At the bench today...

[knobster]

I added a third Stack On reloading bench from Cabella's to my reloading man cave. They were on sale for 90 bucks and I couldn't pass up the deal. I've been very pleased with the previous two and one can never have enough bench top, shelf space, etc. I'm dedicating this 1/3 to shotshell reloading which I did quite a bit of yesterday. I cast my own 00 buckshot so I whipped up a tray of candy for ISIS should they come a callin'.

[knobster]

I ordered a wet tumbler (Frankfort Arsenal) that is scheduled to arrive early next week so I've been busy prepping brass. Popping the spent primers out of everything I have so I can get that baby going as soon as she arrives.

[Toepopper]

Why do you pop out primers before tumbling?? I have tried this before and pieces of tumbling media become lodged in the flash hole or primer pocket and then must be removed by hand, a real pain in the butt. Does a wet tumbler contain any abrasives or is it strictly a liquid cleaner?

[knobster]

Got the tumbler all set up and going last night. I took a video of the results for my dad but I'll try and get some pics and post them here sometime...

The wet tumbler comes with really thin stainless steel pins. Probably... a centimeter long and so far, have not seen any stuck in the primer holes. I pop out the primers (with the RCBS universal decapping die) to get the primer pocket clean. Which this tumbler did a reeeeally good job with. With dry tumbling yes, the walnut/corn media did get lodged in those pockets which was annoying.

So far I've cleaned a batch of 45s and 30-30s. Squirt in a tablespoon of Dawn and let her fly! I've seen other recipes for the cleaning solution online but Dawn seems to work just fine.

[knobster]

Loaded up oodles of 9mm the other night. With the Dillon it is crazy fast and crazy easy to pile up the rounds. I see that I will be rapidly running out of primers. I scrounge for brass a few times a month at the range so that component is in ample supply. Ever since the powder drought of 2014/2015 I've stocked up - currently sitting at over 20 pounds of assorted powder. Only have a few 1000 ct boxes of primers left which is woefully short in my mind. Time to restock!

[knobster]

I have filled up an entire ammo box of 9mm so far. The Dillon makes scary fast work of reloading oodles of rounds. I have also spent quite a bit of time on 223 brass prep. I have three buckets (2 gallon each) full of 223 range brass that are slowly being pushed along into the 'load-ready' bucket. Pop out primers, clean, lube, size, and then trim. I would like to get one of those World's Finest Trimmers to make short work of trimming lots of brass in a hurry.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/997722 ... -remington

My son is taking much more interest in helping me at the bench. I also find myself depending on his young eyes more and more. "What letters are on this headstamp?" I'm fortunate that he is cautious by nature so if he feels something isn't right he'll stop what he's doing and ask me about it.

[Yukon]

I cast my own 00 buckshot so I whipped up a tray of candy for ISIS should they come a callin'.

Tray of candy, now that's funny!

[knobster]

Got the Dillon set up to reload 223s. Took me the better part of a month to get 1000 cases prepped for this moment. Decapping, cleaning, sizing, trimming, deburring, swaging the primer pocket... whew! Time to actually load them now.

I realized (after a half hour of trouble shooting) that stick powders, like Varget, do not meter well in the Dillon. Fortunately I have other powder options and other loads that I can use Varget for.