Reloading report

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I enhanced my program which parses my reloading log files. It now reports on a month by month and yearly basis instead of just by caliber.

Here is the result:

 

223 Rounds Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
1998: 160 0 0 0 0 0 0 140 20 0 0 0 0
1999: 1777 0 0 181 578 25 0 0 0 0 140 653 200
2000: 43 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 43 0 0 0
2001: 47 0 0 0 47 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2016: 397 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 140 257 0 0
Total: 2424
30.06 Rounds Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
1997: 180 0 0 40 20 79 41 0 0 0 0 0 0
1998: 150 0 0 0 80 0 0 0 0 0 40 0 30
1999: 90 20 70 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2003: 47 0 0 0 18 0 0 0 0 0 0 29 0
2016: 76 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 76 0 0 0
Total: 543
300WIN Rounds Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
1999: 250 0 0 0 0 0 151 60 0 0 39 0 0
2000: 460 50 120 142 0 57 0 0 0 0 20 60 11
2001: 382 25 0 0 185 15 20 0 73 0 0 0 64
2013: 600 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 100 500
Total: 1692
40S&W Rounds Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
1997: 31 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 31
1998: 11264 570 258 718 1577 1812 1710 402 0 0 1200 900 2117
1999: 2795 0 894 0 299 693 506 0 0 0 0 0 403
2000: 3187 795 0 0 0 0 1095 400 396 0 501 0 0
2001: 2295 0 300 497 300 0 0 1198 0 0 0 0 0
2002: 898 0 0 0 0 0 0 198 0 200 300 0 200
2003: 602 0 300 302 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2004: 1345 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 300 600 445 0
2005: 1059 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 659 400 0 0
2006: 1000 0 0 0 0 400 0 0 0 0 200 400 0
2007: 1136 0 0 0 0 0 0 118 518 300 200 0 0
2008: 2398 0 300 0 0 0 0 900 399 0 200 0 599
2009: 1702 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 102 300 900 400
2010: 1400 0 0 0 0 100 200 700 0 200 0 200 0
2011: 2300 300 0 400 100 0 500 500 200 0 0 0 300
2012: 399 0 200 0 199 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2014: 530 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 530
2015: 7012 1699 1630 1137 0 0 0 547 200 400 100 200 1099
2016: 17792 2197 700 1462 837 1899 1999 1000 1500 1000 1700 1500 1998
Total: 59145
9MM Rounds Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
1996: 11274 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10944 141 189
1997: 7374 300 0 0 1190 640 65 0 100 1088 804 1060 2127
2015: 2993 0 1066 1927 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Total: 21641
Grand Total:
85445

I was surprised how many rounds I reloaded in the first month of reloading (9mm, October 1996). That was the most in any single month. I remembered I reloaded quite a few, but I thought it was just enough for the class I was taking. My memory was wrong. I got my STI Eagle, chambered in 40 S&W, in December of 1997. My 9mm reloading stopped until 2015 when I finally got around to using up the bullets I had left.

This year was the most I reloaded in any single year with 397 of .223, 76 of 30.06, and 17,792 of 40 S&W for a total of 18,265 rounds.

This last month I only reloaded 40 S&W. They were mostly 180 grain Montana Gold JHPs for practice at indoor ranges. 200 of the 1998 total were 180 grain Blue Bullets.

The 200 rounds with Blue Bullets were actually 100 bullets I reloaded, and pulled, twice. The first time I misremembered the powder charge and had a third more powder than I planned (4.0 versus 3.0 grains). I pulled the bullets, set the powder charge to the proper amount and reloaded them again. When I weighed the powder charge of the last round I discovered it was only about a third less than what it should be (1.9 versus 3.0 grains). I pulled them again and spent probably 30 minute trying to find out why the powder measure would sometimes put out the proper charge and the the very next charge would be way low. It turns out there was a bullet in the powder measure. Apparently when I pulled the bullets from the first set I accidently dumped a bullet into the powder measure along with the powder. I believe it was blocking the powder dispenser some of the time and giving me erratic charges.

I reloaded those twice pulled bullets this afternoon and everything checked out. I’ve got a good start on the new year.

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15 thoughts on “Reloading report”

  2. Interesting report, not least because you seem to have kept such thorough records. I have no idea how many rounds I’ve loaded, but it’s not nearly that many.

    “The first time I misremembered the powder charge and had 50% more powder than I planned.”

    At what point did you realize this, and how did it happen?

    I weigh a lot of my finished rounds, first just as a lark, to see what kinds of stacking variances would show up.

    If one of your pistol rounds were so highly overcharged, then it would certainly show up in the gross cartridge weight. Weighing them slows things down a lot though, of course.

    I was thinking just this weekend that it would be a good idea to write down average gross cartridge weights for particular loads. One 10 mm load I use for example, will only vary at most about two grains and change, if they’re all made from the same lot of brass. Most of that variance is in the cases. They use 10.4 grains of powder, and so if I were to over charge a whole batch by 50% (aside from the fact that it would begin to overflow the case) or even 25%, it would readily show up in the gross cart weight.

    After witnessing a guy blow up his gun a while back with a double charge, the concept of a bulky powder that cannot fit a double charge, or even a 50% overage, into the case began to make a lot of sense.

    • I don’t see my log files as all that detailed. A typical entry is:

      01/01/2017 100 rounds. Win primers. 180 grain Blue Bullets over 3.0 grains of Clays. OAL: 1.134. No rejects.

      I noticed when I was recording in my log. The 4.0 grains I had used didn’t match the 3.0 grains I used the previous time I had loaded these bullets. It happened when I got distracted by something when I was changing from the Montana Gold JHPs to the Blue Bullets. I use a different powder which has a much different setting. I had make many turns on the adjustment screw, measuring after each change, and I got it down to 4.0. I went to do something else, then came back the next day and measured the charge. It was exactly 4.0 and thought, “Oh, I finished setting it last night” (I knew it was a round number).

      I was in a hurry when I wrote the 50% (dinner was calling) and for some reason did the math in my head wrong. It was easy math too. It should have been a third more rather than 50% more. I have corrected the post.

      Average weight of the finished cartridge is useless with this load when I am using mixed brass. The variation in brass is about +/-3 grains and with a charge of 3.0 grains you just can’t know. I do look into every case before the bullet is seated so I can easily detect a double charge. The case doesn’t overflow but it is close to the top.

      I once used a powder that it was possible to double charge and almost possible to seat a bullet with a triple charge. That scared me and I haven’t used the powder since. That just seemed to be more risk than I needed to take. Especially true when there were equally good loads without that risk.

      • That’s about what I log. My log is an old bound journal that I bought almost 4 decades ago. Each page is a cartridge combo ( maybe two pages if I know I’m going to load a lot — like .45 ACP). The top of the page is caliber, powder, bullet style and weight. Then each line below is just: date, COAL, powder charge and round count. Sometimes I later add notes to those lines.

        • Instead of using paper I have a text file for each caliber. Sometimes I add lots of notes with chronograph data and linear interpolation as to expected velocity with untried loads or speculation as to the trade-offs of using a different powder.

      • Yours is “detailed”, In my estimation, in that you have one at all. I keep my load data only on the boxes of assembled ammo, usually but not always with the date of assembly, and sometimes also as sticky notes in the manuals. That’s it. Some labels have chrono data also, but some don’t. When I refill a depleted box, nothing changes but the date. Thus I have no way of knowing how many rounds I’ve loaded over the years. I keep total detail on the ammo itself (OK, except for the lot number from the powder cans), but no historical log whatever other than the date on the box.

        It has never occurred to me to keep a history log for my loading sessions, as I’ve always assumed that the truly pertinent info is on the box label.

        A historical log would be interesting as a conversation piece (for example I was looking at your numbers for any possible correlations to certain events in political history, e.g. Y2K seemed to pop up), and maybe as a general indication of the extent to which certain guns have been used (though there are other possible indicators, such as pounds of lead purchased, or boxes of bullets, powders, etc), but so far I haven’t even considered a log. Am I missing something important?

        • You probably aren’t overlooking anything. I’m a bit compulsive about somethings and so having a log is probably a symptom of that.

          I looked at the historical information as well. But from a different perspective. I looked at the times when I was less active. I was least active when I was dealing with my divorce and didn’t have my reloading press and supplies unpacked for a long time.

          The greater active around Y2K was probably indicative of I was relatively new to reloading and competitive shooting. Y2K wasn’t an issue for me other than amusement of all claims of gloom and doom.

        • I guess one thing I have which I think is particularly important which you don’t is the chronograph data (and accuracy info for rifle loads) from when I was working up the load.

          • That is a good point. I tend to write my chrono results on sheets of letter paper, and save the pertinent targets with notes on them re; the loads, only to lose track of them over the years. What I do have are the eventually chosen loads, detailed on the package labels so they can be replicated.

            I am NOT a habitual records keeper by nature (my elementary school desk was always a jumbled nightmare, for example – “just let me get on with this day”), so to the extent that I do keep load data it is fairly minimal. The only way I get by with tax information at all, for another example, is to hire people to do it for me, and they all hate me, so I have to pay them handsomely.

            So it is that, as I see your well-collected and well-presented records, I am both impressed and curious.

            I had thought all along that these posts were as much a thumbed nose at the criminal political class as anything else;
            “Ban it? Tax it? Restrict it? Hell I make tens of thousands of rounds myself, in multiple calibers, they’re more accurate than most, and I practice more than most cops or soldiers, as do many of my friends. We’ll always find a way to do it, too, so don’t get anymore fancy ideas about disarming the American public…”

          • There is the thumbed nose aspect too. But it started out as my simple wondering of how many rounds I have shot in my lifetime and knowing that my reload count, minus rounds still in stock, would put a lower limit on that number. Then it was how many in the last year/month. Then I realized that without much work I could make my program give a historical view in a fraction of a second anytime I wanted.

  3. Re; Y2K. Knowing you as a computer expert, I would expect you to view the hysteria over Y2K as largely a lot of crazininess and attention-getting. One can however see the possibility of the crazies doing some crazy things with their crazy premises as cover. It was in that context that I brought it up.

    As one of my employees often says; “It’s a dog and pony show. Millions may die, but it’s still a dog and pony show.”

    The extent of my Y2K preparation was to re-set the system dates and times in our business computers to span the year 2000 mark while running and see what happened. Nothing happened. We did have to increase the lengths of our date fields by two digits, is all. (cue Ben Stein voice) “Zee, Oh, Em, Gee, we’re all gonna die..”.

  4. Nice figures!

    Reloading is very common in France because of regulations (*). If you intend to go shooting on a regular basis, reloading is virtually mandatory.

    Lots of Dillon presses, mostly XL650s.

    Buddy of mine installed a MrBulletfeeder on his last year and it really works great. We have agreed on a common 9mm “recipe” and group-buy components in bulk. I essentially reload on his press. I only do “specialty” ammo on my good old lee turret (subsonic 9mm for suppressed SBR, full-house 10mm …).

    Another buddy of mine who’s been really invested in IPSC for the last three years now has a fully automated/motorized 1050. Very last step before you get a CAMDEX. 🙂

    (*) you can only buy 1000 rounds per licensed gun per year, but there are no restrictions on buying components

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