So, I Was In The Loading Room Today...

[JLF]

The reload is to have a cartridge that is the size of your weapon. Apart from not depending on what the market offers you.

 

[Bullthrower338]

People who reload to save money are just trying to fool themselves.

Nothing that feels good saves you money, telling your wife that it is saving you money makes her feel good though! Just hide your midway account history and all is good!

 

[SnowLeopard]

You have a loading ROOM? I've just got a bench in the corner of the garage..... I feel so deprived!

I did that for many years and finally couldn't take it any more. When I moved into this house 6 years ago I dedicated one room to my guns. Safes are on one side, reloading benches on the other and racks for ammunition and field gear on the third wall. Under the window are my 4 dog kennels stacked neatly, 2x2. The dogs are always underfoot while I reload. One of them LOVES to smell the open kegs of powder. I always give him a good whiff so he can know what I am working with. When I am done he sniffs the boxes after I place them on the shelves. Very strange. LOL Guns, dogs and horses. Life does not get any better than that.

 

[JLF]

Excellent...
In my case, I bought a shed to turn it into my weapons repair shop, weapons room and reloading laboratory.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

I was organizing my ammo storage area yesterday and snapped a photo of some hand loads my dad did in 1980. Anyone use Hercules 2400 in a 45-70? Mine is a Winchester 1886, made in 1906. From what I've gathered, 2400 was used for plinking loads and care needed to taken when reloading because the 45-70 case was large enough for an inadvertent double charge.

 

[Shootist43]

375 Ruger Fan, be careful with that stuff when used in a rifle with larger capacity cases. I used Hercules 2400 for my 44 Mag Revolvers and Ruger Deerslayer back in the day. A double charge in your 45 -70 would be disastrous.

 

[tarbe]

I was organizing my ammo storage area yesterday and snapped a photo of some hand loads my dad did in 1980. Anyone use Hercules 2400 in a 45-70? Mine is a Winchester 1886, made in 1906. From what I've gathered, 2400 was used for plinking loads and care needed to taken when reloading because the 45-70 case was large enough for an inadvertent double charge.

View attachment 385491

34 grains of 2400 is going to be pushing 1,800 fps.

IIRC you were wanting to keep pressures at trapdoor levels in your old 1886? This would be at the very upper end.

 

[fourfive8]

Yes, use caution with all the loads of fast pistol and shotgun powders in large cases where an accidental overcharge or double charge can easily go un-noticed. Small quantities of most all fast pistol powders and shogun powders have been tried for reduced loads in larger volume rifle cases. Many of these recipes show up in various load manuals. Unique is one of the more common/popular. Trailboss is a very fast powder but its extremely low density makes it more difficult to overcharge larger cases. For reduced loads in such cartridges as older, BP era lever guns and single shots such as the Trapdoor, 5744 and 4759 are the best choices. Even then caution and care in reloading is the best advice. Many sources list max pressure ratings for these firearms. Additionally, the ballistics of BP as used in many of the older guns is different from smokeless progressive powders that tend to have run away pressure curves when confined under pressure.

 

[tarbe]

Because I am a Luddite, I load all my ammo on single-stage presses and charge all my cases individually.

Even still, I lay eyes into every case to visually check powder level....if if I am loading 78gr in a .375 or 43gr in a 308. They ALL get checked....every time, every load, every powder. Actually, they get checked twice...when filled and later when the tray is complete, I look into every case again.

I would be too embarrassed to come on here and admit I blew myself up!!

 

[Alistair]

Because I am a Luddite, I load all my ammo on single-stage presses and charge all my cases individually.

Even still, I lay eyes into every case to visually check powder level....if if I am loading 78gr in a .375 or 43gr in a 308. They ALL get checked....every time, every load, every powder. Actually, they get checked twice...when filled and later when the tray is complete, I look into every case again.

I would be too embarrassed to come on here and admit I blew myself up!!

Yup, me too.

Ever since I had a squib load due to no powder in a case I use a little flashlight to visually check each case before seating the bullet.

 

[Shootist43]

Dittos tarbe.

 

[Alistair]

A potentially useful suggestion for those using cases where double charges are possible and where it can be difficult to visually assess the fill level.

It might be worth getting a little stick of some kind (I use a lollipop stick with the end ground flat), poking it into a case filled with the correct charge till you contact the top of the powder column and then marking the level at which it sticks out the case.

You can then poke the stick into each following case and see if the level looks right before seating. Just a little tip to avoid a potentially painful and expensive mistake.

 

[Wyatt Smith]

I charge a case and then seat the bullet one at a time. Every case gets a shake so I can hear the powder before it goes in the box. I don’t load many compressed loads.
Not saying I’m right, that’s just how I do it.

 

[WAB]

Yup, me too.

Ever since I had a squib load due to no powder in a case I use a little flashlight to visually check each case before seating the bullet.

I do the same thing!

 

[Ray B]

Not so much to prevent a no-charge, but to confirm that the scale is working properly I'll look into the case neck to see how high the powder is. If it is the same location as the other cases, generally right about the juncture of shoulder to neck then a bullet is seated. If the powder is up into the neck or down in the body, it get's dumped out and the case rechecked to see the cause of the difference.

 

[Ridgewalker]

I charge a case and then seat the bullet one at a time. Every case gets a shake so I can hear the powder before it goes in the box. I don’t load many compressed loads.
Not saying I’m right, that’s just how I do it.

Must be nice to be able to her that well! I’m lucky these days to hear lead pellets in a brass case! Protect your hearing young man And it may save you some day!

 

[Wyatt Smith]

Must be nice to be able to her that well! I’m lucky these days to hear lead pellets in a brass case! Protect your hearing young man And it may save you some day!

I try my best to preserve it. However I’ve already lost enough to keep me from joining the Army. I carry ear plugs in my pocket anytime I’m dressed.

 

[Bullthrower338]

How it started:

Where we are now:

The top 5# can came with a bunch of reloading stuff I bought locally. The bottom is a picture that was posted by a guy that was excited that he found some powder!

 

[tarbe]

So, I was in the loading room today (and yesterday, and the day before that, and....)

Like many of you, I suspect, I have had a number of friends, family and co-workers begging for ammo.

So I am in the middle of a lot of 500 9mm (after doing 500 .223 and 1,000 .380) and began to lament these tiny cases. I know, my nerves could be spared if I would dump the single stage press. Not gonna happen!

About that time, my eyes fell upon a lone 450-400 NE case lying on the bench. I picked it up and waxed nostalgic of the time spent loading all those giant cases in preparation for the BVC hunt (470, 450-500, 450 Dakota, 458 Lott).

Then I recalled the article "Elmer's New Cartridge" in the 1972 Guns & Ammo Annual. Elmer took the 9.3x74 and necked it to .338, while pushing the shoulder forward a bit, iirc.

Got me to thinking....a 450-400 necked to .375, with a 1.25-1.5 caliber neck, "improved" just a tiny bit... would make a really neat cartridge for a No 1. Case capacity would be such, that I imagine you could duplicate H&H ballistics at sub-45k psi pressure levels. And you'd have a rimmed DG-capable cartridge that could also, with the high BC bullets available, make a great 300 yard NA big critter getter.

Would it do anything the other 375s can't do? Yes!! Headspace off a rim! (I am discounting the 375 Flanged....it cannot run with the H&H...or even more so, the other common 375s).

Not to mention it will look cooler than all get-out! Like a 375 Flanged on steroids.

Surely this has been done?

 

[Wheels]

So, I was in the loading room today (and yesterday, and the day before that, and....)

Like many of you, I suspect, I have had a number of friends, family and co-workers begging for ammo.

So I am in the middle of a lot of 500 9mm (after doing 500 .223 and 1,000 .380) and began to lament these tiny cases. I know, my nerves could be spared if I would dump the single stage press. Not gonna happen!

About that time, my eyes fell upon a lone 450-400 NE case lying on the bench. I picked it up and waxed nostalgic of the time spent loading all those giant cases in preparation for the BVC hunt (470, 450-500, 450 Dakota, 458 Lott).

Then I recalled the article "Elmer's New Cartridge" in the 1972 Guns & Ammo Annual. Elmer took the 9.3x74 and necked it to .338, while pushing the shoulder forward a bit, iirc.

Got me to thinking....a 450-400 necked to .375, with a 1.25-1.5 caliber neck, "improved" just a tiny bit... would make a really neat cartridge for a No 1. Case capacity would be such, that I imagine you could duplicate H&H ballistics at sub-45k psi pressure levels. And you'd have a rimmed DG-capable cartridge that could also, with the high BC bullets available, make a great 300 yard NA big critter getter.

Would it do anything the other 375s can't do? Yes!! Headspace off a rim! (I am discounting the 375 Flanged....it cannot run with the H&H...or even more so, the other common 375s).

Not to mention it will look cooler than all get-out! Like a 375 Flanged on steroids.

Surely this has been done?

The 375 Tarbe

Has a certain ring to it.