I’ve Been Busy in the Reloading Cave

I realize y’all have not been hearing much from me lately. Frankly, until this weekend, there was not a whole lot to tell. We stayed home from Turkey Camp again this weekend. It rained yesterday and it was cold. Angus and I got down to open up Turkey Camp in mid-February. The Wheel of Death had caught half a dozen mice, and everything was in pretty good shape after the winter. However, the wheels fell off after that. The past few weekends, I’ve been trying to get my strength back. The last week in February I came down with a nasty bug.

The first doc had it all wrong, and was treating the wrong end of things. When I finally got to my regular doctor, they were talking about putting me in the hospital and possibly cutting on me. My regular doc figured out I just had a garden variety lung infection and put me on antibiotics. I was back at work in 2 days, but I have not been running on all cylinders. Last night was the first night since it all started I have not had a fever and sweats at night.

.223 REM Ruger Hawkeye Predator with Bushnell Banner 6-24X40mm

That’s not to say I have not been flat on my back. In fact, I have been busy as I can get. I decided to get a new rifle to celebrate my renewed health. It is a Ruger Hawkeye Predator in .223 REM. I figure it is the best cheapest path to having a rifle that will get me sub MOA accuracy out of the box. I mounted a Bushnell Banner 6-24X40mm scope on it. This scope is flat out amazing for under $200. It has very high magnification and still keeps remarkable clarity. I hope to be able to see .22 bullet holes on the target at 100 yards.

I have been doing a lot of reloading over the winter– more than I have in 10 years. A lot of it is various 357 Magnum projects, and new cast lead projects. A lot of it is fueled by the recent relaxation of the powder scarcity. I made a powder buy from Powder Valley in February, including 8 lbs of Hodgdon Universal. If you are as fed up with the lack of Alliant Unique, remember that Hodgdon Universal does about the same job and it burns cleaner as well.

Here is the list of recent reloading jobs:

357 Magnum: I loaded matching practice and self-defense loads for both KYHillChick and myself. The goal was to take our carry pistols and load them up as hot as we could stand. That turned out to be a tad hotter than 38 SPL +P and a bit cooler than full 357 Mag . KYHillChick needed about a grain less TiteGroup than me– her in her GP100 and I in my LCR. For practice, I loaded the cast Lee 358-125-FN over Titegroup. For normal carry, I loaded the same powder, but substituted Hornady 125 grain XTP’s. I bought a Lee Factory Crimp Die for 357 Magnum. That ironed out a lot of early problems with the project as it resizes after bullet seating, making the outside dimensions of the cartridge uniform and straight.

I have also been playing with gas-checked 158 grain Lee cast in the Marlin 1894. For that, I’m using full-house loads with H110. I also made up various batches of 357 Mag to test Universal versus Titegroup, and to also have some rounds to plink around now that I have a good carry holster for the Blackhawk.

44 Remington Magnum: On that same theme, I bought a Lee TL430-240-SWC mold for the 44 Magnum Super Blackhawk with the idea of cooking up a plinking round for around the farm. The first attempt came out very well. In fact it was the most accurate load I’ve ever shot with the Super Blackhawk . The bullets work well as-cast, no sizing needed.

45 ACP:Same deal. This time it was the Lee TL452-230-2R loaded with Titegroup for my Ruger P90. I am going to cook up matching loads– lead vs Hornady XTP’s in 45 ACP since I carry my P90 in the winter when I have more clothes on. I had run into trouble in the past getting lead loads to chamber in the P90. However, I finally figured out the fix. I ordered a Lee Factory Crimp Die for 45 ACP, and the problem was fixed for good.

9mmX19: I ran across a reference to my Walther P1-P38 in CastBoolits.com discussing the use of the Lee 358-125-FN to cast bullets for it. No! Really? I have been casting so much of that bullet, that I finally decided to get the 6-bullet mold and really go to town. Here was another use for it. Per the instructions, I sized to . 358 and loaded it in a 9mm case with bullet seated to 3.012. It made a very satisfying KERPLUNK when I put it in the chamber of the pistol. I’m using a light load of TiteGroup. We’ll see how this turns out. If I could make nice plinking rounds for that pistol using cast bullets, I’d be leaving puddles. Again, I was using a Lee die set with the Factory Crimp Die included. Even if I’m not putting any crimp at all, it is nice to size the rounds after seating the bullet.

30-30 Winchester: I’ve been just a casting fool, haven’t I? I bought a Lee 309-170-FN mold and gas checked the bullets after Powder Coating. The result got loaded over H4895 and done up to match regular deer loads. I also loaded some over Unique, just to try out the idea of cat-sneeze loads.

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