Did Everyone Quit Reloading?

[mr surveyor]

I miss Unique and 2400. I still have (only) one unopened can of each hid back in the stash since Aliant powders became "unobtanium" in my area about three years ago. The Accurate Arms powders really became my favorites about ten years ago, in my early reloading endeavors, during the time that Mr. Zero (Obama) caused the previous "shortage". Before that my late reloading mentor convinced me that Unique and 2400 were the main do-all powders I needed to keep on hand. He said they may not be the best for everything I planed to load for, but between the two of them they would work in everything. He was right. My last can of Unique will be kept on hand for lower powered, cast bullet, 30-30 win loads.

That .357 mag load of 6.0 gr of Unique with cast bullets was one of my favorites.

jd

[GasGuzzler]

Not sure how many cans of Unique I have but it's sure to be one more than I need.

2400? I have a few and likely one too few.

[Bill Moore]

My old friend Pete used Bullseye a lot, he told me once that 4gr of Bullseye is a "universal load" for the short range shooting we did. He gave me a box of 30's military 45's that had "loaded with Bullseye #2"
I still use that charge for 9mm, 38 Special, and 45acp. I opened my last 8# can in December!

[RBHarter]

One hundred each 45 Colts in 1x Armscore Precision brass . The fine NOE 454-250 SWC version of the Kieth 454424 Lyman from WW-pure at 50-50 . The lube is the left overs in the new to me lubeizer going into my own version of Darrs lube . Sized .454 late last fall cast in October. They weigh 252 gr . The charge is 10.0 Herco based on 9.0 as a max for a standard 230 jacket an 11.0 being a max load for a 260 gr jacket from the Speer #12 Ruger data . That works out the C[/img]entennial Ruger BlackHawk likes 9.5 gr of Unique with these . 7# of Herco followed me home a couple of years ago really cheap .

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[9x80Drilling]

For a little more than 30 years I've been firing .358" rifle bullets in the .360" bore of my 9x80mm drilling. The only barely acceptable accuracy is with 225 grain Nosler Partitions and 200 grain .358" Hawk flat points. Both of these have exposed lead bases. By stalking close to several elk, lots of whitetails, and many antelope, I've made it work.
But now it's time to improve the performance. Hawk is offering .360 200 grain round nose items. I've teflon wrapped a good sample of those above mentioned Noslers. And, crazy as it may seem, I've milled off the gilding metal bases of a variety of .357" and .358" pistol and rifle bullets, hoping that exposing the lead will allow obduration.
By using combinations of modified Lee 375 H&H and RCBS 9.3x72R dies, I've got loads ready to go.
Now, if the afternoons will just warm up to something over 40 degrees, I'll be out shooting.
Powder coating supplies are winging their ways to me. This will be my first go at PC. I've got some .360 cast to coat, and I'm going to try to increase the diameters of the hundreds of .358 jacketed bullets in my stash.
Hopefully I'll have something to report soon.

[horseman]

For a little more than 30 years I've been firing .358" rifle bullets in the .360" bore of my 9x80mm drilling. The only barely acceptable accuracy is with 225 grain Nosler Partitions and 200 grain .358" Hawk flat points. Both of these have exposed lead bases. By stalking close to several elk, lots of whitetails, and many antelope, I've made it work.
But now it's time to improve the performance. Hawk is offering .360 200 grain round nose items. I've teflon wrapped a good sample of those above mentioned Noslers. And, crazy as it may seem, I've milled off the gilding metal bases of a variety of .357" and .358" pistol and rifle bullets, hoping that exposing the lead will allow obduration.
By using combinations of modified Lee 375 H&H and RCBS 9.3x72R dies, I've got loads ready to go.
Now, if the afternoons will just warm up to something over 40 degrees, I'll be out shooting.
Powder coating supplies are winging their ways to me. This will be my first go at PC. I've got some .360 cast to coat, and I'm going to try to increase the diameters of the hundreds of .358 jacketed bullets in my stash.
Hopefully I'll have something to report soon.

Now this sounds like an interesting endeavor, be interested in hearing how it go's for you....kinda reminds me of when RD was "trying" to find good slug loads for his shotguns. That also was an interesting road to follow...

[RBHarter]

Ran 300 45 Colts and set up the dies and dummies for NOE version 454424 (255 gr SWC) , NEI 230-.453 SWC, ang H&G #130 a round corner 196 gr SWC for the 45 S&W.

I had to lubesize the last 100 or so 454-250s on hand to finish out the Colts .

[horseman]

If I were to go into how's, why's, and WTH's about what I've been doing the past few weeks in my "new" reloading start, it would take me half a page of boring information. Suffice to say I've been going through a lot (all) of brass I had "processed" and rifle rounds loaded several years back. Mostly 30'06 rounds and brass but also quite a bit of 223 brass I'd previously "processed". Not sure what I was doing at the time, but evidently the only measurements I took was trim length of the brass. I've been reloading for a loooong time but was doing what I would call (now) generic type reloading not HAND loading as I would consider what I do today. Learned a lot the past few years (the internet CAN be very instructional) about "better" handloading procedures and am implementing some of these steps into my process. So, upon further "investigation" of said items, firing a few rounds from my rifles, more measuring of brass and rifles, I've torn down many, many, rounds, re-processed a lot of brass, corrected what I could, separated them by finished size (shoulders within a couple thou) and HAND loaded some test rounds for said rifles. Will see where this goes from here. Well, I guess it was still a long and boring story.....

I would like to add to my defense, pretty much all I've re loaded to any degree over the years has been hand gun rounds, actually very little rifle. Never to old to learn new ways. And I am old...

[RBHarter]

I took the Carcano 7RWH , Santa Barbara 98 358 Win , Savage 275 Rigby , and Dad's 700 25-06' out today.

The Carcano was not a complete failure. I had some 180 HP BT Match Kings , apparently they need that last half inch of twist . Groups did close some in spite of the 45° impacts. The 6.8 case just doesn't have the volume to go any faster . I wish I could some of the old Hornady 154 gr HPBTs for it .

While 18 rounds in a 4" circle at 50 isn't special I haven't shot this build much and have only the time spent on it with the 358 . It looks like the sizing is just a little bit small in the H&I die . I shot 20 to fire form formed 308 for the final trim . The PB 360-238 XCB and 8.5 gr of Unique was pretty tame but even loads that opened the inside the bow floor release we're just a firm push . Having moulds from 95-250 gr and an RB I suppose I could feed it something intended for a 380 ,9mm or 38/357 and load it as such .

The 275 likes the little bit of jump with the 7mm--168 . 8.5 Unique gave me a neat little 1.5" square . The 41&41.3 gr of the old DuPont marked 4350 made neat little 2.5" circles . I did get a little fouling at the muzzle about the last 2.5" . This is a new barrel with only maybe 200 rounds through it so the pores and stuff aren't really filled yet and it's all been cast save 10 rounds.

Dad's 25 did well with the first load behind the 125 gr 260-120 . If I never get a better group it's unlikely that anything coyote or up will go very far . Just 41.0 H4831 from fresh cans (circa 2015) . I don't know how fast they're getting there but it's likely something north of 2200 fps MV . The next step at 41.3 was a dinner plate , a surprise but not an unusual thing in my experience with fast twists.