Rock Bottom .223 Reloading

[RaymondMillbrae]

My wife works with jewlery, and she also uses a rotary tumbler to polish metals.

But...from my understanding...this also "work hardens/case hardens" the metal. The constant buffeting of metal on metal will actually harden the metals surface.

And case necks should never be "work hardened".

If brass is a different animal, and responds differently that other metals when tumbled with metal pins, beads, and teardrop pellets - then...umm...woops. My bad. I am not a metallurgist.

But I would like to hear an opinion of someone "WHO IS" a metalluragist, on this topic.

Enquiring minds want to know.

In Christ: Raymond

[joelogic]

Thats the same timer I use to run my mixer. I have it set to run from 10am to 2pm, while no one is home.

[RaymondMillbrae]

Harbor Freight cement mixer, huh?

I've seen it mentioned in quite a few different forums.

Cool beans, doode!

In Christ: Raymond

PS: Those internal fins look kinda high. I would cut them down to half (or a quarter) their height. This should immensly reduce the noise. (Me guesses).

[joelogic]

I reload in volume, baby.

[RaymondMillbrae]

I reload in volume, baby.

Doode...no joke!

I only do around 1000 at a pop.

You put me to shame.

In Christ: Raymond

[GutPunch]

Wow. Cement mixer. That is serious business.

[johnrunner89]

If I may interject...

someone watching my video tutorial (see my signature below) suggested that I place an inline timer on the vibratory tumbler. This way you can set it to tumble for a specific amount of time, and it will automatically shut OFF when done. No more "accidently" leaving the tumbler running for hours (or days) at a time, and wasting electricity. (Not to mention extending the life of the media).

Those inline timers can be quite costly, but I just happened to have two regular ole timers laying around my place (for my reptile enclosures and tarantulas), so it worked out great.

The timers I use are dirt cheap, and can be found at Home Depot, Lowes, or almost any hardware store.

It was a fantastic tip I recently acquired!

As for prepping .223 brass...yea...it's a pain in dee posterior. But then again, I sure shoot the heck out of that round. And a lot of it, at that.

In Christ: Raymond

PS: Joe, did I mention that you did a good job on the pictures?

Great Idea! I think we all guilty of accidently leaving the tumbler on But the brass comes out so shinny I hate to shoot it

[Full Clip]

I'll just add that the savings with reloading .223 goes up exponentially when you start making anything other than 55grn FMJs. For instance, anything SP, V-Max, Nosler custom competition, etc.
I can only afford to shoot this stuff because I reload.

[CSACANNONEER]

Prices seem close but, you can do better WITHOUT a GB! The first place I looked for 55g FMJ bullets, I found them for $65/1000 new and $50/1000 pulled and resized. Prices went down from there.

As far as tumblers go, I have been looking for a deal on a cement mixer but, last month I found this instead!



It originally came from a plating shop and will do at least 200 pieces of 50BMG brass at a time.

Joe,
Why did you choose to keep the "paddles" in the cement mixer? Don't they damage the brass? I've heard others complain about that happening. If I got one, I was planning on removing them. Do you think that I would have been making a mistake?

[damilfman]

tagged !!!!

another great thread

[killshot44]

My component cost is a bit higher due the (non-bulk) bullets I use, but the cost per round is still half or more of what Factory Match ammo goes for retail. Never again!

I don't mind the prep, use one brand of brass and sort cases by weight. After sizing and trimming they get a second tumble in Walnut shells and Nu-Finish - they shine like Joe's do...

Dropping powder and seating 250 SMKs right now for tomorrow morning.

[joelogic]

Joe, Why did you choose to keep the "paddles" in the cement mixer? Don't they damage the brass? I've heard others complain about that happening. If I got one, I was planning on removing them. Do you think that I would have been making a mistake?

Sorry didnt catch your question earlier. I fill the mixer with 5 gallons of corn and two gallon of brass. I have found this to be the optimal mix for keeping the clanking noise of brass down. For me it seems the paddles are doing part of the work because if they were removed it wouldnt agate the mix much. It is the "falling" of the brass that does the cleaning which the paddles do otherwise it would be more like a rock tumbler, sealed container spinning at 90degrees like the one you have.

[joelogic]

I would like to thank Dillon for making one awesome press, Raymond for the powder group buy, Xtreme for the bullets, those that can afford factory ammo for the brass.

I just finished cranking out 2000 rounds of .223 and that should hold me over for a little while. Now I can switch my press back to .45 and load'em up.

[Gio]

What is it, a 100 per box? Thanks to you and a few others I have fallen in love with reloading .223 Thanks Joe!

[sargenv]

Am curious how many rounds you got from that 8 #'er of H322...

I was getting 2300 rounds give or take from an 8 pounder of AA 2015BR. 2015BR is a faster burning powder and loads only up to 55's, probably similar to Benchmark. Since I don't shoot at anything past 200 yards, it's good enough for my uses and I can hit an 8" steel plate all day long with that powder.