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I'm getting closer

Well, I thought I'd give an update to my reloading. I haven't made any progress starting reloading since right after New Year's. Call me a slacker. Work has been murder but should be slowing down. Also, I have been spending to much time following politics and posting on some message board. February should be better.
 
Just sit down tonight after dinner and prime you cases and flare the mouth ...and step away. I put the flaring die in when I have decapped sized cases. Run the case up in to the flaring die, feed in a primer and seat it on the down stroke. Primed and belled in one motion……then step away. 2 hours including set up
Go out tomorrow and set your powder dispenser up....get it dropping the correct charge. Fill all the cases. Set up the bullet die for OAL and taper crimp, seat bullets. 3 hours including set up.

Considering the return, it’s not that much time from your day if you split up steps, hour or two here and there.

Tyler and I are getting good. We did 200 10mm fmj start to finish in two hours start to finish. Rifle rounds are even faster…two presses, two people each working on a step. If you can find someone to do this with it will behoove you both
 
I have a smile on my face this week. Maybe I need to change the title pf this thread to "I'm there"

I didn't get to take time last weekend like Oli suggested but this weekend the stars lined up. Last night I messed around the hand priming tool after the kids went to bed. That was easy enough. Today, they went out on errands so I thought I'd get to know the scale and powder dispenser. I did start out with a charge that was 10x to much. After I did the forehead "I can't believe I did that" slap I fixed that up. The only other problem was the first bullet I seated. I followed the instructions to set the tool but it didn't mention that the fine adjustment that sets the bullet depth was screwed all the way in to ship it and the newbie here didn't notice until I ruined one. :lol: It looks pretty funny. Anyway, I took all that adjustment out and started the other way...with it not seated in enough and kept tweaking it until the bullet was .010" under the max. overall length.

I only made 10 to get to know things and I want to shoot them before I make a pile of them. Tonight I plan to prime the 500 9mm shells I have.

I haven't been this pumped up for a do it yourself hobby since my 1st batch of home brew was actually drinkable (and good!)

Thanks for bearing with me!
 
Carbinemike~

Sounds like you're pretty much "there".

Man, like oli has mentioned (and I've said before) there are lots of times when I sit down and all I do for an hour is size and flare and prime cases and then just put them away in containers for whatever rainy day gets me wanting to load ammo. Then it's just throw the powder and seat a bullet and it feels like it all goes really really fast!
 
It will come around. Sometimes I rush things and it becomes a mission, then a of a sudden it’s not fun anymore, make sure it says fun.
 
Keeping it fun is good advice Oli and that goes for a lot of things.

I took the first rounds I made which were 125 grain 9mm's over to the range today and I'm still smiling. They shot real nice out of the Browning Hi-Power. They seemed to group as good or a little better than same factory ammo I had and the brass was piled up ok and not laying everywhere.

Now to make a bunch of them!
 
That is one of the pleasures of reloading - the ability to make the round you want when you want it. Have fun moving forward!
 
carbinemike said:
Keeping it fun is good advice Oli and that goes for a lot of things.

I took the first rounds I made which were 125 grain 9mm's over to the range today and I'm still smiling. They shot real nice out of the Browning Hi-Power. They seemed to group as good or a little better than same factory ammo I had and the brass was piled up ok and not laying everywhere.

Now to make a bunch of them!
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this is the best news I had so far today, so awesome.
I need to finsh loading all the rest of my 10mm HP's this weekend then I'm switching to 9mm, going to load 500 124 fmj's .....then over to 223.
 
I'm switching to 9mm, going to load 500 124 fmj's .....then over to 223.
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That sound sfamiliar. That's about how many 9mm cases I have and then it also on to .223 here.

Any tips or recomendations for the .223? I have 55 grain FMJ-BT with cannelure and Varget powder for them? I am obviously new to this but my buddy has reloaded for years and the Varget was highly recommended. I noticed it was one of the first powders that the LGS ran out of and has only been back in for short periods before they are out again.
 
I have never used Varget but I hear good things about it. I have just loaded one load for a while now , I like it and its a little hot so I just have stuck with it. I will venture out someday lol

Nitesite is the expert on rifle reloading.....I reload a ton but I tend not to branch out a lot.
 
Thanks for your honesty and I'm sure Nitesite will be along at some point to chip in.
 
carbinemike~~

Great to hear of your first results being so positive!!! Way to GO!!!

I loaded some .223 Remington cases with 55-gr JSPs w/ cannelure last night for a deputy buddy to shoot. And I used Varget, 26.0-gr IIRC and a CCI #41 primer and I used a Lee Factory Crimp to run the case mouth just barely inside the cannelure groove.

What I like about Varget (and other Hodgdon Extreme Powders) is that it is far more impervious to temperature extremes. Others powders can produce pressure variations, particlulary in ammo left for instance in very hot sun. Or some powders in frigid temps produce measureably less pressure which means those rounds that you carefully zeroed last summer when it was 85-degrees might possibly result in a missed shot when it's 15-degrees out. So Varget is a very good powder.

I have on hand maybe five powders I think are good for .223 (including H322, H335, BL-(C)2, AA2230 and Varget).

The only one I EVER bought an 8-lb jug of.... was Varget.

Have fun, be diligent, and relax. It isn't rocket science and is really very relaxing!!!!!!
 
Thanks!...great info. I didn't realize temps could affect things so much. Sounds like I'll have something similar for the .223 right down to the primers!

Oh yeah, I'll have fun with it. I get a sense of accomplishment doing things myself and this was no different. An old homebrewing ad stated "in the event of a national disaster you'll be a lot more popular than the guy that collected stamps". I think this fits right in there too.
 
oli700 said:
Nitesite is the expert on rifle reloading.....I reload a ton but I tend not to branch out a lot.
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Awright, oli700~~~~

I don't know if I'm an expert but I've done a crapload of reloading, handloading, casting, pretty much making my own. And you recently gave me the ability to make my own 1-oz SLUGS which is just freakin' cool as hell!!!!!

It's like you've said, oli.... if you can buy a new gun and never have to buy factory ammo for it then things are right in the world. Well, sorta. We still have all the political upheaval and economic doomsday but that is for another day and another thread.
 
We still have all the political upheaval and economic doomsday but that is for another day and another thread.
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Just my warped way of saying it's a cool thing to do and already looking at casting bullets.
 
carbinemike said:
We still have all the political upheaval and economic doomsday but that is for another day and another thread.
Click to expand...
Just my warped way of saying it's a cool thing to do and already looking at casting bullets.
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Let me know how I can be of any help, okay?
 
Definitely!...but it will probably be spring or early summer. And thanks.
 
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