Lee Loader

357cyrus wrote:Loaded up my 2nd volley of 444 Marlin with a cast 310gr Lee RF GC, and enough H322 to push it out at 2100FPS. About 2 grains under max, but I doubt it will matter much to whatever gets poked with one of those! If it groups well this 2nd time it'll be my go to deer load for the straight wall restrictions we have here in Ohio.

Also loaded a few rounds each of 8.5 and 9.0 grains Trail Boss with the same bullet minus the gas checks. 10 grains gave me a velocity of 1055fps. I'd like it to leave the muzzle right at 1000fps. It's hard not to grin when you shoot those things.

Good to hear that the 444 and the Lee will be out chasing deer this year!

I found a lot of 25 Russo 308 , bumped it up to 358 ,annealed and straightened them out for 45 Raptor ......... Hate the waiting .....

RBH, I just did a little reading on the 45 Raptor, sure looks like a great idea.

We shall see . I don't plan on running it wide open . More like a 45-60 than a 460 . It gives a guy everything you can get from a 45-70 in the Guide gun class ,or very nearly so , on a common 308/Mauser/06 action .

You know there's someone out there necking up and 06 right now just to say he has a rimless 45-110.

Sized a bunch of 357 mag and 45 Colt for both the Rossi '92s and the Black Hawks.

Make smoke,

Savage 340, my C311-170-RF, and W748. Found at my traditional Pro Auto Disk delivered tighter drops than the Auto Drum so stuck with it using the Double Disk. Hunting season ammo.

Been continuing some reloading with my SMLE No. 5 303 British Sporter. Moved away from my cast bullet efforts back into jacketed. Having pretty good results with Speer #2223 180-grain RN and Hodgdon's Hybrid 100V. I've actually put durn near 100 rifles of this ammo through the rifle, adjust the load slightly, because it is almost good but not quite there. I did retry the Hornady #3120 174-grain RN but the Speer offering shoots its group inside the that of the Hornadys.

A fellow on another forum suggested some changes to the stock pressure points that I'm dealing with right now. As I got into the fix I wanted to resolve a crack at the back of the stock that lead to a burl in the wood being removed and filled with epoxy. That required sanding, staining, and refinish the Tru-Oil. Will be done with that today.

Like the Hybrid 100V well enough that I had 8 lbs shipped in. I was down to less than ¼ pound and just hated paying the shelf price of $35/lb. Normally I have bought four 8 lb jugs to mitigate the shipping and hazmat fees but all that was still a win with the single jug translating out to $25/lb. I also see this powder being a better fit than Varget, which is pretty durn good, with cast bullets in the 300 Sav and 308 Win. Compared to Varget it delivers an even greater case fill and in the 40K to 42K PSI range about 70 FPS.

Some PPU #B125 180-grain SPBTs arrived and they are lined up to test against the Speer bullets.[hr]Started on the Ruger 77/44 yesterday with a barrel slug and chamber pounding. Ruger is using a slightly longer chamber/throat than the SAAMI spec with a longer cartridge fitting and feeding through the magazine so that is a win. The 18" barrel has a .420" bore and a .430" groove so will be using my TLC432-275-RF at it's designed diameter.

This is a really cute little rifle but I can see why it was discontinued. Despite my desire to want one real bad it has a couple of issues that I'm sure others see:

• The Ruger scope rings & mounts are ridiculous especially on this super short action. I ended up using the Burris bases that give you space between the fore and aft mounts.
• Associated with the rings and integrated mount comes a really short bolt handle that has little room for the eye bell of a scope. I thought my Zastava M85 Min-Mauser bad, Pfft!
• The struggle to get the magazine out of the well. Holy cow! So far it is a two handed wrestling match!

Then there is the bolt shimming possibilities and heavy trigger pull but I'm ready for them with the shim kit and Basix Trigger replacement. I need to shoot this rifle before I lose interest in it as the scope stuff absolutely wore me out trying to figure it out.[hr]Been using the rifle charging dies and PPM to standardize my turrets. In that I no longer have a 357 Mag, 44 Mag, or 45 Colt revolver, I'm treating these cartridges like I am other rifle cartridges. Sizing is on the Challenger press and after complete case conditioning. I start with a Universal Expanding Die using a NOE Expander. Then charge with the Perfect Powder Measure using the Short Rifle Charging Die followed by the Bullet Seating Die. I finish the turret cycle with a Rifle Style Collet Die.

I setup the loadmaster for .223 today I really have an itch to load some and to operate the LoadMaster.

It has been more than a year since I loaded any .223. I have 2 to 3,000 .223 loaded, most of them are 50 gr Dog Town and Varmint Nightmare, and a thousand 50 gr Sierra BlitzKing. They are to blast prairie dogs. With those on hand I haven't been excited about loading more.

I came across a little less than 50 empty cases that I fired in my Rem VTR last year. I have them labeled neck sized, fired in VTR. I plan on working up another 55 gr Varmint Nightmare (neck sized) load for the VYR.

This VTR seems to like bullets driven as fast as possible. My plans are to give it all it can take. I'll fire them on some paper soon as the fridgid temps take a hike.

After an hour of trimming....

I'll be done by the Super Bowl.

Been loading for my .22 BR with 55 gn ballistic tips. I love this case. Looking back on my reloading notes I figured out that on average each case has been fired 17 times. I'm still on my first 100 cases of lapua 6mm br brass that I necked down. They have only ever been neck sized with no annealing. They are probably a bit over due for a trim. I'm only just starting to get the occasional case with very small neck splits.