Lee Loader

Still thinkin'

Still working on brass...

Loaded 100+ 9mm using RMR 124gr. truncated cone bullet over 4.2gr Bullseye powder. Using RD's program of champhering and uniforming the primer pockets before priming. All went very well and I'll probably continue to do that to all the brass. Kinda bugs me a bit to spend the extra time (very little) and effort (very little) on a piece of brass that's gonna fly over my head and back "somewhere" around 10 ft away.... I need to get some more brass, I've just about got every piece in every caliber (except 45-70) loaded. Guess I could go shoot some of it but right now I wouldn't be able to find any of the fired brass in the two feet of snow we have...

Horseman wrote:Using RD's program of champhering and uniforming the primer pockets before priming. All went very well and I'll probably continue to do that to all the brass. Kinda bugs me a bit to spend the extra time (very little) and effort (very little) on a piece of brass that's gonna fly over my head and back "somewhere" around 10 ft away....

Haah, I hear you. Yeah, not worth doing if you are not able to recover the cases. Heck, reloading is not worth doing if you don't recover cases period. Cheaper to buy ammo vs. the cost of the equipment.

I've been timing each operation involved with the prep of a case to get an idea of just how much time I need when I walk out to work on something. The individual operations are not bad nor the total time. I'm using the large lot of 32 Auto cases to get my average time and thought I would use this small case as it is a bit bit harder to manipulate because of its diameter and length so the times should be conservative when I move to the larger cases.

Beveling the primer pocket to accept the primer took 33 minutes for 600 cases. That rounds up to 4 cases per minute or one case every 17 seconds. This is a lot of MagTech brass, CBC headstamp, that I included those S&B cases I found in a mixed lot of brass. The S&B mirror the length, depth, and volume (h2O) of the CBC. I look at a S&B case and a cold shiver creeps up my spine, they are what I bought the RCBS reamers for. The fellows shooting out here bought a lot of S&B ammo, all the pistol cartridges plus the 7.62x39. Their primer pockets don't play! I think they have a swaged or crushed crimp that is applied for the entire diameter of the case.

As I started the timed event for beveling, the first case I picked up and put to the reamer on the Lyman Case Prep Center almost broke my wrist. Sure enough, it was a S&B and the Lyman tool would not cut it. Out came the RCBS bit.



A burst of the trigger on the drill, ZIP, and it was done. I also found the drill mount reamer faster in that it reduced the arm movement considerably. Seven songs on my phone and I was done with the lot! Will cover the timing numbers in a stand alone topic.[hr]
My pistol shooting is done on a pad of crushed limestone, we call it caliche. It is solid white so the cases stand out pretty good. I need to put another coat on it this spring but I was thinking about adding another touch. When I spray weeds, I add an agricultural blue dye to the product to know where I've worked. Whether It is boom or wand spraying, I don't want to waste the expensive chemicals with repeated passes. About once a year, I will end up spraying the pistol pad for weeds and the blue die sure makes finding the brass easy, can't miss it. I think if I have a bunch of shooting planned, I will spray the pad with dye from my ATV sprayer. The marker dye is cheap, not so much for the gallon (about $30) but by the fact you use so little of it. A person might find it bottled in lesser amounts, I get it at the Co-op.

My thoughts wander a lot. If I lived where it snowed, I would paint stuff on my yard with food coloring and the ATV sprayer.

I do most of my handgun shooting out past my shop on gravel. I've thought of spreading a tarp (and I have a bunch of those around here) out in the area where "most" of the brass would land at. 12 x 12 should be big enough. I've not had any S&B brass but I do have a lot of Aguila brass that I got from Larry W. (I've never seen any of that around here before either) that every once in a while I'll stick one of those on the uniforming tool head and it'll take the skin off your fingers if your not wearing a glove. I use a glove on my right hand that I buy at Harbor Freight for a couple bucks in a two pack called Hardy gloves. I actually use those a lot around here working on "stuff". Rubberized grip area and a knit back side. Anyway back to the Aguila brass, had to pry one off the tool head with a screw driver yesterday. Most are not that bad but I'll get a couple out of 20 or so that are very tight.
I use that "soapy" stuff in my sprayer to tell where there edges are when using a boom sprayer. I like the dye idea, may look for some of that. Hope they have it in green because about the time to spray things around here everything is looking a bit "brown".

Sorted 225 .45ACP cases by head stamp.

Then I decided to make a run of 50 .38 Special 130 gr powder coated gifts over 5.0 of Unique (still looking for a use for Unique)

Flipped my tray with 8 cases left to charge.

Ooops!

GasGuzzler wrote:Flipped my tray with 8 cases left to charge.

Why did you do that. :twisted:


Lol that is enough to make a gown man cry.

Gun show yesterday. Picked up the Lee 356 sizer and this morning go a bunch of the Lee 100 gr 380 bullets sized. As cast they were a wee bit "fat" for the P238. Going to try some of the CFE Pistol for grins and giggles.

Make smoke,

Went to the worst gun show ever then came back and took another stab at these.

When the going gets tough, the tough get going.