Reloading Thread: I loaded these SMKs backwards, now I'm getting 20 MOA. Help? - General

That's right, it's a reloading thread. Talk about making boolits here.

I need to start reloading so I can fire the more obscure firearms I have. 8mm French Ordnance is insanely expensive. What are some good guides for it? I'm mostly worried about doing it wrong and winding up getting a round stuck in the barrel or loading them too hot and breaking something.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zSG804HwVk

Thanks! I just remembered I have an old but really detailed book on reloading around here somewhere. I'll have to get into it at some point. I like shooting weird calibers but it's like watching money disappear.

Be aware some older powders aren't being produced making load data obsolete.

Yeah I would assume so. I think this one's just from the late 90's but that's still like 20 years ago (Jesus Christ). When I get into it I'll definitely look up as much modern and up to date information as I possibly can.

Hornady makes a decent handloading manual, along with Lyman.

I'm a shooter of 9mm in very bulk quantities so I recently picked up a Lee Challenger press like a week or two ago, but I feel like the fact that I have to process in multiple stages limits speed a bit. Is the lee loadmaster or pro 1000 good enough for cranking out bulk 9mm? My usual process is Deprime, Size, Prime (sizing die) Powder load, seat bullet Factory crimp / modified 357Sig collet crimp (neccesary for boberg)

Even optimized a single stage press will struggle to get anywhere upwards of 100 rounds an hour with 200 ish being about the upper limit for straight walls. single stages are awesome for precision not so much for bulk. a lee loadmaster/pro1000 can do 600 per hour if you're "motivated"IE hauling ass. I know a lot of people that run loadmasters/pro 1000's as their main press they'll definitely work for bulk ammo. I run a dillon XL650 for bulk ammo and either a forster co-ax or rockchucker supreme for match ammo

Thanks for the advice, I think I'll try the loadmaster out (because that extra crimping step would be a pain with the other one) and see how she chooches.

Ran across an interesting concept this morning. https://www.reddit.com/r/reloading/comments/8e8m3n/anyone_else_make_pattern_shells_for_their_guns/ What do you guys think?

Sounds like a pretty good way to set rounds for competition shoots. Also in regards to reloading... I really want to find someone who makes a spitzer mold for .222 ~ .225. Mainly because I want to make some stupid .22LR loads, but also it's nigh impossible to find sometimes.

You could try swaging your own bullets. There's a guy who makes a press specifically for swaging .22lr brass into .224 bullet jackets, and then swaging molded lead cores into them. You can vary the nose shape and bullet weight however you want. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-vQpwgiHbA

I'm already getting some naughty ideas from that lol. Thinking of making a .22LR bullet with the following: Copper Jacket -> Lead -> Copper -> Zinc Basically, having a copper-jacketed lead bullet, that has copper/zinc cores. Not sure what the weight would be, but I'd imagine something silly like that would be fun to make.

Got to set up a Dillon RL550C in my little workshop. Getting it set for .308, .223, and .300blk. Would also like to get dies and components to do 30-06 (replicate M2 ball for M1 Garand), 7.62x53R D166, 9x23 Steyr, .458 SOCOM, and .50 Beowulf. Already ruined a decapping pin trying to set my full-length sizer without case neck lube and had to beat out both the pin and the casing. ...much much much much MUCH to learn.

Doing handloads for the 7.62NATO rifles we have, do you have any input on this as a starting point: Sierra .308 150gr SP 38gr IMR 8208 XBR Federal .308 Winchester brass CCI #200 Large Rifle Primers 37gr IMR 8208 XBR Aguila 7.62NATO brass 36gr IMR 8208 XBR Lake City 7.62NATO brass

Five second google dude: Lee Classic Cast 50 BMG Single Stage Press Kit

Does anyone know why the Dillon RF100 primer loader can't just be attached straight to the reloading press? It seems silly to me that you need to load up tubes of primers and then transfer it to the press.

Mark 7 Revolution? It apparently lets you just dump a bunch of primers into a hopper and does the rest itself. Expensive as hell since it's a commercial press, but if you're getting into commercial reloading...

Well yeah, that's what the Dillon RF100 does too, except instead of feeding the machine it loads primers tubes to load the machine with. It just seems like an unnecessary step to me. The problem is the Dillon 1050 with the Mark 7 Autodrive attachment does 2400 rounds/hr for About $5k all up, while the Mark 7 Revolution only does 3500 rounds/hr for $10k plus the extras like another $1k for the automatic primer collator and more for the projectile feeder.

Really late answer, but probably because of primer tube explosions. Primer tubes are already deadly enough despite being metallic containers with a single row of primers, they would be catastrophic if it was a loader-full exploding instead.

Picked up a Lee Perfect Precision Powder Measure, yesterday. For $26 bucks, it helped speed u[ my reloading time with pistol calibers. Reloaded 450 rounds of 45 and 38 today with my single stage press. It's a nice cheap upgrade for a single stage press system.

Made 60 soft lead .308 rounds today for a shoot tomorrow. ~20gr of powder hoping for 2000fps any faster and i'll have a rivulet of lead coming out the end of the barrel.

You might want to add some antimomy or something to your lead to make it harder. You need some real hard bullets to use effectively with today's calibers, unless you down load it to hell and back. Even a 30-30 is preferable to have hard cast bullets vs. soft ones.

You don't exactly need to hit 2000 ft/s to make IPSC minor rifle with 308cal weight projectiles.

How much do they weight to be thrown at 2000fps? That seems a bit much. Or are my loads underpowered to be at about 1400-1600fps?

They were 180gr projectiles. And I dunno if they are soft lead, it's just what I say to differ from copper jacket. I wasn't able to fire them in the end, I made a dummy round and it fed fine, but all the real ones I made were to long and wouldn't feed.

They are sold by a company that produces .310 lead rifle projectiles for use in .308, .303, 7.62x54r, 7.62x39 and other .30cal rifles.

I would go with gas checked or coated lead bullets if I was intending to reload rifle cartridges. Cuts down on the lead build up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yDhLSzqYew https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiC638rjV3g