reloading questions/advice if you would please?

[Old_Me]

gonna be HOT and muggy today..was going to go to the club, but i had to fetch my family member at work at 3AM today, (she got called to fill in) and i can't manage standing...so i'll work up some more 9mm.

i turned on the dehumidifier in the basement, that and a fan, and i'll be good.

sitting is easier, on that nice padded bar stool, over that hard wooden one.

 

[Old_Me]

well i managed to reload 200 rounds (9mm) today...i was more tired than i thought, with that surprise call to fetch my family member...so not a good day for shooting as i knew.....(i started at 8:45 and stopped/cleaned up at 11:30) ...i work slowly as you can surmise.

i still want that "goal" of 1,000 rounds, so it'll get done. hopefully by the weekend.

my Lee Pro-4000 was spitting out old primers from the press, onto the floor, rather than sending them down the catch tube.

you Lee guys know this happens, i wasn't knowing why, till i took off the catch tube...

what i found was that when attached to the ram, it is loose, and the spent primers get free.

so, i used Brakleen to clean out the inside of the ram, then i used a nylon tie to ensure the collet of the catch tubing, is tight to the ram.

in the picture, you see the Lee plastic collet "lock", and below that, the nylon tie.

the ram/handle bracketry slightly touches the nylon tie, but not enough to interfere with the operation.

like many have said, "when you own a Lee press, you gotta be a "tinkerer".......

 

[Old_Me]

well, i reached my goal of 1,000 rounds of 9mm.

started this morning, and finished at 12pm

i gotta get me an Inline fabrication stand for the Lee, it sits low on my bench, and is a back breaker, compared to the Dillon, which that is on a stand.

wife doesn't have the a/c on in the house, hot as hell for me...

i might have to consider making the basement my place to stay.

all i have to do is tell her my "new goal" of 10,000 rounds

 

[jumpinjoe]

well, i reached my goal of 1,000 rounds of 9mm.

started this morning, and finished at 12pm

i gotta get me an Inline fabrication stand for the Lee, it sits low on my bench, and is a back breaker, compared to the Dillon, which that is on a stand.

wife doesn't have the a/c on in the house, hot as hell for me...

i might have to consider making the basement my place to stay.

all i have to do is tell her my "new goal" of 10,000 rounds

You never can tell ... "making the basement your place to stay" just might be her 'new goal'!!! LOL!

 

[Old_Me]

update:
ok, so i took my S&W MP 45 to the club,

1 box of my reloaded 45 ACP @ 4.5 gr, TightGroup, 230 gr, lead cast bullets, from Missouri Bullet, which i done up many months ago. (sometime in 2023)

i also took 17 "Test rounds" of the new Badman Bullets poly coated, 230 grain, @ near max charge of 5.0 gr. of TightGroup.

i gotta say, it IS true, that cast lead bullets do add to the smoke of shooting (many articles on this)

the poly coated bullets...??? i had a hard time seeing smoke.

there was "some" but, geez, hardly all that noticeable.

i like this....i am liking the poly coated bullets.

now, the powder charge might have helped cut down on the smoke as well.

i still noticed "some" particles on the shooting bench, but much less than with the all cast lead bullets.

of course with the higher powder charge, you guys know, the velocity was much better.

here is a pic, of the 17 "test rounds", with the obligatory "flier"

and once again, a pic of the test rounds. (i had made a few extra since this picture was taken)

 

[Old_Me]

took my Colt Competition to the club earlier.....100 rounds of my reloads from Aug of 2023......4.5 grains, TiteGroup, 230 gr. lead.

i had 1 cracked shell casing, if i can recall, it makes now at least 4 total since i started reloading coming up on 2 years ago.. this Oct/Nov.

it is a Winchester, i do not know if it was a range pick up, or my own pick up.

other than being dirty? the headstamp "looks" brand new....so it "could be" a first fired shell casing. then at least this one time reload.

we spoke of this in another thread, many said..."stuff just happens with new", so i ain't about to worry over this.

especially with the starting charge load.

all newly done reloads for 45ACP, are now at least at the 5.0 charge, still slightly below max charge.

 

[rcurtner]

took my Colt Competition to the club earlier.....100 rounds of my reloads from Aug of 2023......4.5 grains, TiteGroup, 230 gr. lead.

i had 1 cracked shell casing, if i can recall, it makes now at least 4 total since i started reloading coming up on 2 years ago.. this Oct/Nov.

it is a Winchester, i do not know if it was a range pick up, or my own pick up.

other than being dirty? the headstamp "looks" brand new....so it "could be" a first fired shell casing. then at least this one time reload.

we spoke of this in another thread, many said..."stuff just happens with new", so i ain't about to worry over this.

especially with the starting charge load.

all newly done reloads for 45ACP, are now at least at the 5.0 charge, still slightly below max charge.

View attachment 66090

View attachment 66091

A long time ago I often got 3-4 loadings from range and new brass. Although a low pressure round there is still stretching was each firing. Of course the brass thins as it stretches. Brass splitting was fairly rare as I often measured overall length on brass that had been reloaded multiple times. If the brass stretches too much it can cause excessive headspace that could even result in a ruptured case as well as just being split.

 

[Old_Me]

A long time ago I often got 3-4 loadings from range and new brass. Although a low pressure round there is still stretching was each firing. Of course the brass thins as it stretches. Brass splitting was fairly rare as I often measured overall length on brass that had been reloaded multiple times. If the brass stretches too much it can cause excessive headspace that could even result in a ruptured case as well as just being split.

yeah, i have new Starline brass, right now, i cannot recall how many i have in use, and how many in the cabinet. in time, and when i can, i will buy more new brass from them.

not that it is an absolute guarantee they will last longer, it's just that even with first fired brass, like anything else these days, materials from the new factory ammo can be less in quality as it once was....

i'd have to "surmise"...never assume, that Starline Brass is produced with higher standards all the time, over new factory ammo brass is these days.

this is yet another reason why i will dump brass from Mexican made ammo, like Aguila...to me, when i handled it..??

it just "felt" lighter in weight than say S&B, or Winchester, Federal, and a few others that i reload.

 

[McGee]

When I first started reloading... many years ago when smokeless powder sold for $3.40 per pound, I used Bullseye for target pistol loads and 2400 for magnum pistol loads. My experience was that Bullseye burned about as clean as coal, and 2400 burned clean with maximum loads. At below maximum loads, 2400 left a yellowish residue with some unburned powder.

I made a change to Unique for target loads and Blue Dot for magnum loads, which performed well and burned clean. I started casting bullets, and bought a 150gr gas check 357 mold, a 250gr gas check 44 mold, and a 215gr bevel base 45 mold. I always removed lube from the bevel, because I thought it may contaminate the powder if the cartridges got warm enough to melt the grease.

When sizing and lubricating the bevel base bullets, if I cranked up the pressure too much, lube forced into the bevel would push the bullet up out of the die and fill the die cavity with grease. I took the mold block to a very talented machinist friend who modified the mold to remove the bevel. Knowing that removing the bevel would slightly increase the bullet weight, I had 0.010-inch removed from the bottom of the mold, which slightly shortened the bullet. It was a guess, but the bullet weight seemed exactly the same.

The bullet mold was a Lyman 45266, which I think is no longer made. The picture shows an original bullet with bevel base on the left and a modified bullet on the right. The red color near the bullet base is residual from Alox bullet lube. I changed to a different black lube but didn't clean out the die.

Some published reloading data showed 7.3gr to 7.5gr of Unique as maximum for the 45266 in 45ACP, but I found 6gr to 6.5gr performed well with good accuracy.

 

[3L120]

yeah, i have new Starline brass, right now, i cannot recall how many i have in use, and how many in the cabinet. in time, and when i can, i will buy more new brass from them.

not that it is an absolute guarantee they will last longer, it's just that even with first fired brass, like anything else these days, materials from the new factory ammo can be less in quality as it once was....

i'd have to "surmise"...never assume, that Starline Brass is produced with higher standards all the time, over new factory ammo brass is these days.

this is yet another reason why i will dump brass from Mexican made ammo, like Aguila...to me, when i handled it..??

it just "felt" lighter in weight than say S&B, or Winchester, Federal, and a few others that i reload.

I would assume that only a small percentage of factory cases are reloaded, so that there is no incentive to produce brass for their own loaded rounds, which is any thicker than necessary. Star line brass is used for reloading, so is thicker. Just an idea. Attached a pic of my dies…think I am down to 31. Hornet to 577 Snider, .32 Short to 44 Mag. Not shown are my bullet casting gear, Or the boxes of brass, loaded and unloaded. In December, wife and I visit our oldest and I am going to try to interest him in shooting. His mother, my daughter in law is very much a helicopter mom, so will be an uphill slog…wish me luck.

 

[Old_Me]

I would assume that only a small percentage of factory cases are reloaded, so that there is no incentive to produce brass for their own loaded rounds, which is any thicker than necessary. Star line brass is used for reloading, so is thicker. Just an idea. Attached a pic of my dies…think I am down to 31. Hornet to 577 Snider, .32 Short to 44 Mag. Not shown are my bullet casting gear, Or the boxes of brass, loaded and unloaded. In December, wife and I visit our oldest and I am going to try to interest him in shooting. His mother, my daughter in law is very much a helicopter mom, so will be an uphill slog…wish me luck.

if i should get higher numbers of factory ammo, that i reload, starts splitting more, i will make the shift over to all new Starline.

right now, that would be cheap for me, being my 2 main reloads are 9mm and 45 ACP

i shoot very little .38 specials, and .22lr's......which those i can buy cheaper new, shoot, toss the brass.

 

[rcurtner]

I bet a lot of forum members have several reloading manuals they've collected over the years. I started reloading in the early 70's. This old Speer Number 8 helped me get started.

 

[jumpinjoe]

I bet a lot of forum members have several reloading manuals they've collected over the years. I started reloading in the early 70's. This old Speer Number 8 helped me get started.View attachment 66360

I reloaded my first ammo in about 1972-3. A friend got me interested in it. My first loads were .270Win using the simple hand tool from "Lee". From that I loaded several more calibers for other friends hunting rifles and used that as an excuse to buy more hand loading tools. By the time I finally bought my first press and started loading handgun ammo, I think I had about 5-6 different caliber tools. Over time got into more and more calibers/die/combinations, new and better presses, and at one time (about 6 years ago) when we sold out and moved here to the institution, I gave everything I had relative to reloading to my yard son who lives in N Dakota. That included several presses of various sizes and shapes, about 12-14 sets of dies, all manner of accessories like powder measures, scales, trimmers, etc, and probably 6-8 different manuals bought over the years with at least one (Sierra, 3 ring binder) of 1972 vintage. A Hornady almost as early, and then a Speer from about mid 70's. Many, many components went to him as well. Hundreds of shot shell hulls, wads, and shot, hundreds of brass cases of various calibers all id'd by brand, how many times loaded, what loads actually used, and probably 4-5 hundred bullets of various sizes/shapes and probably 20 different powders. And every record I'd ever written down as to loads ... dates, powder charge wt, bullet/shot type/weight, case/hull, primer, how many times loaded, since I had started reloading ... about 52 years ago. There was a couple hand written wire bound note books from early on, and an "Excel"/"OpenOffice" Scalc spread sheet covering several pages. Best I remember, I've recorded every single load I've ever done. I hope and think he will carry on my tradition of loading and record keeping to pass on to his kids. He has helped me load some, a few in years past and has always seemed to have an interest. Time will tell!

When we made the move about 6-7 years ago, I thought my shooting/hunting days were probably over for the most part, at least to the point I wouldn't be needing a lot of ammo, so he got everything related, including almost my whole collection of firearms. But since then, I've regained another 7-8 long guns, 10 handguns, and obviously I've purchased another press, several sets of dies, considerable number of accessories, powder, primers, bullets, and brass. Sorry, just couldn't help myself. Yeh, I'm reloading again here in our little apartment by mounting my presses on a little roll-around service cart so that when not needed I can roll it back into a corner of the den out of the way. It has a big drawer on it that holds most of my small components, and a shelf underneath for the bigger stuff. All loads, powder, and guns are stored in the smaller of two safes I kept when giving him the other larger one. And proud to say, I've kept up the tradition of accurate and complete record keeping in a brand new spiral wound notebook.

 

[McGee]

I don't know if currently manufactured brass is of the same quality as from the 1970s. I can remember reloading cases more than a dozen times without issues. Primarily, I kept up with how many times I trimmed a case and discarded it when I thought it had thinned from brass flowing forward.

I remember reading about competitions where shooters reused the same case, loading it at the range and attempting to shoot the greatest number of times with the single case. I don't remember details, but one record was a case which was fired over 200 times. Likely, it was neck sized only and the bullet loaded without crimping the case mouth.

I shot one load that resulted in very short case life. The rifle was a Ruger No. 3 in 45-70. As it was a modern strong design, there was published reloading data that significantly increased performance. However, these loads were unsafe in older weaker guns and even in modern lever actions. Velocity was within a couple of hundred feet-per-second of the 458 Winchester.

Although chamber pressure was significantly higher, there were no signs of excessive pressure. Primers were not flattened. Empty cases were easily ejected by the Ruger No. 3 spring-loaded ejector.

The cases did take a beating and needed trimming after every firing. After firing 5 times I noticed a bright ring around some of the cases. A machinist friend sectioned a case for me, and there was a groove just inside behind the bright ring on the outside. I'm certain that the case would snap in two if fired again. I started with new unfired cases and discarded after 3 firings.

Another friend was a phone company employee for the telephone company in a large city. There were separate white page and yellow page directories--both about 3-inches thick. When new directories came out, the old ones were discarded. He brought a lot of them home, and we soaked them in a tub of water before standing on end in a large box.

I tried my 45-70 load on the wet phone books and was surprised to see my 300gr Lyman "No. 2 Alloy" hard cast bullet had expanded from 45-caliber to about 69-caliber. The gas check remained attached. The bullet left a 3-inch diameter hole about 18-inches deep into the wet phone books. Pictures below...

I found a formula--don't remember it or where I found it--to calculate recoil. The Ruger No. 3 was a light weight rifle, and the recoil was about 3-1/2 times the recoil of a 180gr bullet fired from a 30-06. The most I ever shot it in one day was 16 times. Many friends would only shoot it once.

Last November, I took it out and fired it. I hadn't done that in years and didn't know if I was too old to handle it. It didn't seem as bad as I remembered, and I shot it 5 times. No one else took a turn... even a couple of young muscle-bound guys.

 

[shanneba]

Some of the Loads in the Speer number 8 were noticeably higher than the later revisions.
I had that one when I was loading 220 swift and 6mm Remington for varmints.