What did you do at your reloading bench today?

[CT_Shooter]

I've come to the point that I rarely bother with nickel cases anymore. Sometimes you can get a half dozen loadings out of them and sometimes not.

Me, too. Last year, I still had several boxes of reloaded nickel cases that I finally decided never to reload again. Too many split rims. After firing, I left them at the range. Only use brass now.

[Vaquero]

I'm more like Al, as I don't look for or collect them, but do load them until they split. I actually have some Winchester nickel brass that I have no idea how many times they've been stuffed in the past years.

RP

[cpaspr]

I actually like the nickel cases. Though really just for .38 Special and .357 Magnum. Other calibers, I don't really care. I will admit to having been somewhat of a brass rat for a long time, so on the occasion one splits I just toss it and move on. That one in the picture looks to have originally been a wadcutter case, so a bit thinner in the middle than a "normal" non-wadcutter case. I'm setting my nickel .38 Specials aside for use only in the Henry Big Boy Steel, loading them with 173gr Keith SWCs to what should be +P levels in the revolver (i.e. unpleasant to shoot). They'll be much more pleasant in the rifle. I'll save the brass brass for revolver use, which will let me know at a glance what I'm looking at, in case my reading ability fails me.

Funny thing, for the .357 Magnum, I actually toss all the brass cases, and only keep the nickel ones. But I have probably 1000 of them or more, so splitting one now and again won't bother me at all. I have several hundred of the nickel .38s, and maybe 2000 brass .38s. Easily a lifetime supply.

As for what I did today, I ran about 210 162gr .360" diameter wadcutters through the lubesizer to bring them down to .358". I have another 140 or so yet to go later. They'll be going in .357 Mag cases for bowling pin shooting.

[Headhog]

The club I shoot at runs an ICORE match on the 5th Saturday of a month. So about every 3 months. These are fun revolver matches and that’s what I use any nickel brass I have. I just leave my brass behind for anyone that wants it. I have about 2 more years worth of nickel brass left before I have to start into my good brass. Those I will pick up.

Paul

[5shot]

Converted my 50 year old Rock Chucker press over to Hornady Lock and Load bushing.

I've got a Hornady AP LNL, a Dillon Square Deal and Redding T-7 so the old chucker has been seeing limited use lately. A quick twist of the wrist sure beats cranking through 20 threads to make a quick die change.

[The Happy Kaboomer]

Nothing......Went Quail hunting..........20 ag O/U

[fortyshooter]

Getting caught up on some reloading since snow and ice moving in for the weekend. Finish up some 45 ACP and then on to 44 Mag loads for plinking.

[5shot]

Casted up a bunch of .357 bullets. Lyman 358665 and Lyman 358429. When the thermometer drops below zero it's perfect casting and reloading weather.

[JVogler]

Dry tumbled about 200 38special brass for about 4 hours. Sorted by headstamp and if once fired or reloaded

[Rifletom]

Well, I've stopped buying knives[for a while], so, back to the loading bench. Probably some 7x57, then .45 acp.

[Vaquero]

What type knives you been buying, Tom?

RP

[The Happy Kaboomer]

..........Nothing.............

[Vaquero]

..........Nothing.............

Same here, HK.

RP

[5shot]

Formed a 50 round bag of Starline .30/30's into .360 Buckhammer. A lot of work but I really like the cartridge. Enough so that I have a little blue steel "Protector" carbine on order!

[Hatchdog]

Formed a 50 round bag of Starline .30/30's into .360 Buckhammer. A lot of work but I really like the cartridge. Enough so that I have a little blue steel "Protector" carbine on order!

Congrats on the new (pending) Protector.

[DsGrouse]

It's been a while.

Life, man, lots of life. What time I could sneak away was in the reloading room.

I've done a fair bit of reorganizing and found thousands of prepped and primed brass pieces in various calibers. So much so that thinking of loading even portions of it on my turret presses was daunting.

I sourced a rcbs pro 2000 and the necessary shell plates. So far, it's working out wonderfully. I loaded about 700 148-grain wadcutters and 600 158-grain LSWC plinking loads for my dad. I like the Pro 2000, but feel limited by the 5 stations. I may use this one for rifle calibers and pick up an RCBS Pro Chucker 7 for more flexibility.

I've swaged a lot of bullets, many more in 0.375 in 250 and 255 grns.

I've swaged several hundred 6mm 100-, 105-, and 110-grain bullets. The 100's seem to be my 6mm arc rifle's favorite.

I've started swaging smaller 120-grain 6.5 bullets, but I broke part of my swaging die set, and it's off getting repaired. I've completed the 6.5 Grendel rifle and the 6mm arc rifles. Though i moght change the scopes if I come across a good deal.

I

[DsGrouse]

loaded 400ish 38spl 158grn lswc (750fps ish) before my hand surgery. I loaded another 250 or so. I then sized about 700 38spl cases. I plan to load 500 rounds of 500 rounds of 38spl 148 grn wadcutters, (750fps ish) tomorrow.

[Hatchdog]

I worked on a project that’s been on the back of the bench only to have a big flop. A local guy had a bunch of .315 Hornady round balls that he gave me for a song with the idea of creating a gallery load to shoot in my Ruger SP 101 327 Fed Mag. I live in a no shooting community and thought these quiet loads would be a great way to break the rules and do some out the back door shooting.

So after gathering some 32 ACP brass I made a few test loads using 1.9 grs of Tite Group which is the fastest powder I had on hand. Bullseye is what is recommended but the Tite Group is pretty close in burn rate, just a bit slower. My set of 32 H&R dies which I thought would work for this project pretty much didn’t. I knew the seater die would not seat the ball in the 32 acp case due to length so I bought a 32 acp taper crimp seating die. Come to find out the expanding die wouldn’t get low enough to do its job. It is the Lee powder thru expander die with the floating expander piece in it. I had to put a bunch of flat washers in it in order for it to expand the case mouth.

So after all this I finally got a test load ready to try. It was raining pretty good so I stayed in the garage and took aim at a nearby stump. Pulled the trigger and……..”click”. Hmmm reset the cylinder and……”click”. Checked the primer and saw a very light strike. Just to be sure I tried another case with a seated primer and……”click”. Hmmmmm put this primed case in my little 32 acp and …….”bang”. Apparently the rim thickness on the 32 acp brass which is considered semi-rimmed thus able to be extracted/ejected in a revolver is too thin making it seat too deep in the chamber for a solid firing pin strike. Shucks.

So now I have nearly 500 .315 round balls I have no use for.


The fixings…

IMG_6477.jpeg (3.08 MiB) Viewed 576 times

[Rifletom]

Loaded up some 30-06 the other day. Mid-range loads with H4350 and Varget, both with Hornady Interlock 165gr spitzers. Waiting for the rain to move out, then, range time.

[DsGrouse]

That sounds pretry cool.

I loaded 250 rounds of 125grn jhp 38 spl. I'm giving win 244 a run. It does a great job for heavy sub sonic 357 mag. Today's charge is 5.0grns, and about 995fps out of my 5" 627.