| Trailboss |
| (.275 member) |
| 29/06/20 01:04 AM |
What did you do in the reloading room today.
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I decided to make some bullet lube from five pounds of raw beeswax I get from a local beekeeper. This is a standard 50/50 mixture of beeswax and crisco. The beeswax boiled down and strained through cheesecloth and then mixed with Crisco and poured into schedule 40 pvc tubes and cooled in the freezer. Cut to fit inside my Lyman 450 lubersizer.
This lube will work with the new fifty caliber MP mold cast bullets for the Remington roller.
| DarylS |
| (.700 member) |
| 29/06/20 06:54 AM |
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Re: What did you do in the reloading room today.
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TB, I found the mix of 40:60 Vaseline:Beeswax, while being a great BPowder ctg. lube, it also worked well in my .45 cal. Rifles with smokeless. Mixed by volume.
Nice system you have there.
| 93x64mm |
| (.416 member) |
| 29/06/20 07:43 AM |
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Re: What did you do in the reloading room today.
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Pretty slick operation TB!
You certainly have it all down pat, the tea pot certainly is a novel way of doing things; very controllable!
| Trailboss |
| (.275 member) |
| 29/06/20 08:39 AM |
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Re: What did you do in the reloading room today.
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The lube mold I was using then was just a prototype. I got with the top dog of the cabinet company I was doing some part-time with on a cnc program to cut out the base for a lube block to hold the mold tubes and the center post. Came out primo.
| Trailboss |
| (.275 member) |
| 23/03/21 03:27 AM |
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Re: What did you do in the reloading room today.
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Cleaned up a set of RCBS Savage 250 & 300 dies for under $60 bucks.
| DarylS |
| (.700 member) |
| 23/03/21 04:29 AM |
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Re: What did you do in the reloading room today.
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Opened the door and surveilled the contents of the gun room, handled a few, wiped them down and put them back. That's about it.
| tinker |
| (.416 member) |
| 23/03/21 02:46 PM |
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Re: What did you do in the reloading room today.
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I've been fiddling with an old hand me down 32 caliber rifle, seeing about waking it up from a long slumber.
Casting little bullets
Making little cartridges
Sorting things out for the small varmint population around here
| 93x64mm |
| (.416 member) |
| 24/03/21 08:31 AM |
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Re: What did you do in the reloading room today.
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Tinker - I'm guessing the cartridge is a .32-20, but what is the rifle below, looks like a pump action?
Those little projectiles look just great by the way, what is the mix wheelweights?
| DarylS |
| (.700 member) |
| 24/03/21 09:28 AM |
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Re: What did you do in the reloading room today.
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Oooooo - original Colt Lightning. Yup - .32-20's.
Nice little rifle. My bro has one (newish - Pedersoli) in .45 Colt. Lots of fun in cowboy action contest - very fast.
What's the bore like, John?
Personally, I just loaded up 30 rounds of 6.5x55 with 140gr. Hornady SP's - should be going 2,700fps from my 22" bl.
| tinker |
| (.416 member) |
| 24/03/21 12:11 PM |
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Re: What did you do in the reloading room today.
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Quote:
Tinker - I'm guessing the cartridge is a .32-20, but what is the rifle below, looks like a pump action?
Those little projectiles look just great by the way, what is the mix wheelweights?
Rifle is an original Colt Lightning from 1885
The alloy is wheel weights with tin added.
Here's a 32 caliber bullet for it, and a bullet that I cast from another mould from between the wars for the 25-20, also a jacketed 30 caliber 180 that I made today
| tinker |
| (.416 member) |
| 24/03/21 01:26 PM |
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Re: What did you do in the reloading room today.
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Quote:
What's the bore like, John?
The bore of that little 32 is dim.
I've had it for years, but only this week have I finally gotten to sorting it out.
So far it looks like it's going to work with those cast bullets. It's been very windy so I haven't made any serious attempts on targets, but while taking care of things and fussing with powders and sights etc it's looking like it's good for smoking squirrel trunk and rabbit head sized rocks.
| DarylS |
| (.700 member) |
| 25/03/21 05:46 AM |
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Re: What did you do in the reloading room today.
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Sounds good. Maroon ScotchBrite works wonders on slightly frosted bores & grooves. I use WD40 with it.
Nice thick jacket on that bullet. What alloy is the jacket and core material?
The core's colour looks like pure lead.
| tinker |
| (.416 member) |
| 25/03/21 09:45 AM |
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Re: What did you do in the reloading room today.
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That's just a normal Sierra jacket, it looks thick because I sectioned it off the center - you're looking at an angle cut of the jacket.
Core is pure.
I'll likely be sending some of those out via the Krag some time soon.
| tinker |
| (.416 member) |
| 25/03/21 12:13 PM |
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Re: What did you do in the reloading room today.
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Here's a better view of a couple examples of that bullet
| Iowa_303s |
| (.400 member) |
| 26/03/21 01:16 AM |
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Re: What did you do in the reloading room today.
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I spent the last couple of evenings casting and lubing bullets that I use to load 38/200 type revolver rounds to shoot in my small but growing collection of S&W model 1905, 4th change revolvers that were supplied to the British and Commonwealth nations during WWII.
| DarylS |
| (.700 member) |
| 26/03/21 04:43 AM |
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Re: What did you do in the reloading room today.
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Matt - I assume they are .38 S&W ctg. with 200's at about 700fps?
Fun!
| DarylS |
| (.700 member) |
| 26/03/21 05:01 AM |
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Re: What did you do in the reloading room today.
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Sierra jackets, eh - I was taking into consideration the angled cuts, Tinker. I have done the same on a belt sander. On some I cut on the middle line, I've reached into/onto the sides with a lathe chamfer tool and removed the "flashing" for a truer picture of the jacket thickness.
Others yet, I've scrunched them slightly in the vice lengthwise to expand the jacket away from the lead, then removed the flashing to measure jacket thickness. It was quicker than melting the cores out.
With the pure lead core and the normally 'soft' Sierra jackets, you should see expansion. Good choice of components.
| Iowa_303s |
| (.400 member) |
| 26/03/21 05:32 AM |
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Re: What did you do in the reloading room today.
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Quote:
Matt - I assume they are .38 S&W ctg. with 200's at about 700fps?
Fun!
600 fps and yes, lots of fun
| 93x64mm |
| (.416 member) |
| 26/03/21 06:47 AM |
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Re: What did you do in the reloading room today.
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Quote:Quote:
Tinker - I'm guessing the cartridge is a .32-20, but what is the rifle below, looks like a pump action?
Those little projectiles look just great by the way, what is the mix wheelweights?
Rifle is an original Colt Lightning from 1885
The alloy is wheel weights with tin added.
Here's a 32 caliber bullet for it, and a bullet that I cast from another mould from between the wars for the 25-20, also a jacketed 30 caliber 180 that I made today
Marvellous little cartridge the .32-20, I only dare load AR2207 (H4227 /H110) to 12gn Max for 1520fps in my old M92. Good enough to more than bowl a 'roo over!
I find 10gn to be far more accurate shooting 115gn Hawksbury coated flat nose projectiles, this was my old Rook & rabbit load at just over 1230fps for under the 400ft.lbs energy limit.
However the most accurate load is 2.5gn of Trailboss gets just a smidgin over 800fps & is very quiet indeed - shoot markedly higher than the more convention loads.
Word of warning here, this is under the 70% rule & is a rather dirty load so use a cleaning rod to push the initial crud out first - NOT a pull thru!
If going to the full 100% it will top out at 1100fps using 4.0gn - unfortunately it isn't as accurate, but still better than the more conventional (factory equivalent) load.
I've use these loads for beginners progressing to centrefire, everyone whose shot any of these loads just burns them up - they have a absolute ball with this cartridge it takes all the 'fear factor' out of a the next step up from .22LR & sets them in good stead for something bigger again
Wonderful rifle there mate being so old & in bloody good nick too, my M92 is a baby at only 98 years old, definitely not in the same class as yours.
Wow you certainly are talented mate forming your own bullets & keeping an old Krag fed to boot.
Do you get copper tubing & lead wire to form these in Corbin gear?
This would make a great tutorial & subject just by itself!
Keep up the great work mate, you always have interesting to bring to the forum!
Certainly live up to your moniker of 'Tinker'
Cheers
93x64mm
| tinker |
| (.416 member) |
| 28/03/21 11:00 AM |
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Re: What did you do in the reloading room today.
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Getting somewhere with the Lightning
| tinker |
| (.416 member) |
| 28/03/21 11:02 AM |
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Re: What did you do in the reloading room today.
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For that target, the horizontal bars were at 9:00 and 3:00 of the bead, the vertical bar at 12:00
The bead occupied pretty much all the white space between the tips of the bars
I can work with this
| tinker |
| (.416 member) |
| 28/03/21 11:29 AM |
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Re: What did you do in the reloading room today.
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Quote:
Do you get copper tubing & lead wire to form these in Corbin gear?
My equipment is old vintage equipment and expendables.
I'm working off a pretty good sized pile that had been handed off to me by an old die maker from the industry.
The Sierra jackets that I'm using are same as current production - but there's nothing in the supply chain currently.
I'm not doing big lots of bullets right now. I'm picking along carefully with what I have, being very conservative about my use.
| DarylS |
| (.700 member) |
| 28/03/21 11:54 AM |
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Re: What did you do in the reloading room today.
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Looks like a decent load.
| tinker |
| (.416 member) |
| 28/03/21 12:46 PM |
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Re: What did you do in the reloading room today.
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Daryl I think that justifies going forward with fitting a tang mounted aperture sight.
I have an old Marble's sight that should work out.
| DarylS |
| (.700 member) |
| 28/03/21 02:02 PM |
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Re: What did you do in the reloading room today.
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Cool! Sounds great. I sure enjoyed shooting Taylor's Lightning. Is it already drilled and tapped?
| tinker |
| (.416 member) |
| 28/03/21 02:52 PM |
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Re: What did you do in the reloading room today.
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The factory provided a forward tang sight screw placement. The original filler screw is still in place, the stock bolt at the rear of the tang is replaced with a slightly longer screw for sight fitment, like you see with the Winchester lever rifles.
| DarylS |
| (.700 member) |
| 29/03/21 12:47 AM |
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Re: What did you do in the reloading room today.
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Nice 'touch'.
| tinker |
| (.416 member) |
| 04/04/21 01:57 PM |
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Re: What did you do in the reloading room today.
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More fiddling with the 25-20
My interest today was a bit of a stretch.
Literally.
The Savage 23b is known to do well with the 60 grain spitzer or JHP bullet. Of course, there's nothing in current production that's anything like the old Remington 60gr Mushroom
I have a small quantity of old vintage 60gr JHP bullets, but it would just be wasteful to blow what few of them that I have as any load development would be for nothing as I can't get more to reproduce the results down range.
I do however have two 5-gallon buckets full of spent 22lr brass and some swaging equipment. Fortunately in the assortment of dies is an interesting set of 257 dies.
I'd heard many times that 22lr brass would be too thin and/or small for the 25 caliber. I'd also heard of it working out.
Today I found out for myself.
This morning was a somewhat hasty poke at the issue. I wasn't going for a perfected process or a polished result. I just wanted to see what the point form would look like coming out of the 25 caliber spitzer dies. I'd never used them before.
It's kind of a nice looking little bullet.
I annealed the case, dropped it in water, blew it out, and with a piece of core wire weighed out for a 60gr finished bullet I seated in a 6mm core seating die, then transfered that to the 25 caliber dies for swaging up and pointing.
It yeilds a JHP that's longer than the vintage 60gr JHP. Different ogive shape gets it there.
Further attempts will get properly cleaned jacket material, and I'll likely wet tumble the derimmed brass in stainless pins before I seat and swage. They'll look nicer for sure.
As it is, with the thin jacket and soft core, it should be pretty nasty at the relatively low (2000fps+) speed that the 25-20 rifle and 256 Winchester revolver can provide.
We'll see.
| 93x64mm |
| (.416 member) |
| 05/04/21 08:12 AM |
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Re: What did you do in the reloading room today.
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Nifty work there Tinker!
I reckon they'd work just fine on small stuff up to coyotes; certainly give them a bad case of indigestion!
| aromakr |
| (.375 member) |
| 07/04/21 01:03 AM |
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Re: What did you do in the reloading room today.
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tinker:
I'm jealous, wish I had access to those dies!!
Bob
| DarylS |
| (.700 member) |
| 07/04/21 05:35 AM |
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Re: What did you do in the reloading room today.
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Tinker - the bullet you made looks to have a very short full diameter bearing surface.
Does it have enough?
| tinker |
| (.416 member) |
| 07/04/21 06:52 AM |
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Re: What did you do in the reloading room today.
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Full caliber bearing surface area is similar to that UMC bullet.
I have annealed around 100 rimfire cases to go forward with a short run of these to see how they'll do.
I sent that one seen in the photo above via the Savage with a full case of powder and it hit to the sights, apparently nose first and not sideways - no surprise, and good enough for a start.
| lancaster |
| (.470 member) |
| 18/04/21 02:26 PM |
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Re: What did you do in the reloading room today.
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this are very nice bullets
first time I see other than .223 bullets made with 22 lr cases, very interesting.
| DarylS |
| (.700 member) |
| 19/04/21 03:06 AM |
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Re: What did you do in the reloading room today.
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That's promising.
| Gunnie |
| (.224 member) |
| 01/05/23 07:28 PM |
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Re: What did you do in the reloading room today.
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Put 200 44-40 cases through the AMP annealer ready to load up with black powder & cast 200gn RNFP projos.
This ammo is for my soon to be picked up, Uberti Model1866 Yellowboy.