What did you do on the reloading bench today?

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11 years 2 months ago - 11 years 2 months ago #41296 by Siscowet
What did you do on the reloading bench today? was created by Siscowet
Reamed and swaged and trimmed 100 308 brass of assorted manufacture. Found four brass with abnormally small flash holes. All FGMM brass that had that problem.
Last edit: 11 years 2 months ago by Siscowet.

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11 years 2 months ago #41301 by MTM
Replied by MTM on topic What did you do on the reloading bench today?
Not a thing. The bench is a total mess with all kinds of stuff piled on top. But not for long. Moved a small table out that was used to prep the cases and will be replacing it with a much better table that is the same height as the reloading bench. That will happen this week. Then all the stuff will find a new home on, in, and under the new addition. Hopefully, by this coming weekend everything will be put away and the bench will be back to normal. The next project to commence will be for 300 Blackout using Lil Gun and 125 grain Sierra Matchking.

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11 years 2 months ago #41303 by Siscowet
Replied by Siscowet on topic What did you do on the reloading bench today?
Have you formed your 300 Blackout cases yet? I have heard that there is a wide variation in 5.56/223 cases as to the amount of annealing, and that the ones with a longer length of annealing make better 300 BO cases.

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11 years 2 months ago #41307 by Akai
Replied by Akai on topic What did you do on the reloading bench today?
Tumbled 400rds of .38 special :usa:

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11 years 2 months ago #41320 by Dabu
Replied by Dabu on topic What did you do on the reloading bench today?
I made some 300 Black, 38 Special and 9mm. All new formulas. Too bad I just can't shoot in the back yard. I might scare the neighbors. Or maybe I could just tell them it was fireworks.


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11 years 2 months ago #41321 by MTM
Replied by MTM on topic What did you do on the reloading bench today?

Siscowet wrote: Have you formed your 300 Blackout cases yet? I have heard that there is a wide variation in 5.56/223 cases as to the amount of annealing, and that the ones with a longer length of annealing make better 300 BO cases.


For the first batch I'm using brass from Ballistic Tools, annealed and primed. Here's their description:

250 count bag of 300 AAC Blackout, precision formed from quality Lake City 5.56 brass. Primed with CCI #41 military primers. Ready to load.

Our 300 Blackout goes through our entensive reprocessing which includes:

Decapping of spent primer
Primer pocket swaging to remove crimp
Wet cleaning inside and out
Dry polishing to restore the "new brass shine"
Trimming with our custom machine to create .300 Blackout blanks
Reforming and full length sizing to .300 Blackout specifications, using a Sheridan case gage for quality control to ensure easy chambering
Trimming to SAAMI trim-to length with a tolerance of + 0.005
Annealing with our custom neck annealer to increase case life
Final inspection to ensure primer seating and tension
At every stage, we inspect the brass to detect and remove cases with anything more than minor dents.

Formed from true once-fired military surplus Lake City 5.56.

Sounds pretty good but I'll do my own QC before adding powder and projectile. It seemed like a good deal at $60 for 250 cleaned and primed pieces.

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11 years 2 months ago #41332 by Siscowet
Replied by Siscowet on topic What did you do on the reloading bench today?
Sized 100 5.56 brass.

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11 years 2 months ago #41355 by Siscowet
Replied by Siscowet on topic What did you do on the reloading bench today?
Trimmed and primed the above 5.56 brass and primed 80 .308 brass.

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11 years 2 months ago #41363 by Siscowet
Replied by Siscowet on topic What did you do on the reloading bench today?
Finished up 100 5.56 brass loaded with 21 gr RE15, behind Hornady 75 gr BTHP's. Also loaded 50 308 Lake City M118 brass with 175 Sierra Match Kings BTHP with 41 grains RE15, and 50 M-80 brass with 168 gr Sierra Match King BTHP's with 42 grains RE15. A fellow AR10 owner is coming to visit, so I will be doing some serious range time.

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11 years 2 months ago #41688 by MTM
Replied by MTM on topic What did you do on the reloading bench today?
Frustrating evening with 300 Blk reloads. Set up the Dillon 550 for that caliber, adjusted the Forster Benchrest seater die according to instructions using an inert cartridge from a previous session. I set it to produce a COL of 2.200 using 125g SMKs and 17.2g of Lil Gun--a recipe I have loaded before and performed quite satisfactorily. After getting the powder settled down and dropping consistently I started to do some reloading. Loaded the first 10 and stopped to check everything. Powder was spot on but the COLs were all over the place ranging from 2.197 to 2.215. For the life of me I couldn't figure it out. Removed the die, disassembled, inspected and cleaned it. Put it back together, adjusted again for the COL. The next 10 came out the same. Run them through the die again and they came out within 2.210 or less. It made no difference how light or heavy I pulled the handle or how nicely I spoke to it...they still came out with about half within tolerance and the other had to be run through again.

Just for fun I switched to Nosler 125g Ballistic Tip. Adjusted the die to 2.060 using an inert setup cartridge. Again, results were the same. I just don't see how the die could be causing the variances. Any thoughts?

This has not happened before with any of the calibers I reload, but tonight was a hot mess.

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