Reloading, a Basic Pictorial

[rayra]

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~270 .357 brass, ~500 .38 Special brass.
Bullets are B4rry's Lead Flat Point (FP) (truncated cone), 125gr (a standard / middlin' weight for this caliber.
I used 8 grains of Bullseye in the .357 loads, and 4.8gr for the .38 Special.

All told it took me just about 3hrs to crank out just under 800rds. That includes resetting the powder and bullet seating dies on the press as well as the powder charge. Includes fiddling with all 800 rounds to wipe off surplus bullet lube and a few lead shavings (didn't quite set the powder funnel height low enough on the .38 Special, so the case mouths weren't being flared open quite enough. I got it done well enough, but should have made the adjustment, instead of having to deal with the after effects.
Also includes a halt to repair a busted primer cup stem(?) on the press' priming system, thankfully I had one in the Press common spares kit which I bought for just such occasions.

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Material cost about 12.5 cents per round, averaged. $6.25/50. About 40% the cost of the cheapest non-reloadable plinking ammo.
Most of my equipment I've had for nearly 20yrs. It's cost has been amortized to nothing by now. Total outlay on reloading equipment has been about ~~$850, and/but my kit is pretty low-tech. The press itself is the fanciest piece of gear I've got. And a nice Dillon SuperSwage for opening up military crimps on brass. Still using the basic balance scale I started out with. No trimmer equipment. A single powder funnel setup on the press. 5 interchangeable toolheads and 9 calibers of dies. I usually load in large batches like this, so the issues of swapping out dies, powder funnel and the normal routine of swapping out large primer systems and powder transfer bars for their smaller counterparts on the press itself really isn't an inconvenience.

[rayra]

The spares kit





A late edit, some other pictures posted later in this topic -

Couple wider shots of my hobby bench. I use it for many things, part of why I have the press mounted of to the righthand side. That seems to work pretty good anyway, for how I lay things out when reloading.

[USN CHIEF]

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[USN CHIEF]

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I only did like 750 .223 rounds tonight in about 1 hour

[What Just Happened?]

How many ammo boxes did you buy? Just put them into those ammo cans you have.

[freakshow10mm]

I use 5 gallon buckets.

[Leon75x55]

Coulnt wait for me?

When did you pick up the bullets? I was waiting on you. Did you go to Simi?

[USN CHIEF]

How many ammo boxes did you buy? Just put them into those ammo cans you have.

Well, here is the thing. The wife saw me one day looking at the ammo boxes one day on the Dillon Website and she went ahead and ordered 50 boxes for .223, 50 boxes for .308, 50 boxes for .9mm and 50 boxes for .45.. When I got this huge *** box from Dillon, I was like WTF is this? And then she told me that she had ordered them for me so that I could put all my reloaded rounds in them. I really did not want them boxes because I prefer the plastic green ones from Cabelas but I did not want to tell her that I did not want them so I kept them.

I already have 15 of the large green boxes but they are all full of 9mm/.40/.45/.22lr/.223 and .308.

[What Just Happened?]

The wife saw me one day looking at the ammo boxes one day on the Dillon Website and she went ahead and ordered 50 boxes for .223, 50 boxes for .308, 50 boxes for .9mm and 50 boxes for .45.. When I got this huge *** box from Dillon, I was like WTF is this? And then she told me that she had ordered them for me so that I could put all my reloaded rounds in them.

That is one awesome wife.

I already have 15 of the large green boxes but they are all full of 9mm/.40/.45/.22lr/.223 and .308.

Dear gentle Jesus. Are the 9mm, .40S&W, .45acp, .223rem and .308win all reloads?

[USN CHIEF]

Dear gentle Jesus. Are the 9mm, .40S&W, .45acp, .223rem and .308win all reloads?

No, I only have 4 of the boxes full with 3k each of .223 and 2 with 1500 .308 each that are my reloads, the rest is factory ammo.

[rayra]

Hey Squid! git yer own dang topic!

/lol


Seriously, wish I have the time and money for what you've got going on there. Very nice.
/

Leon, I'll email you

[USN CHIEF]

Hey Squid! git yer own dang topic!

/lol


Seriously, wish I have the time and money for what you've got going on there. Very nice.
/

Leon, I'll email you

LOL, my bad bro. Did not think that this was for your pics only.. LMFAO

Man I am so happy that I got into reloading. I just would like to tell my fellow Cal Gunners that if you live in the SD area and we have gone shooting together, you are more than welcome to use my equipment to reload your own ammo or you can stop by my place for a one on one tutorial with a Dillon 650.

[xibunkrlilkidsx]

Ok. i have the lyman reloading book also. and im getting conflicting info. Where are you supposed to put the case lube, i know not the shoulders. On the inside and outside of neck, outside only, inside only, Neck and case body?

[What Just Happened?]

LOL, my bad bro. Did not think that this was for your pics only.. LMFAO

Man I am so happy that I got into reloading. I just would like to tell my fellow Cal Gunners that if you live in the SD area and we have gone shooting together, you are more than welcome to use my equipment to reload your own ammo or you can stop by my place for a one on one tutorial with a Dillon 650.

Hmm... I think I need to go shooting with you sometime....

Ok. i have the lyman reloading book also. and im getting conflicting info. Where are you supposed to put the case lube, i know not the shoulders. On the inside and outside of neck, outside only, inside only, Neck and case body?

On the outside of the case. Lube needs to be on the bearing surfaces. That's why you lube 1911's on their rails and AR-15's on their bolt surface. Brass gets lube on the outside, where it makes contact with the dies.

[USN CHIEF]

Ok. i have the lyman reloading book also. and im getting conflicting info. Where are you supposed to put the case lube, i know not the shoulders. On the inside and outside of neck, outside only, inside only, Neck and case body?

For rifle cases I use the Dillon Spray lube. I place approximately 200 pieces of .223 or .308 and just give them an even spray where the rounds are lightly covered from head to bottom. Then I add another layer of brass and do the same thing.

I have never applied lube by hand to my rifle brass. I do make sure that I get the lube all over the outside of the body.