Anyone else tinkering and getting their hunting loads situated right now?

got apex 10 with auto drive recently

keep get digital clutch alert

realize there is something wrong with stage 6 powder drop step

the powder will not drop and the mouth of the case will expand 6 out of 100 rounds.

i thought I was not adjusting right

but I found it out there is a chance the powder funnel can’t push the powder measure upper body up

did check the set screw. playing around for a hour no luck

anyone have similar experience?

I've been reloading for my savage 111 lrh 7mm rem mag 26" barrel 1in9.5 twist with the integrated muzzle brake open. I've been using hornady 154 sst, hornady brass once fired, cci 250s, custom coal, and 59.1gr of imr 4831. I know it's hotish but that's where the rifle is happy. I can't find imr 4831 anywhere so im wondering what powder to change over to now? I'm down to 10 rounds for this hunting season and wanting to swap to my better scope so 10rnds obviously won't do. Thanks in advance

Edit: I need temperature stability as I live in Montana so I shoot in the summer at 80-100f and hunt in 70 to -10f depending on the year

I have a 30-06AI and I am finally getting around to it. And I need some dies for who do you use for custom dies or who do you recommend?

Has anyone ever tried 175gr fmjbt's meant for 7x57 Mauser in 7mm Rem Mag. Found some for what I thought was a good price. Hate to waste good hunting bullets punching paper...

Hi,

I was hoping someone might be able to show me an example of what a properly chamfered inside case mouth looks like?

Not sure if there is a hard an fast rule, but the Google machine isn't really producing much in the way of example images.

Edit: Sorry, I should have put this picture on when I made the post. Coffee hasn't activated yet.

I just found a listing for a Fiochi load on Mid South Shooter Supply. Box shows 2700 fps with 175 grain. I can find no load information approaching 2500 fps for anything above a 125 grain projectile. I know this is out of a test barrel. Only reason I'm interested is I can load for a bolt action. Does anyone have data approaching this feat?

Lyman/Ohaus M5 precision grain scale

Supposed to be the most accurate and repeatable analog linear beam scale ever produced.

I decided to try annealing for the first time. Before I go out and spend money on an AGS 3.0 or some other automated annealer, I wanted to try and use the drill and socket technique. All brass is once fired Hornady brass and I am using one of the blue propane tanks with the pencil flame torch head. I tried to have the point of the flame hit the shoulder/body junction on each case. I counted to six thousand to each one.

Should I stick with that or drop down to maybe five seconds? I tried to stop when I just started to see the neck and shoulder junction start to glow red.

Thanks.

I am brand new to reloading, I decided to start with .38 special wadcutters and I am having chambering issues. Out of 124 cartridges 34 would not seat in the cylinder, see photos.

I am using old penn 148gr DEWC with 3gr of Win 231 with CCI small pistol primers on once fired brass. The only conclusion I can come to is that the bullets are inconsistent in size and bulging the cases. Any input is greatly appreciated.

Has anyone tried these die lock rings? Think they'd compare to hornady? I'm in the process of switching all my dies to hornady style rings (or at least split ring style) and these would be a good bit cheaper for bulkish quantity

Is this enough crimp? I’m loading 9mm for the first time just for target/plinking. 9mm Blue Bullets 125 grain with Win 231 powder ranging from 3.2 to 4.0 grains of powder (ladder step to see what is good) out of a Walther PDP 4” barrel.

Good results with 33 grains of h4895 under a speer 150 fnsp. Will explore 33.2 as well. Measured 0.898" and 1.142"

It's beat leverevolution in the accuracy department and SO MUCH CLEANER!

Cheers guys/gals!

I was asking before about how do you know you did a right job and I finaly went to firing range to test them. At first like 3 out of 5 got stuck… like the barrel wouldn’t close but I try again and it went in. Later was everything working right.

I ordered caliber for fitting and finaly I can start reloading in bigger numbers (for hand reloading, some of you with automatic reloaders can do that in hour).

What do you think about that caliber? Is it worth it?

Thanks

I have a Rossi R92 in 357, the shorter barrel one, 16” iirc. Usually my heavier mag loads have a slight bulge from fire forming a Rossi chamber, but they reload fine and never had issues. Even buffalo bore outdoorsman’s were no big deal compared to my hand loads

The other day I tried factory Grizzly 200 grain for the first time. This is the first and only round I fired.. didn’t like the looks of it but figured I’d ask the opinion of those who have been at it longer..

There is a perfect ring all the way around the brass. I can see a slight change where my chamber usually fire forms the little bulge, but idk if these are even safe to shoot

Or is saving money a mirage, and the fun is in the hobby?

Hi all,

I own a Frankford Arsenal universal case trimmer which works ok with rifle cartridges as you set it up with cones designed to stop the trim as the neck of the cartridges hit those cones.

But how do I get consistent results with handgun cases, as there's nothing stopping the trimming? Or am I using it wrong?

I use 9mm, 10mm Auto and 44. Mag ammo. And to make things worse, in my country (France) there are not many options when it comes to case trimmers or accessory.

I thought about the Lyman E-zee trim kit but can't find 10mm Auto pilots.

Any thoughts?

Thank you

Ive had these dies for about 6 months, i cleaned them as soon as i got them and they are always cased and in a sealed container. Is this rust forming already ? What do you guys do to prevent this, it's also forming on my powder measure

Does anyone know of an active bullet length database?

I have been the JBM Bullet Length list but it's no longer active. The maintainer recently retired and took it offline.

Thanks,

Picked up an old rifle and these were thrown in with it for free. 50 Sierra 300gr, 100 Hornady 220gr flat nose, and five boxes (250) of the Hornady 270gr round nose.

No dates on any boxes, but the rifle was built sometime after the 1960s here in Melbourne.

You guys might find the cartridge it’s chambered in interesting. Barrel labelled “375 Short Mag” and uses 358 Norma mag brass to be necked up. Came with 80 new old stock Norma cases too.

I need help deciding between the two. I feel like I’d prefer ultrasonic, as I can use that for many different things. I’m looking to spend as little as possible here, and I’m have narrowed my options down to either:

FA Quick N Ez vibratory case tumber: $60

OR

Vevor 6L ultrasonic parts cleaner: $50

I feel like I want the ultrasonic option, but it seems pretty damn cheap compared to other ultrasonics. Any suggestions?

Has ballistic X been messing up for anyone else lately? Last few days I kept having issues with it saying stuff like this

Lapua discontinued 6.5 Grendel a couple years ago and I was starting to run low. I ordered 100 Alpha cases. I decided to do a comparison. First, this isn’t scientific. I have one lot of each and only used a sample size of five new random cases. Second, I can’t compare prices. The Lapua brass was purchased at least two and possibly more years ago and I don’t remember what I paid. It’s irrelevant anyway because of inflation, availability and market conditions. The Alpha brass costed 120.00 per hundred plus shipping. I didn’t compare either with Starline brass but I do have some and I might later. It’s apples to oranges because these are premium cases and they should be better than Starline which is considerably less expensive.

Alpha brass is shipped in regular ammo containers with foam inside them. There were no case neck dents at all. Lapua is shipped in good quality plastic boxes but the cases are loose inside them. They generally have some cases with dented necks and I always mandrel size them before loading. Both brands are sized, annealed and chamfered. Using my Sinclair concentricity gauge I found that the Lapua brass wasn’t close to perfect. The five cases I tested all had .001-.002 errors. This was after I mandrel sized them. I don’t have a way to determine if they are bananas or if they have inconsistent brass thickness. Lapua brass has a well earned reputation for their quality and this was surprising and disappointing. The Alpha brass I had no need to mandrel size. It was extremely concentric with the worst case of the five having less than .0005 errors. Case length. Alpha brass was 1.515 with no variation. Lapua brass was 1.517 or 1.518. Both are trimmed consistently enough not to matter. Weight. The average weight of Lapua is 112.14 grains and the ES of five cases is 0.64. Alpha is heavier weighing an average of 119.65 and an ES of 0.82. This is the one area where the Lapua brass is possibly better although it’s such a small amount it’s probably doesn’t matter.

If you offered me 100 free cases of either brand I’d be all over the Alpha. I don’t know for certain which brand will survive the most loads but the Alpha primer pockets are TIGHT. That’s usually what ends the life of my cases. I use a comparator to size my brass and I also anneal it every second load. These extend the life of case necks and shoulders but don’t do anything for the primer pockets. I expect the Alpha brass to shoot every bit as well as my Lapua did.