Reloading
Trying the RCBS Lube-a-Matic
It has been a long time coming, but I finally bought a serious bullet lubrisizer, and I could not be happier. I’m kicking myself for not taking the plunge sooner. I started lubing my own bullets back about 2014. I went the cheap route. I picked tumble lubing. That is, I’d put the cast bullets in an empty sherbet tube, squirt in some lube, and swish it around. That was fine while I was doing small batches with a single-stage press. However, when I started working with my Hornady LNL Auto-Progressive, I had to stop way too often, clean lube … More . . .
The Auto-Charge– Two Years On
Two years ago, I got a Hornady Auto-Charge from Natchezss.com. At the time, I likened the transaction to dragging a topwater lure over a largemouth bass repeatedly. After repeatedly presenting it the bass, the fish strikes just because he’s sick and tired of seeing it. The question I want to answer is this: Did I have buyer’s remorse? Let me give you a bit of history: I started reloading in December of 2000. At that time, I started with a RCBS Uniflow powder measure and a RCBS 5-0-5 scale. Over the next 20 years or so, I did a lot … More . . .
Trip to the Farm
The weather was going to be ideal, so I took the opportunity to ride down to the farm and get some chores done. Most of the weekend was spent dealing with the water system. I ended up replacing the shallow well pump and some plumbing in the cistern, but I did get a chance to get out and do some shooting. It is that aspect of the trip that I want to detail. The Ruger American Predator in 223 Rem I have not had the chance to really wring out the Ruger American Predator in 223 Rem. I bought it … More . . .
Crawling out of the Basement
It’s been a little over a year now since my retirement. The Chemo kept me from reloading most of that time, and I just got back to it after New Year’s. Mostly it was about stamina and to a certain extent the neuropathy in my fingers, but I kept doing the exercises and eventually achieved a threshold where I could spend useful time in the Shamanic Secret Underground Reloading Facility (SSURF). Once I was past that, I have been spending many hours a week catching up on projects. In between jobs cranking out new loads, I have also been attending … More . . .
Pan Lube: A Detective Story
This is a bit of a detective story, but there is no dead body. There is no crime. I’m the perpetrator. This should be easy, but it has been tough. The Chemo last summer left me with some holes in my memory. It’s all just little things, but I’ve had a devil of a time picking up the pieces. It makes for a fun diversion, waiting out the winter. The first clue that something was up, was I was digging through a pile of unopened online purchases– things that I had bought at some point, expecting it to fit into … More . . .
More on Bess’ Balls
The first attempt to cast balls for the Brown Bess ended with mixed results. The Lee .69 cal mold cast perfect balls for what would be standard paper cartridges, but that assumes that the shooter would be jamming multiple rounds down the barrel without any cleaning. For precision shots, I wanted a larger ball that would fit tighter. The other mold I tried on the first experiment was a Dixie Gun Works mold whose putative diameter was .75, but turned out to be more like .76– way to big for the .75″ barrel of the Pedersoli Brown Bess. Lee Precision … More . . .
Brown Bess– First Chance to Play with My Balls
Today is looking like the first really good day in a while. The snow is almost completely gone. It’s heading towards the low 60s today. I had reasons not to go to the farm, but I did have time to get my two new molds out and cast balls for the Brown Bess Musket. The first mold is a .735 brass mold I got from Dixie Gun Works. This produces a tight fit with the thinnest patching, and I’m figuring that this will produce the most accurate loads. The other just arrived in the mail this morning: a Lee Precision … More . . .
.35 Caliber Bullet Casting
I got some feedback over the previous post asking for clarification on my 35 caliber bullet casting project. I went back through my previous posts, and realized I never really wrote this up in any detail. I guess it is time I do. Mind you this is not a end-all article with step-by-step instructions. I am not here to teach bullet casting in this missive. This is more of a checklist. The Basic Premise Back during the Obama years, I decided to see how much of my firearm inventory I could feed using cast bullets. For a proof-of-concept, I picked … More . . .
Powder Coating for Dummies
From E-Mail (name withheld on request) Oh, High and Lofty Shaman! . . . I notice you have several pictures on your site of rounds loaded with green-colored bullets. I take it you do powder-coating. How does that work? I see all over, but it all looks way too complicated for ordinary mortals. How do you do it? As with many of my reloading projects, I start out very conservatively. I get good results and then don’t push it any further. I find that this allows me to keep my face and fingers intact. So it was with my experiment … More . . .
New Storage Bins
With all the hoo-haw last summer, I got way behind in my projects. One of the first left to do was constructing some storage bins for the Shamanic Secret Underground Reloading Facility (SSURF). I originally built SSURF when moving my base of operation back in 2013. It houses all my reloading supplies, my reloading bench, my gunsmithing bench, and my deer rifle collection. I had originally planned a horizontal gun rack with drawers for firearms I wanted to keep in long-term storage, but there was not all that great a need at the time, and I put it off. As … More . . .
Hornady LNL AP — Just checking in
Some folks were asking about progressive presses the other day. I started telling about my luck with the Hornady LNL Auto-Progressive, and by the time I was done, I realized I should probably let you guys in on it. In 2017, I decided to buy a progressive reloading press. I was not looking for industrial-strength volumes. I just wanted to make my weekend reloading sessions a bit more productive. I picked the Hornady LNL AP. It was half the cost of a comparable Dillon. It had 5 stations– the Dillon only had 4. Doing multiple chamberings was cheaper and easier … More . . .
Update on the Auto Charge
Covid hit the family, and knocked the snot out of me. I was down for the better part of a week, and I’m just starting to feel like myself. Yesterday was the first day I had to actually use the Hornady Auto Charge to load rifle rounds. The results were mixed, but generally positive. This is an update on my review of the Hornady AutoCharge from a short time ago: Hornady Auto Charge I did 25 rounds of my sons’ 30-06 deer loads. The first 5 took quite some time to do. Most of that was my unfamiliarity with the … More . . .
Hornady Auto Charge
You know how you can keep pitching a topwater lure back in the lily pads and after enough casts that ol’ bass will suddenly explode?A couple minutes later you and that fish are looking eye-to-eye, Sometimes I have real empathy for the bass. This is one of those instances. Folks have been dragging little green boxes, little red boxes, and even a little grey box past me for the better part of 20 years. For 20 years, I’ve kept to my little green RCBS 10-10-10 beam scale and thought I was happy. I was on Natchez Shooting Supply and saw … More . . .
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