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The Reloading Bench

29K views 145 replies 50 participants last post by  Rick in Oregon 
#1 · (Edited)
For the guys that reload you can use this thread to post in. If it proves popular I'll see if I can get a separate sub forum for reloading.
 
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#141 ·
I enjoy reloading probably as much as I do tinkering with my firearms and shooting. I started back in the 80's in the Air Force when I got into IPSC. I bought a Dillon Square Deal, dies and components and spent many days off cranking out 45 and 10mm for my race guns. Unfortunately, life happened (married, kids, lots of moving around) and it all went by the way side for many years. I ended up selling my race guns and my reloading gear, but have reacquired new gear over a number of years later on.

Currently running a Lee 4-hole turret press. I removed the indexing rod and index by hand since I'm not happy with the consistency of the auto powder dropper set up, so I do it all in batches by stage (size all my brass, trim (as necessary), debur/chamfer, prime, then drop powder and seat bullets). I'm set up to load 10 calibers right now and need to pick up dies and turret plates for 3 more.

With the shortages and price gouging, I've cut way back on my shooting and only doing work ups for new firearms, practice ammo for my carry pieces, or tinkering with a couple others.

My most recent tool acquisition was an A&D FX-120i scale and an Auto Trickler V4. Not cheap at about $1200 for the pair, but this provide very accurate charge weights and speeds up my reloading, also adds a small safety factor (I let it drop the charge and while I seat a bullet, it is automatically dropping the next charge). No more filling a bunch of cases first, then having to inspect them for missed or double charges.

I reload 9mm and even 380 as it is still cheaper than what I can buy it for. Since I'm not burning a lot of ammo at this time, I don't mind doing it. The added benefit is that it is tailored for my guns and I have my load shooting nearly identically to my defense ammo, so that helps for practice.

I'm also a big tinkerer and at one point built my own vibrating powder trickler with some aluminum tubing, a wood block, a cell phone vibrator motor and a PWM speed controller. It's no longer needed with the new scale and auto trickler. I also built my own brass annealer from parts ordered off Amazon and some 3D printed gears, etc. I still use the annealer as I'm too cheap to pay $500+ for a "commercial" one.
 
#146 ·
ARgon, you're not alone, plenty of us sickies here loading our own and having fun doing it. Like you, I've been at it since 1968 when my dad taught me. We hunted mulies with our M70's in .270 on the NV northern border with OR. The first nice one I shot was with my own handload.



The only thing I've quit doing is bullet casting. But I've still got all my stuff and ingredients if commercial bullets ever became extinct.
 
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