What did you do at your reloading bench today?

[Vaquero]

Chilly rainy day so finally got around to going thru my cans of spent brass and cleaning a bunch of .44 Mag and .44 Special. These cans were the ones I bring back from the range and I still have my larger containers of stored brass to deprime and clean under the bench that I go thru at times.
Noticed I have a bunch of 38 Special brass to clean and this has lead to another gun project to find a use for 38 Special.

Can't wait to see this, as I have over 600 pcs. and no 38 spl. revolver.
I used the bench to add a saddle ring to the Rossi 45 colt.
Definitely looks better to me now.

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RP

[BigAl52]

Just cleaned up a new RIA 1911 in 40 S&W. Also put away some ammo I ordered while in Texas USA. No such thing as to much ammunition

[BigAl52]

Chilly rainy day so finally got around to going thru my cans of spent brass and cleaning a bunch of .44 Mag and .44 Special. These cans were the ones I bring back from the range and I still have my larger containers of stored brass to deprime and clean under the bench that I go thru at times.
Noticed I have a bunch of 38 Special brass to clean and this has lead to another gun project to find a use for 38 Special.

Can't wait to see this, as I have over 600 pcs. and no 38 spl. revolver.
I used the bench to add a saddle ring to the Rossi 45 colt.
Definitely looks better to me now.

20230407_185058.jpg


RP

Dont you have a 357 of some sort? I have a ton of 38sp to just shoot it outa the blackhawk have 2 in 357

[fortyshooter]

Yes I have several .357 shooters but I use the 357 brass for mild loads and standard 357 loadings. Had collected the 38 Special brass from some years back when I wasn't reloading and owned a 38 Special revolver plus brass from a buddy who had a .357 Rossi lever and didn't reload.

Now the project gun will be yet another version of my 1872 Colt OT revolver. I ordered a 38 Special barrel and cylinder for it when I want to change caliber from .44 Special to .38 Special. Parts should be here Monday.

Good looking Rossi Randy!

[Vaquero]

Chilly rainy day so finally got around to going thru my cans of spent brass and cleaning a bunch of .44 Mag and .44 Special. These cans were the ones I bring back from the range and I still have my larger containers of stored brass to deprime and clean under the bench that I go thru at times.
Noticed I have a bunch of 38 Special brass to clean and this has lead to another gun project to find a use for 38 Special.

Can't wait to see this, as I have over 600 pcs. and no 38 spl. revolver.
I used the bench to add a saddle ring to the Rossi 45 colt.
Definitely looks better to me now.

20230407_185058.jpg


RP

Dont you have a 357 of some sort? I have a ton of 38sp to just shoot it outa the blackhawk have 2 in 357

Yes, I have the King Cobra and another Rossi chambered in 357.
I just don't see any reason to shoot the 38's through 'em.
The only difference in loading them are a few grs. of powder, so I just load the 357 brass.
I did load up and gave a nephew 100 here a couple weeks ago to play with in a 38 he recently got.

RP

[Vaquero]

Forty said, "Good looking Rossi Randy!"
Thanks buddy.

RP

[Luv the lever]

Speaking of 357. 100 FMJ 158g xtreme FN and 50 Hornady XTP both in new Starline brass with CCI 550 and 16gn of H110.

[Rifletom]

Loaded up 50 .45 acp with 5.4gr Universal, 230gr lrnfp Missouri in mixed brass. Then 20 30-30 with 150gr Rem Cor-lock[older], 34.5gr Win 748 and Win brass. Geez, I have a lot of loaded .45 acp!

[Vaquero]

Loaded up 50 .45 acp with 5.4gr Universal, 230gr lrnfp Missouri in mixed brass. Then 20 30-30 with 150gr Rem Cor-lock[older], 34.5gr Win 748 and Win brass. Geez, I have a lot of loaded .45 acp!

Yeah, well maybe, but it CAN go fast if ya know what I mean?

RP

[The Happy Kaboomer]

Nothing. It is Easter Sunday........He arose on the 3rd day.

[Vaquero]

Well, this morning I have sized, expanded, inspected, and then primed 200 45 colt cases.
Found three that were split.
I also have some 357's getting the spa and pins treatment out on the back porch.
Have another batch of 357's on the bench that i'm going to prep and prime, right after a bite to eat.

RP

[Vaquero]

Well, I ended up doing 120 357's and 42 25-20's, during the inspections, I found three 45's, one 357, and two 25-20's split.
Ran a small batch of 41's with a handful with mixed rifle brass through the spa, and there's probably another 50 or so 357's to be prepped.
Maybe this afternoon, I have a small job I need to take care of this morning.

RP

[Hatchdog]

Took advantage of yesterday’s lousy weather and put some more 300 BO’s together. Using the Speer 125 gr TNT HP and Win 296 I wanted it increase my velocities from my testing done earlier. Big Al has experience with this caliber and made this suggestion to me. I stopped at 17.0 grains earlier so these are 17.5, 18.0 and 18.5. This exceed the Hornady data but is well under max in the Sierra data. Also I picked up a box of Hornady 150 FMJ-BT to see how they do against the 155 gr match bullet previously tested. This non match BT is much cheaper that the 155’s so hopefully they will preform.

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[BigAl52]

Went down to the basement and put the 40 S&W dies in the Dillon Square Deal. Took a while to get everything adjusted to my liking along with the guns liking. I recently bought a RIA 1911 in 40 S&W. Got a pretty fair deal on it so decided to add it to the arsenal. Besides it goes good with the Ruger PC in 40. I like 40 myself but I think alot of people treat this caliber like the red headed step child. Brass is cheap and I have alot of HS-6 which has been working well for me. Loaded 165 grhp Xtreme bullet today. Ran into some issues with some brass I wasnt aware of. Its Federal brass and in the head stamp there is an NT. Non Toxic is what it means and this brass has crimped primers. I didnt know that. Im now watching for them and throwing them in my brass recycle bucket

[Mags]

... this brass has crimped primers. I didnt know that. Im now watching for them and throwing them in my brass recycle bucket

Crimped primer pockets. Why not use a pocket swagger on them to press out the crimp ring? The RCBS 9481 pocket swagger would do this. Break even cost should occur around 100-150 brass cases. Seems there is an on going mix of Federal 40 S&W ammo in the market with crimped in primers.

[BigAl52]

... this brass has crimped primers. I didnt know that. Im now watching for them and throwing them in my brass recycle bucket

Crimped primer pockets. Why not use a pocket swagger on them to press out the crimp ring? The RCBS 9481 pocket swagger would do this. Break even cost should occur around 100-150 brass cases. Seems there is an on going mix of Federal 40 S&W ammo in the market with crimped in primers.

Because Im not even sure how many I have. I also have enough 40 brass that even if I had 200 rounds of it, its not a big deal. 40 brass is cheap and often where I shoot its laying on the ground

[Mags]

... this brass has crimped primers. I didnt know that. Im now watching for them and throwing them in my brass recycle bucket

Crimped primer pockets. Why not use a pocket swagger on them to press out the crimp ring? The RCBS 9481 pocket swagger would do this. Break even cost should occur around 100-150 brass cases. Seems there is an on going mix of Federal 40 S&W ammo in the market with crimped in primers.

Because Im not even sure how many I have. I also have enough 40 brass that even if I had 200 rounds of it, its not a big deal. 40 brass is cheap and often where I shoot its laying on the ground

I bought the swagger because all of a sudden one day I couldn't get any very common 223 brass. I had a lot of once fired 5.56 in the metal recycle bucket. They got fished out and swaggered. Maybe could happen with 40 S&W someday. So save em just in case. I don't yet reload 410, but I am saving the shot shells just in case.

[Mags]

Four test rounds 30-30 using CFE223 and Hornady 150gr RN #3035

[NHshtr]

Loaded 40 rounds of .44 mag. Enforcer is performing well at 100 yards with 240 XTPs. Also loaded 25 7mm-08 Rem. with IMR 4064 for the Encore pistol, another 25 for the 7mm-08 Savage rifle with IMR4350 (they each like their own food).

The .243 Win. Long Ranger has been a real challenge to find a sweet repeatable load. I loaded 20 more test rounds. I've used different powders, bullets, seating depths, but can't find a 1 M.O.A. load. Best so far is 5 rested shots with 1.5"- 1.7" at 100 yds. I still think the 1" is in there somewhere.

[BigAl52]

Cleaned my 2 over and under 20ga shotguns. I also cleaned my Ruger 22 mag.