I was able to size, prep, and prime my 250 savage brass today. Started sizing some 7.62x54R, got about 1/2 of it done. That’s all for me today.
JTD
Printable View
I was able to size, prep, and prime my 250 savage brass today. Started sizing some 7.62x54R, got about 1/2 of it done. That’s all for me today.
JTD
As long as you got the data you needed, that’s good enough. Soon I am going to work up some loads with Hornady 75gr hpbt for my 18” 223 wylde. I don’t know what my expectations are for accuracy, but I guess I will see soon enough.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mbaker78
JTD
I got my 75hr BTHP in a trade, I'm not sure of the make, but they have a cannelure.
My goal with this gun is more to get the bullets to go to the same area than to shoot small groups, so it's not hard to find a decent load.
My 308 (savage 12BVSS) is a different animal, I try to keep groups under 1” at 100. I can't wait to get that one back and see if a suppressor effects accuracy or not.
Let us know how that 308 goes, when you get it rolling again.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mbaker78
JTD
I got the rest of my 7.62 Russian brass sized trimmed and primed in the last couple days. My to-do list is now down to sizing and neck turning 6.5-284 brass (waiting on a new case holder for that), and making up some test loads for 223 75gr hpbt, 250 savage 100gr Speer spbt, 9.3x74R 270gr Speer SP, and 257 Roberts.
JTD
Here's one I'll share, from the 308 at 90yards. 5 shots (and one from getting sighted in). The flyer even felt wrong.
I was very impressed with both the sound and recoil reduction from the suppressor. Hearing safe with full power ammo and it felt like shooting a 223.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...5a8dea57a3.jpg
That one is definitely worth sharing. Ive always felt that a flier that felt like a flier was better than an unexplained flier.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mbaker78
JTD
How is it Thursday night already???? I have been shooting Friday afternoons lately and since last Friday I haven’t made it to back the bench. Emptied my shooting gear out of the truck last week to get the kayaks out over the weekend and haven’t made it back down to the garage to record pictures of the targets yet. I continue to be frustrated with my .30-06 and the 150gr Etips but I’ve got a few more to play with now and am going to be stubborn. Might throw a few loads together that have shot well in the past to rule it out. If the rifle shoots those poorly, I know it’s me. If they shoot as they normally do, it’s the load and I start from scratch again.
Last weeks shooting session got my .223 zeroed at 200yards just minutes before the rain ran me off the range. So it wasn’t all bad. This week a friend sent me some 6mm Remington brass to use in my wife’s rifle. We have tag drawing results back and now starts my scramble for hunting season. Been a busy week away from the bench.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Ive been turning necks this week. Blah, I hate it.
JTD
Brass prep of any kind sucks. Once a case is primed I start to feel good about brass again. But from dirty fired brass up until it’s primed it’s kinda loathed.Quote:
Originally Posted by JeffreyDeGraff
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I have so many different tools to simplify case prep all the way up through priming clean brass, but it's still the least fun part of the process.
Agreed. I don’t have many of the mechanized or motorized tools for the various case prep steps, but I have noticed each upgrade I get to my equipment, the slightly easier it gets. Still hate case prep.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mbaker78
With that being said I got up early today to spend some time at the bench. Resized a batch of 55x 6mm Remington and tossed them in the tumbler to remove the media. Trimmed a random smaller batch of 6mm, about 30 or so, with my Lyman trimmer and then finished up chambering and deburring case mouths. Finished up the reloading part of my day with researching load data for an 85gr TSX to use in these 6mm cases and looking for information in temperature sensitivity of IMR4064.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
IMR 4064 is temp sensitive. All powders are, some just more than others. I can say that I’ve shot more 4064 than any other powder I’ve used. It was my main powder I used in 3 of my prairie dog rifles, for more than a decade. I burned out 6 barrels and shot those rifles from 30° up to 105°. It’s a great powder in my book.
JTD
From what I read it seems like it is rather temp insensitive. Maybe not as much as Hodgdon’s Extreme line but pretty close. I’ve used a couple pounds of it before in the .30-06 before but got away from it. One of my more accurate loads with the 165gr Sierra Game King used IMR4064 to good effect so I’ve still got some around. I think today’s task is to recreate that load to make sure the loose nut behind the trigger is still doing his job properly.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Finally getting back to the bench again today. I have added a 3-d case feeder and am working at getting ready to load my first rifle (300 B/O) on my Hornady AP. Got a Mr Bullet Feeder die for the 300, and modded my Hornady .45 tubes with 3/8" Pex tubing to feed the .308 bullets. Pretty close to having it fine tuned and ready to roll. Love my AP for the money I have invested. I have loaded rifle for decades on a single stage, and been loading pistol for 4 or 5 years on the AP. First attempt at a bottleneck case on the AP. It feels good to be back at it.
Glad you’re back at it. Good luck with your maiden voyage with the blackout on the AP.Quote:
Originally Posted by Flyeralan
JTD
Sizing some black hills 6.5-284 brass today. I don’t know if I’ll trim it tonight or wait until tomorrow.
JTD
I'm back to work, so I haven't had time to get back to the bench for a while. Maybe this weekend I can get some of the random .223 loaded up.
Oh nice! Glad you’re back to work.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mbaker78
I need to finish brass prep on the 6.5 brass I mentioned above, then need to prep my 7x57 brass (my 10 year old has laid claim, I mean, inherited my 7x57) to prep, then I’ll start working on some loads.
JTD
I don’t know how I missed the posts about IMR4064 temp sensitivity... I have some chrono data from the same load at 45 and 90 degrees, but it’s on an old phone, so I’ll have to dig it out and see what it says.
That will be interesting to see
JTD
Turns out my old phone got factory reset for my son to use, so that’s lost now... all I have is what got put into strelok, which is 2815fps at 59 and 2822fps at 66, so it looks like it’s going to figure roughly 1fps per degree of temp change (with my rifle, your results may vary).
Here's what little data I managed to keephttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...e802cdfbfa.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...a0afef16da.jpg
That’s still an interesting tidbit.
JTD
Got my 6.5-284 brass trimmed tonight. Sometime this weekend I’ll start sizing the 7x57 brass. That’s the last of my brass that needs prepping for now. Time to start loading up some test loads after that.
JTD
Thanks for posting that!Quote:
Originally Posted by Mbaker78
I got some time yesterday and put together 40 rounds of 7mm-08 for my friends rifle. Resized about 50 6mm Rem cases, and recalibrated an older RCBS scale to give to the next guy I’ll help get into reloading.
Headed out to go find some prairie dogs now!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Good luck! Put up some pdog carnage pics.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jbotto
JTD
Got out this morning to harass prairie dogs. Shot about 40-50 rounds. Hit probably 20. Started with my head up my rear slinging shots out and not paying attention to wind or accurate range. Changed to the .22 and went for a walk while the barrel cooled. Hit 4 or 5 with that and then went back to the .223. Started hitting after that and reached out and hit one at 265. That was the longest shot of the day. Hit a few more under 150 then went 5 straight out to about 160 including at off-hand shot at about 40. Hit and missed a few more and then connected with two more at just over 200 as I packed up. Not too shabby with a pencil barrel Savage .223 and a fuzzy BSA 3-9x40. Need to upgrade the scope on this rifle.
I wish I would’ve taken some pictures, but I didn’t. I did alright too. Some decent carnage with 55gr Nosler Varmageddon HP’s.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
That varmageddon is supposed to be splat-tastic. Ive never used any. My prairie dog bullets were either vmax or ballistic tip or blitz king. Ive been thinking of trying the varmageddon in one of my 220 Swift’s.
JTD
It seems that one in four or five don’t splat them. But still kill stone dead. Just leave decent sized holes. I’ve been happy with them. The trigger on my .223 is heavy enough to be noticeable but I wish it were a couple pounds lighter. I feel like a lighter trigger and a scope with a bit more magnification and clarity would bring my load quite a bit tighter, right now I’m happy. Last time I shot them on paper, I put 5 into an inch. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...31e143ba87.jpg
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
When they go on sale I buy a few hundred and they are a few pennies cheaper than the tipped version. Maybe when I run out of these, I’ll invest in the tipped versions but I really don’t see myself needing to change anything for now.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
This morning so far I have trimmed about 30 pieces of 6mm brass leftover from a batch I started last night. I then loaded 10 test loads with the 85gr TSX bullet that I use with my .243. After that, I finished trimming a batch of .30-06 brass that I started the other day when the 6mm was in the tumbler cleaning off the lube. I had time to do that whole batch the other day when my drill
battery ran out of juice, went to switch batteries and found the other one hadn’t got placed on the charger correctly so I had to switch tasks and do something else. Nice to finish that today with fully charged batteries. [emoji106]
Mounting/leveling the scope in my wife’s 6mm later today for a range trip tomorrow after work.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
You sound like me. Always something getting in the way.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jbotto
You’ve been on a roll lately, getting a lot of stuff done.
I haven’t started on my 7x57 brass yet. But I did manage to get a couple scopes mounted this weekend.
JTD
It just usually works that way for me as I’m not the most organized but I’d like to be.Quote:
Originally Posted by JeffreyDeGraff
I’ve been trying to knock out as much as I can lately and it’s really for two reasons. One, I’ve had lots of load tests that are finally coming to an end. This is my favorite part, as I would much rather crank out a bunch of the same ammo and then not mess with it besides shooting. Two, my wife and I are moving from ND to WY in a couple of weeks so all the reloading stuff will be taken down for awhile and I’m not sure how long it’s going to be down for. Hoping to be back up and running by September but not sure.
What scopes did you mount this weekend? I finally took the time to mess with my wife’s deer rifle. An older tang-safety M77 Ruger 6mm Remington. I bought a Leupold VX3i 2.5-8x36 for it a while back and since we didn’t have any loads worked up for it, we ended up putting that scope on my .243 and she used that instead, while her 6mm was mothballed for a bit. Well we had it out and were messing with it a bit this weekend. It currently wears an older Japanese Tasco 4x that I had plans to replace with that Leupold. She thinks she likes that Tasco better so I just took it off, made sure all the screws were torqued properly, lapped the rings, and remounted/leveled the scope. We’re hoping to get out tomorrow to go shoot and we’ll bring the 6mm and the .243 out to let her shoot with both scopes to see which one will end up on the 6mm. Well wait and see.
Enough of my rambling for tonight. Hope everyone had a great and safe Independence Day weekend!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
First is an old 5-15x50 Bausch & Lomb scope I had laying around. I put it on this ruger American I picked up Saturday.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jbotto
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...69260e246f.jpg
The other is a weaver 2.5-8 pistol scope that I mounted on the scout mount of my Marlin 1895G. This will be my first time to ever try a scout scope.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...0945fa2051.jpg
JTD
I chamfered, deburred, and uniformed the flash holes in the 308 brass I sized a couple weeks ago. Sized, trimmed, and did the works on some more 308 brass I found, it'll go in the tumbler with the 150ish pieces of 300aac brass I sized today.
I have about 400-500 pieces of 223 to size and trim next weekend. Maybe more than that if I actually make it to the range before I get to the brass.
How do you do all of your prep work? Do you use hand tools or use a prep station?Quote:
Originally Posted by Mbaker78
JTD
Those scopes look nice on those rifles! Hopefully they work out nice for you!Quote:
Originally Posted by JeffreyDeGraff
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I got 18 ppu 7x57 Bess sized and trimmed. And 19 s&b brass sized and trimmed. They go in the tumbler tomorrow. The pisser is that the s&b brass required a different shell holder than what is normally used for 7x57. How rediculous is that?
JTD
I size the 308 on a single stage, everything else goes through the loadmaster with just a size die in the turret.Quote:
Originally Posted by JeffreyDeGraff
Trim, chamfer, deburr, and flash hole uniforming gets done on the FA trim and prep center. 300aac gets trimmed on a Lyman lathe trimmer with a cordless drill though, because it’s too short to hold on to with the other one.
Its definitely the most tedious part of the process, and my hands still hurt a bit after the marathon the other day, but now that it’s done I can get down to the more fun part of actually loading them up.
After tumbling what needs tumbled, I’ll prime them with an RCBS APS bench tool (amazing tool, by the way). 300aac and 223 will go to the loadmaster for charge, seat, and final crimp. 308 gets done fully on a single stage. I’m still trying to decide if I like the automatic Hornady powder measure or not, it seems to consistently drop 0.1gr high for me, but it’s easier than trickling each round.