What did you do at your reloading bench today?

[DsGrouse]

Hey Al, I still have a whole box of those Zero 357 and a good many in another, also.

RP

Those Zero 125gr sp shot very well for me. Im going to order more before I get home so I dont half to pay the communist 6.5% excise tax on the sale. Colorado now seeking to outlaw all guns with detachable magazines.

I've been very happy with the few I picked up.

[Mags]

Hey Al, I still have a whole box of those Zero 357 and a good many in another, also.

RP

Those Zero 125gr sp shot very well for me. Im going to order more before I get home so I dont half to pay the communist 6.5% excise tax on the sale. Colorado now seeking to outlaw all guns with detachable magazines.

FYI
https://coloradosun.com/2025/01/21/colo ... ZPAP%20M70.

[BigAl52]

Thanks Mags first explanation I have seen of the bill. But to me its a modified ban of assault type weapons as to which the bill author says hes not in favor of. Details from him were not as good as the ones from that reporter. I wish I could find more details on the excise tax law but I havent been able to find them.

[Vaquero]

I worked today after being off for nearly a month, to tired to mess with the 357s tonight.
Rain tomorrow so I'll probably stuff some.
Ordered another mold in 44 cal.
https://www.mp-molds.com/bullet-casting ... pe=product
Should work nicely in both the 44s and the 444s.

RP

[rickhem]

Got a little bored, and some cabin fever, with it being cold and snowy for so long, so I resized, polished, and then trimmed 20 cases for my neighbor's .270 Win. I have been reloading for his rifle for a couple years now, and we found a reduced load that keeps the 120SST under an inch. These cases were from a box of factory ammo that he bought when he first bought the rifle. You would not believe how uneven the case mouths were on this brass. I noticed it as he was shooting them last year, and we had a few that we couldn't stand up on the case mouth, that's how extreme the uneven angle of the case mouth was.
They're all nice and shiney now, with flat, square trimmed case mouths, and all at 2.536-2.537" case length. Maybe we'll load up some 90TNT bullets in these.

[Vaquero]

Nothing really surprises me when it comes to factory ammo these days.
Curious though, which manufacturer are the brass?

I found some more of those heavy 44 cal. bullets while looking for something else.
These weren't powder coated like the others, so I dropped back to 24.0 grs. of 2400 and loaded 10 to see what they do.

RP

[Vaquero]

Well, I did shoot 5 of those rounds I loaded earlier, 2 from the Marlin P and 3 from the Rossi, not much difference in the way they felt.
Then warmed up the pot and went looking for the handles to the mold, it was on the Accurate 41 mag mold and I hadn't put it properly so it took a bit for I got started. Between the delay looking around and then a neighbor stopping by, I did manage to get a 180 cast up before calling it quits.
This was about half way through the session, the lowest I found was 321.6 up to 325.1.

20250205_155709.jpg (2.1 MiB) Viewed 1571 times

RP

[Vaquero]

I meant to say, this is the lead I got from the sil's grandfather back around Thanksgiving.
I bought 400 lbs. for $200, so say 322.5 as an average I get 21 per pound, or .024 cents a piece.
I can live with that.

RP

[rickhem]

Nothing really surprises me when it comes to factory ammo these days.
Curious though, which manufacturer are the brass?

This was Winchester brass, but we also found similar stuff with Remington and Federal brass.
Admittedly, this was the least expensive, or the only available ammo at WalMart when he bought it, so that may have factored in. I think that when WalMart contracts for a quantity of ammo for sale in their stores, manufacturers have to cut some corners to come in at the price and still hold some profit. Case prep was probably high on that list of corners to cut.
As bad as the cases were, they still shot under 3" groups at 100 when I tried them. He only likes to sight in and shoot at 50 yards, so easily usable for deer hunting ammo, which is all he does with it.

[DsGrouse]

I haven't done much in the last couple of days. I've been working on adding dirt to my range berm. I've got some stuff coming from Inline fabrication today. A couple of mount plates for some of my presses. My big order hasn't shipped yet. That one will be a doozy. I secured a deal for two Kennedy toolboxes that I have to pick up Saturday. That's where I'll keep most of my swaging dies, sizing dies, and lube sizing dies with top punches.

[Vaquero]

IMG_20250209_154704.jpg (187.22 KiB) Viewed 1474 times

RP

[BigAl52]

Are those pure lead Randy? Do you ladle pour or bottom pour?

[Vaquero]

Ladle pour, I do also have one with the bottom pour but I don't fool with it.
Smelted wheels weights that I bought from the SIL, I do have some near pure lead.
But for powder coating they can be a bit soft, I will add a little here and there, but those and the ones I did yesterday were with just the ww's.

RP

[BigAl52]

I always ladle poured when I did it years ago. Bullets were to big to bottom pour. I have a brand new Lee 20lb pot I havent used yet with some pure lead. I was going to cast roundballs for BP but I have not ever got around to doing it yet

[Vaquero]

I did some powder coating this afternoon, I do the tumble method, I have a plastic one gallon container. Drop a 100 or so air-soft pellets in with a small amount of paint. I shake/swirl for a couple minutes to get the friction going then drop in a handful or so of bullets and do the same for another minute or so. Pour them on a pan and pick them up with some of hemostats, or as today these little tweezer things. Place them on the wire fence and place in oven for 20 minutes on 400°. Then pour out and do another batch.

Going in.

20250213_155248.jpg (2.2 MiB) Viewed 1520 times

After they cool.

20250213_164012.jpg (2.51 MiB) Viewed 1520 times

And the whole bunch.




RP

[DsGrouse]

Have you tried vibrating them in a tumbler with the powder?

[Vaquero]

No sir.

RP

[rickhem]

I sorted out some of my .38 Special cases and got about 500+ cases with WW headstamps. These were the cases I used for a revolver league that I shot in back when I lived in NJ. I wish there was a league like that up here. These cases have well over 25 loadings on them, possibly much more, after a while I just lost track. They will get 2.6 grains of Bullseye, and the Zero 148 HBWC that I've used for decades. I bell the case mouth just enough to get the bullet started, which really helps with case life. I do get some that split, and usually only notice those after they're already loaded, so I just shoot those and check them.
I left them in my vibrator with corncob for a few hours out in the garage, and they're nice and shiny now, ready to load.

[Hatchdog]

interesting colors Randy. The green prior to baking reminds me of the Grinch. Happy shooting.

[Vaquero]

interesting colors Randy. The green prior to baking reminds me of the Grinch. Happy shooting.

you're about the Grinch comment.
The ones with a little red added I call the blooded bullets.
A good bit of these are destined to impact a steel plate head-on at a high rate of speed.
Some could even bloody something else.

RP