Giant81

I asked the indoor range here in town what they did with their brass. They said they sell it to a guy that recycles it. I figured I'd give him a call and see if I could get some once fired 9mm and .223 from him. Then they told me that he melts it for brass weight. I almost started crying.

Anything that will work in a wet tumbler? The Vinegar/salt/flower mix might work. I've been using lemishine and it works well, just wondering if there is something cheaper that I've already got laying around the house that I can use.

I found the 2009 modifications to the production appendix (dated after the NROI ruling you specify) says that prior restrictions had been lifted and any mag will work as long as it fits in the box. http://www.uspsa.org/rules/2009_Production_Rules_Revisions.pdf "Prior restrictions on magazines have been lifted. OEM and aftermarket magazines and base-pads may be used. However, any and all magazines used in competition, must fit into the USPSA box while empty and inserted in the handgun as described in item 7 of this appendix. Grip tape and/or skate board tape are specifically allowed on magazines and basepads." Since the 2009 appendix edit is post NROI ruling does that negate the ruling?

In the rule book under production 21.7 says I can pretty much use any mag I want as long as it fits in the box, but 22.3 says I cannot have any external plugs that alter the grip profile or extend past the bottom of the grip. If I'm running a G26 with G19 magazines and I am using the bottom part of the magazine as a pinky wrest to extend the bottom of the grip is that prohibited? Or since this is not a plug applied to the grip, rather a function of the magazine it is legal. I want to make sure if I start shooting production a stock G26 shooting G19 mags with possibly big dots later will qualify.

So I've been under the impression that you didn't have to lube any pistol cases at all as with straight walled brass, they will size just fine. Then I ended up with some hornady one shot to try loading some 5.56 and thought I'd try it on the pistol brass. WOW did they re-size easier. Almost too easy. I can always feel when a .380 makes it into my batch as it's extremely light when it hits the die. I'll have to keep a closer eye out for .380s now. I really like how much easier it is than it was before lubing the cases, but is is strictly necessary? And if I do lube the cases, do I need to tumble after to remove the lube or can I just lube the outside of the case, run them through the de-primer/size then on to primer/flare/powder/seat/crimp and be done?

Even though I've been reloading and training with my reloads I don't feel completely comfortable running them in competition yet. of the 400 or so rounds I've reloaded and shot, I tend to have at least one or 2 rounds that go 'plunk' instead of bang. So far none have left a piece of lead in the barrel, but it just doesn't make me feel very comfortable yet. As I train more with them, I'm sure I'll get more confident in them and I'll probably be using them in our next competition in May.

I would say setup an upload form that asks some simple questions like # of steel, # of targets, etc... then setup a script that will auto generate a scoring sheet based on what they put in. That way I can search on something that has say 3 poppers in it, or I can upload a jpg or pdf without a scoring sheet attached, and it will generate one for me. Let me know if you want a hand. I've done some web application development and might be able to help with the script to generate the score sheets.

Thanks for the quick response!

http://www.wisconsinshooters.com/documents/uspsa/stages_12/Running_Out_of_Time.pdf I noticed it says 'No Stacking' and had no idea what that meant.

I wish. Every place I shoot so far either people pick up their brass, or those that don't, their brass is forfeit to the range to help with operating costs.

I'm loading some 5.56 brass with 62gr pulled SS109's. My intention is to use them as cheap plinking rounds, but I can't find load data for them. Should I use the load data for a slightly heavier bullet and work up? If I'm right, heavier bullets will have a lower powder charge because the additional mass of the bullet causes it to move slower allowing pressures to build up a bit more in the chamber? Or if someone has any load data for the 5.56 nato brass and 62gr SS109. I have CCI #400 and IMR 4895 sitting here ready to go, all I need to do is find a safe starting point to start working up from.

After doing some research I've found that at the least, I'll need 2 powders. One for pistols/shotgun and one for rifles. So far I've been using Unique for pistol but I want to move to something that meters a bit better but is still forgiving. I've also started loading 5.56 with IMR4895, but I've heard enough good things about Varget to get a pound and see how it works out. I'd like to stick to the same powder in pistol and shotgun, but I've heard I should possibly look at different powders for my 5.56 loads and my 30cal loads.

I have a pellet stove that I heat the house with during the winter. The first load of brass I cleaned was while the weather was still cold so I put a paper towel on top of the stove and laid out the brass. worked great!

I was thinking glass you could still see the powder level, but with a low powder alarm, it should be easy enough. Or do like I do, put in enough to cover over 100 rounds, then when I stop to refill the primer tube, top off the powder.

Thank you for the tip, I had completely forgotten about the rack we have for the dryer. I think it's for shoes and whatnot but should work perfect for brass as well.

So I went back and did some math and here is what I came out with. I had been loading my 115 fmjrn at just about max length because I had no data on how deep to set them with the powder I was using. The manual I had did have data for the Hornady XTP in 115gr and Unique. I finally got some Hornady XTP's in 115gr (get loaded 2012 deal from Hornady) and I averaged 5 of them. Then did the same for my RN. Hornady XTP 115gr = .5478 Magtech FMJRN 115gr = .571 so combining the data I have from two books I see that Hornady lists the same powder level for their XTP As with other jacketed RN. So I took the OAL for the XTP (1.090) and added the difference (.023) and came out that I should be pushing my magtech's down to 1.113. does that all sound about right?

I wonder if I could find somewhere to get a glass tube for my Hornady loader, that should be non reactive with everything and last longer.

I'd guess any rock tumbler setup would work for wet tumbling. My brother's a jeweler got me a Gesswein 130 he had laying around collecting dust. he even was able to get me about 15#'s of stainless media to go with it, but this wasn't the normal pin media, it looks like little pins and planets. The best part of a wet tumbling system with stainless steel is that you never have to buy any more media for it. Just buy polish and dish soap and your done.

I found my lee dies in my Hornady LnL AP do the same thing. I find it does it more when the plate isn't fully tightened down or loosens a bit during use. you could try that.

Just shot this yesterday in minor L10, 19.36s, 56 points, HF 2.8926, stage points 58.0 and Stage % of 96.80 What sucks is that I'm 6'9" and the port you are shooting through is awfully low and the box you have to stand in awfully small. I was doing a funny duck squat to see through the port.

I just shot my second USPSA competition yesterday and I think I'm moving in the right direction. http://www.uspsa.org/uspsa-display-match-results-detail.php?indx=4090 I'm shooter number 29 I ended up taking 1st and 2nd on two of the stages (second on the classifier), but was coming up 5th and 6th on the others. Way too many C hits. I need to tighten my groups down and work on dry fire practice and mag changes.

I intended to get into reloading as a way to stockpile ammo for much cheaper than I could buy it. Especially with components and full ammo getting more expensive. Loaded ammo can last for decades if properly stored and my intention is to have 10's of thousands on hand of any round I shoot at any given time. But then I'm also loading and stockpiling for multiple households so I'm not the only one shooting these calibers. Though that is the plan, I doubt I'll get there anytime soon. I've so far loaded a grand total of 100 9mm rounds that I've fired no more than 15 or so of. I eventually plan to really give the Hornady LnL AP a workout as I have 35lb of 5.56 brass headed to the house.

I did get a chance to fire a handful of my reloads today. They cycled fine and I had no squibs. So far, so good. Next up is a chrono and I can see where my rounds are hitting in fps. And some slow fire grouping to see how they shoot. I figure I should get the chrono before I get into the rifle loading and since my brother has 3000 rounds of components for 5.56 in the mail coming my way, I should probably get on the ball.

See, I want to help out and paste or reset to get the match going faster. But, I find it intimidating right now because I don't want to paste something that hasn't been scored yet. I find resetting steel is easy for the noobs because the scorekeeper can easily tell while they are shooting it if it was down or not. I can't make build night, but I always stay late to help tear down if I can.

been there did that on my first match. I was on the last stage and had been firing the entire match ast limited-10. Just before I shot the last stage I found out that I was registered Limited, so I loaded my 15rnd mag all the way up. Yup, you guessed it, mid way though a shooting position that I could have cleared with the remainder of the rounds in the 15rnd mag, I dropped it for the other 10rnd mag I had oh well, cost me a bunch of time but live and learn.