Scrouged myself into a corner!

[Ivan the Butcher]

Update: This morning I hit 3 gun stores. One did away with anything reloading. The second was out of business. The third was Cabela's Columbus and I cleaned out all the handgun length stems they had, ALL ONE OF THEM! $10.99+tax (outrageous!) I guess this afternoon I set up a 550-tool head.

BTW Cabela's had lots of common brass, powder and bullets, but ZERO primers.

Today's trip was the first reloading purchase since I ordered a bunch from Berry's Bullets at the NRA convention! (but I was shopping for reloading stuff Friday and yesterday.)

Ivan

Ivan

 

[BrovoEchoSierra]

Call RCBS

As was mentioned by others... Your best bet, is to call RCBS and they will send you what you need.
I have needed a very few parts over the years, but they have always had my back, and sent me what I needed.
Best of all it was at no charge.

Lyman and others charge for everything. I even had to pay for parts to fix a Lyman die that had an aluminum part that the threads stripped out on. They even admitted was a design flaw, but still charged me for the replacement part.
Most of my stuff came in green boxes for this reason.
My buddy says Dillon is the same way, but I dont own any of their stuff.

I feel your pain on having too much **** around. I have enough 9mm, 45 ACP, 223 and 308 brass around to last two life times, but I still pick it up off the ground when I see it.
I pin tumble it, dry it, and store it in 1 gallon plastic buckets with lids.
When a newby need needs, something to get started, and I give it away.

Primers are my short coming these days.
Sadly, even though I was prepared for this shortage to some degree, it was not enough, and I am short on SPP, and have to limit my 38, and 9mm shooting.

 

[Sam McCord]

If I recall 30 Carbine govt. arsenal brass never had crimped in primers so no problem there. Grab the decapping stem out of one of the Lee Loader kits and decap the cases before you resize them. Problem solved.

 

[Muley Gil]

A friend gave me a round of .45-70, so I bought a Marlin 1895 lever action rifle.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

A friend gave me a round of .45-70, so I bought a Marlin 1895 lever action rifle.

Friends are often our enablers! My best friend got me started by loaning m a press for a couple of years. When he needed it back, I was hopelessly hooked! Some molds and dies we own together. Together we have a die set of every cartridge we ever loaded for except one: 7x57 AI. The dies went with the rifle.

I have a few guns I never loaded for: 8x52R Lebel, 8x52R Siamese and of course several rimfire cartridges.

I even reload for one of my rifles but have no dies for it 50-50 Carbine. 50-70 US brass cut off a 1/2" with a plumbing tubing cutter, prime by placing the cartridge over the primer and hammering it down on the primer (ala Lee Load All). Pour in 50 grains FFg black powder, and push the lubed bullet (425 grain) in with a press or close in a vise to the overall length. Easy Peasy! Out of my rolling block carbine recoil is like one of the non-magnum lever action carbines, (think 44-40 cowboy loads)

Ivan

 

[chiefspecial357]

Hey Ivan

Don't be a cheapskate and buy the replacement pins. They are not expensive and considering all the money you've saved over so many years of reloading, I'm sure you can afford those.
Chief

 

[Muley Gil]

Friends are often our enablers! My best friend got me started by loaning m a press for a couple of years. When he needed it back, I was hopelessly hooked! Some molds and dies we own together. Together we have a die set of every cartridge we ever loaded for except one: 7x57 AI. The dies went with the rifle.

I have a few guns I never loaded for: 8x52R Lebel, 8x52R Siamese and of course several rimfire cartridges.

I even reload for one of my rifles but have no dies for it 50-50 Carbine. 50-70 US brass cut off a 1/2" with a plumbing tubing cutter, prime by placing the cartridge over the primer and hammering it down on the primer (ala Lee Load All). Pour in 50 grains FFg black powder, and push the lubed bullet (425 grain) in with a press or close in a vise to the overall length. Easy Peasy! Out of my rolling block carbine recoil is like one of the non-magnum lever action carbines, (think 44-40 cowboy loads)

Ivan

My first centerfire rifle was a .43 Spanish RB. After I fired the few original Berdan primed rounds, I would charge the brass with black powder, top it with a .451" round ball and then place a modern large rifle primer over the anvil of the Berdan cartridge.

Once I wore out the anvils, I reamed the brass to accept a 209 shotshell primer.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

My first centerfire rifle was a .43 Spanish RB. After I fired the few original Berdan primed rounds, I would charge the brass with black powder, top it with a .451" round ball and then place a modern large rifle primer over the anvil of the Berdan cartridge.

Once I wore out the anvils, I reamed the brass to accept a 209 shotshell primer.

I have a Spanish made Rolling Block in 43 Reformado, from 1887. The Reformado is almost I identical to Reminton's 43 Spanish. 57 mm long but uses .454 bullets. I ended up with CH & CH-4D dies for both cartridges and a 20 pack of BELL brass back in the 80s. I ended up buying a Forrester "Classic" case trimmer to handle the monster cases, because I couldn't figure out how to trim to length a bottle neck case with a pipe cutter! Had to remove around 5/8" from the case.

I was in a small old gunshop in the late 80's and saw a factory wrapped 10 pack of 577 Basic cases by BELL. The company had already folded, and I got the 10 pack for $30 (a lot of money for a guy with 4 kids under 10). I never got a rifle to use them in! (577 NE, 577 BPE 3", 577-450 Martini, 577 Snyder, or you could waste them and trim to 2 1/2" and make all brass 28 gauge shotgun shells.) I sold them at a gun show around 2005 for $90 and the buyer was ecstatic!

AT an OGCA show, in 1985, I was looking at a H&H double rifle, Like new, and in 4 Bore! I was thinking how would I reload for it? Then he told me the price: $70,000.00. I have to finance the house I had just bought for $36,000. So it was out of the question, but just WOW! It reminded me of a double barrel M-79 grenade launcher, with beautiful wood!

Talk about reloaders being packrats and hoarders!

Ivan

 

[sniper]

A friend gave me a round of .45-70, so I bought a Marlin 1895 lever action rifle.

As long as there was a good reason!

 

[Green Frog]

Ivan, you probably won’t want my advice, but since you can’t seem to find decap stems locally, I would suggest counting up the number of die sets you’ve dog robbed for their decap stems, then order that number plus about 25-50% extra from RCBS directly. The extras will insure you never break another pin (until you lose your spares) and the time and gas money you save by doing this once will be worth it!
Froggie

 

[dwh]

Hi, I’m Dave and I’m a reloader! My wife said I should attend these meetings because I just came home with 200lbs of lead and wheel weights. I don’t cast yet but when a friend offered me his Star sizer with 3 sizing die for $100 how could I say no. I too have brass and dies for guns I don’t own. Like 100 bullets, case and dies I found in I the lgs junk box for 375 H&H mag $30 along with a dozen other’s. I can’t walk away from abandoned brass on the range or odd dies. Thank you for your support.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

Froggie: Very good suggestion! I keep the CS phone numbers for all the bullet and die companies in my phone's contact list, just in case!

Ivan

DWH/Dave: Glad you could make it today's meeting! We have lots of couples that shoot together, but not many that reload together. My wife calls it something else (thrifty, I think) But she's a hoarder too! She hoards fabric for sewing!

I too can't pass a LGS junk box or table! I have a strange reloading press/machine that is for a large Dangerous Game cartridge! It has 49 brass with it about half have been formed into the round. It isa belted mag basic case, with a 1/2" long 45 caliber neck and 3 3/8" long. Think 458 Lott on steroids! I found this kit for the cartridge in a small tool box on a junk table in a small LGS in London Ohio. (Same owner as gave me Harvey Donaldson's loading dies.) It was $10, I couldn't say no! He started laughing when I walked in the store, Knowing I would leave with it!

Yes, I may need another intervention!

Ivan