HAUGH

Looking for some input from the community on which of these powders to choose from. Last year when it was really hard to get powder I pretty much grabbed what ever I could in pistol and shotgun to load 9mm and 40 s&w. I was able to get some of those free bullets from Hornady and would like to load them up, but not sure what would be the best powder to use that I have available. They are the HP XTP style and I wanted to load them up for best velocity for my small carry gun in 9mm and the same for 40sw. I have 500 of the 9mm and 200 of the 40sw, so I wanted to get input from you guys so I can really utilize these bullets as best as possible. Here's my list of powders I have on hand list from fastest to slower according to the burn rate chart; - Titewad 9mm = 3" barrel 40sw = 4" barrel - 700x - Titegroup Bullets are Hornady HP XTP - PB - Unique 9mm @ 115g ------ 40sw @ 155g - Vit N340 - A Arms #5 - CFE Pistol - Blue Bot - Longshot thanks for your time and help

Yeah I know I'm over thinking this a little...thats why I wanted to get the communities comments. I understand "lead batches" but why are the 40sw 180s weighing 180.....I spent over 20mins weighing them and not one was under 180 and barely any were over 180. Now weigh the 9mm 125gr and they are all over the place, I couldn't even find a consistent weight under 125. I will keep them and do as suggested; adjust powder charge and go from there. I simply wanted to know if others out there who load find the same thing with their lead bullets that they buy. I'm not disgusted with the product, just frustrated I guess by ordering 125gr and getting something else. I posted their reply because again, I wanted to know if other shooters encounter this and if it's normal for a company to say they are selling a certain weight but in reality it's something different.....I've never seen any of the websites that are selling say anything about weights being +/- a certain number of grains....... I mean when you are new to reloading and reading and researching, everything and everyone says...be exact, be precise, weigh your bullets, weigh your charges, do this do that, etc....so I'm just trying to inform myself more about reloading and here you go, I learned something new today. BBI does have great prices and fast shipping, as I said I was going to also order some Bayou bullets, but if I can save myself $15 on shipping then I'll go that route and adjust as necessary. With as much as I'm shooting these days, keeping this reloading spending to a minimum is getting important. I think I'll keep ordering from BBI. thanks everyone for the input, its communities like these that really are a great tool for information and getting opinions and suggestions.

So I ordered some black bullets international, 9mm 125gr and 40sw 180gr. I just got them a few days ago as I wanted to try the Hitek coated bullets. I know a lot of people here use jacketed bullets but would really like to get some input from you guys using lead and in general from everyone who buys bullets and expects them to weigh out correctly....heres the deal. I started weighing the 9mm which are supposed to be 125gr. They are weighing out to 121, 122, 123 and barely 124gr...I've got maybe a handful or less of actual 125gr. So I email them, and here is their response....."Different lots of lead have slight variations in density and create this issue. Our 125s have been running around 123.6 +/- 1.2 grains for normal lead bullet variation. This is typical of a lead bullet." I don't really care for the response because I started weighing the 40sw 180gr bullets and they are all weighing 180gr......so if their lead batches are different why do these 40sw weigh what they are supposed to? What do you guys think of that response? I've only been loading for about 18months and only loading lead for the past 6 months with the same 9mm lead bullets from Rocky Mountain Reloading....their bullets did all mostly weight 125gr. ​I completely understand the deal with different lead batches and their contents and how they might weigh differently, but why would you advertise and sell a bullet that is supposed to be 125gr and have them actually weigh less. I mean are other companies that are selling lead bullets doing the same thing? Shouldn't the company making lead bullets figure out how to make their batches consistent weight? As I said I've only been loading lead for the past six months and that was with the 3k of 125gr I bought from Rocky Mountain Reloading. I ran out which is why I bought some BBI bullets to try out as I wanted less smoke and they had an excellent price. But I was looking at a handful of different lead vendors and settled on Black Bullets International because of their price and the fact that shipping was included compared to Bayou who charges more for shipping. So i guess what I'm asking is if I order from a place like Bayou or some other place making lead bullets am I going to get the same BS that I am currently experiencing from BBI? I want my bullets to be a solid consistent weight, so my loads will shoot the same. If I load 1 or 2 grs less with powder that completely changes the way my ammo shoots/feels, wouldn't the same thing happen with bullets that don't weigh what they're supposed to? Black Bullets International said "I" could ship back the bullets if I wasn't happy with the fact that they are not weighing 125gr....Really disappointed in this company right now. I was excited to try the coated bullets at the great price, but this is putting a bad taste in my mouth with BBI

If you have room and some spare wood you can do it this way to see where you might like the press. I am using a small old desk that I then mounted my press to a steel tube to raise it up. I had no idea where to place it, so I did this little mock up to see where a good place would be. I moved it all over the desktop, stood up and worked the press, sat in a stool and worked the press, etc.....to get an idea of where I wanted or felt most comfortable using it. Plus a lot of times I find myself on the right side of the press messing with the powder charges, but have the left side of the desk open so I can work on things on the desktop.

What would you do? Buy brass for $2.30/lb from my local range, unsorted. Or just buy the specific brass size you need? I only load 40sw & 9mm right now. I can get 9mm only for about.04 a case of range pickup brass from another source, but not sure what direction to go in or if i really want to sort a 5 gallon 77lb bucket of range brass, all sizes....... Although i would tend to guess its 95 percent 1st fires. Thoughts?

I'm using a lnl progressive press and trying to figure out a way to mark the cases while they are rotating through the press. Has anybody perfected a way to do this ither on the outside of the case or on the bottom across the primer while your moving them through the press? I'd like to mark my cases to be able to pick them out easier at matches as for some reason no one is ever picking up my brass as much as others get picked up and my supply is dwindling,.....any ideas or examples?

There is a spray powder Graphite at home depot. They have a small selection of sprays... It works great for this as i just did this for the same reason. It coates really well and dries nice and even... You'll start spraying it on everything that needs lube.. You can even spray it into the powder hop to make it nice and smooth. It was working for me the past few weeks but then today i had Titewad sticking to it and nothing is making it not stick... Powders are weird sometimes when it comes to using them in a progressive press. I also bought some DuPont Teflon Non-Stick Dry-Film Lubricant Aerosol Spray that i could only find on Amazon. Im going to try that next on the powder cop stick.. That thing is really pissing me off getting powder every where. It would be nice if the die manufacturers would polish parts like that stick and even the ptx expander little thingy that goes in the powder drop.. For some reason my 9mm one refuses to let go of some flakes, tried all the antistick treatments and nothing works.. Im going to polish it tomorrow and see if that works as the Graphite spray i mentioned wore off after onlt a few cases.

The Lee for is great... I have loaded 5k 40sw with it and after a while the roughness dies down with it and the decaying die going at once. But that is a nice thing about the Lee set is that they have the carbide end in both the decaper die and taper die.. Makes nice ammo. However I needed to install a powder cop with all the flake powder I have and also use a bullet feeder so I had to get the hornady seat/taper die set.. And I'm not really caring for how they work and for some reason it's bugging me that the seat/taper die doesn't also resize like the Lee die. The Lee die is so so so easy to setup and like the other guy said it sizes almost the whole case. I'm not sold on the hornady dies but I really need to use a powder cop. It's funny though because I was appenently tapering to much with my Lee die and and now that I'm using the hornady the taper I've started putting much less taper on my 40sw loads. That Lee die will taper as much as you want, the hornady will do quite a bit but hangs up so bad on the down stroke, I've put a little grease on both dies to help with the hangup and it seems to help.. Anyway your good with the Lee's even if you just end up using just the taper die to resize ammo made with other dies.

Best way I've found as a couple other guys have said..... Take an old towel and dump some of your tumbled brass into it. Fold the towel up around the brass and just rub it around and around mushing it up with your fingers. It surprisingly works awesome to get all the dust off... No cleaners, no additives,you dont need to ad anything to the media. I was getting a filthy press after about 500 loads and doing the towel trick has really helped with the press staying cleaner from little to no walnut dust. I've been using the same towel for a year now and have not washed it or gotten it wet, just shake it out after i rub my brass down.