What did you do in the reloading room today?

Decapping 9mm goes pretty quick for me on the APP press.

Same here! Used to do it on the press, then a FA depriming tool on the couch. Now the APP. Took maybe an hour and a half to do them all, and there were a couple short breaks in that. I use it for cast bullet sizing also, makes that process a breeze as well.
 
Same here! Used to do it on the press, then a FA depriming tool on the couch. Now the APP. Took maybe an hour and a half to do them all, and there were a couple short breaks in that. I use it for cast bullet sizing also, makes that process a breeze as well.
I’ve knoocked out a little over 3300 in two hours. Almost fills up the catch bottle. 3300 spent small pistol primers weigh 1.4 lbs.
 
’ve knoocked out a little over 3300 in two hours.


Oh My! I need to do something different I think! I have worked most of the day to process, form, trim and make 280 pieces of 458 B&M brass........ I thought I was doing great until I read this.............

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Oh My! I need to do something different I think! I have worked most of the day to process, form, trim and make 280 pieces of 458 B&M brass........ I thought I was doing great until I read this.............
All I was doing was decapping 9mm, that hardly compares to what you do!
 
All I was doing was decapping 9mm, that hardly compares to what you do!

Its all good stuff, 9mm or some of the things I do here. I have a terrible time with 9mm. @Toprudder , I need your help with this. I have mentioned before, but I hate loading 9mm because of the bullet bulge in the sized cases. My OCD just will not allow this, to the point that if I have a special 9mm bullet, like the Lehighs or the Raptors, I buy NEW BRASS, I do not size it, and load those bullets, no bullet bulge in the case. I even bought several different size dies by RCBS, Redding, Hornady, and probably more, still bullet bulge! Is there a size die or method I can get or use to solve this? Seems no one else is having this issue? All you guys loading 9mm like crazy.........no one else has bulged cases? Drives me insane..............
 
Its all good stuff, 9mm or some of the things I do here. I have a terrible time with 9mm. @Toprudder , I need your help with this. I have mentioned before, but I hate loading 9mm because of the bullet bulge in the sized cases. My OCD just will not allow this, to the point that if I have a special 9mm bullet, like the Lehighs or the Raptors, I buy NEW BRASS, I do not size it, and load those bullets, no bullet bulge in the case. I even bought several different size dies by RCBS, Redding, Hornady, and probably more, still bullet bulge! Is there a size die or method I can get or use to solve this? Seems no one else is having this issue? All you guys loading 9mm like crazy.........no one else has bulged cases? Drives me insane..............
Everyone has bulged cases, at least they do if they use a die with a carbide sizing ring. We just accept it and move on.

The 9mm is a tapered case. The carbide sizing ring is appropriately sized to reduce the case mouth and neck down enough for proper neck tension (after expanded). The problem is that the ring has to size the full length of the case, and ends up sizing the lower portion of the brass smaller than needed. If you can find a steel sizing die (not carbide or titanium nitride) you should get a proper sizing, but you will need to lube all the brass. I think Redding might still offer a steel sizing die for 9mm.
 
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Everyone has bulged cases, at least they do if they use a die with a carbide sizing ring. We just accept it and move on.

The 9mm is a tapered case. The carbide sizing ring is appropriately sized to reduce the case mouth and neck down enough for proper neck tension (after expanded). The problem is that the ring has to size the full length of the case, and ends up sizing the lower portion of the brass smaller than needed. If you can find a steel sizing die (not carbide or titanium nitride) you should get a proper sizing, but you will need to lube all the brass. I think Redding might still offer a steel sizing die for 9mm.

Yes, I recall now, I was complaining about this on something else, and you stated this very thing. Before I forget, I am going in search of the steel size die by Redding hopefully....... Thanks......... I will put up with the lube if I can get rid of the bulge. Its so bad to me, I will not even load fired brass, not even for testing or plinking. Thanks again.............
 
Yes, I recall now, I was complaining about this on something else, and you stated this very thing. Before I forget, I am going in search of the steel size die by Redding hopefully....... Thanks......... I will put up with the lube if I can get rid of the bulge. Its so bad to me, I will not even load fired brass, not even for testing or plinking. Thanks again.............
I could not find a steel die from Redding. I don't remember where I saw that. But, I did find where Lyman made a "Profile Pistol Size Die" for 9mm, that was carbide, but stated "The blend of carbide and steel sizing die reduces the hourglass shape of the handloaded pistol ammunition". It was listed on the OpticsPlanet website as "discontinued by manufacturer".

Some of the die manufacturers will custom make dies for a charge, I know Lee and Redding both do. That might be a possibility.
 
@Toprudder ........ Yes, I found the Redding at Graf & Sons........not in stock. But I have the entire set of "Steel" dies and just the size die on the wishlist, and with email notification when they come in. I will take either. And they plainly state you need to lube, they are not carbide...... The entire die set is RED80172 Item# and the single size die is RED91172. So we will see if they come in or not....?????

Thanks........ I briefed through everything I could find, and if it said carbide, I did not look at it. I might have missed the Lyman. Midway also had a Redding die listed, did not say carbide, but it was not the same Redding Item number? It was out of stock too. Hell there is damn near nothing in stock it seems..........

Thanks for the help, it is appreciated greatly, as this is a pet peeve that drives me nuts with 9mm, and one of the reasons I hate it so damn bad. Fortunately I have enough new brass I can get by, I have about 600 Lehighs I want to load, but have plenty of new brass I bought for that mission. I also have a 1000 or so of those great RMR Flat Nose FMJ I would like to load, but find it hard to sacrifice my new brass for those......
 
finally broke down and bought a mini mr. bullet feeder for my 9mm Hornady LnL setup. only ran ~100 rounds through it, and I think it'll be a huge time saver. Should have done this a long time ago. Anybody know of tube extensions for this thing that will allow me to hold more bullets?
 
It has not been too long since steel dies were all we had. Those old ones do come in handy at times these days. I have a M92 Winchester that was rebarreled in 357 Mag that has a generous chamber and I have to run all those cases through my old steel die to get the base back down to the proper size.

I have not shot a 243 Win in quite a while. I dusted off my 243 dies and loaded up a few to shoot in a BAR and a M70. It should be fun.
 
I usually do some reloading for therapy/relaxation but since I have not really shot anything in weeks, I opened up my reloading and loaded rounds storage cabinet and shuffled stuff around. Maybe the second time in the cabinet in 4 or 5 weeks. DAMN I needed that.
 
I think Redding might still offer a steel sizing die for 9mm.

I must have put this on the wish list from Midway as well..............They are on the way.......Delivered by Friday......Thanks.............I bought the entire 3 die set, since that was all that was available.......

Redding 3-Die Sets contain a full length sizing die, expander die, and bullet seating die. The steel full length sizing die features a decapping rod assembly with neck expander. Sizing lube (not included) will ensure smooth functioning.

As for Hand Loading, I am still busy forming and processing big bore brass. For the most part now I have 458 B&M finished, at or around 300 pieces RTL (Ready to Load)...... formed, sized, trimmed and primed.

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Right now I have been concentrating on getting brass ready to load, and then later I will start finalizing loads for the various rifles/cartridges. Load a few for the shelf, and have the rest of the brass RTL at a moments notice. Easy and fast to load if the brass is ready to go.

I have also been working on 416 B&M the last few days and making good progress there. Then I move to 9.3 B&M, 50,475, 458 Super Shorts, 50 B&M AK, 500 MDM and then maybe make some moves to non B&M cartridges, like 338 RUM and 358 RUM>...
 
Finished 300 pieces of 416 B&M Brass today............ all RTL.............Formed, sized, trimmed and primed..................labeled and in containers.........................

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I laid in 500 pieces of Norma 300 RUM brass the other day.................. this stuff has to be cut and trimmed to Basic brass at 2.240 inches.......... then it can be made into 50, 458, 416 and 9.3 B&M. I might make some 358 RUM out of a 100 pieces of this as well. So I will only cut 400 pieces for B&M brass.

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My 9mm steel Redding dies came in today....... In the near future, when I get some other projects out of the way first, I will try this size die out, steel, not carbide, and will need to lube. Hopefully it will size the brass properly to spec and I won't have a bullet bulge! Thanks for the advice @Toprudder ....................

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I have been forming and making 9.3 B&M brass today. I had some 375RUM basic on hand, and was doing the last step in prep, putting primers in. I had this case that would not go in the shell holder??? I measured and the rim is over sized. This is of course new RUM brass, its never been fired or loaded.

On occasion you will have some brass that is out of spec direct from the factory. This is not the first time I have seen such things, although they are rare. It can happen. I removed this piece from the batch............. Standard rim size on RUM is .526" and this one was at .543..................... The piece did feed in the gun, which is a huge plus for the guns to be able to take something so out of spec. Not long ago I had a 50 B&M Alaskan piece of brass that the rim was so large it would not fit in the gun.

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Loaded up 500 .38 special. Used my hand cast powder coated 158 SWC . Probably finish up the box of primets tomorrow. Thanks to Mr. Dillon and Mr. Lee.20201010_191206.jpg
 
I cleaned and sorted 32cal pistol brass today.
32 S&W
32 S&W Long
32 Short Colt
32 H&R Magnum
32 Auto

And of course I don’t have a single pistol in 32, but I’m thinking about it.

Also prepped 250 pieces of 22 Hornet brass, gonna load it next week and maybe even shoot it.
 
Tried to clean up some. Buckets everywhere after I finished sorting brass, and then the 30+ year old Shop Vac bit the dust. The bearing support on the motor had broken, so there was no fixing it. Went to Home Depot and got a new one, put it together, and continued cleaning the shop and putting things away.
 
I've been rather busy getting some of the big bore ammo on the shelf. Nothing like 1000s of them, but a few hundred of each cartridge and in addition to having ALL the brass prepped and Ready to load. Brass prep on the big bores is extremely time consuming. Much of it formed from basic. Many years ago I had a stock of 50 B&M, 458 B&M and 416 B&M head stamped brass from Quality. Most of that has been here as "basic" not being worked until needed. When I finished with 500 B&M and 458 B&M EX (2.5 inch RUM) I then moved to 50 B&M, have ammo on the shelf, and all the brass prepped and ready to load, meaning sized, formed, trimmed, and primed.....

I moved to 458 B&M. I had a lot of the 458 B&M Quality brass, had to be formed, sized, trimmed and primed.............

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I believe there are 4-5 458 B&Ms on the compound, but two in particular that I have carried to the field extensively over the years. One is a Bastogne stocked 18 inch gun that I have used in Africa quite a bit, the other is a Stainless 18 inch gun set in a Snow pattern camo Ultimate stock that I have used in Alaska. The Snow gun is light, it comes in at 6.5 lbs, and I exclusively use the lighter 458 caliber bullets for it. The Bastogne I use the heavier bullets 450 Solids and matching Raptors. Most of the time POI does not match up Heavy vs Light, so I set both guns up separately for separate missions. With the remaining guns that could quickly be tuned to whatever was needed. I loaded 100 rounds of heavy, 450 Solids for the Bastogne and have those on the shelf.

For the Lighter loads we have a great variety of things for different missions, all the the same or very close to the same POI at 50 yards............. Here are some 265 Copper Raptors that match up perfectly with the 250 Lehigh Extreme Penetrators. Both of these are just plainly put, WICKED. Both are doing 2900 fps out of the 18 inch gun...........

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And I hear about folks being scared of "Compressed Loads"................ Not here, We Love Compressed loads.....................These are packed with 77/H-4198............ and very compressed........

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