What did do today on your loading bench !

[shibiwan]

Reloaded 100 rounds of subsonic 300 BLK. 208gr Hornady A-Max driven by 11.3gr of AA1680 using CCI primer. Loaded it a little bit on the hot side (still way below max published load) to ensure reliable cycling. Let see if we get any transonic bullet instability issues.

[planeflyer21]

Picked brass out of the bed of my truck, from a number of range trips…took about twenty minutes.

[Dane Armory]

Loaded 237 rounds of 40S&W with all of the Autocomp I had left. I used the (new)Win wsp Nd the(old) Win wsp , win 1X brass and 7.4gr , 7.5gr and 7.6gr of Autocomp.

Winchester primers :

Old blue box ~ brass primer

New blue w/white corner ~ brass primer new material

New white box ~ chrome primer

[98Z5V]

Deprimed and resized a bunch of twice-shot 300BLK earlier this morning.  Meant to get back to it and load it up, but life got in the way.  Spent the rest of the afternoon sandblasting Dawn Marie's new upper and lower, getting that thing ready for paint... 

[shibiwan]

Loaded up the .223/5.56 cases I had lying around. Experimenting with NATO loads; 102 rounds of 75gr match and 39 rounds of V-Max 55gr.

 

Question - how many times do you guys recycle your brass? Some of my .308 casings are up to 4 shootings already, and I trimmed/annealed that batch.

[survivalshop]

  Most may not like to hear this , but I load until I see problems with the brass & I have never annealed . Usually I see a split at the case mouth & if load testing  , I some times get expanded primer pockets ( if they are a little hot )

  The reason I have had a problem with the primer pocket is that I have been using WC 846 , being a pull down powder with no real reliable loading data ( lot to lot can be different ), I some times have went a little hot with my test loads . This was also before I got a Chronograph.

 The price of this stuff any more , I will stretch them as far as possible . Annealing can increase case usable life even further.

Edited March 17, 2014 by survivalshop

[mineralman55]

I busted the decapper on my RCBS 308 die. The last couple resizings got progressively more difficult, then "POP". I pulled the die apart and saw not only was the pin broken, but the decapping rod was bent! Cases weren't deformed, can't figure out how that happened. It goes back to RCBS today. :unsure:

[survivalshop]

If you call RCBS up they will most likely just send you another de-priming stem.

 I have bent a couple . Once I deprimed a Berdan primed case & some times military crimped primers will do it & also the stem could have loosened up & got at a bad angle & missed the flash hole.

 

I keep extra's in stock ,just in case.

Edited March 17, 2014 by survivalshop

[mineralman55]

If you call RCBS up they will most likely just send you another de-priming stem.

 I have bent a couple . Once I deprimed a Berdan primed case & some times military crimped primers will do it & also the stem could have loosened up & got at a bad angle & missed the flash hole.

 

I keep extra's in stock ,just in case.

Yeah. Guess what. They're low stock or not available too. Man, the reprecussions of having libs in charge of the government SUCKS! :fawkdance:

[.308LiteHunter]

I busted the decapper on my RCBS 308 die. The last couple resizings got progressively more difficult, then "POP". I pulled the die apart and saw not only was the pin broken, but the decapping rod was bent! Cases weren't deformed, can't figure out how that happened. It goes back to RCBS today. :unsure:

I did the same thing about a month back. RCBS sent one out right away, I think the reps exact words were "No problem we will send one out right away and get you back in the game".

 

Sorry to hear they are out of them right now. I better go easy on mine.

[survivalshop]

Do you have any other RCBS die sets that you could barrow one from  ? (  30'06,270 ect. )  I have one if you need it .

[texas30cal]

Straighten the rod, chuck it in a lathe or drill press ,rotate, watch, hit gingerly with a soft hammer it may take a few tries but it works, polish the ball, new pin and you're back in business.

[mineralman55]

^{Do you have any other RCBS die sets that you could barrow one from  ? (  30'06,270 ect. )  I have one if you need it .}

^DSCN2051.JPG

^{Already borrowed the decapper from my 30-06 die due to an incident long ago. Stuff happens if you wait long enough. Thanks for the offer, but I'll just load up another caliber until I get the .308 stuff back.}

 

^{Straighten the rod, chuck it in a lathe or drill press ,rotate, watch, hit gingerly with a soft hammer it may take a few tries but it works, polish the ball, new pin and you're back in business.}

 

^{Hmmm. Hadn't thought of that. I rolled the pin on a granite plate to determine it was bent but didn't think of chucking it in the lathe. Oh well, I'd prefer a new decapper and pin anyway.}

Edited March 18, 2014 by mineralman55

[seasprite]

I finally finished prepping all my plinking brass  Then I decided to drive out to Missouri Bullet Co. and picked up 1000, 200gr lswc for the 1911.  

 

If you guy's like shooting cast through your handguns give them a look their customer service is one of the best if not the best I've ever dealt with. Not to mention their bullets fly pretty good to.

[shibiwan]

Loaded up some 150gr loads for the 300aac with the remainder of my brass.

[shibiwan]

Loaded up 40 rounds of Hornady 168gr BTHP with 42.0g of RE-15. Some with F210 primers, some with Rem 9.5 primers. Going to see how these do soon.

[survivalshop]

Cleaned , FL sized  , LC 308 brass for 175 gr. loadings . If weather holds, will be taking 16" & 20 " to 200 yd. comparison this coming weekend . 

[Dane Armory]

Loaded 100 55gr223 with H335 and filled up my betamag.

[NoFail]

Eh, I fixed my neighbors Stihl FS 46 C weed whacker on my reloading bench today.

He said it was leaking fuel. The engine was caked with fuel/dirt goo. Removed covers and cleaned it all with brake cleaner and tooth brush. Eventually I found the bulb primer pump thing was shot and that's where it's leaking.

I can't emagine how he missed that one, really can't.

I have not loaded any ammo since before last summer but that is what I did on the bench today :))

[98Z5V]

Hey brother, at least the bench got some use!  <thumbsup>

[mineralman55]

To get moving again, I decided to order new 308 dies while waiting for RCBS to get me a new decapper pin. Midway had Lee dies for cheap (I like Lee dies) so I ordered some. Began using them yesterday. Third case "POP"! the decapper stuck in the case and pulled the decapper pin down through the collet :wtf:  Sometimes you can't win for losing.

 

Okay, got it unstuck (I shouldn't say those words, they're not nice) and lubed the daylights out of the cases. I don't like doing that because it usually dents the case shoulders, but after a few dozen cases everything seemed to be working out just fine. I think the dies come a bit "dry", and need some breaking in. Anyway, all is working now with the Lee dies. Just need a few evenings to finish the other 500 1x-fired cases. "Sweat investments" are sometimes worth it.

Edited March 28, 2014 by mineralman55

[unforgiven]

Not sure if you guys can use any of this stuff Palmetto has a sale going on : http://palmettostatearmory.com/index.php/reloading.html?p=4&utm_campaign=Constant+Contact&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Get+20%25+Off+Reloading+Gear+%26+Supplies

[texas30cal]

I walked by it a dozen or so times but didn't get to do a thing.

[NoFail]

Today, I thought about it. Tomorrow going with my son to San Francisco for Giants preseason game against the A's. We call it the Battle of the Bay. I'm looking forward cuz I never been to a Giants game in their new stadium., which is now, what, going on 15 years old now? Sheesh!

[mineralman55]

Finished sizing, tumbled clean, then swaged all 500 cases. It didn't take too long. Batch processing isn't so bad. Just need to primer pocket clean (easy, do it once) and trim (not as easy but not too bad either). If you need them, Widener's 1x-fired .308 is really good stuff.