.223 reloads tonight

[line052]

I do all my shooting in Marboro forest, one of 3 ranges and an open field that gives about 400M of sight lines.

[line052]

Bookmarked

line - I noticed that powder went up in most places, but I grew up in the Niagara Region (St. Catharines) and when I go back to visit family I order powder from Lawry Shooting Sports in Caledonia.

http://www.lawryshootingsports.com/page/powders

Their powders are cheaper than Higginsons and the service is better. Not sure when I am going next but you are welcome to PM me and we can coordinate a powder purchase since I work in Ottawa.

[rf2]

The only annoying part of reloading right now is chamfering brass inner/outer. I only have the small hand one, looks like a medicine bottle cap. Couple 100 rds of .308 and fingers were aching, not so bad with .223 though. Think I need a motor driven one…. The wife is gonna kill me, spending too much this year.

I use my cordless drill with a Lee piece meant to be used with the Lee case length gauge for trimming. The drill turns the case while I push the chamfer/deburr tool against it. It is pretty quick, but I have also been thinking about getting one of the tools made specifically for this purpose. All the major manufacturers make them, and they are mostly in the $100-$150 range.

[DGearyFTE]

I was lucky. I was in the US for a year and while I was there I bought a Hornady Case Prep center (+$300). It has saved me countless hours. I can trim, deburr/chamfer and clean the primer pocket using the one tool. If you like to shoot as much as I do then it is worth considering. I buy from this site on a regular basis.

http://www.bigsupplyshop.com/Hornady...2_p_11040.html

[DGearyFTE]

Mark,
If it makes you feel any better my wife has already drawn the line in the sand. I am not to buy anymore reloading stuff other than gun powder for the next long time. Good thing I have lots of bullets and primers!

[line052]

Yes, she is not there yet...but I feel it coming. She is going to in 2 weeks for 4 days with a girlfriend to Vegas, I think thats why I have had some passes lately...lol

Mark,
If it makes you feel any better my wife has already drawn the line in the sand. I am not to buy anymore reloading stuff other than gun powder for the next long time. Good thing I have lots of bullets and primers!

[line052]

Man what monster that is, the I was looking at was about 120.00 from LEE....

I was lucky. I was in the US for a year and while I was there I bought a Hornady Case Prep center (+$300). It has saved me countless hours. I can trim, deburr/chamfer and clean the primer pocket using the one tool. If you like to shoot as much as I do then it is worth considering. I buy from this site on a regular basis.

http://www.bigsupplyshop.com/Hornady...2_p_11040.html

[DGearyFTE]

In this instance you get what you pay for. I do a lot of shooting and loading. Just cleaning the primer pockets by hand would be miserable. I sat one night in front of the TV using a Lyman flash hole deburr tool. I am pretty sure it took me near an hour and a half to do 100 cases. Fortunately that only has to be done once per case.
If I am going shooting to work up a load I will likely have at least two rifles on the go and shoot at least 100 rounds in 10 round batches. I would spend more time reloading than shooting if I had to work up these loads by hand.
I have found that the 30-06 and 338 Win Mag cases don't stretch too much but the 22-250 is different and I am already into trimming cases which of course leads to deburr and chamfer. Primer pockets always need to be cleaned.
With the Case Prep center and a Lock n Load progressive I can start from scratch and have 100 rounds built in about 2 hours. If I have everything prepped then I can easily turn out 200 or more in an hour. I tend not to use the powder dispense since I am fussy about getting to within 0.1 grain on the load.
Friend of mine shoots F-Class. He measures powder on a medical scale to within +/- 100th grain.

[Gaoler]

The only annoying part of reloading right now is chamfering brass inner/outer. I only have the small hand one, looks like a medicine bottle cap. Couple 100 rds of .308 and fingers were aching, not so bad with .223 though. Think I need a motor driven one…. The wife is gonna kill me, spending too much this year.

Spend once cry once...
I'd suggest a Giraud trimmer... http://www.giraudtool.com/prod02.htm
I use one on my .223 cases.
Trims, chamfers and deburrs all in one step.
I loaded up 1400 rounds last weekend and without the Giraud, well... Without it I wouldn't have.

[DGearyFTE]

Impressive. I thought the Hornady was pricey