A little gizmo for inspecting cartridge cases

neat. neat work too.

Stealth Pilot

Very good. Similar to mine.

Btw...with the .45ACP..go with a light taper crimp rather than a roll crimp. Its far more forgiving of case length differences.

Gunner

"I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.

-- Grover Norquist

Seems like it would be handy for the higher intensity stuff. Most my .45 succumbs to splits or hiding in the tall weeds before I need to trim.

Wes

PS

Not busting your balls on this. I weigh my .62 cal round balls to +/- .5g ;)

--Here's a link to the same thing only different, heh. Wonderful things those cheapie H-F gauges; I keep several on the shelf for this and that..

Yeah, I probably solved a non-problem, but it was something to do on a rainy day. I'll initially be making "light" target loads, so I probably will indeed lose more brass than I stretch. Still, I'll be wanting to sort 1000 new-to-me cases before I load 'em.

Makes sense to me, if you're measuring your powder to +/- 0.1 grain. Hm, now I wonder if there is some range beyond which % variance in projectile weight becomes more important to ballistics than variance in powder charge. Won't matter at the short ranges I shoot, but I can imagine that it might with a rifle.

Right. I'm pretty sure my Dillon (still enroute) will do that. Q for you: what should the tolerance be on caselength? Hm, I can also use this little gadget for checking seating depth. What should the tolerance on that be?

Before I bought my Springfield, Gunner insisted I buy the definitive book on .45s. I don't have it in front of me and can't remember the name. But, you HAVE to have it. Gunner?

According to Don Foreman :

Nice tool. One thing to consider is that some digital dial indicators can be set to flash the digits when over or under by presetable amounts. This one does not seem to have enough buttons for that, but you might keep your eyes open for one which does have that feature and swap it in.

Enjoy, DoN.

I think it's easier just to run the cases through a case trimmer. That way all the cases will be the correct size and you only need to spot check. But generally speaking few people take the time to trim straight walled cases.

For seating depth, once you set the seating die the OAL will be pretty consistent. Besides, the 45ACP isn't exactly a benchrest ctg.

Tony

Neat. I use a simple Go/NoGo block myself. Grab a case and slide it through the gap. Maybe you could add a tapered block? Then you could just slide the case through and watch the dial.

The big thing with the bullets is keeping them concentric. Then weight issues. Get them to fly straight first, then worry about how hard they will hit.

Are you resizing cases before trimming?

Wes

Thanks -

I'll be doing some 6.5TCU from 223 stock and that might be handy.

Mart> >

I'd go to Sierra and buy a reloading book that has everything in one binder. There might be specialized single book that has only .45 and many differences... Midway might be the place. Martin

Martin H. Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net TSRA, Life; NRA LOH & Endowment Member, Golden Eagle, Patriot"s Medal. NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member.

Tom Gardner wrote:

And, Midway makes donating money to the NRA easy. Round it up by, say,

32 bucks.

I dunno. I'm newer than brand new at this. I've attended one seminar, am halfway thru "ABC's of Reloading", intend to get another book or two and I'll soon visit a friend in PA who has already reloaded a few thousand rounds and who researches the daylights out of everything he does. My press will be here on Wednesday, Lord willin' and the UPS truck doesn't get lost.

I probably won't start strokin' for fair until August -- there's fishin' to be done too, ya know.

My reasons for doing it are partly for such economy as it might afford, but more so I can make "light loads" as a training aid. I was recently amazed to discover that, after being firmly convinced for over 40 years that I could never shoot a 1911 for crap, I made five touching holes with the five rounds an accquaintance let me fire thru his 1911 with his "light loads". I decided right then and there that I wanted me some o' thet! Now I have two 1911's, one a bit smaller than the other, both in .45ACP. I do OK with factory ammo, but I think I'll grow faster and better if I reinforce good habits and "muscle memory" with light target loads and then grow into heavier loads over time. Buying and using an inexpensive but pretty good .22 (Browning Buckmark) as a training aid sure got me past some bad habits I was forming with my .40 S&W, and the little .22 is still a lot of fun to shoot. It's Mary's hands down favorite. She can shoot a .40 or .45 well enough to "get 'er done", with a few appraising looks from others as Nana punches COM out of a silhouette at 25 feet, but she purely enjoys shooting bullseyes with Bucky. We never shoot for more than an hour but we pack 200 rounds of .22LR in the ammo bag when we go shooting together.

The 45ACP seldom needs trimming, as the power levels are pretty low and generally cases will split before needing trimming. Also be aware..that case lengths on once fired brass may differ as much as .009, depending on brand/manufacturer.

Sellier & Bellot and PMC tend to run a little long..

As long as it wont prevent the slide from locking up..I dont bother much with case length in the 45 ACP. And generally if a case hangs the slide..tis because of a slightly longer case that crimps too much, and bulges the case slightly, making it tight in the chamber. Hence my suggestion on taper crimps rather than roll crimps. Taper crimps will handle longer cases without bulging ring around the case mouth.

On a SWC bullet..there should be aprox 1/16th of an inch of bullet sticking out. Any longer and it runs into the forcing cone/lands and gives you a possible jam. So you have at least 1/16th of an inch of "freebore" (not really..but for the sake of discussion..) for a long case.

Now if you start working up .45 Griz load..all bets are off, but you should be using cut down 3006 brass and of course a very heavy recoil spring..AND buffers.

I STRONGLY suggest using a Wilson case gauge, or make your own

I have a complete set for self loader calibers.. and for social work, competition and so forth..Every round gets checked. Including the rare factory round, before I stuff it into a magazine. I generally check a full batch at the same time and any that doesnt fit propery, goes into my "range, plinker" boxes. Its surprising how many factory rounds Ive had over the years that got stuffed into the plinker boxes.

Dicking around on the range for fun is one thing..but for comp or for street carry..everything gets checked.

I subscribe to the old adage..

You may be the greatest and coolest shot, but it all comes to naught when the angels piss in your priming pan"

If you are shooting bulleye loads out of your .45..you may wish to invest in a seperate recoil spring as the stock hardball or +P spring may give you stove pipes. Paint the light spring with Dyekem to keep it seperate from the street use spring.

Wolff makes good springs. Springco and Wilson have good springs.

"standard" recoil spring is 16 lbs. Id not go below 12 even if you are shooting "phut" rounds. I never shoot reduced loads in the 45 acp, being of the mind I train with what I carry (power wise) but have played with them over the years. My American Express (never leave home without it) is a Series 70, stock collet bushing, but with a guide rod, buffers and dual recoil springs. Not a "heavy" spring..about 17 lbs..I dont shoot Plus Ps generally..though 7.2grs of Unique under a wheelweight cast

221gr SWC is getting close to Plus P velocities and pressures. I bought it new in 1975, and its fired at least 90,000 rounds of that load over the years. Still drives tacks. Its been Armaloyed after I wore off all the blue and half the engraving, sports a Colt Python rear sight milled into the slide and a robins egg blue insert in the front sight. Pachmeyer grips (replaced 3 times over the years)..busted a couple slide stops here and there and a mainspring once. I replace the recoil springs every 10,000 rounds along with the buffer. Shrug...

I built a Gunsmith Only P-14 ParaOrd with a AMT Hardballer slide, race gun, shoots like a dream, 14 rds plus 1 of .45 acp..

and I still carry the old bitch everywhere I go. Ive built a lot of

1911 Frankenguns over the years, still have a dozen or so..and she is my favorite.

And of course..there is a AMT 45 DAO in an ankle holster 99% of the time. I trust it..dont much like it..but it works admirably for what it was intended for..concealable, packs a pretty good wallop with Hydro-shocks and takes a licken and still keeps ticken. Which is important for CCW..particularly with an ankle rig..tends to fill up with mang, sock lint and dust...but Ive tinkered with it as well. 5+1. and will feed empty cases no matter how nasty/dirty it is. Kicks a pretty good lick and with the single groove down the middle of the slide, its not a tack driver..playing cards at 15yrds is about the max...but for up close and personal..its good enough.

Shrug.

Gunner

"I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.

-- Grover Norquist

Well welcome to the hobby of reloading your own ammo. My uncle got me interested back when I was in grade school. You might say it was my first metalworking experience.

Reading the manuals and watching someone that knows what he or she is doing will get you off to a good start.

I'd resize those cases before thinking of triming them. Likely they won't need it unlike a higher powered rifle cases can after a number of reloads.

A man has to do things in moderation. There are so many fun things to do you can't devote your time to only one or two.

.22's are excellent training aids. Most decent .22's are very accurate and do a fine job of testing you. If you can't shoot your .22 for chit any given day, there isn't much reason to be burning up the more expensive centerfire ammo.

A consistant grip is very important with the bigger calibers and if you are shooting your .22 fine but the .45 goes to heck, pay attention to how you hold it.

Will you be casting your own bullets? Cast bullets are perfectly fine in the .45 auto and lower the cost. If you regularly shoot where you control access to the berm, you even get to be green and recycle ;) .

Wes NRA Life