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tcoz

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Posts posted by tcoz

  1. Right now prices are lower and supplies more plentiful than I've seen in quite a few years. If you know what you're going to use, buy what you can now and if down the road you decide to use something different you can always sell them. This is especially true for primers and powder.

    A few years ago I had to stop reloading and shooting for six months because I couldn't find any powder.

  2. I have the Frankford Arsenal Platinum Case Prep Station. I like the fact that it has a trimmer and three additional stations, one for deburr, one for chamfer and one for primer pocket cleaner, military crimp remover or whatever attachment you want to screw on. The trimmer is very repeatable but it's a little cumbersome to set up for each caliber. The cases are indexed off the shoulder using collets. They're plastic instead of metal so there can be a little bit of variance in trim length if you don't apply the same amount of pressure. Also, because they index off the shoulder, I can't use it for straight walled 30 Carbine cases.

    In spite of these drawbacks, I really like the compact size and being able to do almost all of my case prep on one device.

  3. In regards to the high primer. I know the reason, at times after resizing when I bring the handle up the brass moves a tad. If I do not notice and fix it the primer will seat crookedly and will be high. Now that I know to watch for it, I catch the one or two that does move every hundred rounds or so and primers seat flush.

    I'm not familiar with how the 650 runs but brass that shifts in the shellholder just before seating the primer is a common occurrence. It was with my Lee Turret and is with my T-7. You just have to choose the point right before seating where you reset the brass in the shell holder or push it all the way in. It's just a procedural thing with your technique but be sure you take care of it before continuing. I see about four different seating depths in your picture and that last one especially is really bad.

  4. Whenever I read threads about cleaning brass all I can think about is why so many people Want to complicate a pretty simple process. IMO, there isn't enough of a difference in the finished product for me to justify spending the extra time and effort to wet tumble and dry their brass, especially when it won't make ammo shoot any better or be any more accurate than mine. I've tumbled thousands of cases in the same Frankford Arsenal vibratory tumbler with ground corncob, a cut up used dryer sheet and a teaspoonful of NuFinish. I have absolutely no problem with dust and my brass comes out looking plenty good for my purposes.

  5. The high primer concerns me! That should be your first and foremost situation to resolve. After that you can move to case gauging. Once you find what caused your high primer, you may also find why you may have a sizing problem.

    Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

    +1.....the high primer is more of an issue than a few rounds that won't chamber. It might just be the pic but it seems like the primer seating depth isn't very consistent in those rounds. I'd work on that first.

  6. I'm a big fan of the Sheridan slotted gauges. They're pricey but well worth it. They're a true case gauge, sized to exact SAAMI minimum specs. What that means is if your finished round passes the gauge test, it'll chamber in your gun, guaranteed. The slotted gauge as opposed to the non-slotted one allows you to see exactly where the problem is if you have a problem. When setting up my sizing die, it allows me to set it up perfectly without any trial and error.

  7. If they chamber, extract & eject without a problem I wouldn't worry about it. I had the same problem with .30-06 cases fired in an M1 Garand. All cartridge dimensions were within SAAMI spec but they wouldn't go all the way into my Wilson gauge. I adjusted and readjusted my sizing die and nothing changed. Finally I took a close look at the case head rims with a magnifying glass and found burrs, tiny dings and a few very slightly bent rims. I fixed a few of them and sure enough, they dropped right in. Since they all functioned and since the cases were all properly sized, I just shot them and i haven't worried about it since. I also put the case gauge away in a drawer.

  8. I like the Wolf a lot too, only thing is the cannelure is lower on the round compared to Hornady, etc

    Yes, it is.

    I like that though. Because at my usual OAL, the cannelure is just hidden at the end of the case mouth.

    Not sure why I like that so much, but it's clean looking.

    With Hornadys, I don't really get any purchase on the case mouth into the cannelure, so it is pretty much useless.

    Are you using the same OAL with them as you do with the Hornadys?

  9. You can use the small base dies to reform the brass after it's been cut down and before reforming or you can use it for resizing after it's been reformed. It's just that small base dies aren't necessary for general resizing unless your gun has a tight chamber and you find that your dies aren't sizing it down far enough.

    If you aren't lubricating any bottleneck case including 223/5.56 then you're playing with fire and it's only a matter of time, probably sooner rather than later. It's also easier on your dies and your arms if you lube.

  10. I do the same thing with my "rejects" and can't remember ever having one cause a malfunction in any way although the ones I do this with don't reject by much. The very few I've had that reject by a lot get completely deconstructed then I run them through the entire process again beginning with sizing. If they again reject by a large margin, I pull them again and toss the case, reusing the rest of the components including the primer.

  11. I use a Sheridan slotted gage for all of my .223, 300 BLK and .30-06 rounds and I've had a few that have failed for whatever reason. I attribute it to differing quality of brass and different "spring back" characteristics. The nice things about the Sheridan gages is that they'll absolutely chamber if they pass the gage and if they fail, you can easily tell where the problem is.

    I also drop each of my completed pistol cartridges into a case gage and I've had a few of them fail also.

  12. As I said I don't have any confirmation on it but to answer your question MadBomber, many private label products including some grocery items are made by the same company that makes the brand name product. It's certainly true in the generic drug market (42 years in the field). Also with appliances, so that part doesn't sound out of the ordinary to me.

    In any case I plan to try them at some point in time.

  13. Bulk packages of bullets are often packed by weight rather than actually being counted so ending up with exactly 1000 bullets may not be the norm. Some places will throw in a few extras to compensate for shortages.

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