Category Archives: Reloading

Ammunition reloading takes time but it can yield ammunition you cannot easily buy and may save you money if you consider your time to be of low value. Posts here at least mention some aspect of reloading.

Case dryer

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I recently purchased a Lyman Cyclone Case Dryer from Midway USA. I’m very pleased with it. I have been using a dehumidifier and homemade draining and drying rack for years. But it was frequently a bottleneck in my process. It was noisy and made the room hot. Lyman dryer will hold up to 1000 .223 cases and far more pistol cases and have them dry in less than three hours. Typically it’s about one to two hours but with a bunch of .50 BMG brass I sort of stumbled across* it took closer to three hours.

It also takes up far less space in my armory.

20210226_200300

* I might buy a .50 BMG someday and then I’ll have the brass to reload for it, right?

The Brass Exchange

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Has anyone done business with The Brass Exchange recently? That is where I used to get used brass for reloading .40 S&W and 30.06.

On September 28th, 2020 I ordered 1000 pieces of .40 S&W brass and received a confirmation of order email. My credit card was charged the same day.

As this was in the middle of the massive buying frenzy I didn’t expect it to arrive for a few weeks. But the weeks went by and I didn’t receive the order nor did I receive a tracking number.

I tried to contact them to find out the status of my order. The email bounced:

Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.

      Subject:    Missing order.
       Sent:    12/21/2020 7:22 PM

The following recipient(s) cannot be reached:

      ‘thebrassexchange@gmail.com.’ on 12/21/2020 7:22 PM
             Server error: ‘550 <thebrassexchange@gmail.com.> invalid address ‘thebrassexchange@gmail.com.”

Phone calls were not answered.

I contacted my bank about the failure to receive the product I had paid for. They investigated for a month then told me:

Dispute Number: 19289113
Date Posted:  9/28/2020
Merchant Name: THE BRASS EXCHANGE
Amount of Transaction: 107.10
Status:   Credit is Permanent

We are pleased to let you know that the temporary credit we posted to your account for 107.10 on 12/24/2020 is now permanent.

Your dispute is now closed.

The Brass Exchange web site is still up and they claim they have product in stock. But I’m not willing to risk an order, and suggest others don’t either, unless there is reason to believe they are shipping the products ordered.

Rounds in the last month & yearly report

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This was a very slow year. I basically stopped shooting in late December because of a work project that was really, really cool. I worked pretty much night and day, including weekends, (except for a week of vacation for our anniversary) until sometime in March. It resulted in a patent application (still pending). Then with the COVID concerns I only went to like two or three matches and not many more trips to the indoor range for practice. Hence, my ammo needs were very modest last year. Then there was the whole primer shortage thing…

I already had a fair amount .40 S&W so I spent a lot of time reloading and brass prepping for rifle ammo.

As you can see in the table below I reloaded 657 rounds of .223 last year and another 88 rounds this month. A good portion of that was using up random types of bullets that had been purchased for load testing and found lacking. They are still good for teaching new shooters at 25 yards or Boomershoot High Intensity type events. It does include a new load for a 55 grain match grade bullet that turned out well.

The 98 rounds of 30-06 were for a Garand someone was receiving as a Christmas present. I wasn’t the gift giver or receiver but since ammo in general and Garand compatible ammo in particular were next to impossible to find I purchased a few clips to add to the ammo I reloaded. I used some 168 grain Sierra Match Kings, Federal Match primers, and Varget powder (Garand load data here) which was all at least 20 years old.

The Garand went to someone who had never owned a gun! But she had expressed a strong liking for the gun saying how much she liked the way it looked and she had apparently shot one before. So… her significant other consulted with me as to what a Garand was (!) and we conspired to find and purchase one for a Christmas gift.

[Update: I’ve been informed that while in high school she drilled with a Garand in Junior ROTC.]

So now she has nearly 100 rounds of ammo for her “new” gun and if the loads work well, and she returns the brass, I could make another 150 rounds or so from components on hand.

Hitting exactly 4,000 rounds of .40 S&W in 2020 was entirely a coincidence. These were all 200 grain Black Bullet International loads. I continued this month with mostly the same load but used up some random 180 grain bullets I found laying around. I have about another 20 primers and a couple of pounds of CFE Pistol powder left. I’ll probably not load much .40 S&W for a while. Of course I’ll need primers but also I have more .40 S&W stacked up than I imagine I will use this year.

This brings my total for the year to only 4,755 rounds. This is the first time since 2014 that I didn’t reload more than 10,000 rounds.

This brings my lifetime total of rounds reloaded to 149,484. I really expected to break 150K last year but it was a special year. But this year, almost for certain, I’ll break 150K.


223 Rounds Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
1998          160           –          –          –          –            –            –       140        20           –            –            –               – 
1999       1,777           –          –       181      578          25           –          –          –            –         140        653           200
2000            43           –          –          –          –            –            –          –          –           43           –            –               – 
2001            47           –          –          –         47           –            –          –          –            –            –            –               – 
2016          397           –          –          –          –            –            –          –          –         140        257           –               – 
2017          296           –          –          –          –            –            –          –          –            –            –            –            296
2018       4,177        418      180   1,195      300           –            –          –          –            –            –      1,997             87
2019          695           –         60        80      125        216          61      111         –            –            –           42              – 
2020          657           –          –          –          –            –            –          –          –            –         252        215           190
2021            88          88         –          –          –            –            –          –          –            –            –            –               – 
Total     8,337      506     240 1,456 1,050      241        61     251      20      183      649    2,907        773
30-06 Rounds Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
1997 180           –          –         40        20          79          41         –          –            –            –            –               – 
1998 150           –          –          –         80           –            –          –          –            –           40           –              30
1999 90          20        70         –          –            –            –          –          –            –            –            –               – 
2003 47           –          –          –         18           –            –          –          –            –            –           29              – 
2016 76           –          –          –          –            –            –          –          –           76           –            –               – 
2017 213           –          –          –          –            –            –         65      148           –            –            –               – 
2020 98           –          –          –          –            –            –          –          –            –            –            –              98
Total 854        20      70      40     118        79        41      65     148        76        40        29        128
300Savage Rounds Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
2018            50           –          –          –          –            –            –          –          –            –            –           50              – 
Total         50        –       –       –       –         –         –       –       –         –         –         50          – 
300WIN Rounds Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
1999          250           –          –          –          –            –         151        60         –            –           39           –               – 
2000          467          50      127      142         –           57           –          –          –            –           20          60             11
2001          382          25         –          –       185          15          20         –         73           –            –            –              64
2013          499           –          –          –          –            –            –          –          –            –            –         100           399
2018          212           –          –          –          –            –            –          –          –            –            –            –            212
2019          316        167      149         –          –            –            –          –          –            –            –            –               – 
Total     2,126      242     276     142     185        72      171      60      73        –         59      160        686
40SW Rounds Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
1997            31           –          –          –          –            –            –          –          –            –            –            –              31
1998     11,537        570      258      718   1,850     1,812     1,710      402         –            –      1,200        900        2,117
1999       2,795           –       894         –       299        693        506         –          –            –            –            –            403
2000       3,187        795         –          –          –            –      1,095      400      396           –         501           –               – 
2001       2,295           –       300      497      300           –            –    1,198         –            –            –            –               – 
2002          898           –          –          –          –            –            –       198         –         200        300           –            200
2003          602           –       300      302         –            –            –          –          –            –            –            –               – 
2004       1,345           –          –          –          –            –            –          –          –         300        600        445              – 
2005       1,059           –          –          –          –            –            –          –          –         659        400           –               – 
2006       1,000           –          –          –          –         400           –          –          –            –         200        400              – 
2007       1,136           –          –          –          –            –            –       118      518        300        200           –               – 
2008       2,398           –       300         –          –            –            –       900      399           –         200           –            599
2009       1,702           –          –          –          –            –            –          –          –         102        300        900           400
2010       1,400           –          –          –          –         100        200      700         –         200           –         200              – 
2011       2,300        300         –       400      100           –         500      500      200           –            –            –            300
2012          399           –       200         –       199           –            –          –          –            –            –            –               – 
2014          530           –          –          –          –            –            –          –          –            –            –            –            530
2015       7,012     1,699   1,630   1,137         –            –            –       547      200        400        100        200        1,099
2016     17,792     2,197      700   1,462      837     1,899     1,999   1,000   1,500     1,000     1,700     1,500        1,998
2017     20,840     3,300      975      525      200     1,899     3,700   2,048   2,644     2,063     1,015     1,699           772
2018     18,105           –          –          –       750     1,699        797   1,193   2,396     3,300     4,069        919        2,982
2019     11,103           –          –          –          –      2,509           –          –          –            –         691     2,117        5,786
2020       4,000           –       307         –          –         104        896      100      806        628     1,159           –               – 
2021       1,003    1,003         –          –          –            –            –          –          –            –            –            –               – 
Total 114,426    9,821 5,864 5,041 4,535 11,115 11,403 9,304 9,059    9,152 12,635    9,280    17,217
45ACP Rounds Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
2017 2007           –          –          –          –            –            –          –          –            –            –         500        1,507
Total 2007        –       –       –       –         –         –       –       –         –         –       500      1,507
9MM Rounds Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
1996     11,274           –          –          –          –            –            –          –          –            –    10,944        141           189
1997       7,374        300         –          –    1,190        640          65         –       100     1,088        804     1,060        2,127
2015       2,993           –    1,066   1,927         –            –            –          –          –            –            –            –               – 
Total    21,641      300 1,066 1,927 1,190      640        65      –      100    1,088 11,748    1,201      2,316
Yearly and Monthly Totals
Year Rounds Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
1996     11,274           –          –          –          –            –            –          –          –            –    10,944        141           189
1997       7,585        300         –         40   1,210        719        106         –       100     1,088        804     1,060        2,158
1998     11,847        570      258      718   1,930     1,812     1,710      542        20           –      1,240        900        2,147
1999       4,912          20      964      181      877        718        657        60         –            –         179        653           603
2000       3,697        845      127      142         –           57     1,095      400      396          43        521          60             11
2001       2,724          25      300      497      532          15          20   1,198        73           –            –            –              64
2002          898           –          –          –          –            –            –       198         –         200        300           –            200
2003          649           –       300      302        18           –            –          –          –            –            –           29              – 
2004       1,345           –          –          –          –            –            –          –          –         300        600        445              – 
2005       1,059           –          –          –          –            –            –          –          –         659        400           –               – 
2006       1,000           –          –          –          –         400           –          –          –            –         200        400              – 
2007       1,136           –          –          –          –            –            –       118      518        300        200           –               – 
2008       2,398           –       300         –          –            –            –       900      399           –         200           –            599
2009       1,702           –          –          –          –            –            –          –          –         102        300        900           400
2010       1,400           –          –          –          –         100        200      700         –         200           –         200              – 
2011       2,300        300         –       400      100           –         500      500      200           –            –            –            300
2012          399           –       200         –       199           –            –          –          –            –            –            –               – 
2013          499           –          –          –          –            –            –          –          –            –            –         100           399
2014          530           –          –          –          –            –            –          –          –            –            –            –            530
2015     10,005     1,699   2,696   3,064         –            –            –       547      200        400        100        200        1,099
2016     18,265     2,197      700   1,462      837     1,899     1,999   1,000   1,500     1,216     1,957     1,500        1,998
2017     23,356     3,300      975      525      200     1,899     3,700   2,113   2,792     2,063     1,015     2,199        2,575
2018     22,544        418      180   1,195   1,050     1,699        797   1,193   2,396     3,300     4,069     2,966        3,281
2019     12,114        167      209        80      125     2,725          61      111         –            –         691     2,159        5,786
2020       4,755           –       307         –          –         104        896      100      806        628     1,411        215           288
2021       1,091     1,091         –          –          –            –            –          –          –            –            –            –               – 
Grand Totals 149,484 10,932 7,516 8,606 7,078 12,147 11,741 9,680 9,400 10,499 25,131 14,127    22,627

Stretched necks

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Long ago and far away (20+ years and 300+ miles) I was just starting to reload rifle rounds. I probably wasn’t using the proper lubrication and I got a 30-06 case stuck in this die:

image

I concluded it was impossible to get the case out and I went to the local gun shop to see if they had a replacement die I could purchase. The owner of the store, a wise and knowledgeable man, suggested I order a case extraction tool rather than purchase a new die. I did so, but it took far longer for the tool to arrive than I had patience for and I got another die anyway. A neck resizing only die.

When the tool did arrive I was looked at the situation and realized I needed to drill out the primer pocket (drill provided with the tool), tap the resultant hole (tap provided), use a cup like piece of metal with a hole in the “bottom” through which a bolt was screwed into the base of the shell casing, then tighten the bolt to pull the case out of the die. That should work! Except for one problem. The depriming pin and expander ball were inside the case and blocking the drilling and tapping operations. I was unable to remove them from the case up through the top. In fact you can see the broken top of the spindle (is that the correct word for this?) in the picture above from my attempts to unscrew it from the die. I didn’t really need the full length resizing die at the time and left the stuck case in the die.

20+ years later I started to reload 30-06 again and I needed to do full length resizing with some used brass I had purchased a year or so ago. I got out the full length resizing die and discovered the stuck case. Crap. As I shuffled through my die supplies I stumbled across the case removal tool and reevaluated the situation. I really needed to figure out how to get the depriming pin and expander ball out of the case. After way too long I realized something.

In the picture you will see four different knurled sections to the die. The top two are associated with the spindle. I removed these, squirted some case lube into the top of the die, turned the second one upside down so that it didn’t thread itself back into the die main body and tightened it up. It was a hard pull but the expander ball came back up through the case which had been stuck for 20+ years.

I drilled and tapped base of the case and successfully extracted the case with the case extraction tool I had purchased so many years ago. See the case on the left below compared to the normal case in the center:

image

I expressed my joy and cleverness to Barb, reassembled the die, adjusted it, lubed up a bunch of cases and started resizing them. On about the fourth case I stupidly picked up an lubed case sitting on the bench and got it stuck.

This time it only took about 10 minutes, instead of 20+ years, to get the case out. See the case on the right above.

What I found most interesting was that the stuck cases had necks which were stretched a full 0.150 inches. Previously stuck cases on the left and right compared to a normal case in the center:

image

The primer story

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There are multiple factors contributing to the shortage of primers. I had previously heard or assumed most of them in the following post. But the Remington component to “The Great Primer Shortage of 2020.” was new to me.

From Powder Valley, Why Is There a Primer Supply Shortage?

Demand, however, is just one part of the story. Disruptions in the supply chain have also made a big impact on the availability of primers. When it comes to ammunition supplies, bullets are easy to manufacture, brass can be re-used, and powder is generally stockpiled by companies (though perhaps not the kind you’re looking for). This leaves primers, which are relatively difficult to make, as the component that causes the bulk of ammo shortages.

In the U.S., only four companies (Winchester, Remington, Federal, and CCI) manufacture primers for civilian use, law enforcement, and the military. Even under perfect circumstances, there’s only so much they can produce at once, and needless to say, circumstances have not been perfect during the pandemic. People getting sick, missing work to take care of their kids, and self-quarantining – from factory workers to delivery drivers, and all throughout the supply chain – caused a lull in manufacturing this spring.

The Remington bankruptcy has had a large impact on the shortage of ammo and primers.  With Remington in a state of financial insolvency for the past two years, suppliers were demanding payment upon delivery for products.  Remington simply did not have the financial capabilities to have an abundance of raw materials on hand and had to shutter some of their production capacity.  Barnes bullets and primers were hit particularly hard in the reloading market.  With the recent purchase of Remington by Vista, there is a good chance that Vista will be diverting CCI and Federal primers that would typically go to reloaders to Remington ammunition production.  Remington primer production capacity has never been great.  The hope would be that Vista will place more emphasis on getting the Remington primer production capacity increased substantially and quickly.

Ammo matters

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The group below was at 100 yards with some old FMJ ammo found in a magazine using a red dot 1X scope on the cheapest AR upper I could buy:

image

This is with everything the same except the ammo:

image

This is the same ammo with a precision rifle using a 14.5 X scope. This is 10 rounds with the last two, and possibly three rounds flying to the right after the wind came up:

image

It is a handloaded 55 grain match grade bullet. In two rifles with 24” barrels it achieved 3,140 and 3,156 fps at the muzzle with standard deviations of 14.4 and 14.2 fps. With the cheap, short (18”?) barrel it came out of the muzzle at 2,943 fps with a standard deviation of 37.0 fps.

This is a load that works well in three very different rifles. I’m extremely pleased.

Large pistol primers for sale or trade

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I have 1,000 CCI and 2,993 Winchester large pistol primers that, at the current consumption rate, I’ll consume sometime after Donald Trump Jr. finishes his second term.

20201023_175856Cropped

As primers are essentially impossible to get right now I thought I would sell them to someone that could use them. I’m selling them at the inflated price of $40/1,000 or I’ll trade them for an equal quantity of small pistol primers.

I don’t want to ship them. If you can meet me in the Bellevue area that works. Or I’ll probably be driving to Orofino Idaho sometime in the next couple of weeks. If you can meet me somewhere along the path of Bellevue, Vantage, Colfax, Troy, Kendrick, Cavendish, Lewiston, and Orofino* that would work too.

* No. That not the exact path. But either coming or going I will visit all those towns.

IMR 5010, Bofors, Others

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Via email:

From: dj
Sent: Wednesday, September 2, 2020 9:44 AM
To: Joe Huffman
Subject: IMR 5010, Bofors, Others

Greetings Joe

A friend of mine is one of the late Bill Steigers’s sons – developer of Bitterroot Bullets in Lewiston, ID.  We were going through some of Bill’s leftover reloading supplies recently and came across several (full and partial) 20# canisters of old surplus reloading powder, including IMR 4831, H4831, Red Dot, Bullseye, DCM 4895 and some “flavor” of Bofors. There was also a large (original) box (originally weighed 150#) of IMR 5010.  I’d estimate that there are 30-40# remaining in it.

Some of the canisters are unopened. I inspected the ones that were open and all smelled OK, and appeared dry and in otherwise good condition. 

Bill’s son isn’t a ‘gun guy’ so I’m helping him out. I’d never be able to use even a small fraction of any of that powder, so I’m reaching out to anyone who might be plugged into a network of reloaders to see if anyone has any interest in any of this stuff.

Thank you.

Dan
Bonners Ferry, ID

If anyone has an interest send me an email (blog@joehuffman.org) and I’ll forward it on to Dan.

Broken Dillon XL650 indexer return spring

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As I posted yesterday the indexer return spring (item 22) on my Dillon XL650 reloading press broke. Here is a picture of the two pieces:

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From looking at the larger piece with the naked eye I originally thought it might have been worn then broke. After I found the second piece and looked at them closely and together I decided it probably was a defective spring.

If someone has a different opinion I’m willing to listen.

Rounds in the last month

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I haven’t done any reloading since February. I was working very long hours and finally got that project done earlier this month. And with the COVID-19 thing I didn’t really want to go to the range anyway, so why spend the time reloading ammo I wasn’t going to shoot for a while? When I received the email saying the Area 1 Championship, which I had signed up for last year, was still on I decided it was time to start practicing and reloading.

Today I started reloading some 200 grain bullets in .40 S&W. I only completed round 104 when the indexer return spring broke on my Dillon XL650 press. It sort of looked like I should consider it a consumable and I ordered five of them. At $1.99 (plus $8.49 shipping) I decided to order five so I could quickly replace it when the next one dies.

After ordering I thought about it some more and realized I had never lubricated the spring. If I had it might have lasted longer (I had only reloaded 21,584 rounds when it died).

No matter. I’ll have spares and maybe they will last longer too.

This brings my lifetime reloaded ammunition totals to:

223: 7592 rounds.
30.06: 756 rounds.
300 WIN: 2,126 rounds.
300 Savage: 50 rounds.
40 S&W: 109,877 rounds.
45 ACP: 2,007 rounds.
9 mm: 21,641 rounds.
Total: 144,049 rounds

Rounds in the last month & yearly report

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This year was a bit slow on the reloading front. I spent a lot of time working on precision ammo for .300 Winchester Magnum and .223 rifles. Individually weighing the charges to less than 0.1 grains is extremely slow compared to the .40 S&W rounds I pump out on the Dillon XL650. And then there is the case preparation that consumes several seconds per round on top of that.

The last couple of months my supply of .40 S&W practice and USPSA match ammo became critically low and I ignored the rifle ammo. This last month I reloaded 5,786 rounds of .40 S&W. This is more rounds in a single month since the first month I began reloading. That was 10,944 rounds of 9mm in November 1997.

5,432 of those .40 S&W loads were 180 grain polymer coated bullets from Black Bullet International. This finished off my supply of those bullets and I loaded one box of the 200 grain bullets (552 bullets in a box instead of the stated 550). Mixed in there were test loadings of CCI 500 primers instead of the usual Winchester WSPs. I really like the Winchester primers but I thought would be a good idea to have loads for the CCI primers if we get into a situation where reloading components are difficult to get.

This brings my rounds for the year up to 12,114 and my lifetime count up to 143,638.

My yearly and lifetime reloading numbers are below,

Continue reading →

Labradar chronograph on sale

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My chronograph died a couple years ago and I went shopping for a new one. The radar based Labradar chronograph showed up in my search. At first I blew right on by it because it cost $600. I was expecting to pay something on the order of $100. But the more I looked around the more I thought about the radar unit.

No optical sensors to put up down range! I could go to the local indoor range and set it up in my stall and do my chronograph work rather than waiting for trip to Idaho or reserving the training bay to myself. It would also work under any lighting condition. Indoors I had to use special LED lights and cover the sensors to protect them from the flickering fluorescent lights. Even when I was outside if it got too late in the day there wouldn’t be enough light and I would have to supply artificial (non flickering) light. Set up and break down took time, especially with the extra lighting issues.

Another issue is that with the optical sensor chronograph you get the velocity for each shot at one particular distance from the muzzle. Labradar will give you velocities from the muzzle out to 100 yards depending on the size of the bullet. .22 caliber bullets, even under idea conditions, disappear from the radar at about 60 or 70 yards. It’s amazing it can do that well. For those with some physics and/or electrical engineering background think about the cross sectional area of the bullet and the length of the electromagnetic wave. How do you get a detectable reflection off of something that small from so far away? It’s amazing!

I finally spent the money. I rationalizing that it would save me a lot of time and I would have a lot faster turnaround during my load development. Plus I could use the down range data from a single shot fired to compute the ballistic coefficient of bullets that I didn’t have factory data for (think pulled military surplus bullets).

It was a little awkward to use at first. Then they came out with a free app for my phone. That made a huge difference in the usability of it. I am extremely pleased with it.

In a little over two years I have fired 1836 measured bullets (a few more were fired but weren’t detected because of setup error) resulting in 134 different series.

There is a single .CSV file (easily read and worked with in Excel) for each series giving the typical statistics at preset ranges and a different .CSV file for each shot fired with the velocity measured every two milliseconds. For a 1000 fps bullet this means you get the velocity of that bullet every two feet until it disappears from radar view. This is very cool!

Yesterday I received an email from Labradar saying the unit is on sale for $499.95 from November 9th until December 2nd. Details here. You need an external USB power supply. They sell one or you can get a USB charger from Amazon or elsewhere. I recommend getting their tripod. It’s sturdy and short enough you can shoot prone with it. I’m a little annoyed they don’t have more internal storage. If you have an old SD card laying around (or a smaller card with an adapter) use that. Even a couple of megabytes will be way more storage than you would ever use in a single session.

What color do you want?

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I use two different color bullets to indicate major (black) and minor power (blue) factor loads. I’ve loaded a fair number of red bullets as well. I just noticed that Eggleston Munitions has 16 different colors available now:

EgglestonBulletColors

Wow. What to do with another color (or 13)…. Maybe white for extremely low power loads for new shooters. But what about the rest? Christmas presents for the kids?

.40 caliber Black Bullets International BC estimates

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I couldn’t find Ballistics Coefficients on the Black Bullets International web page so using data from my chronograph over the range of 0 to 25 yards I made some estimates for the .40 caliber 180 grain and 200 grain bullets.

I came up with 0.199 for the 180 grain bullet and 0.179 for the 200 grain bullet. Yes, the heavier bullet has a lower BC.

I’m a little skeptical of this although I suppose it could be possible. The two bullets look like this with the 180 grain bullet on the left.

image

The lube groove on the 200 grain bullet may increase the drag enough to account for the unexpectedly low BC.

Does anyone else have data that verifies or refutes my estimates?

Cleaning brass

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In the comments Sendarius asks:

When you say “clean”, how do you do that?

Vibratory tumbler with dry media?
Rotating tumbler with wet media?
Power drill with a Brasso-soaked rag? /jk

I have been using a Lyman tumbler with walnut shell dry media for years, and I am considering switching to wet solution with those tiny stainless steel rods.
Others at my club have made that switch, and their brass looks amazing.

Any thoughts?

I first sort the brass using a set of these (Amazon also has them for $10 more):

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This is how the brass ended up in a five gallon bucket.

There is a similar product available for less money but I have not had my hands on them so I can’t compare the quality:

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Amazon sells it for the same price.

I then put the brass in an ultrasonic cleaner (I bought mine from Harbor Freight several years ago but Harbor Freight is slightly more than Amazon for what appears to be the same product):

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I use Hornady One Shot Sonic Cleaner Ultrasonic Case Cleaning Solution. I tried a homemade recipe using vinegar and Dawn dishwashing detergent but this works much better. I run the cleaner for at least 24 minutes (three cycles of 480 seconds each).

After the cleaning the brass may not look that great. But most of the remaining dirt/tarnish will come off in the rinse.

I then dump the brass and cleaning solution into a colander:

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I stir the brass with a gloved hand to remove most of the liquid.

I then rinse the brass in tap water:

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Again I stir the brass with my hand.

I drain and rinse two more times. The final rinse is done with distilled water from my dehumidifier.

After the final draining I put the brass on a rack above my dehumidifier. I built the rack from PVC pipe, a plastic screen, and transparent duct tape:

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The dehumidifier puts out warm dry air. I usually let it run for about eight hours and I may stir the brass a time or two.

When cleaning rifle brass I may remove the primers before cleaning. This will result in clean primer pockets as well as a clean interior and exterior.

If I want really shiny brass I will first run it through the vibratory cleaner with the usual corn cob or walnut shell media and a brass cleaner additive. I then follow up with the ultrasonic cleaning.

For many years I just used the vibrating cleaner with the corncob or walnut shell media but the ultrasonic cleaner gave me a faster throughput and the cases are cleaned on the inside as well as the outside.

I considered buying a wet, stainless steel pin, type cleaner but I decided what I had worked well enough.

It’s time to clean some brass

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I haven’t reloading any .40 S&W ammo in a long time but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been shooting any. Here is a partial illustration:

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This is what I have picked up of the floor after practice as the local range before I sorted and cleaned it. Maybe five percent of that is 9mm or .45 ACP that got mixed in as I scooped it up. That this bucket is full means I don’t have a place to put the brass I’ll bring home from the range this week.

It’s time to sort, clean, and put away some brass.

Ammo aging

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This last weekend I finally got around to doing some chronograph work on some (relatively) new loads I made last February. To make sure the chronograph was all set up correctly I fired some old rounds that weren’t marked but I was pretty sure what they were. The mean velocity should verify or disprove my hypothesis as well as do the function check on my chronograph setup.

The mean velocity was 3507.92 fps. I looked up the last time I had reloaded and chronographed the ammo. I last reloaded that bullet in April of 2001 and chronographed them using the same gun in May of 2001. The mean velocity from over 18 years ago was 3506 fps.

The ammo (and gun!) aged better than I expected. I like Varget powder even more than I did before.

Rounds in the last four months

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I kept forgetting to make a post about my reloading activities. Partially because there hasn’t been much. But it was greater than zero and I intended to make my usual posts. Oh well.

March

80 rounds of match grade .223. This was four sets of 20 using various weights of CFE 223 powder. Even the hottest loads, showing some minor high pressure signs, were almost 20 fps slower than previous loads with Varget which showed no pressure signs. Varget is one of Hodgdon’s Extreme Rifle Powders which is extremely consistent from lot to lot and extremely temperature stable (actual test with 308 Winchester):

VargetExtreme

CFE 223 is not part of their Extreme product line.

April

125 rounds of match grade .223 using the previously tested Varget loading.

May

216 rounds of match grade .223 using the previously tested Varget loading.

2509 rounds of .40 S&W.

175 rounds of these were a load which tested hotter than expected. They resulted in a Power Factor of 182.7. My previous tests indicated this load should result in about a 175 PF. I was quite perplexed at this until I looked at my data closely. This velocity measurement was done when the temperature was 80F. My previous velocity measurements had been at a lower temperature. I verified this by cooling some of the ammo to 35F. The velocity was over 25 fps slower which was equivalent to a powder charge of 0.1 grains less. I put these rounds aside for a match in Idaho on a cold day.

The remainder of the .40 S&W rounds were of the load I wanted to use for USPSA matches when the temperature is 60 F or warmer.

June

61 rounds of match grade .223 using the previously tested Varget loading.

This brings my lifetime reloaded ammunition totals to:

223: 7,439 rounds.
30.06: 756 rounds.
300 WIN: 2,126 rounds.
300 Savage: 50 rounds.
40 S&W: 100,872 rounds.
45 ACP: 2,007 rounds.
9 mm: 21,641 rounds.
Total: 134,891 rounds

Over 100K rounds of .40 S&W! That’s kind of cool.

Chronograph stage at Area One

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Prior to the Area One match in Bend Oregon I expressed some concerns about making Major Power Factor. It turns out I did just fine:

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I saw the chrono team weigh the bullet before getting any velocity measurements, 180.2 grains, and knew I was going to be okay. My sample of 20 had a minimum of 178.3, a maximum of 180.7 and a mean of 179.2. I was concerned they might pull a 177 or something. Then, if the velocity was really low for some reason I could be pushing the threshold and perhaps break into Minor Power Factor (< 165). But the velocities were good. Had they pulled a 177 grain bullet and measured the same velocities the power factor would have still been 170.6 and comfortably in Major.

The odds were low of getting a low velocity since my measurements indicated a mean velocity of 978.4 with a standard deviation of 10.6. But still, you never know how the tolerances might stack up against you on any given day. As it is I suspect the chronograph they used would not agree with my chronograph, which is another variable that is difficult to plan for.