What a pain in the

T

turtlehead

New member
butt all that was. Sorting, decapping, cleaning, sizing, cleaning again, trimming... Just to get ready to load a round of .223.

And now I'm hooked. Really enjoy this.

Fired my first rounds today and nothing blew up and nobody died. And I even found an accurate load for my bolt action that I can work on fine tuning.

Also picked up about 500 pieces of brass at the range.

It was a good day. :)
 
Also picked up about 500 pieces of brass at the range.
Click to expand...

There is excellent chance at least some of your range brass will have a primer crimp you will have to remove prior to using. So you can add one more step in your process.
 
I finally broke it down, I have 7 tupperware tubs that I use. I can do small batches of a few here and a few there going from one step to the next and not have to go through the full process for each batch. I'm working on getting my powder charge dialed in and i can start mass producing. its a lot of work to srot things out, but once you get it down its a great feeling

1 range brass
2 first tumble (30min)
3 deprimed/resized
4 trimmed
5 deburred
Six and seven are after a 3hr tumble then sorted into commecrial and military
6 .223 ready to load
7 5.56 ready to load
 
My goal is to at least keep up with decapping and cleaning. I even decapped and cleaned 2k pieces of 9mm today because someday I will probably want to reload 9mm. :D

Also did the brass picked up at the range today. 350 223 and 150 38 for my friend. I'm worn out but happy. :)
 
I actually prefer home-reloading to shooting. Can spend more time at the reloading bench than I can at the Range. Bench time at home >No charge:D
If you pick-up more brass than you need there are web sites that allow re-sale advertising.
Without doubt there's always some other home-re-loader on the scout for another's range brass.
 
"...cleaning again..." You can skip doing that and wipe 'em off while watching TV, after they're finished.
"...cleaned 2k pieces of 9mm..." Skip the decapping and just clean 'em with the primers in 'em.
Brass doesn't really need sorting except for the junk you find on the floor at ranges. That stuff you have no idea what it is, what has been done to it or how often. Range brass really isn't the bargain it seem to be. Worse with hand gun brass, that may or may not be brass at all. CCI, et al use Al for handgun ammo. Goes straight into the garbage. Ditto for Berdan primed rifle cases.
 
Great another person I have to compete for range brass with.:) I am like Sure Shot Magee I kind of like loading and working with my stuff more than shooting. As for cleaning and sorting, yes sorting is most definitely needed. Cleaning level is the dealers choice. I do like the clean shiny brass so I ended up using wet tumbling. Have several zipock bags with 100 cleaned, sized, trimmed, decapped and crimp removed brass, filling a couple of 20mm ammo cans. Keeping them ready, though I seldom load more than 100 or so of any one load, like to play around with powder and bullet choices too much.
 
For my bolt action I bulk process brass for it one time. After that I use the Lee Collet Die. I go in lots of 100 for the bolt action. I am not going to post the number of firings I got out of brass before primers started to get loose. It is a high number. I use the collet die, and no more having to tumble brass for my bolt action.

Now for my AR15 I got the Frankfort Arsenal Platinum trim, and prep machine. It speeds up trimming tremendously, and I can use it for other bottle neck rounds as well.
 
I had sorted out by headstamp about 500 cases for my bolt action. All prepped and primed.

I'm not the best shot off the bench but found a load that gave me a nice sub moa group at 100 yards with a 55 grain fmjbt Hornady bulk bullet. Just loaded up another 25 rounds bracketing and including the best previous load. Looking forward to shooting them soon.

I really like this part of it. Funny thing is I can see this hobby actually causing me to shoot a little less.
 
After thought.
"Concentration loss during final examination"

I for one have come to believe its best to reload only the amount I intend to shoot just prior to my next scheduled shooting session.

Thus I always have freshly made and too such shells are observed with rested eyes providing a scrutinize final inspection second to non. Like many others here I also have a progressive press that can make hundreds of pistol cartridges a hour. But~~My eyes tire and I loose concentration during cartridge close up examination after 100 or 200 rds. So I now make and inspect what I'm needing to shoot only.
Years ago I made and stored so many pistol cartridge in a couple calibers that by the time I got to shooting all. Many were tarnished and/or looked like__OLD 3rd World Surplus cheepies.__ No more such practices do I follow. i.e. Excessive storage amounts in G.I sealed surplus containers. "Baloney on doing that anymore."

BTW: I sort by brand. I keep only first fires. Those engraved/stamped with Federal on their bases are my preferred keepers. Those others. Most likely the same outcome in there future as CCI Blazers.
 
Yup, it's all over for you now. Life will never be the same. I sometimes swear I shoot more just so I can reload more. I love processing brass, working up loads, trying new stuff, it truly is the best stress reliever I've ever found. There's nothing more satisfying than shooting out the bull with your own loads.
 
reloading bug

I got the bug about 50 years back and have been enjoying reloading ever since.

This is just the start...more presses, trying this powder over that, compiling spread sheets to track performace.........

:cool:
 
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