Lee Loader

Started working up loads for the 303B. First was a plinking load using Trail Boss and a 186 grain lead gc rn bullet. Start at 10.5 grains and max at 15. The second lot was 180 grain Speer HCRN using Varget. I kept to lighter side of published range with 38 start and 39 max for this trial. Weather still is horrible so it may be some time till I get a chance to run them over a chronograph. In the meantime I am giving every rifle, shotgun and handgun a thorough cleaning and inspection. Wife is complaining the house and I smell like #9. For an old fart like me it is probably an improvement

Macd wrote:Wife is complaining the house and I smell like #9. For an old fart like me it is probably an improvement

Yeap, I would take it as a compliment! Man, I need to get back to my 303 Brit Scout.

Loaded work ups for the 6.8 SPCII with the new barrel . I don't really need the 1000@100 anymore the 957# would probably do for everything I'd shoot with it on purpose in AR .

Purdy!

I didn't have the time or mind power to reload tonight, but I did resize, trim, de-burr, neck expand and prime 30 pieces of 30-30 brass. Yeah, it's normally not an hour's worth of work but I was paying attention to detail


jd

Loaded 10 of each of the previously mentioned 30-30 brass for next step of ladder test of the 311-170-RF bullets with 30.4 gr (10 rounds) and 31.0 gr (10 rounds) of IMR 4895.

I hope to get some range time in the next couple of days to run them through the chrony before either going up the ladder or "tweaking" in between the tested loads. I still have a lot of room to move up the ladder if need be.


jd

5.56X45mm 55 gr. Hornady JSP Hodgden CFE223 26.2 gr. 2.20” OAL Winchester SRP

Took two hours to run 100 because of the problems I had....and I set up the measure and seating die yesterday.

Before I had 10 loaded the square drive thingie in the middle of the press broke/wore/stripped so auto-indexing was out. One of the second-hand AutoDisc units I had never yet used was intended for this turret but man is it leaking powder everywhere....and only on every 3rd to 5th round. I also had lots of trouble with the primer feed and seating (brass related, tried not to sort the FC223 from the LC556 but...). I was intending to build 500 for a friend but I'm not so sure now. I may not survive long enough!

I guess I need TF3566 and TF3567.

GasGuzzler wrote:One of the second-hand AutoDisc units I had never yet used was intended for this turret but man is it leaking powder everywhere....and only on every 3rd to 5th round. I also had lots of trouble with the primer feed and seating (brass related, tried not to sort the FC223 from the LC556 but...).

What is the variation of the case lengths with your mix of brass? I've found the Auto Disk & Pro to be very intolerant case length variation especially with anything less than a 30 caliber case mouth. It comes down to alignment for the drop. Also, a bit of hesitation is needed with the ram at the top of its stroke to allow the charge to fall.

What might appear as a leak could be powder not making into the case mouth and needing to go somewhere as the spring returns the disk? The somewhere is usually between the hopper/wiper and top of the disk. I've seen it etch both as powder kernels are pretty tough.

To be specific it is not really a leak just a "doesn't always get all the powder INTO the case" as you surmise.

Could be related to manual operation of the turret but I don't think I was indexed wrong that many times. Likely need to hold up at the top as you describe.

Good call on the toughness of the powder (CFE is tiny little balls that meter very well). I find tiny granules of powder preventing the threading in of dies into the single stage at times, etc.