Finally ran out of .45acp brass. in Handloading Forum

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Finally ran out of .45acp brass.

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brass rat	Finally ran out of .45acp brass.	Lead	[-]
Posts: 2449 Oct 21 12 12:08 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Tags : None Running out of brass and boxes. Scraping the bottom of the bucket. Mission Control 50 Rounds .45acp, "Some assembly Required" When the seating stage feels a bit odd there is probably a good reason. It took me several tries and a few turns of a primer pocket uniformer before I finally realized that there was no way in hell that a large primer was going in that hole. Have y'all run into any of these small primer .45 cases yet? ----------------------------------------------------------------- Why not join us at Milsurp After Hours handloading forum
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eb in oregon		#1	[-]
Posts: 2483 Oct 21 12 9:37 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	brass rat wrote: It took me several tries and a few turns of a primer pocket uniformer before I finally realized that there was no way in hell that a large primer was going in that hole. Have y'all run into any of these small primer .45 cases yet? I've not run into one of those, however I did find I've got a few Remington .38 Special that have large primer pockets. The first time I ran into one of those I was shaking my head for a few minutes. Thankfully, I think I've got enough .45 ACP brass to last my life time. And if not, I'll shoot up some of the factory ammo I've got. I find your picture of your Lee press propitious. I've been struggling with my Loadmaster for the last week. When I first bought it there was a learning curve, and a "tweaking period" where I learned what it did, how it did it, and what to look for. I went nuts for awhile and was cranking out enough 9x19, .45 ACP, and .38 Special to fill several large .50 caliber ammo cans. Well, I hadn't used the press for a couple of years (about eight to be exact as I'm still shooting up what I loaded the first time) and have been purchasing the necessary parts to crank out 5.56/.223 Remington ammunition. I needed a new shell plate first, and ordered that. Installed the shell plate, adjusted the dies, and carefully cranked out about 25 rounds, tweaking and adjusting as I went, learning to hand feed cases as the Loadmaster isn't quite designed for automatically feeding cases as long as a rifle case. Apparently I didn't adequately lubricate a case and it got stuck and I ripped off the rim. Got it out, but in the process the expander ball sheared in half. I'm using an RCBS die set as I don't want to buy another right now. Ordered a new rod assembly and upon receipt installed it. Screwed up and had it sticking out a bit too much and broke off the decapping pin right off the bat. I was also trying to adjust the shell feeder to advance the case into the shell holder and managed to break off on whole rail on the "tall" case pusher and bent the square rod. Ordered two more of each and a spare "short" one. Got the two rods, one "tall" pusher and two "short" pushers, when I needed two "tall" and one "short." Now I'm having trouble with the priming assembly. I don't remember having trouble like this the first time. I expect I've forgotten much and seem to have not quite as much patience as I did before. I do remember though that there was a period of adjustment and learning, and once that was completed it worked like a champ. Or is that a bad memory too? Nah, can't be. I've still got cans of ammo from the first time. "We must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately." Benjamin Franklin, July 4 1776
brass rat		#2	[-]
Posts: 2449 Oct 21 12 12:44 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I haven't done much shooting lately since I am still out on workers comp and doing good just keeping food on the table but I have gotten bored enough to do more loading in the last month than I have in the last 3 or 4 years. I really like my Classic Turret Press. I can crank out a round of .45 or .30 carbine every 30 seconds or so once it is dialed in. When I am loading rifle rounds I take out the advance rod and use it like a single stage press. It is nice being able to leave the dies set up. I manually go from seating to crimp dies and back which saves a lot of time. I have my de-caper and RCBS primer pocket swager on turrets so that I rarely use my single stage press anymore. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Why not join us at Milsurp After Hours handloading forum Last Edited By: brass rat Oct 21 12 1:19 PM. Edited 1 times.
eb in oregon		#3	[-]
Posts: 2483 Oct 21 12 3:31 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I've really just again starting to reload on a bigger scale with this 5.56/.223 attempt. For quite some time now it's been batch's of 20 or 40 rounds for the weirder calibers, or the .458 bugger that after 5 or so, "your done." All that has been the work of my faithful "Rockchucker" press. I decap and primer pocket swage on it also as it's pretty fast once you get your rhythm going. I prepare all my brass (decap, clean, chamfer the case mouth, trim if necessary, and swage the primer pockets) on the "Rockchucker" so that it's lube and go when it gets to the progressive press. I've re-discovered it's a touchy bugger with the automatic case feeder. You really have to fiddle around to get it adjusted properly, but once it is, it's a round with every cycle of the ram. Oh, you have to keep an eye on the primer supply, as well as the case magazines and the powder measure hopper, but basically all you have to do is hold the bullet in place as that case travels into the seating die. Yea, when I had it working before I could have supplied half the police agency's in the state if so inclined. I'm not though, don't need that headache in licensing and insurance premiums. I'm glad your getting an opportunity to once again enjoy the hair pulling and wrench throwing part of our hobby! Oh yea, that picture of the "bad bullet," that highlights the down side of the progressive press. Sometimes, regardless of attention to detail, or any thing else, your going to make a crappy round. "We must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately." Benjamin Franklin, July 4 1776 Last Edited By: eb in oregon Oct 21 12 3:34 PM. Edited 1 times.
brass rat		#4	[-]
Posts: 2449 Oct 21 12 4:51 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I suppose that all of us have a box of this sort of stuff that we can't quite decide what to do with. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Why not join us at Milsurp After Hours handloading forum
eb in oregon		#5	[-]
Posts: 2483 Oct 22 12 12:33 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	brass rat wrote: I suppose that all of us have a box of this sort of stuff that we can't quite decide what to do with. LOL, of course we have all done that before! I usually don't save them for my "box of shame" though. The .45 and the .223 will still shoot, though they may not go exactly where intended. Rounds that are not 100% I shoot up either for test, function, or familiarisation fire. I know that if my firearm feeds and fires one of those ugly buggers, it isn't a gun problem. As long as it isn't an over charge problem. Those get knocked apart. "We must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately." Benjamin Franklin, July 4 1776
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wworker		#6	[-]
Posts: 3801 Nov 16 12 5:58 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	When the seating stage feels a bit odd there is probably a good reason. Did you realize how that happened?
brass rat		#7	[-]
Posts: 2449 Nov 17 12 1:08 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	If I had been using jacketed bullets it probably would have been OK but I was loading Berry's plated bullets and probably didn't have it square with the case mouth. The die will straighten them up but sometimes the plating gets bunched up like that. I like the plated bullets because they are cheaper than jacketed and when you are shooting steel plates at 11 yards you don't have to worry about being pelted with pieces of jacket. After I posted this I found a bag with another 300 cases under a pile of bags of unsorted 5.56 brass. Rather than buy more of the plastic cases I am going to line a 30 cal ammo can with cardboard and just toss them in there. The can will hold a good 600-700 rounds. I have bought 500 round cans from Georgia Arms and there is still quite a bit of room left in them. I bought a 500 round can of .380 for a friends MAC-11 and you had to look to find them in the bottom of the can. We counted them and there were 500 in there but there sure was a lot of wasted space in that can. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Why not join us at Milsurp After Hours handloading forum Last Edited By: brass rat Nov 17 12 1:14 PM. Edited 1 times.
dutchmills		#8	[-]
Posts: 1229 Nov 17 12 1:14 PM Veteran member Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I have managed to create rounds that look like that on a single stage press over the years. I break 'em down and salvage what i can. DM (and try not to do it again!)
CurioVirginian		#9	[-]
Posts: 433 Dec 15 12 2:12 AM active member Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Worst mistake I made on my Dillon 650 was putting what I thought was a large pistol primer in the machine manually and used more leverage than usual to seat the primer in a .45 ACP case. Well as it happens I put that loaded round in a box of ammo I gave to my wife to shoot since it was a military head stamp in what was otherwise Remington brass for the other loaded rounds and thought for sure it was as strong or stronger brass. We went to the range and my wife put that round in the magazine first so that would mean it was the last round out of the gun. All the rounds shot great except the last one....a sheet of flame 2 feet long came out of the barrel, the gun recoiled like she was shooting a Desert Eagle in .50 cal and the case almost went into orbit. I made sure she was OK and then check the gun which was fine at the range and suffered no damage. We found the case on the range floor and it bulged almost to the point of bursting in the unsupported portion in the 1911 barrel chamber. The primer was cratered and I measured the case as it stretched a bit beyond SAAMI specs. I remembered I was moving some primers earlier in the week and passed by the bench before that reloading session so I checked the large pistol and large primer boxes for any that may have been missing. I found one primer was missing from a large rifle magnum primer box and after I got the fired primer out of the case and compared it to the unfired primers, it was the culprit. Lesson here is never use a found loose primer that you are not 100% certain of what type it is.
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