What Are You Doing On The Reloading Bench Today?

Loaded about 100 rounds of .38 Special while waiting for my cousin to come by to do some reloading. He is just starting and wants to load with someone that has done it for a while. When he arrived we readjusted the dies and he loaded some .357 Magnum rounds.

Drives me nuts sittin' & watchin' and not doing it myself. He does it much slower than I do, and I ain't all that fast. But, he is careful, double checks everything, and measures the rounds with the caliper before he puts'em in the box. Makes good ammo. I wouldn't hesitate to fire his rounds.

Two gun shows within drivin' distance tomorrow. Gon'na check'em out.

 

Before work I had a little time so....
Set everything up, and pre-lubed some cast bullets earlier. The alox should be dry when I get home.
Sizing about 4 or 5 hundred, .357 round nose, 125 grain, round nose,bullets.So I can load up some 9 mm. Man my arm is going to be tired.
Not sure if I am going to leave them in alox, or wash them off with solvent and Powder Coat them. Figure after I get my load worked up, I will try 5 with pc and 5 with alox and see which shoots better. Going to be pushing them at jacketed type velocities, so probably should powder coat, to prevent leading.
We will see, one thing at a time.

 

de-primed, sized & belled a bunch of 9mm brass. primed 100 of them with small rifle primers as an experiment. (I'm out of small pistol primers) plan on loading them up and trying them in my 9mm pistols today.

 

Cleaned off the workbench and fired up the 650. Created about 300 9mm, 115 gr. I'm fairly new to this, but am keeping it slow and steady. I have a couple of questions and that is, does everyone case check every round after processed? I've had 3 rounds that were tight to fit the case checker, they fit, but were snug. And, do you keep head stamps the same when running a batch or mix and match? Thanks.

 

Personally, I have not gotten into the habit of checking every single round, but it IS a good habit to have.

For head stamps, it depends on my end goal. Range fodder? Mixed batch. Hunting loads? Hot loads? Precision loads? Those I match head stamps on.

 

Depending on the pistol, they might work. It is just a matter of how strong the firing pin spring of your pistol is, and how hard the firing pin hits the primers. For "practice" ammo at the range, I would not worry about it. OTOH, I would NOT use them for a "life or death" scenario.

As an additional note, I'm assuming you have a method of keeping them separate from your Self Defense ammo, so there's no mixup.

 

most pistols won't set off rifle primers.
ask Morocco about his recent experiment of frustration.

 

Loaded 50 .38 Special rounds with 105gr SWC, 50 .38 Special with 125gr SWC and 50 with 148gr DEWC...I used Unique in all loads adjusted as needed..

 

I shot the loads wit the rifle primers out of 5 different 9mm hand guns. two were hammer fired guns, S&W mod 59 and a Walther P-1. and 3 striker fired guns, S&W M&P, Zigana PX-9 and a Glock 26. all five fired the sm. rifle primers with no hiccups. I didn't chrono them but when fired along with pistol primed ammo, I couldn't tell the difference. I loaded up another 200 rd. with the sm. rifle primers and will do some further testing. until all those are fired with no problems, I will keep using my sm. pistol primed loads for carry.

 

GOOD for you! It's nice that they worked out for you. I still wouldn't trust my life on them, though, so it's wise that you are going to use the proper loads for CCW.

 

Loaded up some 300 WSM for an upcoming Montana deer hunt. Also loaded some 300 Blackout. I was going to head out to the range this morning but changed my plans. It's 15 degrees right now, forecast say 40s tomorrow. I'm going to load some .223s today.

 

good.
I'd for sure expect that S&W 59 to set them off.
I know some won't.
I used to intentionally use the harder cupped CCI mag primers in my 9mm ammo because my BIL's Ruger wouldn't fire them.
I have also seen some revolvers not fire some primers in double action and only have about a 90% success rate in single action.

 

Yep, ben thru it with pistols and small rifle primers.
Thing is just load up a few till you find if they will work in your gun. Had success with one brand. Got one of my guns functioning well in single action with them. Figured that if one brand worked that another would, just as well. I was wrong. Found out the hard way Small rifle primers can vary enough by brand and lot. That they may not function, where you got them to function before.
Rifle primers are made to run safely under higher pressures, thus are thicker and take a good whack. Rifles hit the primer harder then a pistol will, can, by designe.
I even have found out one lot can be thicker then another.Not enough to make a difference being hammered in a rifle, but can in a pistol.
Me hardest lesson was loading up an evenings work worth of .38 special, then going to the range and watching someone else shoot them off in their Rossi .357 rifle when they would not fire in any of my pistols.

Not saying it will not, or did not work well for you. I know by trial that they can, will work some instances. But saying unless you like pulling a lot of bullets, or have a rifle of the same caliber, it is not a good Idea to trust consistency, of the primers.

 

I have not used rifle primers in place of pistol primers in a long time. I was pretty poor and bought primers a pack at a time and sometimes only the single packs of rifle primers were available. I don't recall any issues using them but maybe I was having too much fun to remember misfires.

These days, I just use what is recommended. If it made no difference, they would not make rifle primers and pistol primers.
I would again substitute rifle primers for pistol if there was a need. But I learned my lesson from Obama 2012.

 

I'm still new at this, but loaded up another 500 rounds of 9mm, 115gr standard full metal jacket. At least I'm getting more proficient at it. Still double checking every round with gage checker and everything has measured just right! As a novice, that gives me just under 2000 rounds loaded.

 

Loaded up 50 rounds of .380. The wife and I are going shooting tomorrow. I worked up this load. Just testing it for reliability, in both our guns and having fun at the range. If it is completely reliable going to load up the rest of my 90 grain bullets.

 

my .45 Super brass came in! I loaded up some trial loads to shoot when the rest of my conversion parts come in. there is not a lot of data that I could find but what it did find with powders I have on hand uses the same charge weights as some 10mm loads. but the .45 super uses a heavier bullet. using 200 grain .451 LSWC bullets, I loaded 15 rds. each of 9.5 grains of Long Shot, 10 gr. of Long Shot, and 10.5 gr. of Long Shot. I also loaded some with the same bullet and Unique powder. 7.5 and 8 grains. I am thinking about trying some Blue Dot next. any one else here load .45 Super?

 

400 down 700 more to go 68gr Hornady BTHP Match. Should when done give me a bit over 2000 rds of it. By down I mean loaded up still have to run them through the crimp die and seal the primers.


My 18.5" AR rifle loves these and it's not to shabby even in my pistols when I hold them steady enough.

 

I'm jealous.

I have not had my reloading room set up for 2 years, now.

As soon as I finish the shelving project I'm working on, the Reloading Room is the next building project! Hopefully, I get to buy the lumber next week!

 

Ten Man's gonna make some home-brew 10's