What did you do in the reloading room today?

[swampratt]

Making more 357 magnum loads.
Want to try a not great powder for 9mm. Blue Dot because I have lots of it.
Going to make a few heavy loads with it and see what happens.

I bought 800 bullets for 9mm the 115 xtp from Marsha.
https://www.okshooters.com/threads/amer-i-can-ammo-hinton-ok-update-and-price-sheet.302520/

Well i worked up a load in 9 and it shot better than the 124 and 125 XTP.
I was running low on those 115 gr bullets so picked some up yesterday from Gene Sears.
Opened the box and gave those bullets a sideways look as the bearing surface was very long compared to the ones I got from Marsha.

Yea she miss labeled those 115 XTP bullets and what I was shooting that grouped very well were 90 gr XTP.
They were going 1100fps from my 9.

Now I need a 115 and 124 and 150 gr load work up.
And another trip to Sears for some 90 gr XTP.

 

[retrieverman]

Today in the world of reloading, I sold 16# of H4198 powder, found CCI 500 small pistol primers at Academy and bought 2k, loaded up some 38 spl wadcutters, promptly shot them, and then reloaded the brass again for another day.

 

[swampratt]

Today in the world of reloading, I sold 16# of H4198 powder, found CCI 500 small pistol primers at Academy and bought 2k, loaded up some 38 spl wadcutters, promptly shot them, and then reloaded the brass again for another day.
View attachment 454748
View attachment 454749

Did they shoot/group well ?? Load data??

 

[retrieverman]

Did they shoot/group well ?? Load data??

2.3 grains TB with CCI 500 primer, and they shot really well. I don’t have a chronograph, but the data says they’re going about 675 fps. I’ve tried probably half a dozen powders, and they’ve all shot well. I think TB was the slowest velocity, and Titegroup was running close to 900 fps. Clays, Unique, CFE Pistol, and Autocomp were in the 750-800 range IIRC.

 

[Dumpstick]

Lubing cast bullets for the Finn M39. These are already sized to .312 and gas check is installed.

Only about 400 to go...

 

[swampratt]

Very nice!

 

[Rez Exelon]

I didn't really intend to spend most of the night prepping brass, but I got a bunch of 416 Rem Mag brass that just was screaming to be prepped. 150 cases got headstamp checked, flash holes deburred, pockets uniformed/cleaned, measured, trimmed, measured again, chamfer/deburred and are awaiting a wet tumble today before I decide how to load them up.

 

[Dumpstick]

Finished lubing the pile of cast bullets for the Finn M39s.

Weight separated, the two bins on the left are about 55 pieces each. I separate them to +/- .5 grains.

The bin on the right is about 450 pieces. 192gr +/- a half grain.

A pic from the side to show how many there are. 8 layers deep. Each one was picked up and placed into the Lyman 450, then picked up out of the same to be stacked in the bins.

As if right now I have handled each individual bullet 6 times; one at a time. Keep that in mind when I tell you how cheap they are.

Looking at supply replacement cost, not what I have in it, each bullet is about 4¢. The cost of the gas check (~4¢ each) doubles the cost of the bullet, now at 8¢ per bullet.
A bit for lube generously charged at a penny per bullet, I'm still under a dime each.

About 550 bullets for under 50 bucks.

And easily 10 hours of time.
3 hours to cast - including setup and teardown of equipment - at least another 6 hours to sort, size, check and lube.

Is it worth it? It is to me.

 

[swampratt]

Shooting cast bullets you made yourself ....Priceless.

 

[Paul Box]

Swampratt

I too use Blue dot for everything I can and these are my results for my 3" S&W 3913 hope you can make sense of it.

9mm	Nos 147 HP ASP	4.7 gr	Blue Dot		Starline	825​	720​	691​	712​	718​	0" @25 yds
9mm	Nos 147 HP ASP	4.7 gr	Blue Dot		Win	825​	768​	759​	776​	752​	0" @25 yds
9mm	Nos 147 HP ASP	4.4 gr	HS-6		Starline	834​	824​	825​	838​	811​	0 MOA @25 yds
9mm	Horn 147 XTP	5.4 gr	Blue Dot		Federal	950​	935​	947​	912​	898​	2" MOA @ 25yds
9mm	Win 147 Silver Tip	?	Factory		Win	1010​	1015​	1046​	1032​	1040​	2" L @ 25 yds
9mm	Horn 124 XTP	6.5 gr	Blue Dot		Win	1090​	1050​	1051​	1080​	1074​	0" @25 yds
9mm	Horn 124 XTP	3.6 gr	Titegroup		Remmington	1000​	1035​	1015​	1035​	1015​	L 2"@25yds
9mm	Horn 115 XTP	3.9gr	Titegroup		Starline	1050​	25 yds	1076​	1076​	1022​	L 2" @25 yds
9mm	Horn 115 XTP	5.9gr	HS-6		Starline	1050​	1114​	1090​	1055​	1078​	LR 4" @ 25 yds
9mm	LH 115 XP	3.6 gr	Titegroup		Starline	1025​	930​	973​	960​	988​	UL 3" @25 yds
9mm	Horn 90 XTP	7 gr	HS-6		Win	1225​	1198​	1188​	1213​	1225​	UL3.5"@25 yds