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Dawgfish

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Everything posted by Dawgfish

  1. I load semi-precision rifle in a "semi progressive" manner. I would highly suggest it. Ask yourself how many .300 WBY mags you'll shoot in a year, or a session. What is your goal, blasting under 100 or accuracy over 300? 1. Process brass on your progressive. Decap, resize, etc. Tumble clean. Trim, prime and you are essentially done with brass prep, unless you want to get overly anal and process primer pockets and turn your case necks. More power to you if you do. Whichever method you use, priming is the last stage on case prep. Inspect for primer seating, and flipped or crushed primers, remove and bad primers and reprime. Store for later reloading with a primer box cover in your bag (gallon ziplock bags work great for volume amounts). Separate these two functions, case prep and reloading. 2. Weigh out your powder charges and trickle charge each one to your goal weight, set cartridges in loading block. This is the slow part. 3. Remove the brass button at the seating stage. Grab a primed case with powder, add a bullet, seat, advance, then grab another, seat (while the first round is being crimped, if you crimp), and now you can really put out a high volume of much higher quality ammunition rather than trusting the 0.2-0.5% error factor on each powder charge, especially if you are using a stick powder. Groups will tighten up compared to going full on progressive, assuming you have your seating and crimping dies calibrated. I have extra tool heads set up just for this operation on a number of calibers. Speed in reloading isn't always the best, especially if you plan on loading for less than 1 minute of accuracy at longer ranges. Using your progressive press to speed up single stage reloading does make sense. If you are shooting blasting ammo, by all means, ignore what I said.
  2. Lots of folks who reload will mark the ogive of the bullet where there is a diameter of 0.25", and mark that with a sharpie. Then they will seat the bullet to the point where it lines up with the forward internal ridge of the magazine. For a .223/5.56 round, this ridge is where the case neck is. This aligns the cartridge/bullet for smooth feeding. Seating the .300 BO bullet out to magazine length will cause issues when loading more than a few rounds, as the internal ridge will cause the cartridges to stack improperly. Give it a test on a 30 round mag. Hope this helps.
  3. 231 is essentially a universal pistol powder for autoloaders and light loaded revolver cartridges. Add in Unique and 296(H110), and you pretty much have 95% of all pistol calibers covered from .32ACP to .454 Casull.
  4. Never had an issue with any primers being too soft for an AR, and I have 7. Federal, Win, CCI, Wolf, Tula, Rem all work fine. Wolf SRP were too hard for my 9x23 1911. Switched to Win and all was well.
  5. OKWEBER.com has 220's SMK's. Brunoshooters.com has them as well. I'm assuming you are trying to load a subsonic.
  6. I'll try another powder measure and charge bar the next time I reload for this pistol. The round is very stout to shoot, and fun. I handed the pistol and a mag to a buddy and after firing 19 full tilt rounds, he had the same grin as when I handed him a 10 round mag and my .458 SOCOM. Permagrin. Nice shooting a stout pistol that is entirely controllable. My test for an accurate pistol is a bit redneck. Pop can at 10 yards, and bounce it out as far as I can until the mag runs dry firing about 1 round per second. The can ended up about 35 yards away, and more holes than can. Rounds are accurate as loaded.
  7. I couldn't get Lil' gun to function subsonic in my AR with 200GR SMK's. It will fire, but won't lock the bolt back on an empty mag. It will work all day long in a bolt gun. I have 16lbs of it, so it will get used for supersonic loads from 125 grains and up.
  8. The charge bar is a very old one, from my first 650 and was unused but also 20 years old. Had a yeloow/brasslike anodized finish to it, not the bare aluminum ones like now. I'll try a newer one. Pistol is a Caspian Arms receiver, Scheutzen gun works slide. Not sure of the barrel, but it is plainly marked 9x23 on the chamber section (engraved insided a milled oval), viewable through the ejection port. 5" barrel, with an additional 5/8" extended and ported. The pistol was a gift to my boss a number of years back, and then he gave it to me so I don't know a number of particulars. He doesn't shoot, so it had no utility for him. Factory rounds went through at 1468fps (Win 124gr silvertip), so I attempted to match and achieved that with 8.9 grains using WAP data from Dane Burn's site. Fully supported barrel using the Starline 9x23 supercomp brass. WSR primers looked fine after firing. Cases were similar to the factory brass as far as condition is concerned.
  9. I'm not a novice handloader by any means, having loaded about 4 million rounds on 1050 and 650 machines, but I ran into an issue for the first time ever, powder binding up the charge bar. My current 650XL is about 6 years old, and I had just finished loading 500 rounds of .300 blackout. Switch everything over to 9x23 Winchester, trade out charge bars on the powder measure, get the powder charge correct, 8.9 gr of Silhouette, and have at it. Loaded 10 rounds, fit and functioned well in the pistol, and chronographed at 1465 FPS. Very little difference between the 10 rounds with a high of 1469 and a low of 1462. Very consistent charges. Used the pistol charge bar assembly (two pieces, stationary upper, moving lower). So I start loading 500 rounds. About 300 rounds into the session the charge bar starts binding up. I remove it, tear it down, clean it out and it had a very fine grit, almost as if the powder was being fine ground. Reset, check charge levels, and start again, getting about 150 rounds more into the session, same thing. Cleaned it up, more fine grit, then reassembled and worked through the remaining rounds. Tore it down, cleaned, and then loaded another 500 rounds of .45acp, this time with 231, and I used the same powder measure, different charge bar. Ran like clockwork. Anybody ever run into this before? In 25 years of reloading this is the first issue I've had like this. I have 8 powder measures and this one is new, but it is doing double duty at the moment between .300 blackout and 9x23 Winchester. Changing out charge bars is a lot cheaper than buying a whole new powder measure, and after buying a few powder measure, I have a bunch of spare charge bars. Thanks in advance.
  10. I always pull twice with the swager. No issues.
  11. I just load for accuracy. Speed is what it is. Luckily my three .223/5.56's like the same load. It isn't a screaming fast load, but it gets the job done on paper and coyotes. Is there a particular reason that you need two loads that are largely different? In the case of something like the .300BO, I can see the reason for a super and subsonic round, but for a regular rifle, not sure why.
  12. Been loading for the 6.8 for a while. When in stock, the Remington 115gr FMJ's have worked well for me, with my accuracy in a few carbine classes being up there with the professionals. Too bad they are a seasonal run. Ramshot Xterminator is my primary powder, but most ball .223 powders do work well for it. Lots of good data for at 6.8 forums as others have mentioned. I also got my hands on a few thousand belmished .277 130 grain pointed soft points at Midway a few years back. Turns out they were Hornady interlock softpoints, but they were super cheap, $157/1,000. I use those when I'm out of the 115gr FMJ's, but I have a few thousand of those so I should be good for a bit. Picked up 1,000 once fired from LWRC. Federal brass, crimped primers. A little dirty but it cleaned up well. They still have some from time to time, check their website.
  13. My data starts at 10.7g at 1,081 FPS for 5744 from a 16" barrel and my HVT QD suppressor, so 10.5g ir right in the neighborhood. One of my friends runs a 9.5" barrel and comprable suppressor to yours, but he loads 10.9 grains of AA1680. YMMV
  14. Switched from Wolf primers to Winchester. Problem solved. Thanks for the suggestions.
  15. A 17lb mainspring would lower the hammer speed, would it not, if moving from 23#? I'm making the assumption that the gun as is has a 23#, which would be stock, but then again this was a custom gun, so who knows.
  16. I was given a Scheutzen/Caspian 1911 in 9x23 Winchester a few months back (Fully supported ramped barrel). Very few round through it, maybe 10 or less. Finally got in my 9mm bullets from Montana Gold, my Starline brass, and a caliber conversion from Dillon so I could start reloading for this pistol. I loaded up 20 light loads, 6.1gr of Win 231, moving out at 1200+ FPS, and I got some serious cratering of the primer. I've read where primers are the weak link of this caliber, so I should consider moving to small rifle to avoid primer blow-out. Loaded up 10 of those with 6.1gr of 231, and the hammer doesn't have enough force to ignite the primer. This is why I am asking about the hammer/main spring. Also, the slide would not lock back with these "plinker" loads on an empty mag. If I increase the tension on the mainspring it will likely change other movements withing the recoil impulse. I am purchasing a master spring kit that will have springe from 18-23#'s and 25-30#'s. Would it be wise to purchase lower power recoil springs to keep all things equal. Should I look into some sort of buffer to reduce additional wear elsewhere because of thse adjustments? What kind of timing issues can I expect? My duty gun was a bone stock 4006, and my back-up was an HK USP compact, also in .40 S&W, and I shoot a few thousand rounds out of my stock XD .45 every year. They eat everything I feed them, no FTF, etc, so I'm not new to shooting, but I'm new to 1911's, and I'm not accustomed to having to adjust a pistol like this. Thanks in advance.
  17. Not a shooting newb, just new here. Great information here, thanks! How many posts does it take before pictures can be added? Thanks in advance
  18. Thanks for the insights folks. After I had some time to check out the barrel after taking the pistol apart, it appears that the case is very well supported, much better than the pics in the links provided. I'll order up a few hundred cases and a sizing/decapping die.
  19. Thanks Superdude. I may be a bit overly cautious at times, as I'm trying to protect my streak of never having blown up a gun, yet. I'll give that a go, but will work up slowly. I might also get an additional .38 Super barrel for it, as the mags are ".38 super/9mm" mags
  20. Thanks for confirming my thought process on it. I was looking for specific equipment someone else may have used for the reaming. I didn't see the thickness on the sidewall on the SAMMI drawing though. That is the issue. Case length is 0.900". Got that part. http://www.saami.org/PubResources/CC_Drawings/Pistol/9%20X%2023%20Winchester.pdf The 38 Super cases are not designed to run at the pressures that the 9x23 Win case run at. 38 Super is limited to about 30,000 CUP, while the 9x23 Win is rated up to 40,000+CUP. The unsupported portion of the case may develop an excessive bulge, or completely blow out if I were to use 38 Super loaded up that high. The same issue happens with Starline 9x23 comp cases.
  21. I just tumble in crushed walnut (lizard bedding) and then load pistol ammo. .223, .300 Blackout, 6.8SPC and .458 Socom are handled differently than pistol ammo. Those are tumbled a bit to remove crud, lubed, resized, trimmed if needed, then polished in a separate walnut media with polish, primed, stored, then reloaded at a later date. As someone else said, don't overthink it. Clean is good, it just depends on how much time you have, or are willing to put into it.
  22. I was gifted a pistol the other day. A Schutezen Pistol Works assembled 9x23 Winchester with a Caspian Arms frame. Ported barrel, five 19 round mags, and 45 rounds of ammo. The previous owner shot 5 rounds out of it. The barrel is also ramped. Nice gift! (can't post a picture of it, as I haven't met the post count criteria.) Anyway, I was reading where it is possible to make 9x23 Win brass out of .223. I already make .300 AAC Blackout brass out of .223, so I am set up with a trim saw, and a case prep station. That part doesn't phase me at all, but before I go chopping up a lot of perfectly good .223 brass, is there anything else I need in addition to my little chop saw, another jig for cutting to this new length, my case prep center and my case trimmer? Some folks had talked abou reaming the interior of the cases. What tool do you specifically use? I had a commercial reloading business for a number of years, and I have literally loaded millions of standard pistol and rifle cartridges, about 4.25M, so I have the basics down fairly well. I play with a few odd calibers like .458 SOCOM, 6.8 SPC, and .300 Blackout, so I am accustomed to working up safe loads. We have a few Dillon 650's, one 1050, and a bench full of RCBS Jr's and RC's. I'm not a beginning reloader, but some things I just have not done. Anything else I need to know before I take on a project like this? My goal is to make an initial batch of 100 or so cases of different mfg's, get them to size, and work up a reasonable load, using Ramshot Silhouette (WAP), and duplicate factory loadings for 124gr projectiles in the 1450 FPS range. From there, I'll refine the process and build up to a batch of 1,000 cases or so, and settle on one mfg's brand of case to use. Haven't been able to locate any Winchester 9x23Win cases, so I am resorting to making my own, and I don't want to just run the Starline super-comp because of the thinner case walls. I may try 100 of those and test fire a few, but reports are they don't hold the full power loads very well. Thanks in advance.
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