To Re-Load or Not???

[GMC man]

Well heck. Even though it showed in stock my .223 case gauge/holder is backordered. No ETA. This stinks. I will have everything I need but that apparently. Anyone know where I can find one? Looking for a Lee.

Search - Lee Reloading Supplies | Reloading Equipment Lee Precision | Discount Reloading Supplies by Lee | Titan Reloading

 

[zip777]

You mean this one?
LEE CASE LENGTH GAUGE

Shows in stock for the .223 gauge at Sinclairs.

Thanks Bill on that site now. Got it ordered thanks!!

 

[GMC man]

Sealing rounds

I am going to try a trick someone told me about. I live on the coast and have high humidity so I am going to try and seal my primers and bullets with fingernail polish. I was told it may increase pressure a little so not to run the loads as hot until I find out how it will affect the rounds. I figure I will load up 28 at 27.8 grains of cfe223 with a light crimp and polish to seal it and retest next trip out.

I picked red, blue and orange for each cal I will be reloading

 

[oneyeopn]

I saw some sealant yesterday on sale, I just cannot remember where but fingernail polish should work plus you can color code your loads LOL

 

[GMC man]

I had to get help at wally's holy cow do you know how many different kinds there are, I had to keep saying I just wanted three colors red, orange and blue but she kept naming all these weird names , I don't run but I sure was tempted lol

The one color I told her I cant have is pink, I would never be able to show my face at the range again esp around here

I really am curious if it changes the fps to.

 

[oneyeopn]

You know a lot of companies use sealant on their ammo but you look at the advertised ballistics, especially on military type ammo, it doesnt seem to.

 

[GMC man]

At least I still have all the raw data from the previous testing so it will be easy to see if it does.

 

[BHarada]

I got the Armscor bullets in from brassmanbrass yesterday and did some random sampling of those and the Hornady bullets i got from brassmanbrass and Midway.

I took twenty samples of each and the good news is that all of the bullet I weighed would round to 55gr with a spread between 54.8 and 55.4gr. Diameter was a consistent .224".

Bullet length was a different matter. While the Hornadys from Midway had a spread between .732–.738", the brassmanbrass Hornadys were .732–.745". And the Armscors went from .732–.750".

Here's pic of the bullets:

The five on the left (red tips) are the Hornadys from Midway. The middle five (blue tips) are the Hornady's from Brassmanbrass. And the five on the right (purple tips) are the Armscors.

Notice how the cannelures on the Midway Hornadys are very uniform, but the cannelures on all the brassmanbrass bullets vary in height?

Unless further sampling shows a wider variation in bullet weight in the brassman bullets I'll stick to sorting them by height, <.740 in one pile and .740+ in another.

 

[Maddmax]

I saw some sealant yesterday on sale, I just cannot remember where but fingernail polish should work plus you can color code your loads LOL

I use to magic marker the case rim with different colors.

I don't know if the brass tumbler would like fingernail polish all that well.

 

[BHarada]

Ok. After spending way too much time sorting bullets I have to apologize if my earlier comment on the Hornadys I got from brassmanbrass implied that they were of lesser quality than those I got from Midway last summer. It just appears that my random sampling yesterday managed to pick out a disproportionate amount of outlyers.

In fact out of the 2000 bullets 86% of them measured .740 +/- .003". Another 12% were between .730–.736". The remainder (a total of 48 bullets) were either under .729" or over .744"

Now the Armscors are a totally different matter. For one thing they're filthy...like handling 22LR bullets. My initial sorting of them found it a 50-50 split between .740–.749" and .730–.739" but I didn't notice any bell curve while measuring them. I'm going to tumble them in some corncob media then pack them away for emergency use.

 

[stavman11]

ok this slipped to page 2... unacceptable....LOL


Prepping for Tomorrows desert Trip.... Low of 27deg high of 48... DANG COLD for Arizona...
Trip ta cabela's Report. UPDATE they are NOT getting rid of .223/5.56 mags and Guns.... Just the same as everyone else Cant get em problems.. they had some Independence 5.56 in stock... But the cases had a weird Blueish tint... so didnt get any...
Got my 30-06, PMC for $16.49/20 Cheap... also had .357Mag in stock again so picked up 2 Boxes of those as well.... Also had Some hornady bullets in stock.... almost picked up some 50gr Varmets for $39.99/250 but figured i got Plenty for now at Home

Also got some Light weight gloves... this COLD weather is Killing me but by Next Monday should be about 75deg... YA BABY!!

Ok Now For Todays Festivities...

Sat down at Bench and and Timed Myself...
Loaded 82 rounds in 15 minutes.. Not Rushed but concentrated on going at a steady pace... No issues at all besides 6 rounds falling on the floor, so maybe coulda got 2 more loaded without having to pick those up...LOL

Goal is to load 300 today... and also Clean the other 300ish Brass and maybe de-Prime a few Hundred or so more Brass...


Should be fun Tomorrow.... Gunna Try and Lob some Lead out to 300yds and see how we do..... Now that I have some more 30-06 ill get It dialed in as well.....

Fun Times in my Desert Range

>>>>>>>

 

[BHarada]

I woke up this morning to find stuff all over the floor in front of my reloading bench, and the cabinet hanging off the wall. The particle board hanger on the back of the cabinet finally gave way under the weight of the bullets, primers, powder, books,...hahaha.

It took me a while to maneuver things to where I could unload the cabinet without dumping everything onto the floor. Anyway I've rehung it and this time added some shelf brackets beneath it.

I've ordered some additional .223 ammo boxes so I can work up some test loads for the Mossberg MVP I have coming next week. I'll do the same ladder of loads that I made for my Sport. I may even make up a few rounds using the Armscor bullets for giggles.

 

[GMC man]

Ouch I havent gotten that far yet all my supplies are still under the bench.

 

[Krell1]

I reloaded for years and used a Dillon progressive. I only loaded .45 and .38 pistol and usually did a couple thousand of each. Then I'd grab a couple boxes at a time and when the pile went down, out came the press again and I'd do it all over. I found it to be much cheaper than buying ammo but it was a job I really hated to do. I almost started casting my own bullets and actually had around 2000 lbs of lead stocked up when I realized that was even more tedious than the reloading. Went back to buying the bullets in bulk and gave the lead to a friend.

 

[zip777]

Work in progress. My home built reloading station. Meant to be portable. I bought a 2' x 4' piece of 3/4" oak plywood. I had them cut 1' off the end. Filed and sanded all edges, corners rounded and sanded flat surfaces. Glued the small piece on top of the big one and gave it 4 coats of gloss polyurethane on each side.

It will be placed on a rectangular end table with a section of grippy shelf liner to keep it from sliding. The press will be mounted on the right front side after the poly cures. It will be the ONLY thing bolted to the wood. If I use the powder dispenser I'll c-clamp it down. HOPING I don't have to attach the top to the end table... We will see.

 

[BHarada]

Zip, You're going to need to clamp that plywood deck to the end table or else every time you resize a case it'll want to flip onto you. Use a couple of large C-clamps along the back edge and one on each side if you're able to reach the end table.

If there's too much overhang to reach the end table you may be able to use some lengths of 1x2 (cut to the same length as the width of your plywood) under the table top and clamp that to the plywood deck so they pinch the end table between them.

 

[zip777]

Seeing how I haven't used the press yet I was wondering how much downward pressure would need to be applied. I should be able to c-clamp that back edge no problem. Thanks Bill.

 

[BHarada]

Seeing how I haven't used the press yet I was wondering how much downward pressure would need to be applied. I should be able to c-clamp that back edge no problem. Thanks Bill.

You'll need to run it a few times to see how much and where you need to clamp it down. If you use the press for priming you'll also need to clamp along the front somehow.

How much damage are you allowed to do on the end table? They sell threaded inserts that you can screw into the end table. Then you'd use some bolts through the plywood deck to attach it to the table. Counterbore the holes in the plywood and use some fender washers and you'll be set with no bolt heads protruding onto your work space.

 

[zip777]

The end table was given to me 25 years ago when I left home. Heck I can burn it if I want! LOL

4 bolts with wing nuts thru the whole shootin' match sounds like the ticket. I'll never use the table for anything else I just wanted to be able to store it easily if need be. Pictures do it no justice but this piece of oak is like a work of art! lol

 

[oneyeopn]

I hold my press on my workmate with plywood top with 3 bolts and wingnuts
works great but a lot of pressure will cause the table to try to turn but I dont need a lot of pressure to load, just to crush cases LOL