Economic Reason to Reload

[EricCartmann]

Originally Posted by fredj338

I strongly disagree. If you are using the tables w/ the Lee measure, you can be off as much as 0.3gr. You still should verify the volumn measure by weight, always, everytime.

I agree you should verify your charges every so often. The Lee dipper is pretty darn accurate, probably just as accurate as the Dillon Powder dispenser on the 650XL.

I have a digital scale and verify every charge. Come watch my technique and I'll show you it is within +/ 0.1 grains. Key is you have to overfill it then take a straight like a piece of paper to gently scrape off the top. Also even if is .3 gr off, that is not a big deal as 23.5gr of Varget is well within the range of 23.3-26.1gr (for 69gr HPBT bullet) as stated in the Sierra manual.

My point was, to start reloading you do not really need a scale (but eventually you must get one to be more precise and to experiment). When I make plinking ammo, I am always on the light side of the chart. I am not a speed freak and I see no point in wearing out my guns with extra pressure just for plinking sake.

[EricCartmann]

For those of you have not seen these videos, they are excellent!!

Case Preparation:
1) Clean Dirty Brass (tumbling #1, 2-4 hours)
2) Resize and Deprime Brass
3) Remove Case Lube (tumbling #2, half hour)
4) Swage Brass (if applicable) - military brass the primers are crimped, this removes the crimp and makes the priming hole bigger so you can properly re-prime
5) Clean Primer Pocket
6) Trim Brass to specified length - using cutter
7) Chamfer- this takes the sharp edges off the trim
8] Verify Brass Length

video 1: YouTube - .223 Case Preparation - Part 1
video 2: YouTube - .223 Case Preparation - Part 2


Then you would move onto the progressive press such as a Dillon 650 or Hornady Lock-N-Load to:
9) Prime the case
10) Charge Case (verify weight every 10 cases)
11) Seat Bullet
12) Crimp Bullet (verify overall length "OAL" of complete round when done)

video3: YouTube - Reloading with a Dillon RL 500B Part 4

[speedracer211]

I start out with a 5 gallon bucket of hot, hot water with laundry detergent and throw all my brass from the range in that... I let it sit for about an hour and continually agitate it by yelling at it. Actually a few swirls with my hand and every 15-20 minutes and then let it sit. I then rinse the brass and pour it out onto an old bed sheet. As it dries I sort it. Rinsing with laundry detergent gets rid of the stains on the brass from sitting in the grass. Once sorted I throw the brass in the tumbler with walnut shells from a pet store. The walnut shells are used as bird litter. After about 3 hours I throw a capfull of nufinish in and let it go for another hour to two. I use a simple spaghetti strainer over a large bowl to seperate media and shells. That is all I do to sometimes I will decap the brass between the laundry detergent rinse and tumbling. Although walnut shells get stuck in the primer pocket.

[John4538]

I get my lead from our range. The berm is nothing but a limestone sandy material and easily screens out the dirt. When I was digging my lead I could easily get about 6 5-gallon buckets about half full in about a half hour. That would be about 350 pounds out of which I could get about 250 pounds of lead ingots. The rest was copper jackets and rocks. Luckly most everyone shoots lead at our range. I now have just over 3,000 pounds in the garage.

I use Magma lube that I stocked up on some time ago at about $1 per stick for my star sizer.

Many of my molds are H&G I picked up on Ebay. Have a few Seaco's also which are real nice.

J

[EricCartmann]

digging lead out of dirt? that is hardcore!!!

[speedracer211]

Originally Posted by EricCartmann

digging lead out of dirt? that is hardcore!!!

Now that is a true crb.

[EricCartmann]

Originally Posted by speedracer211

Now that is a true crb.

what's a crb?

[speedracer211]

Cheap arse bastard.

[John4538]