To Re-Load or Not???

Has anyone tried the Hornaday bullet puller that goes in your press? I just bought one, I am trying to remove the factory bullet from a LC m855 round a friend wants to have a guy with a mini lathe drill the center of a .45 install the m855 tip in the 45 round and fire it.
 
Has anyone tried the Hornaday bullet puller that goes in your press? I just bought one, I am trying to remove the factory bullet from a LC m855 round a friend wants to have a guy with a mini lathe drill the center of a .45 install the m855 tip in the 45 round and fire it.
I have the Hornady Cam Lock Collet Bullet puller
http://www.hornady.com/store/Cam-Lock-Bullet-Puller-1-Each/
I have the 30 cal and the 22 cal collets and I love it. I also have my first and last kinetic bullet puller. the cam lock puller will even pull military rounds with the sealant on them relatively easy. If my press were mounted to a permanently affixed bench it would even be easier but it is pretty easy with my modified B&D workmate bench. I highly recommend it as a puller.:D:D:D:D
have the guy buy some Hornady 45cal FTX they are polymer tipped and you could remove the polymer and put the tip in it. I load them for my 45colt Leveraction but could also load them for my 45acp
 
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Thanks Grover :D I cant wait to get it now, I just received my 2000 winchester rounds from midway. The mailman wanted to know what was in the box as it was small and very heavy lol.
 
I received my Hornaday Bullet puller and it was well worth the wait.
M193 round
OAL 2.249
Case 1.755
Bullet length 0.743
top to cannalure 0.502
28 grains of powder
bullet wt 55.2

M855
OAL 2.249
Case 1.755
Bullet length 0.910
top to cannalure 0.504
27 grains of powder
Bullet wt 62.3

I swear the powder looks just like CFE223 lol
 
I went to the range today, I used 55 grain winchester BT rounds, 25 grains of CFE223 but increased to a heavy crimp.

Here is the results 28 rounds on target at 50 yards.
 

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I have a day off tomorrow. Darn this thread. I'm going to buy powder & primers, and projectiles. :mad:

Not to start a fight, but what powder would you recommend I use for .223? I'm hoping that there is a good all-round general use powder for .223.
 
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I went with one-eyes recommendation and am using CFE223 others use H335 and vargent here.

here is the chart to look up your powders and loads from hogdon's

http://data.hodgdon.com/main_menu.asp

its where I checked for the CFE223 data.
 
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Haven't trid the CFE223, but I have had good results with H335, Varget and IMR4895 with every bullet I've loaded in the .223 (50-80gr). I am partial Varget though.
 
I am using the CFE for all of my rifle loads now, 223,30-30 and 308. I am really happy with the results. I used to use IMR4895, I am getting better velocity, lower pressures and great accuracy with the CFE over the 4895 although I get great accuracy with the 4895.
 
223_Supplies.jpg


*Sigh*

Reloading has turned into such an "involved" hobby. My LGS did have the 55gr Winchester soft points. $10.99 / bag of 100. I picked up three. I shoot between 40 to 50 rounds of .223 during a range trip. I only get out to the rifle tube every month or two. This should last a while.

I was looking for brass cases at Cabelas. No luck. I picked up some pre-loaded brass that is on sale. :D

I'm waiting for the dies & case length gauge to be delivered.

EDIT 4:00 p.m. CST - The dies just arrived in the mail.
 
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John you just need to take a road trip, you only have to cross half of Illinois Part of Indiana, All of Missouri and 3/4ths of Kansas and we can let you stretch out your guns legs... LOL

I am loading some old .308 Hornady Soft Point 150's for varmint hunting and using the last of the IMR4895 for that. The box is so old that the price tag on the 100 round box is $4.95 LOL
 
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I received my "Modern Reloading" By Richard Lee today. I ordered it from Midway they have it on sale. Anyway it seems to be a great book with a lot of indepth information not available in most of my reloading books. For instance it has a chart that tells you how much powder fits in what size of lee dipper and it has a lot of powders listed. The only powder I havent found is the CFE223 but that just came out this year. It goes into a lot of detail that I have never seen before. Just thought I would share that. :)

I agree.
Also lee's chart is light by 5-10% - so it may say 43cc of W231 is 4.5 grains but it will weigh in about 4.3. Supposedly this is to allow for different batches of powder so that things err on the low (safe) side.

I've been on ebay of late picking up some old reloading books as I want to use 2400 in 38/357mag and that's a powder not listed in more modern books. I've found recipes from as low as 7 to as high as 15gr...some say start at 7, others 9 or even 12.

The more books the better!
 
welcome to the reloaders club :D

I've been a straight-wall pistol case reloading club member for a few months now. When I started, bottle-neck rifle cartridges were just too intimidating.


John you just need to take a road trip, you only have to cross half of Illinois Part of Indiana, All of Missouri and 3/4ths of Kansas and we can let you stretch out your guns legs... LOL

If the Bacon-Apocalypse comes to pass, I'll drive down south to get me some feral hog. I hear they're tasty...and it will give me a good excuse to get a .300 BLK upper.

The more books the better!

I concur. I'm always looking up data between the three books I own, and I still want to add one more book.
 
I've been a straight-wall pistol case reloading club member for a few months now. When I started, bottle-neck rifle cartridges were just too intimidating.

30-06 is my next challenge. Been loading 9mm on a loadmaster progressive then added 38spcl. I have 357 cases but haven't loaded them yet. Loaded over 2000 rounds this year.

A guy at the range has an interest in CMP garand competition and in exchange for letting me use his 'spare' garand all I have to do is shoot with him, with the goal of going to camp perry next summer.
Ammo is the one thing I do have to pay for (duh!). And mil surp is getting harder to find and costly - 75c to $1 a round is pretty common price range.

I can reload the brass he has for 27c a round (thats bullet, powder, primer). So I picked up a lee challenger press and next week I should be ready to give it a try. Going to be interesting I think - rifle, bottle neck, single stage press, 8# powder jug, cleaning primer pockets, trimming cases...gonna be interesting all this new stuff. Load wise there's nothing much to work up though - 47gr of 4895 w/ 150FMJ, give or take a grain is about all the play room there is.

But at $275 for 1000 rounds vs $749 for 1000 (based on what he paid locally for some greek mil surp ammo) how can I not reload?
 
I broke my reloading cherry on .38 Special & .357 Mag. My only intent in reloading was to escape the ridiculously high price of factory .357 Mag. Well now I have the basic low-volume equipment, might as well save on .45 ACP too. Oh look, 9mm went up to $14 per 50 factory rounds. Added 9mm dies. I got tired of readjusting dies between .38 & .357, so I bought another die set to dedicate to .357. Now I broke my rifle caliber reloading cherry.

IMO, the reloading addiction is worse than the firearms addiction. I'm no longer constrained by the cost of factory ammo, and free to explore the possibility of owning calibers I wouldn't previously consider.

There's also the quasi-mad scientist aspect of reloading that is appealing.
 
IMO, the reloading addiction is worse than the firearms addiction. I'm no longer constrained by the cost of factory ammo, and free to explore the possibility of owning calibers I wouldn't previously consider.

Ran into a guy at the range. He has 'friends' that get him wheel weights and so his lead is free. So his bullets are free. He can shoot anything (well, pistol) for less than a 22LR!

I've avoided 45 because of the cost of bullets...if I can get free lead, well....then I'll need a furnace or two, ingot molds, bullet molds...and of course a few 45s, dies...

There's also the quasi-mad scientist aspect of reloading that is appealing.

Absolutely! Metal, fire, explosions, destruction...what's not to like?
 
My best friend and shooting buddy reloads as well and we often load together. Every time I go to his house his wife is playing something classical on the piano (Beethoven/Motzart?). I always say it makes me feel like Hannibal Lector to be loading ammo while listening to someone play such beautiful music.
 
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