Brass: I use mixed head stamps. Sized fired - .003" Careful with the lube. It has to enter the die with the same force each time for the same headspace dimension. I use lots of Hornady One Shot.
Primer: I use the old silver hard cup Win primers. Probably switch to CCI when I run out.
Powder: Benchmark. Shoots good groups. Meters awsome. Not compressed.
Bullet: Hornady 55 gr FMJBT Just because they are cheapest. I hope I can get these to group under 2 in @ 100. 10 shots That is about where I’m at now. Seated lands - 0.020".
Can you please explain? The Hornady dries enough that it doesn’t affect my after setup powder checks. i.e. powder doesn’t stick in the case. With the Dillon lube, I always have this problem. With One Shot, I just give finished loads a quick wipe on a paper towel. With the Dillon, because it is much wetter, I fear it is damaging the powder and is harder to wipe off. YMMV
I see what you’re saying. If I get too much Dillon in the resizing die, this can happen, but it’s rare.
(keep in mind that the context of my opinions is in the bulk practice ammo realm… i.e. running hundreds of cases at a time)
I don’t lube the inside of my case necks. I just mist them in a small container, and am done with it. I don’t have a problem with NOT lubing the case necks, but that may be unique to my gear.
The other thing is… After I resize and decap and all that, I tumble the lube off. I don’t go straight into powder and bullets. With one shot, you have to wipe it off. The tumbler won’t get that crap off of the cases. 30 minutes in the tumbler gets about all of the Dillon off of the brass.
One shot was very inconsistant too. Some cases would go thru resizing smooth, while others would feel like they were sticking. They’d all size fine, but it was annoying as hell. The two characteristics that kill me with one shot are it’s poor lubricating characteristics, and how hard it is to get off of my brass. I might be able to live with one or the other, but NOT BOTH.
Well, I think this is why the phrase YMMV was created. For me:
I do like to get some in the neck. I do that for consistent sizing force. I find the headspace dimension can vary up to .010" between easy and hard to size. I throw lots of lube on the cases in a cardboard box and bounce them around.
I load progressive and won’t tumble loaded ammo, so I just wipe lube off with a paper towel.
FWIW I’m usually loading about 300 at a time. I would like to get to 500 at a sitting.
I use Dillon and One Shot. Depends on which container is closest to my hand.
I place the cases in a zip lock bag, spray liberally, seal the bag and massage the bag.
Works great with no oversray.
I don’t bother removing the lube. Waste of energy.
I used to do that too. But for 30 minutes in the tumbler, I have ammo that’s not all tacky and nasty, and won’t have dusty and fibers sticking to it.
There was a veteran reloader over on TOS who made a case for why you don’t want to fire lubed cases in your chamber. It wasn’t a safety or build up issue, but rather an issue of how the brass grips the inside of the chamber or something.
I’m not sure if the point was valid, but it sounded reasonable. I just tumble anyway to get rid of the goo! Plus if someone else shoots my ammo, they don’t get the impression that reloaded ammo is nasty and somehow substandard to factory.
I generally don’t have a need to tumble live ammo, but it won’t hurt a thing.
My system is this: (most people don’t do it this way, but it works for me)
I process all my brass to the point that it’s resized, cleaned, and primed. Then I store it in freezer bags with a little desicant as extra protection against moisture.
Then I just powder charge it, put a bullet in it, and crimp whenever I need ammo. Working with fully prepped and primed brass allows me to focus on the powder charge in my progressive, and keeps my loading rate up. I don’t have to mess with the primers jamming and reloading the primer tube and all those distractions. This system allows me to load at a decent speed while still visually checking every single powder charge.
All the manuals I have say NOT to tumble reloaded rounds. It can mess up the burn rate of the powder as it may remove some of the retardent coating and create a saftey issue with pressure.
Complete Bullshit. I can’t believe that this myth is still purveyed.
Years back this myth was put to death by several members of TOS. They contacted numerous ammo manufacturors. Those that responded to the question stated that it was silly because the powders are blended extensively in the manufacturing process.
A little tumbling at the house will do nothing to the powder charge.
So I guess they folks that wrote the Sierra manual don’t know what they’re talking about? No manual I have lists tumbling fully loaded rounds as a step in the process.
I’m no expert but that’s good enough for me, besides, you can always tumble again after sizing before you charge with powder.
That’s what I do anyway 99% of the time… just tumble prior to powder and bullet. My guess is that they’re just erroring on the side of caution for liability reasons? Or maybe older extruded powders could actually break down? I don’t know why they still say this.
I think it’s black hills who tumbles their live ammo. You’ll find media stuck in the open tip of the bullet sometimes.
Am I doing this math right for price of gun powder?
If you bought a 1lbs of powder.
there is 453.59237 grams in 1lbs and if you load 25 grams
That means you can only load 18.1436948 bullets per pound of powder.
If you bought a 8lbs of powder multiply 18.1436948 bullets by 8 equals 145.1495584 bullets.
The Ramshot Tac is $122.99 for 8lbs at Midwayusa not including shipping.
I think I did the math once, and figure I paid for my 550 after 4000 or so rounds of .45 ACP. I was pretty suprised at the savings. I bet I’ve paid for my entire reloading set up at least 8 to 10 times over in the years that I’ve been loading.
