What did you do at your reloading bench today?

[fortyshooter]

My long awaited 230 gr. 45 XTP bullets arrived this morning from Mid South Shooter's Supply. Now to load up a small batch and see how they shoot thru my S&W 25-7. Will save most of them for my SD .45 ACP loads.
For .45 Colt 9 to 9.3 gr. of Unique should have them in the 900 FPS range.

[Hatchdog]

^^^^^^^^^^

Blued, walnut (or other wood), double action revolver. Must be what Heaven looks like.

[NHshtr]

Very nice! Like the grips a lot!

[NHshtr]

Hornady XTPs perform very well. I've killed deer very cleanly with the 240 XTP in a .44 Rem revolver out to 75 yards. But the MV was more like 1300 fps to be sure they open correctly.
EDIT: Sorry, I should have added that it was a 7 1/2" barrel.

[RanchRoper]

Reloading 100 rounds of 45 Colt today. Might try some Unique.

[fortyshooter]

Hornady XTPs perform very well. I've killed deer very cleanly with the 240 XTP in a .44 Rem revolver out to 75 yards. But the MV was more like 1300 fps to be sure they open correctly.
EDIT: Sorry, I should have added that it was a 7 1/2" barrel.

Yes..I've had great results with the 250 XTP in my heavier Colt 45 loads and the 230's work very well in my 45 ACP guns.
This particular load is to be used in the S&W 25-7 or could be used in the Ruger NV and Colt clones as a good carry load for SD use.
For large 4 leg critters a 250+ gr. hard cast FP would be the choice.
The S&W 25-7 with 5 inch barrel feels well balanced and that grip fits nice in the hand. The action is very smooth and light.
My 200 gr. FTX loads I made up earlier work very well too.

[Hatchdog]

I received my RCBS Chargemaster from Fed Ex last evening around 5:00. That’s right, 5:00 pm on a Sunday. Crazy. Anyway today I plan to get it set up and give it some trial runs then later in the week charge 200 .223 cased with Varget, an extruded powder. Been wanting one of these dispensers for a while now so I’m pretty excited to give it a run.

[fortyshooter]

Nothing today. Got 25 rounds of my 45 Colt 230 gr. XTP loads ready for testing sometime this week.

[Grunt67]

Checked Precision Reloading's site, and they say my order of 100 Starline 45/70 brass has been shipped. No details. They are in Mitchel
So. Dakota, so with a little luck, it might be here this week. They will usually need a bit of trimming. Give me something to do on the bench.
Hopefully, this week, I can get to the range & shoot the ladder loads I've got cooked up for the 45/70. Then I can start reloading again.
That'll keep me busy for a while.
Of course, weather may figure in there somewhere.

[Vaquero]

At the bench...ah,
I loaded my gut.
Yes I had supper on the bench.

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RP

[Grunt67]

At the bench...ah,
I loaded my gut.
Yes I had supper on the bench.


20210222_184330.jpg


RP

Folks! We have a winner. Good idea. Randy.

[CT_Shooter]

It's been awhile since I've worked at my reloading bench, simply because I haven't been to a shooting range in way too long and my ammo cabinet doesn't have room for any more. That's a problem I want to address soon.

I get my first vaccine shot in two weeks and, among other things, I am so looking forward to shooting again! Please get vaccinated. Normal can't happen fast enough for me.

In the meantime, I visited my reloading bench this week with an abacus to count money... I mean, to do an inventory of my .38/.357 reloading components. I only had a guesstimate of what I had on hand until now. Looks like I'm good.

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[runnin n gunnin]

Nice Spread Sheet CT- Looks like you are a bit crowded with all those primers. Being a giver, let me know if you want me to help you clear some room and take those primers off your hands !

[Hatchdog]

Experimented with my RCBS Chargemaster yesterday and I’m very impressed with it so far. Scary accurate and consistent with the trial dispenses I did. I load a lot of .223 at around 24 grains of Varget and it seemed pretty quick at that charge level. I bumped it up to 45 grains and there was a pretty significant difference in the time to dispense.

[Rifletom]

Do they still make that little beep when it's done dispensing powder? They are a very good bench item.

[Hatchdog]

Do they still make that little beep when it's done dispensing powder? They are a very good bench item.

Yes it does. I saw in the instructions that the beep can be shut off but I liked it. When I was dispensing powder today I was able to do some other tasks while the charge completed. The beep let me know to pour the charge and get the next one started.

I loaded 100 .223 cartridges today using brass I had sized and primed previously. Out of 100 charges dispensed I had 98 exactly at 24.5, one at 24.6 and one at 24.7. I am very impressed with this unit. I have 100 more to complete but using a 25.5 charge (different rifle). I sure hope I get that same level of consistency.

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[Hatchdog]

Today I loaded up another 100 .223 cartridges giving my powder dispenser another run. Today’s load was 1.0 grain heavier than yesterdays, 25.5 of Varget.

I had 92 at 25.5, seven at 25.6 and one at 25.7. Yesterday was 97% perfect and today was 92%. However, if I factor RCBS’s claim the dispenser is accurate within one tenth of a grain them my accuracy is 99%. I can sure live with that. I did use the one tenth over drops but redid the two that were two tenths over. Pretty much I’m thrilled with the performance of the RCBS measure. A couple of years ago I bought the Lyman version of this measure at half the price and after using it for 10 minutes I boxed it up and took it back to Sportsman’s Warehouse. Way too much variance.

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[Grunt67]

Hatch, after you get it set up & going, how long does it take to do each drop. Just curious. ( like the cat ).

[Grunt67]

I've finally got back on my bench & actually getting some loads made again. Working on the 45/70 with the new load I came up with
on my ladder loads experiment. Now loading IMR4198, 40.5 grs ( previously 41.0 ), Hornady 300 gr. JHP, Starline brass, CCI primer.
Work a while, & have to quit a while, my back & shoulder starts complaining. Getting old ain't for the squeamish.

[Vaquero]

I haven't done anything @ the bench since I stuff the gut.
But I did order some 9mm bullets tonight because of a nice heads up...but that was from the recliner.
thank ya, Grunt.

RP