Components came in Thursday, so after work Friday I measured the 100 Lapua cases I bought to see what the Max. and Min. length were thinking I would trim them down to match the minimum. Well, this stuff is as good as advertised. Most cases were 1.750" which is Trim-To length. None were longer than 1.751" and none shorter than 1.749". Not much point in trimming since I doubt if I could hold trim tolerance to +/- .001", anway. The annealing looked good and goes well below the shoulder. All I did was ream and chamfer by hand. Primer pockets were excellent as well.
Just came in from loading 20 each with the SIERRA 65 gr. SPBT using X-Terminator, TAC and W748 @ 2.258". Loaded 20 each of the Hornady 55 gr. FMJ-BTw/c using TAC and W748. Naturally, the most time consuming part was setting up my new REDDING dies including the separate Taper Crimp die in the new turret I bought for the Classic Turret press. All loads were taper crimped including the 55 gr. FMJ-BTw/c where I followed another REDDING die user's recommendation for taper crimping into the cannelure where I crimped just over the cannelures bottom shoulder to be able to load slightly longer @ 2.230". BTW, I loaded one station at a time, including throwing powder charges, rather than by auto-indexing.
Things went swimmingly on the Classic Turret and the Safety Prime with OACL variation at +/- .002" which I had guessed beforehand, and why I load the 65 gr. SPBTs at 2.258" so the longest loads wouldn't exceed SAAMI Max. of 2.260". Since I used dense spherical powders where TAC is denser and finer grained than W748 and X-terminator finer grained than TAC, I did not have to trickle charges. In fact, X-Terminator and TAC have the same bulk density at 985 grams/liter and as I mentioned, X-T being finer grained. It's also not too far from being true ball in shape. Can't wait to try the new loads out in the new Colt's Comp. CRX. May even do some more loading tomorrow after discovering some WIN once-fired brass I'd forgotten I had. It definitely needs trimming. Really hoping to see the SIERRA 65 gr. SPBT shine in the Lapua cases. The once-fired cases will probably all be loaded with the 55 gr. FMJ-BTw/c.
Just came in from loading 20 each with the SIERRA 65 gr. SPBT using X-Terminator, TAC and W748 @ 2.258". Loaded 20 each of the Hornady 55 gr. FMJ-BTw/c using TAC and W748. Naturally, the most time consuming part was setting up my new REDDING dies including the separate Taper Crimp die in the new turret I bought for the Classic Turret press. All loads were taper crimped including the 55 gr. FMJ-BTw/c where I followed another REDDING die user's recommendation for taper crimping into the cannelure where I crimped just over the cannelures bottom shoulder to be able to load slightly longer @ 2.230". BTW, I loaded one station at a time, including throwing powder charges, rather than by auto-indexing.
Things went swimmingly on the Classic Turret and the Safety Prime with OACL variation at +/- .002" which I had guessed beforehand, and why I load the 65 gr. SPBTs at 2.258" so the longest loads wouldn't exceed SAAMI Max. of 2.260". Since I used dense spherical powders where TAC is denser and finer grained than W748 and X-terminator finer grained than TAC, I did not have to trickle charges. In fact, X-Terminator and TAC have the same bulk density at 985 grams/liter and as I mentioned, X-T being finer grained. It's also not too far from being true ball in shape. Can't wait to try the new loads out in the new Colt's Comp. CRX. May even do some more loading tomorrow after discovering some WIN once-fired brass I'd forgotten I had. It definitely needs trimming. Really hoping to see the SIERRA 65 gr. SPBT shine in the Lapua cases. The once-fired cases will probably all be loaded with the 55 gr. FMJ-BTw/c.