Followup reload testing

[Bawanna]

This reloading section really took off. I couldn't remember where we were originally talking about my too long 45 cartridges that tied all my guns up last trip.
So I started a new place.

I finally made it up to the range today and everything worked perfectly. The reloads I seated a little deeper worked fine and my new Precision Delta reloads worked perfectly as well and were incredibly accurate despite me having the shakes today for some unexplained reason.
The PM45 never missed a beat and I hit well with it.
The Cbob which really didn't shoot as well as I expected last trip was a tack driver today. I noticed after last trip while cleaning it had a shock buff on the recoil spring, hence I couldn't sling shot. Never used one before so it was an immediate concern until I figured that out. I took it out and everythings really good.

I also christened my christmas Savage 17HMR. It's a tack driver and certainly worthy of a better scope than I put on it for sure. Fun to shoot and I love that accu trigger immensely. Very clean, precise. NICE.

Other than breaking my first pair of stabilized grips on the Cbob after about the 3rd magazine it was a good day. I'll get more wood and try that once again.

Now I'm clear to start producing lots and lots of 45 reloads. We got the specs that work and the recipe that puts em where I want em.

[Tilos]

B:
Way to go!
Enjoy the good feeling that comes with improved accuracy, knowing that ammo you made is better than most of the premium ammo you can buy at any price.
It makes all the time and effort worth while.
just sayin'
Tilos

[garyb]

I also christened my christmas Savage 17HMR. It's a tack driver and certainly worthy of a better scope than I put on it for sure. Fun to shoot and I love that accu trigger immensely. Very clean, precise. NICE.



Yea Bawanna, those 17HMR shoot NICE don't they? I have the prohunter barrel for my TC with a Sweet 17 scope...very nice combo. I sighted it in for 50...dialed it to 100 and right on. Went back to 200 and dialed it in and right on. AMAZING groups. Beats the heck out of my old Marlin model 99 .22. That Sweet 17 is a decent 17 scope. Clarity is fair, but the dial works wonderfully and is calibrated very very close. For the price, you may want to try one out. I am very happy with the TC 17 barrel too. I have 7 barrels for her and they all work very well. I did the Mike Belham (sp?) mods to the trigger and they worked well (1 1/2lb pull).

I looked at the Savage 17 and it is one nice rifle. Good product! I'd imagine that it is very accurate and deserves a good scope. What do you plan to shoot with it? It is good to see gun companies like Savage hang in there. My father in law (God rest his soul), before he passed he gave me an old Savage over and under .22 / 410 from the 50's or earlier. The 410 does not fire, but the 22 does. I need to get that thing fixed. It was also missing the back sight, but I rigged up on and it is OK. I would like to restore it to new. Savage 17HMR is a good gun.

[Bawanna]

I think I saw one of those Sweet 17 scopes at the range yesterday. It's BSA? It was fairly cheap, seem like 70 or 80 bucks. It looked kind of bulky and big to me but is still in the back of my head.
I put a POS Tasco 3 -14 scope someone gave me long ago on it for lack of anything else. I ran out of windage adjustment about 1 1/2" shy of hitting.
I took it off today and but an old Weaver 2 1/2 power on it. It bore sighted perfectly, the cross hairs are ultra fine and its much lower and closer to bore.
I'm gonna try it, if it don't pan out I may take a second look at one of the Sweet 17's.

I don't plan to shoot anything breathing with it, probably mostly at the indoor 25 yard range for the most part but occasionally I get out to where I can shoot some of my long range stuff.

I've always routed for Savage and Mossberg. Especially around cops who are indoctrinated with it has to be a Remington 700 or Accuracy International or some wazoo special thing. I was always a Winchester man and still am but Savage has an awful lot going for it.

[jlottmc]

Those 17's are sweet shooters, and fast as all get out. They are real sensitive to wind though. I fell out of favor on the savages, and may be ready to come back to them. I had a good friend set his trigger too low on a 30-06, the gun fired when he bumped the stock, and killed him on a ricochet. That was the official story, and having seen him adjust that trigger too light before, and having to tune it correctly after wards, it is plausible. There was a lot of confusion about his death, not the gun, but his dumb ass; thing is I never did like the fact that some one could take that trigger to well past unsafe. I hear the new accutriggers won't let you go that far. Otherwise the Savage is a pretty nice shooter.

[100percent]

My wife has a cheap marlin 17hmr.

A few years ago she was targeting it and 100 yards the bullets were going through 2" saplings which were about 10 yards behind the cardboard targets. The bullets were blowing them apart with splinters all over where the bullet exited. I wouldn't want to get shot by one.

[Bawanna]

OK, heres a reloader question for ya. After my successful day at the range and being a snow day for me, I thought I'd start the mass production of 45 ACP ammo to replace what I burned and build towards a stock pile of practice munitions.
I'm loading away checking everything frequently and all it going well. Start doing more between checks.
My overall length I found is growing. I started at 1.230 and then got readings of 1.245 or so. I chamber checked them in my kahr and they still drop in and drop out, I think this was helped by cranking my Lee Factory Crimp Die down a little bit.
The seating die doesn't seem loose in the slightest and the adjustment lock ring was very tight as well but somethings moving.
I dialed er back down again and will keep going, see if I can figure something out.

Any idea's?

[Tilos]

I'm not sure what's going on with the OAL but can suggest emptying the bin that catches the ammo coming off the press, after every check.
By doing this, and you find something wrong in a future check, any ammo out of spec will be isolated to just the small amount in the catch bin.
Tilos

[garyb]

I can't help you with your reload question Bawanna. I'm not even in the rookie class yet.
But the scope is the BSA sweet 17. You can go to their web site and check them out. Nice distance adjustment and it actually works well once you get her dialed in. I checked it at 25, 50 and 100 it worked out to 200 for me. Again, the clarity is OK, not great like a Nikon or Leopold. But you'll pay the price for one of them in a 17 caliber specific scope. BSA is priced right and if you are not optics fussy, it does a good job. If you are optics fussy, I'd suggest a high priced model cal specific. They are out there. I picked the BSA sweet 17 over Cabellas 17 cal specific model which looked good in the catalog. However, Cabella's reviews were not as good and they said the distance adjustment started at 100 yards. I felt that's where the BSA had Cabella's model beat, because the BSA started at shorter distances, but went out to 300. I'll probably never use mine out to 300 anyway. But 25, 50, 100 is nice to have on the BSA.

[500KV]

OK, heres a reloader question for ya. After my successful day at the range and being a snow day for me, I thought I'd start the mass production of 45 ACP ammo to replace what I burned and build towards a stock pile of practice munitions.
I'm loading away checking everything frequently and all it going well. Start doing more between checks.
My overall length I found is growing. I started at 1.230 and then got readings of 1.245 or so. I chamber checked them in my kahr and they still drop in and drop out, I think this was helped by cranking my Lee Factory Crimp Die down a little bit.
The seating die doesn't seem loose in the slightest and the adjustment lock ring was very tight as well but somethings moving.
I dialed er back down again and will keep going, see if I can figure something out.

Any idea's?

One thing you might look at Bawanna is the fact that Precision Delta jacketed bullets (Which I think you said you were using) vary, very slightly, in shape, i.e. the ogive is slightly different.
This can cause a variance in the rounds OAL.
I've found this to be true with most all handgun bullets, unless you get into the higher grade, and higher priced brands.

I tend to load somewhere in the midpoint of the recommended OAL so the variance won't cause problems. +/- 2 or 3 thousandths.
Those who are into extreme accuracy loads measure every bullet, but for me I can't shoot with the kind of accuracy those folks demand and for punching paper my loads are certainly more accurate than I am.

Anyway, something you might take a look at.

[Bawanna]

Thats me too, I try to stay in the middle someplace. I think the biggest issue I had last trip when I had all the problems is I wasn't putting enough crimp on. Just a 1/8 turn of the factory crimp die and they dropped in and out of the chambers just fine. This was in my Cbob, the PM45 and a couple XD's. So the OAL I don't think is as critical but I'm still perplexed as to why it can change.

Tilos as usualy your empty the bin idea is rock solid. After remeasuring nearly 75 cartridges I came up with that idea myself. I'm way slower than you I can tell you that for sure.

I'm dialed back down and pulling the handle again. Was getting soft lately and this is good exercise for the arm if not the head.

Thanks guys.

[500KV]

Tough to clearly define but longer bullets out of the same box tend to have a slimmer ogive than shorter ones.

The problem is that the diameter where the seating stem contacts the bullet varies in height between individual bullets and will cause a difference in OAL.

[MW surveyor]

I'm with 500KV on this one Bawanna. Went crazy trying to figure out the same thing happening on some of the brand X lead boolits I was using. Happened that the caster was using different and I mean totally different molds. OAL was all over the place. Was able to take them back and get a refund on the unused boolits, then went to a new supplier that has very good QC.

Heck, we posted at the same time.

[Bawanna]

I got you guys now, went over my head the first time but I understand now. These look very very good and consistant but it wouldn't take very much at all to throw the length off a few thousands.
I'm wondering now if I should maybe try a different seater plug, if I went with a flat nose seater it would end more on the end of the bullet and maybe be more consistant.
The bullets are plenty skookum enough they wouldn't be deformed by not being shaped with the plug.
I'm still pulling the lever so I'll see how it goes and maybe try that other plug for trial and evaluation.

[500KV]

You could try that as long as they seat straight.

And another thing Bawanna, what is all this about a factory crimp die?
Why don't you just put a slight, smooth taper crimp on those rounds.
Those big old 230gr RNoses ain't going anywhere 'till you touch them off.
And besides, they'll feed better.

[Bawanna]

I just use a Lee factory crimp at the last station. It sizes the whole case to confirm it's all good and pretty much does a really nice taper crimp. I'm always concerned I'm gonna over crimp and not headspace on the mouth right. The Lee die eliminates that possiblility and you can't overcrimp.
I can actually see on the brass where its squeezing and sizing on the way in and out.
I like it alot, I really do. I used the standard taper crimp for many years and it worked fine too.

[jimbog]

hey bawanna,i am annal when it comes to reloading.i leave my seatiing die lose,after makin around i back off of the seating die .005-.010 after seating another bullet adj. to get oal.i reload with a dillon 550 progressive press,iknow its slower but all bullets are the same.i also load for my 460 s&w mag.killed alot of deer with my reloads.hope that helps, also cases could be shorter or longer than each other.