What did you do in the reloading room today?

I've done a lot of reading today.

I don't have my equipment yet, but should have everything by Tuesday. I don't have the room to set it up in the house, but I do have a shed with enough spare room to throw in a bench and some cabinets. Looking forward to getting everything set up and creating a cozy space to work.
 
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Loaded up some .56 .56 rounds the other day for my 1863 Spencer. Used some veggie wads to compress a little more. SD went up 4 fps to 12. Going to move up slightly on the powder and test again with and without the wads. Rounds are still way low for that rifle so I do have room to move. As I get the speed up the groups tighten and the SD went up. Toprudder likes to make fun of me....testing a 1863 rifle loads with a Labradar!
 
I've been working on this for the last two days. Wet tumbled a couple of thousand 9mm cases and then dried them in the food dehydrator. I'm liking the dehydrator a lot. Just one hour in there and they come out bone dry:D

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What dehydrator are you using? I am on the fence about getting one, but I do not want to lay out a lot of money for one. Right now I just air dry and if in a hurry the oven.
 
Test seating for new 9mm 125gr LRN coated. No crimp. It passed push and plunk test. Reading several different manuals and on-line it said to expand case by .003 to .005 . So I started with .003 and that seemed to work. Seated at 1.113 as someone on the group suggested. Also read to slightly tapper crimp if needed. Which it seems these do not. Will load up 10 test rounds and see how they work.


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Oh well, its either pend time in the reloading room or listen to Real House Wives of Another City on the tv

Easy choice there. I would pull good bullets, load them, and pull them again to avoid "Real Housewives" or "The Bachelor (ette)" TV.

Mark this one down as "a fortuitous mental malfunction", or perhaps even a "fortuitous, subconscious malfunction".
 
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View attachment 37942 Developing a new muscle-memory.

Is that depriming? You may want to look at the Franklin Arsenal handheld tool for that, costs about $40. I did get rid of the little primer catcher and just point it towards an empty glass jar to collect the spent primer. Have used it for tens of thousands of rounds.
 
Is that depriming? You may want to look at the Franklin Arsenal handheld tool for that, costs about $40. I did get rid of the little primer catcher and just point it towards an empty glass jar to collect the spent primer. Have used it for tens of thousands of rounds.


I'll check it out....this has been a chore.
 
Why deprime pistol before sizing and loading at all?

Same as what Toprudder said..and I only have a single stage press as well so i don't have much choice.
 
Same as what Toprudder said..and I only have a single stage press as well so i don't have much choice.

Doesn’t your sizing die decap?

Shiny brass is awesome but wet tumbling is too much work for me for pistol brass. I only think it’s worth it for precision rifle where I care about primer pocket uniformity.

But that’s just me.
 
Doesn’t your sizing die decap?


Maybe? lol Have yet to open that box. I'm a noob to all of this. I bought a couple of the Lee depriming dies everyone said to use and depriming and wet tumbling brass is the extent of my reloading experience so far :(
 
Doesn’t your sizing die decap?

Shiny brass is awesome but wet tumbling is too much work for me for pistol brass. I only think it’s worth it for precision rifle where I care about primer pocket uniformity.

But that’s just me.
People make fun of my brass. It is ugly. But it goes bang.
 
Packed up things to go shoot Thursday. A lot of test loads. Also bringing musket so made sure powder was in musket bag.
 
Blinded! Good look'n blue though!!!
Like lipstick on a pig. :p

Hey, I like shiny brass myself, but I will be the first one to admit that all you REALLY need to do is wipe off the case so no grit will scratch the dies.
 
Shiny brass is awesome but wet tumbling is too much work for me for pistol brass.

Wet tumbling is way faster, less work, and much cleaner than vibratory tumbling, as long as you don't decap the brass. I don't decap, run them 30-45 mins in the tumbler with citric acid and armor all wash N wax, no SS pins, my brass comes out looking like brand new. Turn them out on a beach towel under a ceiling fan in the reloading room overnight and they are completely dry in the morning. I can clean almost an entire 5 gal bucket over the course of an evening with little more than 45 minutes of actual hands on work.
 
Broke a spring on the 650. Bob is sending a new one so i can get some powder coated 40 minors loaded up for this 3 gun event I signed up for
 
Working up some loads for my Edge(180gr Xtremes & CFE pistol). Won't make it to an outdoor range for a couple weeks so I cannot chrono, but I'm trying to get to the indoor range Friday to see how each load groups.
 
Wet tumbling is way faster, less work, and much cleaner than vibratory tumbling, as long as you don't decap the brass. I don't decap, run them 30-45 mins in the tumbler with citric acid and armor all wash N wax, no SS pins, my brass comes out looking like brand new. Turn them out on a beach towel under a ceiling fan in the reloading room overnight and they are completely dry in the morning. I can clean almost an entire 5 gal bucket over the course of an evening with little more than 45 minutes of actual hands on work.

I have 2 of the vibrating ones and just run them when I accumulate enough sorted brass to do a few loads. Takes almost no time to load and dump/separate. Clock time is longer but I have buckets of clean brass so no hurry.

I have a wet tumbler and it produces great results but I am not sure what to do with the toxic waste water that results. I don’t want it in my septic system for sure. I could just let it evaporate and toss the residue like I do the walnut when it gets old, but I don’t want anything drinking it either (dogs or wildlife). What do you do with it?
 
Maybe? lol Have yet to open that box. I'm a noob to all of this. I bought a couple of the Lee depriming dies everyone said to use and depriming and wet tumbling brass is the extent of my reloading experience so far :(

You could load a few rounds to get a feel for the whole process :)

I have one of those decap dies for when I need to do just that occasionally, but 99.99% of decapping happens in the sizer in the 550 or 650 first station.
 
I am not sure what to do with the toxic waste water that results
I assume your concern is with heavy metals, and while I wouldn’t drink it, I doubt that there is enough in the water to worry about. If you want to be extra careful you could paint a 5 gallon bucket black, hang it from a tree in the sun 5’ off the ground and fashion a plywood disc to hang above it to limit rainwater and leaves getting in it. Every few years throw the bucket away.
 
Wet tumbled some brass and loaded some test rounds for 45acp. Then sat back and drank coffee and listened to audible book while watching the tumbler!!!
 
Wet tumbled some 223 brass, then loaded up 100 plinking rounds, 55fmj, TAC powder. First time using my 223 dies on my Dillon 550. The linkage I made for the Lee Auto Drum measure worked perfectly.
 
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