Well I have actually loaded very little this last week, but I have managed to complete a great deal of case preparation for shooting over the next 3 months or so.

Last weekend, between shifts, I deprimed/resized 400 .38 special cases before hand priming them. I also managed to deprime and size 50 9mm cases for testing a load (50 for target shooting and 5 for the chrono) in my Tanfoglio CZ clone.

Yesterday, my first of three days off, I hit the range in the morning shooting off 126 of my last 150 .38 special loads. On getting home I put the cases, along with my last 50 fired cases, in the tumbler. I then loaded the 55 9mm cases on the bench before depriming/resizing another 600 9mm cases for a competition first weekend in September. I then sized and primed 100 new .45 auto cases before proceeding to deprime/resize and then reprime my last 200 several times fired .45 auto cases. The 100 new cases, along with another 200 I pick up on Friday, will eventually be loaded for our IPSC Handgun Nationals in November (less than a week after we return from our trip). I already have just over 500 new cases loaded up for the North Island Champs the week before we leave! (The round count for the NI’s is 240 so what is left over plus 300 rounds should see me through the usually 350 round Nationals, or do I need another 100 just in case? Mmm better make it an additional 200 just to be sure LOL). The previously fired cases will be reloaded and be practice ammo only during September (I still have 250-300 .45 practice rounds so that should be plenty).

This afternoon, after some chores around the house, I went back out to the shed and deprimed/sized and reprimed the 176 .38 special cases. I then primed the first 300 of the 9mm cases I deprimed and sized yesterday. Tomorrow I’ll finish priming the last 300 9mm’s then next week I’ll start the reloading (who am I kidding, the .38 press will be rotating tomorrow afternoon I can just about guarantee). The .38 press is already set up with the dies and powder measure drum for my .38 special load. Those’ll be first, then I’ll get the 9mm cases loaded and chamber dropped (luckily I still have around 500 9mm rounds for practice over the next month so don’t need to load for that). Then I’ll fill the .45’s and chamber drop those too.

Incidentally, the only difference between my practice and competition loads is that the later get chamber dropped before spending some time in the tumbler to get rid of any remaining lube and to look nice and shiny on the day .