New to reloading, questions on setup, processing, etc.

[chadbag]

Tumble Brass using Crushed walnut (buy from pet store 20lb bag),

Just an FYI for folks out there. You can get much cheaper crushed walnut than the pet store variety (and often also less dusty). IF you have a real sandblasting supply place in your AO you should be able to get a 50lb bag of good, pretty low dust bag of crushed walnut for $20-$22/$25. Last time I got some here, which was a couple years ago, it was like $19 or so.

What you want will be labeled 12/20 or as a backup, the finer 20/40 grit crushed walnut. You need a real industrial sandblasting supply place, not Home Depot or general hardware store, which might have 2 different metal oxide type grits for sandblasting.

I used to buy it and rebag it into 5lb bags and resell it to those who wanted to buy everything from me.

And if you are in the SLC UT area, the place I was buying from is called "Blast Products" around 600N in SLC, right W of I15.


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[Sticks]

Just an FYI for folks out there. You can get much cheaper crushed walnut than the pet store variety (and often also less dusty). IF you have a real sandblasting supply place in your AO ...

Huh, who knew.

Thanks for the tip.

[markm]

And, although some people may knock them I've had plenty of success with wolf primers.

Wolf are the best primer you can get. It's just that certain runs of the primer didn't work well with some ball powders.

We had another buddy who tested Wolf primers last week and cut his SD in half.

[HackerF15E]

Wolf are the best primer you can get. It's just that certain runs of the primer didn't work well with some ball powders.

We had another buddy who tested Wolf primers last week and cut his SD in half.

I think its stretching things a bit (or being selective with your criteria) to say that Wolf is 'the best primer you can get'.

Certainly a great primer make at a great price, though.

[davestarbuck]

I use a 550b with a two tool head setup.

Tool Head A has a Lee Decapping Die in station 1, empty on 2, RT1200 trimmer in 3, 4 is empty.

I tumble, lube using Dillon's lube, decap and trim, tumble off lube.

I used Dillons .223 case guage to setup the trim die, and I use a RCBS lock ring instead of a Dillon lock ring to secure the trim die. Hasn't moved in like 2 years since I did this.

If needed I run the brass through the Super Swage to get rid of primer crimps.
I've got like 15K of fully processed brass now so this hasn't come out of the cabinet in a while.

Tool Head B uses a Decapper in station 1, Dillon powder drop in 2, Lee Seating Die station 3, and a Lee Factory Crimp Die in 4.

I use 25 gr of WC844 with either 55 gr M193 pulls or 62gr M855 pulls for my practice/range stuff. When I run out of WC844 I'm going to switch to TAC exclusively as it works well with 55gr-77 gr bullets.

I was one of the guys who had a big problem with WC844 and Wolf Primers, but I've had no issues with Tula primers and CCI 41 primers.

One thing I'd like to mention is that you should also get a single stage press as well. I keep a Hornady Cam Lock collet die in mine to pull bullets. It was a life saver when I had to pull 600 rounds and change the powder when I had the issue with the WC844 and the Wolf primers.

Hope this helps!

[Eric D.]

I think this is the way I'm going to go.

I use a 550b with a two tool head setup.

As a quick aside, here's something I've been working on for the past week or so:

I decided to build my own brass tumbler. Here's a video for anyone interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNf6g...ature=youtu.be

[Sticks]

I think this is the way I'm going to go.



As a quick aside, here's something I've been working on for the past week or so:

I decided to build my own brass tumbler. Here's a video for anyone interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNf6g...ature=youtu.be

Cool. Good job.

[robfromsc]

Rifle brass is more time consuming than straight wall pistol. Depending on your case lube youll have to tumble the sizing lube off before you prime and load.

I use a turret press but set up single stage to decap and resize. I go through a hole batch, say 500 cases and get them decapped and sized, then tumble them. Inspect and measure. Then set the press up to load . Rifle ammo is more time consuming than pistol ammo.

[yellowfin]

Is there one powder measure or another that's best at feeding stick powders consistently? I'm told that with some powders the extrusion is too long to come out precisely every time and need to weigh each individual powder charge versus ball powders that flow more easily. I'm looking to load 5.56 and 7.62x54R.

[markm]

Is there one powder measure or another that's best at feeding stick powders consistently? I'm told that with some powders the extrusion is too long to come out precisely every time and need to weigh each individual powder charge versus ball powders that flow more easily. I'm looking to load 5.56 and 7.62x54R.

There's all kind of powder measures and all kinds of powders. Your powder of choice and your consistency requirement will dictate the best measure.

I load anything like Varget, 4064, or any of those relatively long cuts on a Chargemaster. Ball and short cut extrudes meter good enough on the Dillon 550b.

There are nice Harrell bench mounted powder throws that will meter stick pretty well... but those get a little expensive.