What did you do in the reloading room today?

[DenverGP]

Loading up some more 45acp. After sizing/priming a case, I ran the case into the charging die, and as I've gotten in the habit of, before seating the bullet I look into each case. I glanced into the case and noticed light shining thru the case. Sure enough the brass had a crack running down the side. I dumped the power back into the measure and deprimed the case. Sure enough about 10 rounds later I caught another cracked case, this time before priming it. Didn't hit any others for the rest of the night, but decided I should be extra careful and inspect all my reloaded rounds.

Found this in a box I loaded last week:


(the cracked case doesn't look this cracked to the naked eye. The camera flash enhanced it, and I over-sharpened the pic some.)

Went thru the other 500 or so reloaded 45acp rounds, and didn't find any others. Looks like I need to start doing a better inspection after getting brass out of the tumbler.

Any guesses on what the results would have been had I fired this round? I did a plunk test with it, and it did indeed chamber.

All 3 cases with cracks were different brands. One S&B, one "R P", and one speer.

[Zombie Steve]

Might have been a squib, might have made it out. Certainly wouldn't have cycled the gun.

You should be proud... takes a while to do that to a 45 case.

[Great-Kazoo]

Might have been a squib, might have made it out. Certainly wouldn't have cycled the gun.

You should be proud... takes a while to do that to a 45 case.

Depends if it's his, or from a range brass pick up. I stopped buying range pick up some time ago, after weeding out 30-40% failed or soon to fail cases.

[Hoser]

Loaded up a bit of 6mmAR (6 Grendel) ammo last night so I could do some accuracy testing after todays IDPA Match. This is the 22 inch upper that AKA-Spook built for me about a year ago.

There is no decent data out there for the 6mm AR with Varget and 105gn bullets. I am using pointed Berger 105 Hybrids.

Seeing as how Varget and RL-15 are about the same burn rate wise, I decided to throw caution to the winds and risk it.

I started out with 26.5 gns and went up to 27.9 gns. Being uncharted territory, I went up in 0.3 gn increments after I hit 27 gns.

The 27.6 and 27.9 ammo grouped well (half MOA-ish for five shots at 100) with no pressure.

I am going to load up some single rounds with .3 gns more just to find out when I start hitting pressure and maybe put them over a chrono.

My old load was 26.5 gns of Vhit N540 but that powder burns pretty hot and hard on barrels. I hope Varget will have decent velocity as it seems the accuracy is there already.

[Hoser]

Just supers and I'm all ears if your willing to share. Found some data that I think I like. AA1680 19.5-21.7 grains, OAL of 2.140 with 150 grain Sierra fmjbt. I have Hornady bullets but it should be close enough. I pressed one in a case last night that I didn't run the expanding ball thru. Case mouth measured .295 and the bullet went in fine and didn't split the case but not sure if .013 is too much neck tension or not.

21.0 gns worked for me. With a short barrel they were running just under 2,000. That was with 147 surplus pulldowns.

.013 neck tension is a lot. But if it works, it works. You are just working the neck more than you need to. You might split a neck or two after a few reloads.

[Great-Kazoo]

Working through some 200gr lead HP 45 acp, with 5gr Unique.

[Slapps74]

21.0 gns worked for me. With a short barrel they were running just under 2,000. That was with 147 surplus pulldowns.

.013 neck tension is a lot. But if it works, it works. You are just working the neck more than you need to. You might split a neck or two after a few reloads.

Thanks Hoser

[Irving]

When you guys are describing neck tension, are describing how tight (force) the tension is, or are you describing some other measurement?

[stodg73]

Cleaned up and vacuumed the floor again. Tumbled some brass...

[Slapps74]

When you guys are describing neck tension, are describing how tight (force) the tension is, or are you describing some other measurement?

The difference between what the bullet measures and what the neck of the case measures. Example, the neck on my 300BLK measures .295 and the bullet measures .308 hence the .013 "neck tension"