once upon a time and see that you have not added them yet. If you are considering it, investigate carefully. I just took mine off of the press this week. They are sent with replacement shell plate screws that are about an ⅛ in higher than the OEM screws and are intended to replace the stop knob on the sides of the actuating arm, so that you cannot "cam over the press". Well everything was fine for me for a couple of months. The stop felt a little "mushier" (hows that for technical terminology), but it was fine. Then this past weekend, while loading, I guess I pressed harder than I used to, or tightened up the shell plate tighter than usual after cleaning, but for whatever reason, the press cammed over on me. Fortunately my die was spaced adequately that I did not damage it.

Took those puppies off and am now looking for another design or way to utilize the stop on the actuating arm, as it appears for more positive than using screws in the shell plate.
 
There are some things that I have never regretted spending the money on. One is my Dillon 550 (my first press). Second is my RCBS Chargemaster, Third is the Dillon primer pocket swager. The last two are definitely in the category of "why didn't I buy those sooner".
 
Spent this afternoon chamfering, deburring, and priming these three pieces of new Starline .223 and 297 more just like them.

I know new .223 brass is a waste given the abundance of range brass available, but I have grown weary of swaging primer pockets and decided life was too short.

Can't wait to smoke'm. Will finish "rolling them" tomorrow.
 

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Sorted a couple thousand cases of range pickup, mostly 9, 40, and 223.

Loaded 100 133s over 3.6gr CleanShot in 9mm, and filled primer tubes for more.

Dry tumbled 500? 45acp cases, sorted 1k into LPP/SPP

Decided to try wet tumbling, that was dumb. Now I've always been content, maybe even happy with horribly tarnished/dingy brass, the kind of stuff that people would assume had been there for years if it ever came under scrutiny, but the spider nests have been giving me fits lately causing powder spills and general obnoxiousness, plus that dingy brass is just hard to find in my ranges dead weed bay. So anyway a trip to Harbor Freight, on 20% coupon and $48 dollars later I have a dual drum tumbler, I was content to order pins later, then about 2100 I decided pins are dumb and put 15oz of water, an ounce of vinegar, three pumps of dishsoap a pinch of salt and three handfuls of nine in each and let 'em roll. Three hours later once the mass of foam was cleared (may have been a little heavy with the detergent) I had near new looking brass, and I like it, a lot. Problem it's geologically slow and I'm not even drying it yet. I may have to fabricate something with a higher capacity.
 
You didn't have plans for tomorrow anyway. Did you?

That's one that one day you will relate on this forum and follow it with, "ask me how I know".
It wasn't too bad, only a few hundred pieces so maybe 3 dozen nested pieces of brass. I'll stick with sorting my brass first vs dumping a range pickup bag in the tumbler.

@Beef15 that crap gets chucked in the trash if I or any of my range brass helpers accidentally pick it up! 40 and .380, hate it.
 
Sorted a couple thousand cases of range pickup, mostly 9, 40, and 223.

Loaded 100 133s over 3.6gr CleanShot in 9mm, and filled primer tubes for more.

Dry tumbled 500? 45acp cases, sorted 1k into LPP/SPP

Decided to try wet tumbling, that was dumb. Now I've always been content, maybe even happy with horribly tarnished/dingy brass, the kind of stuff that people would assume had been there for years if it ever came under scrutiny, but the spider nests have been giving me fits lately causing powder spills and general obnoxiousness, plus that dingy brass is just hard to find in my ranges dead weed bay. So anyway a trip to Harbor Freight, on 20% coupon and $48 dollars later I have a dual drum tumbler, I was content to order pins later, then about 2100 I decided pins are dumb and put 15oz of water, an ounce of vinegar, three pumps of dishsoap a pinch of salt and three handfuls of nine in each and let 'em roll. Three hours later once the mass of foam was cleared (may have been a little heavy with the detergent) I had near new looking brass, and I like it, a lot. Problem it's geologically slow and I'm not even drying it yet. I may have to fabricate something with a higher capacity.


Awesome! I've pretty much skipped using pins entirely. The pockets get clean enough for me, and the hassle of dumping the drum with pins and removing them wasn't worth it to me. It's so fast now, drain, rinse, roll around on a towel, into dehydrator. Super clean almost new looking brass.
 
Problem it's geologically slow and I'm not even drying it yet. I may have to fabricate something with a higher capacity.

Your observed lack of speed is what the pins bring to the party. I tumble 1 hour for clean inside and out brass and 2 hours for clean primer pockets too. That said, speeding up drying is best accomplished with a dehydrator, or in the oven. I recommend the dehydrator as I have tarnish my pretty brass in the oven when I forgot to take it out (its amazing what 4 hours at 250 degrees will do to accelerate oxidation)

If you want to really speed it up, go to ultrasonic. I run it for 30 min and done. I only use pins on pistol brass and ultrasonic on bottle neck brass, followed by walnut media tumbling (10-15 min.) to remove lube from completed rounds. The pins are a pain in the but with bottle neck brass and I caught more than one going through the resizing die in the press. Only a matter of time before one "caused a problem" in priming.

But welcome to the "Pretty Bullets Club".
 
loaded 1000 9mm yesterday and will do another 1000 or 2 this morning.

With that new 1050 set up, what did you do with the other 23 hours of you day? More time to shoot? More time to load different calibers? More time to rake the leaves? (if the latter, don't tell me).

Seriously though, you have had it running for long enough to be getting proficient with it. How long does it take to do 1K? I only ask so as to begin my justification process by moving it from a "naw, don't need one" to "well, that wouldn't suck", to "what if I..."

You know the drill.
 
Well yesterday I finished up another chunk of the pistol brass cleaning backlog. There are 3,000 45acp and 1,000 45LC on towels in the garage ready to be boxed up.

Today will be about getting the LNL setup for 45acp and running the first batch. Having a bullet feeder and preferring the Lyman M style expanding die (I believe now also implemented by Redding and RCBS, but not available in Hornady PTX bushings) I already want a press with more stations! Yes, I’m over thinking it.
 
Well yesterday I finished up another chunk of the pistol brass cleaning backlog. There are 3,000 45acp and 1,000 45LC on towels in the garage ready to be boxed up.

Today will be about getting the LNL setup for 45acp and running the first batch. Having a bullet feeder and preferring the Lyman M style expanding die (I believe now also implemented by Redding and RCBS, but not available in Hornady PTX bushings) I already want a press with more stations! Yes, I’m over thinking it.
Not sure what the difference is, but there's a PTX available from Mr. Bulletfeeder for Hornady, I am guessing it is more cast/coated friendly. Ben Stoeger's Pro Shop has them. They don't come cheap.
 
With that new 1050 set up, what did you do with the other 23 hours of you day? More time to shoot? More time to load different calibers? More time to rake the leaves? (if the latter, don't tell me).

Seriously though, you have had it running for long enough to be getting proficient with it. How long does it take to do 1K? I only ask so as to begin my justification process by moving it from a "naw, don't need one" to "well, that wouldn't suck", to "what if I..."

You know the drill.
It takes about 40 minutes per thousand. I timed myself for an hour and had loaded about 1600. I'm getting ready to switch it back to .40 to load some 165gr and a friend is coming over this afternoon to load some .40.

I should be spending the extra time doing exactly what you're talking about but I don't. I usually just stand down there thinking about how I should clean and reorganize my reloading area but I never do it.

I highly recommend the 1050 if you have the budget for it. The caliber changes run just under $600 including the mr. Bullet feeder plate. That gets a little pricy but you can use your own dies and save a little.
 
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