What did you do at your reloading bench today?

Trekker · Jan 22, 2022

This evening I loaded up a test ladder of 30 carbine, from 14.0 to 15.0 with H110.
After I see how performance works, I will continue with a production run.

Neutron · Jan 23, 2022

Latest bench time was spent loading 147g RN .357 bullets with 3.4g Titegroup into 9mm cases. Most likely to be used in the AR9. 100 rounds on the Lee Turret press.

Harrys · Jan 23, 2022

LT-30 Cold Weather Update

Harrys said:
I got a shipment of LT-30 powder yesterday. I have never used in my 45/70 and making up some test loads. Will be heading out this afternoon for some target shooting. I am interested to see how cold weather affects the rounds. When I was deer hunting in subzero temperatures, I missed my deer at about 150 yards shot way low. I know where my current Iron sites are set for warmer weather at the 3rd notch for 100 yards. It will be interesting to see the difference.

350 grain HCFN
37 grains of LT-30

Here is my follow up from Saturday's test rounds in cold weather. The first 5 rounds in group 1 were low. My sites were set in September when it was in the 70s. Yesterday it was 22 degrees.

I raised my sites up 1 notch and raised the buck horn up about 1/64 of an inch. Henrys also have an adjustment on the buck horn for fine tuning. It raised by shots by 3 inches.

The 5 shots in group 2 were in the money along the 5 shots in group 3.

I had the rifle bench rested on some leather sandbags giving me a real steady and consistent shot.

The LT-30 powder burns pretty clean compared to H4895, IMR4198 and IMR4895 of which I typically use. The LT-30 grains are a lot finer then the pellet grains of the others. So, I am a fan so far of LT-30.

I recently ordered a custom cast mold for 250 grain pellets at .458 diameter. Loading them up to 57 grains of LT-30 in a 250-grain pellet w/gas check they should be flying out at over 2000 fps.

Melnic · Jan 23, 2022

bigmancrisler said:
Definitely learned to 1) not pull bullets late at night while I’m half asleep. 2) triple check what powder I’m pouring back into the jug.

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I'm with you, I have to avoid starting something new, or doing something I don't already do often. Late night, I don't have patience or make as wise decisions with projects.

bigmancrisler · Jan 23, 2022

Melnic said:
I'm with you, I have to avoid starting something new, or doing something I don't already do often. Late night, I don't have patience or make as wise decisions with projects.

I usually just pull bullets and throw the powder away as they’re from dud boxes but these were my own reloads so that’s why it threw me for a loop

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lazarus · Jan 23, 2022

Tumbled my 308 and 7.62x51 brass after sizing, swaging the primer pockets and trimming. I've gotta go back and clean the pockets now as I've got some with walnut media and nu shine stuck in there. I guess tumbling at ~38F was not the way to go...or I need to cut the nu shine with some mineral spirits at temps that low.

JBoshoven · Jan 23, 2022

Harrys said:
Here is my follow up from Saturday's test rounds in cold weather. The first 5 rounds in group 1 were low. My sites were set in September when it was in the 70s. Yesterday it was 22 degrees.

I raised my sites up 1 notch and raised the buck horn up about 1/64 of an inch. Henrys also have an adjustment on the buck horn for fine tuning. It raised by shots by 3 inches.

The 5 shots in group 2 were in the money along the 5 shots in group 3.

I had the rifle bench rested on some leather sandbags giving me a real steady and consistent shot.

The LT-30 powder burns pretty clean compared to H4895, IMR4198 and IMR4895 of which I typically use. The LT-30 grains are a lot finer then the pellet grains of the others. So, I am a fan so far of LT-30.

I recently ordered a custom cast mold for 250 grain pellets at .458 diameter. Loading them up to 57 grains of LT-30 in a 250-grain pellet w/gas check they should be flying out at over 2000 fps.

Assuming a muzzle velocity in warm weather of 1900 to 2000 fps and s ballistic coefficient of about 0.211 a 3" drop is around 350 fps lower velocity. ( I used JBM Ballistics to make the estimate). That seams like a lot, but I don't have any experience with a 45/70 or the powder you used.

Jack

bigmancrisler · Jan 24, 2022

Melted down all my WW, and casted some pure lead slugs to slug my barrels.

John from MD · Jan 24, 2022

Don't forget that you have to life those five gallon buckets with all the ingots in them. :lol:

Harrys · Jan 24, 2022

JBoshoven said:
Assuming a muzzle velocity in warm weather of 1900 to 2000 fps and s ballistic coefficient of about 0.211 a 3" drop is around 350 fps lower velocity. ( I used JBM Ballistics to make the estimate). That seams like a lot, but I don't have any experience with a 45/70 or the powder you used.

Jack

Thanks for the incite, based on shooting a 350 grain HCFN load in my Henry 45/70 the drop is about 2 inches at 100 yards. Some of the other powders I have used the bullet drop was anywhere between 2-4 inches. The LT-30 has about the same burn rate of 4198 but is much cleaner.

bigmancrisler · Jan 24, 2022

John from MD said:
Don't forget that you have to life those five gallon buckets with all the ingots in them.

Lmao it was a bitch to carry outside to the burner and back inside to the reloading room. Has to be 5lbs an ingot it feels like.

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erwos · Jan 25, 2022

Got my Evo 9mm conversion in the mail the other day. Not sure I'm going to use it, BUT it does give me a fallback if my 650 goes out of commission. It was cheap, so I figured it wasn't a bad play for insurance. Maybe it'll save me money if I buy another Evo/Apex for 9mm.

gwfrench · Jan 29, 2022

Bought my first non-military 30-06 rifle last week at Shyda's. So now I'm loading my first 30-06 hunting type ammo. Loaded up 10 rounds of Hornady SST 150gr over 49.3 grains of VV N-140 and a CCI BR2 primer. Tomorrow, another 10 of the same load except using the Hornady #3033 150gr BTSP bullet. Now to wait for at least 50 degree weather to try them out. Just wanted a usable rifle, Savage Axis II with a 3-9x scope. 10% off, so $404 out the door. I also have Federal GMM 168's to check it out with (in 50 degree weather).

trickg · Jan 29, 2022

I've been processing a bunch of range pickup 45 ACP my Brother-in-law picked up for me. The issue I had was that a good bit of them were small primer pocket rather than large. Normally I'd just toss the occasional SPP 45 ACP I'd come across, but this was far too many pieces of brass to toss away.

Initially I decapped everything with my Lee APP press - that made it go pretty quickly. Then I tumbled everything to clean it up, and as it came out of the tumbler, I'd sort it, and I did that using a small primer pocket go/no-go gauge I have for swaging crimped miliary primer pockets. Most of the time I can eyeball everything and see it just fine, but if I had any doubt, I'd check it against the primer pocket gauge, so that I got what I hope to be a 100% error free sort.

I didn't count the amount of brass that was SPP, but I estimate it's several hundred pieces.

trickg · Jan 29, 2022

Rockzilla · Jan 29, 2022

trickg said:
The issue I had was that a good bit of them were small primer pocket rather than large. Normally I'd just toss the occasional SPP 45 ACP I'd come across, but this was far too many pieces of brass to toss away.

I didn't count the amount of brass that was SPP, but I estimate it's several hundred pieces.

Don't ya just love it???

Clean, deprime, sort, the SPP pile was normally the shoot n loose pile or "I don't care pile". still is, but like you the "pile" is growing

-Rock

Muleskinner · Jan 29, 2022

Christmas came a bit late today

trickg · Jan 29, 2022

Rockzilla said:
Don't ya just love it???

Clean, deprime, sort, the SPP pile was normally the shoot n loose pile or "I don't care pile". still is, but like you the "pile" is growing

-Rock

That's kinda how I'm going to treat it - I won't mind so much if I lose it at the range.

erwos · Jan 30, 2022

Prepped a bunch more 223 cases on my Evo. Need to give them another wash to clear off any leftover brass shavings, and then they'll go in the "ready to load" pile.

Man, I need an excuse to shoot more 223...

erwos · Jan 30, 2022

Prepped a bunch more 223 cases on my Evo. Need to give them another wash to clear off any leftover brass shavings, and then they'll go in the "ready to load" pile.

Man, I need an excuse to shoot more 223...

What did you do at your reloading bench today?

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