What did you do in the reloading room today?

[Precision Underground]

How many AR's do you have? Get some photos up.

Just a Valkyrie and the blackout. I do love gas guns though. I started precision shooting on one and for some reason I find it really fun to stack bullets on top of each other without running a bolt. Maybe I need to build more......?

I just built the pistol and had to pay top dollar for the impossible to find mega lower....because ARs that live in the same house need to match. I have a 6” Form 1 for the pistol submitted so the 8” can go back to the Valkyrie. Hopefully it comes back as fast as my other form 1 did.

 

[Precision Underground]

In the process of making my new loading room. New house had a ton more room so the old bench was tossed. View attachment 7104359

Thats a nice set up sir!

 

[Srgt. Hulka]

Well, if you shot 20 rounds mehh, but if you shot 200 rounds, very impressive, if you shot 2,000 rounds, holy bat balls batman you are insane.

Nah, nothing serious. Just about 150 rounds.
I wish I could load up 2000 rounds in a day. ?

 

[antithesis]

Did you use some kind of jig to make such a perfect ring? I don’t have that much patience to free hand 150+ rounds for a match.

I roll them on the 21st Century concentricity tool. Does not take much time at all to do a few hundred at a time.

 

[Snuby642]

Well grandson proof Lyman isn't.
Has caused a delay as I don't want to change the process.
Afraid will change neck tensions with my hand polished expanders working dirty necks. I like to decap then tumble.

 

[Snuby642]

So new universal decapper and hornady swage removal die.
500+ rounds decapped and shoulder got a kink so not much time with the new die.

I think will be easier to set on clean brass.

Too much bbq to continue.

 

[Kisssofdeath]

I didn't do much today. Worked on my Zephyr II to take a bipod. The forearm is to skinny to shoot from a rest. Also worked on the "Night Stalker".

 

[Kisssofdeath]

Made up some new targets today. That's about it for me.

 

[Steel head]

Gonna load up some 260 today.
It will surely empty the last of the 8# jug of 4451 then I’m switching to R16.

 

[Kisssofdeath]

Gonna load up some 260 today.
It will surely empty the last of the 8# jug of 4451 then I’m switching to R16.

You just wanting to try some different powder?

 

[Steel head]

You just wanting to try some different powder?

No
I have a lot of experience with H4350 and INR4451(because at the time H4350 was impossible to find) and both have treated me well but I had yet to try R16.

I bought a pound locally and shot a quick ladder test on Thursday.

The entire ladder test had excellent accuracy and SD’s but one load stood out with same POI as the loads on either side of it as well as an acceptable accuracy and speed(actually faster than my current load) and amazing SD’s.

I tested that load and another that looked promising out to a bit past 1100 and it did fantastically well.

Vertical was excellent and Accuracy was as well with a 20 FPS boost using .7 grains less powder per shot.

I was able to get the accuracy and SD with H4350 but not the speed.

With 4451 accuracy and speed were easy and SD is acceptable and really I don’t have major issues with vertical with that load but the R16 load definitely seemed better in the vertical department.

 

[Kisssofdeath]

@ Steel head, Sounds like you got it going on there.

I worked on the new Night Stalker today or maybe reworked is a better description. I wasn't happy with the flashlight location and didn't need two. All the smaller one did was get me a little wider throw. The mag holder location was kind of in the way of my hand for carrying. I relocated the mag holder to a more suitable location and moved the flashlight underneath the rifle for better balance and a much more streamline look. I got the spigot mount from KRG coming to mount the bipod. Relocating the bipod should increase stability by lowering the center of gravity and extending the bipod further out. The flashlight will hang low enough so the beam is not shadowed by the bipod. Here is the old look.



Here is the beginning of the new look.

 

[mcfred]

I cut off some CCI primer UPCs to get a $100 rebate, changed the oil and filter in the car, swapped to a new chain on the motorcycle, washed the hotrod before a cruise and worked on a 3500 watt counter top induction stove that's on the fritz and drank some beer afterward. My "reloading room" is my garage so lots of projects aren't necessarily gun-related.

 

[Snuby642]

351 ea blackout rnds deprimed and tumbled . 300+ deprimed and tumbling now.

 

[Steve Bertelli]

Nice set up Catm15 I spent morning annealing 600 6.5 Creedmoor cases.

 

[Steve Bertelli]

Antithesis I am going to adopt putting my mark above the head, it make more sense.

 

[Kisssofdeath]

Since reading what a few guys are doing here creates questions in my mind. Anyone can answer but some questions are specific to a person.

1. Steve Bertelli, how long do you project the 600 cases will last after annealed? How long would they last if not annealed?
2. In a centerfire PRS competition how many rounds "approximately" are fired during the match?
3. How many rounds are fired in a rimfire PRS match?
4. Snuby, are those nickel cases?
5. I have a Steyr SSG 69 in .308 coming from an auction I won. I have 40 rounds of ammo waiting on it. How many times "approximately" would I get out of reloading them? I know that's pretty vague question and depends on a lot of other factors but I'm looking for worse case scenario.
6. For a .308 in a bolt action is neck sizing preferred over FL resizing?
7. .308 reloading dies, what do you "anyone" think about cheap lyman dies vs. something like Redding or Forester?

 

[65shootmoor]

Been loading up Hornady A Tips, trying to figure out how much jump to use.

 

[Sheldon N]

Last minute match prep.... Load confirmation at distance yesterday evening, new Dasher load is hammering. Tumbled the brass and annealed 400 cases last night, sizing, tumbling and trimming those later today, then need to load 300 rounds by Thurs night. Catch a plane Friday morning for CO NRL.

 

[spife7980]

Since reading what a few guys are doing here creates questions in my mind. Anyone can answer but some questions are specific to a person.

1. Steve Bertelli, how long do you project the 600 cases will last after annealed? How long would they last if not annealed? Last? I expect 10 firings, annealing my increase that. With hot loads your primer pockets will loosen before the necks crack.
2. In a centerfire PRS competition how many rounds "approximately" are fired during the match? In a 2 day I would budget 200 plus an extra 50 just for good measure for sightin, chrono etc. Average of 10 stages a day with 10 rounds per stage. For a club match it might be 60, it might be 100. Just depends on the size and course of fire.
3. How many rounds are fired in a rimfire PRS match? Not sure, I betit can vary wildly depending on what the actual comp is.
4. Snuby, are those nickel cases? No, just polished brass
5. I have a Steyr SSG 69 in .308 coming from an auction I won. I have 40 rounds of ammo waiting on it. How many times "approximately" would I get out of reloading them? I know that's pretty vague question and depends on a lot of other factors but I'm looking for worse case scenario. Worse case is they stretchs too far and get wrecked after one. Like I said though, if its good brass and you dont over work it I expect 10 firings.
6. For a .308 in a bolt action is neck sizing preferred over FL resizing? Only if you like having to hammer your bolt open eventually.
7. .308 reloading dies, what do you "anyone" think about cheap lyman dies vs. something like Redding or Forester? They work, the nicer dies are just easier and usually you can get micrometer topped seaters etc which are much more pleasant to work with.

Answers in red

 

[black5.3]

I was only able to size/deprime and then tumble off the lube on 150 .223 cases... once i swage the pockets, trim, and chamfer(hopefully tomorrow)they will be run through the lnl ap and get 24gr of tac with a 55gr fmj. These are just my plinking/training loads so i dont spend too much time on them....

I have ammo cans full of 9mm and 300blk brass that have to loaded... 100 30-06 cases that need to be annealed, sized, trimmed, and loaded..... so much to do, so little time.

 

[spife7980]

Yesterday I deprimed, and pocket scraped my 300 dasher pieces. I want to get a brush vs my lee scraper. I think the lee scraper wore away with the the large flash hole so now it’s high centered around the small flash hole and is not scraping the edges effectively.

I think tumbled them and discovered that the rice doesn’t remove my permanent marker but instead sort of gums it up and makes a really gross goopy paste. The rice was near the end and soaked in line so I’m running them back through some new rice for an hour to check but I also ordered 40 lbs of 20-40 grit cob so I’m going back to the rough dry stuff.

And I annealed them at 3.2 seconds each on the Annie with the red and red jaws centered in the neck shoulder junction (before the current retumble).

Edit: the extra hour, 2.5 total, got them maybe 30% clean. So twice as long as I had ever tumbled before. Let’s check it in another hour after this next episode of stranger things.

Edit 2: So 3.5 hours total got it to maybe 50% clean. Some were still 30% and others were maybe 70% clean.

Edit 3: An hour in the cob got all of them 80% clean but still not all the way. I rubbed some 0000 steel wool over them to remove the marker gunk and they look good as new again.

 

[mcfred]

I picked up a couple boxes from the post office and found a home for the contents: 1k 88ELD-Ms and 2k .224" 50VMAX and then annealed a couple hundred .223 Rem cases with my DIY induction annealer:

 

[gebhardt02]

Loaded 200 rds of 9mm. Only about 800 remaining to do. Single stage press. Some day I'll get around to a progressive press.

 

[Muley Buck]

Loaded up some Lehigh Controlled Chaos this last weekend. Got a little shootin' in too.

 

[Rootshot]

I found that someone broke into my shed where I keep my reloading gear but was dumb enough to only steal a crappy old bike.

After dealing with the police (the policeman was super cool and a hunter / reloader himself), I cleaned up the mess and loaded 100 rounds of 6.5 Creedmoor.

After that I installed a Wyze camera in the shed - it's the coolest thing ever for under $30 and works extremely well. It now alerts on motion detection. I already had exterior cameras but they just recorded the crime and didn't alert in realtime. Even at 1080p, the camera footage at night was pretty grainy.

 

[Muley Buck]

I found that someone broke into my shed where I keep my reloading gear but was dumb enough to only steal a crappy old bike.

After dealing with the police (the policeman was super cool and a hunter / reloader himself), I cleaned up the mess and loaded 100 rounds of 6.5 Creedmoor.

After that I installed a Wyze camera in the shed - it's the coolest thing ever for under $30 and works extremely well. It now alerts on motion detection. I already had exterior cameras but they just recorded the crime and didn't alert in realtime. Even at 1080p, the camera footage at night was pretty grainy.

View attachment 7109360

What a jack ass!! That's a bummer, but it sounds like it could've been worse.

 

[Srgt. Hulka]

I found that someone broke into my shed where I keep my reloading gear but was dumb enough to only steal a crappy old bike.

After dealing with the police (the policeman was super cool and a hunter / reloader himself), I cleaned up the mess and loaded 100 rounds of 6.5 Creedmoor.

After that I installed a Wyze camera in the shed - it's the coolest thing ever for under $30 and works extremely well. It now alerts on motion detection. I already had exterior cameras but they just recorded the crime and didn't alert in realtime. Even at 1080p, the camera footage at night was pretty grainy.

View attachment 7109360

Well that sucks. A crappy bike is really no big deal, but having to deal with everything else is just a PITA.
Just a recommendation; I’d change that deadbolt to one that is keyed on both sides, and don’t leave the key in the lock on the inside.

I hate a frikkin thief. ?

 

[Wannabeinotc]

Well grandson proof Lyman isn't.
Has caused a delay as I don't want to change the process.
Afraid will change neck tensions with my hand polished expanders working dirty necks. I like to decap then tumble.

View attachment 7104616

I just did the same thing to my lyman decapper last week. I first assumed it was an undersized flash hole as the pin in my Redding FL Neck die got caught in a couple pieces of the same batch afterwards.
Good news is Lyman is sending me a new insert.

 

[Snuby642]

You may have had some Lapua brass .
Thier flash hole is in mm, 1.5 mm

That's 0.059 inches and our tooling is 1/16 , 0.0625

Some people sand down the pin others drill out the flash hole.

 

[spife7980]

I picked up a couple boxes from the post office and found a home for the contents: 1k 88ELD-Ms and 2k .224" 50VMAX and then annealed a couple hundred .223 Rem cases with my DIY induction annealer:

Is that on an electronic timer or are is it dependent on you pressing the trap door?
Did you use 750 tempilaq? Those are glowing awfully red.

 

[mcfred]

The Vid's using a calibrated Mark 1 eyeball and manually operated, like all my other relaoding equipment. Yes, the vid's in 'good' lighting and the cases are cooked too hot, but the video would be crap in a dark room with who-knows-what getting barely glowing-hot. I've got a timer off to the side that I hadn't set up yet. It's a work in progress. But so far it's robust enough to have processed a few thousand cases.

 

[VSP968]

Annealed, neck sized, uniformed the primer pockets and trimmed 100 pieces of Win 30-06.

 

[VSP968]

Added 210Ms, some RL17 and 208ELDMs

 

[Fret]

Got my second ever batch finished this AM. 100 rounds of 69 gn SMK and 100 rounds of 77 gn SMK. I'm going to get another Chargemaster to speed things up a bit.

Elster's reloading video series was very helpful. Thanks Todd!!

 

[Kisssofdeath]

Are those chargemaster pretty accurate?

 

[pbatesaz]

Deprimed, cleaned, sized, neck turned and chamfered 65 once fired lapua cases from Berger loaded 6.5 CM ammo, then cleaned again. Ready to prime, charge and seat now but holding off for the arrival of the v3 autothrow / autotrickler. Still have a few hundred rounds to shoot. Have to pace myself?

 

[Howland]

I’m going to try to get qualified for out 1000 yard range this weekend...if life doesn’t get in the way.

Gonna qualify for the 1000 yard range in the morning. At least, that’s the plan. I was going to go out this morning, but it was raining, and had been raining most of the night. I rolled over and went back to sleep.

Well today, I shot up almost everything I loaded yesterday. ?

So now that somebody has the keys to the 1,000 yard range gate we can have an informal SH meetup match.

You did get that key, right?

 

[Snuby642]

@Srgt. Hulka
Don't you shoot at long range ally?

Maybe bodcau bayou but only 200yd there .

Range master at bodcau is the shit.

 

[Srgt. Hulka]

So now that somebody has the keys to the 1,000 yard range gate we can have an informal SH meetup match.

You did get that key, right?

I did get the key. Now I need to get home, make up more ammo, and get out to the range.

@Srgt. Hulka
Don't you shoot at long range ally?

Maybe bodcau bayou but only 200yd there .

Range master at bodcau is the shit.

I am shooting at Long Range Alley. Yeah, Bodcau is the reason I joined LRA. The range master, Mike, is really a pretty nice guy. He’s just an asshole while he’s working. Can’t say that I blame him. If I had to put up with the retarded fuckery that he has to put up with every day, I’d be an asshole too. He even asked me if I wanted to be an RSO out there one time. I thought about it, then I thought better of it. No way I’d RSO out there. Plus, they came up with all kind of stupid rules, and just made it impossible to have fun, so I joined LRA. I like being my own RSO.

Snuby, are you in Shreveport?

 

[Kisssofdeath]

I joined LRA

Like Long Range Assassin?

 

[Snuby642]

@Sgt. Hulka
No Fort Worth but love Bossier City.
My son lived there, USAF and Bossier le.
Spent many days there love the food and people of Louisiana there and in Houma.

My son used to bring steel targets to Mike, and has friends that shoot at lra.

Just remembered something tell your new Houma transplant to put supplies and an ax in the attic. Looks like a direct hit on them. What part of town does he live in?

 

[km77]

Just tumbling about 1,500 rounds of 9mm today.... waiting for my 6.5 creedmoor dies to come in.

 

[Kisssofdeath]

Does anyone use a vibratory case cleaner followed by an ultrasonic cleaner?

 

[Snuby642]

Imho
If I had both I would sonic first then vibration with some wax after.

I think that brass would shine like a diamond.

 

[Kisssofdeath]

I was thinking the opposite so the ultrasonic could clean off the media dust inside the case and get the primer pocket clean.

 

[Steel head]

Today,,,,,,,,took a quick look at the press n stuff and decided “not today!”

I’ll smoke a cigar instead.

 

[Kisssofdeath]

Today,,,,,,,,took a quick look at the press n stuff and decided “not today!”

I’ll smoke a cigar instead.

LMAO you don't know how many times I have felt that way.

 

[km77]

LMAO you don't know how many times I have felt that way.

I've been slacking. Doing way more shooting than reloading. I've been realizing I've got way too much brass stacking up. At this point, I feel like I need to get a xl650 to catch up.... it's the only way My wife should by that, right?

 

[spife7980]

Trimmed (chamfer and deburr really, giraud didn’t take any length off), brushes primed my 300 dasher pieces. Cleaned, annealed, sized, mandreled, recleaning now 100 6xc pieces. They’ll get trimmed brushed and primed next.