Rifle Ammo

[terry2425]

I’ve had some time to spend in the shop to reload some ammo for my rifles. Like most of you, I clean and inspect the cases, size, trim and de-bur. Then on to the press to prime, measure the powder, seat and crimp the bullet.
I use a cleaning solution with phosphoric acid, commercial degreaser/cleaner and just a little citric acid powder. It cleans the cases and turns them back to their bright shiny color in just a few short minutes. The cases are then dried in the oven. I still tumble them in walnut shell to really get a nice polish on them.
I use the RCBS computerized scale dispenser system to measure the powder. The charges are exact and not over or under by even one tenth of a grain. It really makes a consistent and very accurate load.
I also use a factory crimp die after seating the bullet.
After they are loaded, I put them in rifle case boxes with all of the information I need later on. I’m an old guy now and have CRS pretty bad some days. It’s nice to look at a box of loaded ammo a few months later and know exactly what it is and what it will do. I include the caliber, bullet weight, bullet type, manufacture date, velocity and trajectory from 50 to 300 yards.
I know, I have too much spare time to spend in the shop making ammo since I retired. But I love it!
BTW the ammo is 25-06 117 Grn Nosler.

 

[nitesite]

Terry,

Your post makes SO much sense to me. I'm a bit compulsive about bright shiny brass, both because it looks professional but it's kinder on the inside of my reloading dies.

My cleaning technique, when I am really striving for the brightest cleanest brass possible is to tumble in crushed walnut with an ounce or so of mineral spirits previously mixed in, then use Imperial sizing wax on the bottlenecked rifle cases and full-length size/decap them. After that I use a product called Lemi-Shine which is in the dishwasher detergent section of the grocery aisle. It's simply citric acid in a granular form that I mix with really hot water and dump my tumbled and sized brass into for about an hour. It dissolves even the primer pocket residue in most cases and completely cleans the brass without any damaging ammonia.

I once made the mistake of just drying out my Lemi-Shined brass the first time and tumbling in corncob but didn't know that citric acid leaves a really sticky residue behind and I was left with crusted and packed tumbling media inside ALL of my cases that go-round!!!! So now I rinse and rinse and rinse in a bucket of hot water and make sure the Lemi-Shine is all washed away.

When I'm done I tumble again in treated corncob with Nu-Finish Polish and the result is so gleaming that it looks like 18-K gold under the bright lights in a jewelery store!!!

Mind you, I don't do this every time but when I rally want to do an especially nice run of ammo it works for me!

And I know what you mean about data cards inside the ammo boxes. It really helps my brain to recall all the details, down to the date and chrono numbers and all the other numbers needed to copy that load again and again.

 

[terry2425]

Nitesite,

Is Nu-Finish Polish the car wax/polish?

 

[nitesite]

Yep. In the orange bottle in the car wax aisle. It's not a wax, it's a polish. But it leaves cartridge brass slippery like it was waxed. Alone, it does a fantstic job when used with corn cob when you don't want to futz with all the other acids and cleaners and crap. Just add about a capful to the corncob and let the vibratory tumbler run about 15 minutes to get it "un-clumped and distributed and dried a little" and then tumble your brass an hour or two. The corn cob pours out of cases like water. Makes really nice looking brass every time without acids and chemicals!!!! But... if you do Nu-Finish in corncob after the other prelim cleaning it's like effin high dollar gold jewelery it looks so amazing!

Another "trick" you probably already know is to cut up used Bounty-type clothes drier sheets into 2" squares and add them to the tumbler media along with your brass. The synthetic mesh no longer has the fabric softener in it (it melted out in the heat of the drying cycle) and the mesh now acts like a seive to pick up the black primer/powder residue from the cases and wicks it out of the tumbling media which makes the media last a lot longer and is healthier for you! The squares come out black as hell which means you aren't running that shit on your hands or thru your dies.

 

[terry2425]

Nitesite,

Thanks, alot of good info. I use the old dryer sheets all the time to keep the media clean. Going to try the Nu-Finish Polish.

Sometimes old habits are hard to break. When we had the ammo business, we would clean 10 to 15 thousand cases at a time in huge tumblers with the acid soap solution. After the cases were rinsed, they would be tumbled in heated walnut shell for about 30 minutes and they were ready to load. Just didn't have the time to tumble polish the brass in large quantities without the chemicals.

I'm like you, my brass in finished cartridges look like 18k gold! (Gotta wear sun glasses to look at it) I always say if your going to do it, do it the right way. A little extra time, but well worth the effort.

 

[mingaa]

I recently switched to a wet cleaning method. My HF tumbler uses a .5 lb pack of steel pins http://www.ebay.com/itm/ULTRA-47-St...339?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43b905556b

The seller includes a sample of Lemi-Shine that will last for a LOT of loads. Hot water and Dawn (or your choice) will make brass like new inside and out.

Size and de-prime B4 cleaning - primer pockets done - ready to prime and load. Necked rifle - no problem and no lube to wipe off!!

Took me a while to buy in but - wow!!

 

[nitesite]

"neck sizing only" bottle necked rifle cases is really as gratifying as looking at nice boobs.

 

[LAZY EYED SNIPER]

^ That's the funniest thing I've read in a long while...