As ammo was difficult to find and expensive for a while, I bought a Lee LoadMaster progressive press I lucked out to find in 223.
My biggest problem is powder spills, the extruded powder bridges and jams up on the case neck, spilling out most of the charge. I currently have Varget but am interested in finding spherical or a finer grain powder that won't bridge up and spill like the Varget does. Now I seem to have spills every 4 or 5 reloads, maybe I need to whack the measure to get the powder to drop.
On my list of powders to look for include CFE-223, H335, TAC, X-Terminator, Winchester 748. Any others? Or any tips to help prevent the powder bridging on the neck problem?
I like AA2520, but mostly use surplus military powder I got for a song, 844T. I am REAL GLAD there is no need for me to buy bullets, primers, or powder at today's prices.
WW748BR is a spherical powder , flows well and has good load density . I had some a few years back for IIRC loading .222 for a TC Contender . Long gone now . That powder bridging problem can be reduced by using a longer drop tube on your powder measure . Helps align the grains or something . Whacking the measure too hard can cause packing and affect the weight of later charges thrown with the measure . Cool enough now to fire up the melt pot and cast a few more balls for the muzzleloader ... -- Snag
With my LM, I have an aquarium pump rubber banded to the powder dispenser for the vibration. Others have used cell phone vibrators. It also gives me +/- .1 gr with flake powder.
oadMaster progressive press I lucked out to find in 223. My biggest problem is powder spills, the extruded powder bridges and jams up on the case neck , spilling out most of the charge. I currently have Varget but am intereste d in finding spherical or a finer grain powder that won't bridge up and spi ll like the Varget does. Now I seem to have spills every 4 or 5 reloads, ma ybe I need to whack the measure to get the powder to drop. On my list of po wders to look for include CFE-223, H335, TAC, X-Terminator, Winchester 748. Any others? Or any tips to help prevent the powder bridging on the neck pr oblem? RogerN
I use H335 and IMR4895 for .223, nothing but single stage Bonanza Benchrest presses and dies used, though. I've managed to pick up some CFE223, haven 't loaded any yet. Every measure I've used needs several raps before and a fter to get consistant drops. H335 is fine stuff, tends to get between the drum and housing on the Lee powder measure I use for a lot of my loading, measure periodically has to be shut off, disassembled and the innards dumpe d out. Not a big deal, but happens every 100 rounds or so. IMR4895 meters well, haven't had a bridging problem, mostly because I rap the measure. T he Lyman 45 measure I have has a cast-iron knocker attached right to the bo dy, not a new problem.
Last show I was at a couple of weeks back had primers for $30/1000 and seve ral vendors had powder. So might be supplies are picking up, or the hoarde rs and end-of-the-world preppers are coming to the end of their credit card limits.
Roger, on a side issue, I'm pushing cast bullets (Hardball alloy tm) to 2000 FPS, which is pretty close to the edge for an old fashioned rifle (and the lead!), so every charge is weighed on a balance beam scale.
Thanks to everyone for all the info. I'm planning to see what I can find on the shelves today, I have a list of recommended powders. Might get some bullets and brass too if they have anything that I want.
Inflation yes...political climate seems to be cooling off as the newbs rinally realize that ammo will stay on the market..and they have their stockpiles now.
I was just identifying and counting the lead balls for my muzzleloaders . It's deer season up here on the Ozark Plateau , I can harvest 4 ...Tomorrow's the last day of the muzzleloader hunt , but archery is open til the end of February and there's a modern rifle season too . Next task , touch up the blades in my broadheads , they've been in storage ... -- Snag out in the shop
Over the last 2ish weeks, I emptied out my house and had it fumigated. Yall may have noticed me being gone for a few days..or not. Shrug
Now we are putting it all back in place and damn but I keep finding archery gear and bullets and brass I never remember owning. Granted..I did have a stroke...but damn.....
Hell..I found 2 guns I dont remember ever buying tucked away in a seldom opened cabinet...
Its much like digging a hole....once you get all the dirt out..it never fits back into the hole and you have to mound it up someplace.
Thats the only positive thing I can say about having the stroke...for the last 3 ... years when I opened a drawer or carton..it was like Christmas every day. OOOHHH!! New Toy!
Went to the sporting goods store today to see what they had, bought a pound of H335, W748, 500 Varmageddon 55gr bullets, and 100 Remington 223 brass. They had a lot of W748 and only about 4 of the H335. I'm hoping to find some CFE223 to try sometime. Anyway, got a couple of powders to try out.
Come and get em. (Grin) Id like to see your homely face again.
I found a Turkish mauser and a Brno mauser,...both 8mm and both about
5' long. Dont remember getting them. Both are in decent shooting shape..so maybe Ill get to blow the dust out of them this coming week. They were stuck in my hiking cabinet along with the martial arts supplies..the swords and fighting staffs etc etc. No idea why they were tucked into the very back. I was..frankly ..a bit goofy for about a year after the stroke..and I found stuff in the damnedest places. Course the wife might have stuck em in their when the kids moved in a year ago..little kids..3 of them. But Ill have to look in the log about where they came from. I never missed making an entry. Somethings are ingrained. Shrug
Now I simply have to find the log...its..somewhere....laugh. We did empty 27 yrs worth of stuff out of this place..took it right down to the dust in the heating vents..and its been stored outside..everywhere. The wierd thing...this place has a really bad echo when its empty. And Ive been noticing the echo start to diminish as we put the stuff back in...one article at a time. No bugs are coming back in in boxes. One article at a time.
They found a bedbug on the grand daughter at church..on her shoulder. So everyone paniced. No bedbugs were found anywhere in this place...and it was professionally checked. Just a shitload of desert cockroaches. It cost $600 to have it fumigated..and Im still killing roaches..though they are walking around pretty stunned. The company said it would be about 10 days before they were all gone and they will be back Monday for a retreatment and Ive been keeping a record about where they are found. I suspect they got in through a wall/floor joint in the add-on to my reloading shop. I sprayed a shitload of bug killer there yesterday..and Im seeing significantly fewer of them. Bought foggers and will be putting them in the foundation tommorow. Ive found albino roaches..pure white. Saved some of them for the bug guys to look at. We never had em before the last couple moved in...cringe..and suddenly we were finding them everywhere. Ive been bug free for 27 yrs..and then suddenly...Whamo! Though Im told the bug guys are doing a box office business this year and Ive seen more than one house tented and others with their stuff out in their yards like we did...more than Ive ever seen before in this town. They were worried about bedbugs..its become something of an epidemic across the US and those little bastards are hard to find and harder to kill. Thank Crom none were found here.
We are going to have one hell of a yard sale in a couple weeks
We found stuff that we havent seen/used in a decade. Hell..I found an unopened GALLON of high end Bacardi 151 rum. No idea of what that came from either. Neither of us drink. Must have been something from a party we threw years ago and the last wild party we had..was at least
15 yrs ago....or came in with one of the string of people we took in and got back on their feet. Who knows...shrug. But its time to thin out the crap and free up storage. I found a tube tester..a nice professional grade vacum tube tester for radio/TV that Ive been looking for for 5 yrs. My wife tends to simply Stuff stuff away out of sight..out of mind....and Im going to have to beat her for that one of these days....(G).
She finally admitted she hasnt been very careful..when she found a pair of quarter caret diamond earrings she has been missing for 15 yrs and had thought had been stolen. They were tucked away in a sunglasses case along with a pair of high end RayBan sunglasses that Id been missing for 15 yrs. She must have taken them off at some point while we were out at a party or out sailing or something..and put em in the case for safety..then tucked the case in a purse she never used again and later stuffed deep into storage. Some peoples kids....sigh
If I hadnt been on the road doing the service tech thing so much of the time over the last 18 yrs...all this Stuff would have been gone through a decade or more ago...but the money was too good to stop during the Shining Times and we bought a ton of shit and ...tucked it in every nook and cranny and cupboard and hidyhole in this place..and its pretty good sized. Never again.
Some people think I kid when I say something is out back in the Stacks O' Stuff. Im not. Not in the slightest.
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