What did you load today?

Over the last two days:

I stripped seventeen 45 ACP moon clips and vibrated the brass.

Loaded ~160 rds of 44 Russian. I'm using 180gr coated LRN bullets, which no one has load data for, so there's some guesswork involved. Hodgdon shows 200gr having a range of 4.2-50gr of HP38, so I started with 4.5gr for some test loads.

The other Russians I loaded with 3.5gr of Trail Boss, which is a very light and fun load to shoot in my airweight Taurus 44 SPL snubbie.

I have a pound of Titegroup that I think I'm going to try next in the Russians. 3.5gr might take over as my "light and fun" load.

In the next day or so I'm going to load up some powder puff 45 ACP rounds for my other super-lightweight big bore revolver - my S&W 325.
 
Bought a new house and moved mid-April... absolutely every handloading and related item packed in to boxes and stacked in the basement. Spent the next 3.5 months working on the new house while the job was nice enough to bomb me with 55 hour work weeks.

To make a long story short, it was just 3 weeks ago that I was finally able to build and outfit my cave, set up my bench and get back to doing something I simply love -- making ammo.

I first got my prairie dog hunting ammo taken care of for 2019--
That was 500rds of .223 using the 50gr Hornady V-Max and H-335.

Next was to replenish my stock of 9mm, the 124gr Xtreme plated RN over Hodgdon Universal.

Then a quick run of .40cal with the Xtreme 180gr Pl-FP and Power Pistol.

Since I had the Power Pistol out, I made a run of hot .38 Special, this load sends a 125gr TMJ out at around 1,050fps. This load is exclusively for my Coonan as my club won't let me bang steel with magnum ammo. This load is a hoot out of a Coonan with the lighter 10-lb spring.

Three more different .38 loads after that, more tame stuff running Bullseye powder at a more reasonable velocity.

Then it was time to roll some .357 Magnum, most of which I did with Zero 158gr JSP's and AA#9, but also a hundred with Zero 125gr JHP's and a slightly heavier dose of AA#9. Since I had the .357 dies out, I also loaded a bunch of Berry's 158gr plated FP's with a dose of Green Dot. At this point I'd do almost anything to rid myself of this damn Green Dot haha, and this light-for-.357 Mag load eats in to that supply a bit.

When I closed up shop Sunday evening, my (very detailed) log said that my 2018 production, which basically began about three weeks ago had just eclipsed 3,000. That puts me about 8,000 behind my normal pace over my last five years, but I don't feel like I'm behind -- with my new cave, I feel like I've been born again!
 
Loaded 30 rds of 6.5 Creedmoor with Hornady 140gr BTHP. Half with H4350 and half with IMR4451. Will be shot from my S&W marked T/C Compass. Put a Vortex Viper 6.5x20x44 on it, and need to sight it in.
 
q​
Nothing today but yesterday I finished up 320 rounds of 38-Special using Etreme 125gr.hollow points and 4.7 grains of HP-38.I’ll be using them in my S&W 4” nickle Model-10,my new Ruger Blackhawk and my Henry lever action Brass Big Boy.
The OAL is 1.500 so they function and feed properly in my Lever gun.
 

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Absolutely nothing.

I am in the process of moving from my suburban home in Texas to a derelict catfish farm in Arkansas that is so far out that even Verizon can't hear me now.

All of my powder and all of my brass has been relocated.

I am in the process of relocating the rest of my primers and projectiles.

My reloading equipment and accessories will follow in October.

After I finish relocating, I will be in a rural area with a private 225 meter shooting range across the berm of an earthen dam.

Once I relocate, I will initially only have dial-up internet (remember, even Verizon can't "hear me now"), but as I am able, I will report on my progress getting my reloading equipment set up and my range reports.
 
I'm working up deer loads for my 10" 44 magnum Contender. I'm using a Lyman 429421 245 grain bullet that I cast myself, over a charge of Unique powder.
My standard load is 8.2 grains of Unique, but I've got 5 rounds loaded with 8.5 grains, and 5 more with 9.0 grains. Going to check them for accuracy, then maybe increase the next loadings.
I'll also take my Model 34 along to the range to play with.
 
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I've vibrated ~100 44 RUS shells and ~100 44 MAG shells. I plan to load some maxed 44 RUS loads to test next week at the range (5.7gr Universal under a 200gr LSWC, but I'll be shooting 180gr coated LSWC and JHP XTPs).

That may seem weird, but Hodgdon claims 970fps with that 200gr load, and since I have a bunch of 180gr XTPs, it may become my CCW load for my Taurus 445 Airweight. I just want to get the XTPs consistently over 800fps from the Taurus and I'll be happy. If I can't get the RUS into the range I need, I may move up to 44 SPL but I don't have much 44 SPL brass so I'd rather not.
 
I've been accumulating .44 Magnum empties since my last loading session with this caliber several years ago. Today, I started the process, resize-deprime-flare case mouth-reprime-charge with powder-seat bullet-crimp bullet. Wouldn't you know this is the only handgun caliber I shoot that I don't have set up on my Dillon. The old Rock Chucker does a good job, but it sure gets monotonous. Finished 200 rounds before I said, "Enough already."
 
Yesterday: Loaded 50 each of 44 Russian 5.7gr Universal and 4.8gr Titegroup under a 180gr coated LSWC and loaded couple cylinders of each under a 180gr XTP JHP. Plan to break out the chrono and see how those loads perform.

Today: Loaded ~50 45 ACP with 3.5gr Trail Boss under 180gr coated LSWC, and also another 18 using small primer 45 ACP shells. I have a S&W 325 I that has been unreliable (got it used) so am using these to test it after replacing the springs. BTW, I would have loaded more small primer shells, but most of mine are Winchester Train, and I found them almost impossible to seat a new primer in.

Also loaded ~70 32 Long with 2gr Trail Boss under a 100gr coated LSWC, another six with 3gr of Universal under a 100gr XTP and six with 3gr of Herco under a 100gr XTP. The XTPs are more fodder for the chrono.
 
I'm in the process of loading some cast lead 22 hornet bullets. I've got the bullets sized, lubed, and gas checked. Tomorrow I'll partial size and prime the cases. Then I will flare the mouths, drop charges, and seat the boolits. Fun fun fun.
 
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TODAY & THIS WEEK

Well winter is right around the corner as is Fall. Since I couldn't find a place to Dove hunt :(. I decided to put the shop in order. Been laxed in that while I worked on losing some weight. :) Any way, got a few boxes of 32\20 loaded last week, then 20 boxes of 9MM Winchester. Have a 3 gallon bucket of Federal Prem., brass that was in a box so since I always try and work ahead I started cleaning that up and getting it ready to process and load when things get really slow around here. Also want to load up some 45ACP shot shells and work up some for the 500S&W. :)
 
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357s on the Bill of Fare today. 145 grain LHPs over 9.0 grains of Power Pistol that does 1,070 fps out of my 640 Pro and shoots to POA.

Accurate load and easy on hand and ears. Good J frame Magnum load.
 
Cleaned some 25-20 and a box of 218 Bee.. Packed up some 45-70s and went through the ammo cans of empties. I found I have more than 2000 44 Specials. Then I cleaned 400 357 cases to load for the Winchester 94 Rifle. I even found 200 180 gr Silhouette bullets to load and a pretty large box(250) of Nosler 158 gr jacketed.
 
Finished up with my 124gr 9mm plated HP target loads out of a 5".
These were minimum loads and did not work as well as loads at
1022fps or faster.

Bullseye 3.8~ at 998fps oal 1.075" cci std.
w231 ... 3.9~ at 976fps
Unique .. 4.1~ at 983fps.

Just goes to show that too slow is not always a good thing, even
though they were Sub-Sonic loads.
I am still going to try BE-86 at 4.6 grs to see what happens, though.

This one 5" just does not like slow, minimum loads.
Later.
 
100 rounds of 45 Colt - 50 180s and 50 255s, 8g and 7g of HP38. This is a fair workout on my single stage but spread over a couple of days it was all good therapy time after a tough stretch at home.

This is only the 3rd or 4th batch since owning a SAA and I have finally realized you just have to accept all the soot due to low pressures, probably exacerbated by heavy Starline brass. The loads above are a holdover from the mindset of going hotter to hold down the soot but I will go lighter in future and let the vibratory cleaner deal with it.

If I was starting from scratch I think I might just have nothing but single actions - very glad I finally tried one on. Every time I see another headline re: firearms insanity I just wish I could take that reporter out to punch a few holes with a 140 year old design and maybe stop the hyperventilation for just a while :Q

Dean in Arkansas
 
.44 Special, 248 grain RN (Lyman 429383), 6.2 grains HP-38 powder, R-P brass, Tula LP primer. This is pretty much a factory duplication load for a recently acquired S&W 3rd Model HE from the transitional era (shipped 10/46).
 
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