What did you reload today?

[OkieStubble]

If you want to protect the finish of the desk top, you could cover the underside of the mounting board with either felt or those rubbery liners for kitchen cabinet drawers. A scrap piece of wood between the underside of the desk top and the C-clamp screw would keep the C-clamp from digging into the underside of the desk top.

That desk is already pretty old and beat up. It's missing drawer handles and has rough spots in it's varnish. It's pretty huge and already in the office and only has the desktop computer screen and a printer on top of it. If I put a smaller modern coumputer table in the office and move that big desk around, The table top on that desk overlaps on the sides that you can see in the picture, but it also overlaps on the full front side which you can't see because of the computer screen and wall. If I turn the desk around where the drawers are towards the wall, but leave enough gap between the wall and the drawers?

I could probably dedicate that whole desk to a reloading bench. Or, just put the office chair between the wall and desk, then I could use the sides and the entire front to C-Clamp equipment on and off. It only has the screen and printer on it, the drawers aren't used except for worthless stuff I have put in them. I could use the drawers to store stuff, and set the press and bigger stuff on top of the gun safe or file cabinet when not in use.

I feel pretty stupid not realizing this before seeing @Whisky 's post. If it'd a been a snake, it would have bit me... But, if it was a snake, I'd probably woulda seen it.


Reloading and the knowledge of; is definitely my weak link when it comes to firearm enthusiasm, but thankfully with the awesomeness of all you gents in here, it's something I will be able to remedy.

 

[alpster]

Knocked out a couple of hundred 44mags today. It's kind of 'zen' like to work at the loading table.

 

[ColtRevolver]

Last night, I put together a couple of dozen .22-250 rounds because I am headed to our farm tomorrow to take care of a few groundhogs.

The load was 35.0 gr of Varget under a 55 gr Hornady flat base soft point. I believe Hornady used to call it a Super Explosive. I used all Hornady brass and Winchester primers. I worked up the load a few years ago for my Remington 700 Varmint Special. It averaged 3404 fps and shot a 5 shot 3/8" 100 yard group out of that rifle.

 

[Kentos]

Last night, I put together a couple of dozen .22-250 rounds because I am headed to our farm tomorrow to take care of a few groundhogs.

The load was 35.0 gr of Varget under a 55 gr Hornady flat base soft point. I believe Hornady used to call it a Super Explosive. I used all Hornady brass and Winchester primers. I worked up the load a few years ago for my Remington 700 Varmint Special. It averaged 3404 fps and shot a 5 shot 3/8" 100 yard group out of that rifle.

Wow 35 grains of varget. How’s the recoil under that much powder? My 20-something grains in a 5.56 must be like bunny farts in comparison.

 

[ColtRevolver]

Wow 35 grains of varget. How’s the recoil under that much powder? My 20-something grains in a 5.56 must be like bunny farts in comparison.

Recoil isn't bad. I can stay on the scope to see the hits. It probably helps that the rifle is a bull barrelled model and fairly heavy.

I have another .22-250 that I use Varget and a 55 gr bullet in. I had to work up to the max published charge of 36.5 grs to get the rifle to group well. Been shooting that load in that gun for over 25 years.

 

[Mhinagoya]

I have no experience with them, but I suspect that they are OK, they make good ammo.

I am nearly through a carton of Fiocchi primers. I have loaded them in 38 Super and .223. No issues.

 

[Mhinagoya]

I just used a Harbor Freight work bench. They are made of maple. I plugged the holes in the top. Hard bolted the press down, then put a small vise on top and marked where the mounting holes were. I did the same with one of my Mec shotgun loaders (they all have the same hole pattern / footprint).
I ordered some 1/4-20 brass threaded inserts from McMaster Carr along with the insertion tool/driver. I also ordered some 1/4-20 socket head screws and some wing nuts. I ran the screws through the wing nuts from the top down with some red loctite. This gave me wing nut bolts that I could run by hand or with an allen wrench.

I then drilled the bench top, chamfered the holes a little, buttered the holes with some JB weld, then ran the inserts down flush.

I mounted my powder measure, Hornady runout fixtures, Forester case trimmers and a couple of other things to pieces of 3/4 inch oak with two matching holes (diagonal from each other), so I can mount any of these things to two of the shotgun press holes with a couple of wing nuts. I can easily mount my vise as well the same way.

It takes less than a minute to mount one of my 'accessories' or a shotgun loader or just swap out a case trimmer for a powder measure.

I have eight inserts in the bench top. Four for shotgun loaders and accessories, three for the vise, and one for a dedicated powder measure I use to drop WW296 in .410 shotgun shells.

Bill.

 

[ColtRevolver]

I loaded up another 40 rounds of .22-250. Same load as a couple of weeks ago. 35 gr of Varget and a 55 gr Hornady Super Explosive soft point. The brass is Hornady that I bought new. It had been fired 2-3 times. Out of 40, 5 pieces were close to but not at max length. I trimmed them back a bit. Out of that 50 piece bag I have in circulation, I have lost one to cracking.

 

[nortac]

@ColtRevolver, have you considered annealing? I have not done it yet but I bought a nifty device from Little Crow that you use with a drill to spin a case as you hold the case neck in the flame of a propane torch. I plan on trying it out when the weather gets cooler.

 

[ColtRevolver]

I haven't considered annealing. .22-250 is the only rifle caliber that I reload that I have had to buy brass for. All the other calibers I reload can generally be found on the ground. I suppose annealing may have prevented me from losing that one piece of brass.

I went and watched a video on that Little Crow mandrel. I'll probably pick one up and give it a try this winter....or I may try just using a deep well socket for a case holder.

 

[nortac]

Powder Valley has CCI #500 Small Pistol Primers on sale for $69.99 per 1000.

 

[czgunner]

Powder Valley has CCI #500 Small Pistol Primers on sale for $69.99 per 1000.

Glad to see these coming down in price....if only for a few months before the next election stupidity.

 

[nortac]

A few hundred 9 mm over the last few days.

 

[nortac]

Processing several hundred 9 mm brass, deprime, wet tumble and resize.

 

[nortac]

150 rounds of 9 mm with the newly acquired Fiocchi primers.

 

[Whisky]

150 rounds of 9 mm with the newly acquired Fiocchi primers.

I’m assuming no issues seating them?

 

[nortac]

I’m assuming no issues seating them?

None that I could attribute to the primer, I had one that I couldn't seat fully due to me not removing enough crimp from a NATO case. I'll be shooting some in a match tomorrow.

 

[nortac]

@Whisky, I shot about 50 rounds or so of the Fiocchi primed 9 mm loads. All went bang and the pistol (Glock 19) functioned as expected. I chronographed a magazine full and the loads seemed to run a little slower and the S.D. a little greater than the same load sparked by Federal primers. Now to be fair, these were just cranked out on my Dillon and the powder charges probably had some slight variations. To be really scientific, one would have to carefully weigh each powder charge, use the same cases (these were mixed head stamps) and use a larger sample size in order to compare apples to apples. But these minor variations have no practical effect on practice ammo.

 

[nortac]

Reloaded another 300 rounds of 9 mm with the Fiocchi primers and primed 350 .380 cases.

 

[nortac]

@Whisky, I loaded 20 rounds each of 9mm 124 gr. plated RN, Federal cases and individually weighed 4.8 gr. of Unique with Fiocchi, CCI and Federal primers. After tomorrows RSO match, I will chronograph the above mentioned rounds to see if there is any significant difference in primer types for this particular application. Just for the heck of it.