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Sometimes i just need a change

1797 Views 21 Replies 14 Participants Last post by  MidniteTweeker
I've been loading 9mm off and on for the last few weeks some days a lot some days a few. Today I changed the Dillon over to 45's I couldn't look at another 9mm it was time to change I'm running low on 45's anyway. It's too hot to be outside for any length of time for me anyway as I get older the heat seems to bother me more and more.I am glad that I moved the Dillon inside its comfortable loading bullets out of the heat in summer and the cold in the winter.
Now that the press is set up for 45's i plan on leaving it that way for awhile I still have powder that I have yet to use in the 45 and I'm curious as to how it will shoot with them. I also have some W-231 on order it shoots great in the 9mm I'm hoping it will work well in the 40 and 45 because it really impressed me with the 9mm problem is I only had a small amount my neighbor gave me back when I first started loading pistol rounds.
Has anyone else ever just got tired of loading one caliber. Sometimes I just need a change
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I load 380, 9mm and 45acp and depending on how much I'm going to do I can run it on a Lee 3 hole Value press or the Lee Pro1000. Mostly use the turret press for small runs or to work up new loads where I'm removing and replacing the shells frequently to weigh or measure. As I'm still experimenting with powders I still use the turret press a good bit.
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I have mostly 45acp handguns. I've gotten my hands on 5 green 50 cal tins and I'm going to fill them with different calibers. It would have made much more sense for me to have started with 45, and 9mm factory ammo is DIRT cheap right now, but for some reason I wanted to do the 9mm first so that's what I've been cranking out. Like you, some weeks I load up a few hundred, some just a hundred or so, just depends on what my work is like and if I get lunch time or not. I was just tired of messing with 45acp at the time too, I guess. After I finish this run, I'll be tired of 9mm but will have a lot ready for range visits, and I can start working on either 45 or 38 special. :shooter:
WW231 is a great choice for the 45 ACP. Meters great, burns clean and shoot great with jacketed or cast bullets.
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I'm glad too that you got to move inside with your loading. It's a good thing! I have been using W231 in 9mm and .45acp and it seems to work very well with jacketed, lead and plated bullets And as .452dia says it meters great. I haven't experimented with a lot of different powders so there may be better but I am quite happy with the results from using the W231 and HP38, same powders.
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For pistols, I'll generally do 3-500 in a session. Just depends on my mood or if I'm too tired to do much more. I don't develop loads with pistols. Don't care enough and the guns way more accurate than I am. Don't shoot matches and they seem to land where I'm aiming anyway so that's good enough for me. I'll usually just go somewhere around 3/4 of the way between an advertised starting load and max load and go to town. If I split it up into a couple days, I'll have more than I'll need to last me a good while before I do it all over again. I also don't load just because I have some brass laying around. I'll wait until the can gets low so I'm not shooting out the same brass all the time to keep a good rotation going.

The rifle is my money maker. I spend much more time weighing charges and getting picky for them. Never shot any official matches but I've made a few bucks on some friendly wagers :)

I suppose my answer would have to be no as far as the original question goes if we're talking about pistols. Rifles, yes, sometimes I need a break because it starts to get tedious and I don't like when it starts to feel like work. I like to load because it let's me get into my own little world and keeps my hands busy. If it starts to feel like work, it takes all the pleasure out of it.
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You sound like me in that I also get bored cranking out one caliber. HP38/W231 is just about my favorite powder and 45 ACP my favorite round. The ease of watching the powder level in those short fat cans and placing a half ounce chunk of lead on top brings as much joy as lighting them up. Universal is my second choice for it's loft and clean burning nature. It's been a few weeks since I've been to the bench as looking at inventory for the recent WI shoot tells me I need to get out and shoot more. I am in a very solid position for loaded rounds and although I don't need more, I just enjoy the process. I echo Jeeper Creeper in that I am just working to produce a factory type round.
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I am an equal opportunity shooter so I generally have an assorted need for different caliber bullets. Its seldom that I really need more than maybe 300 round of any one caliber as I have a pretty good back up that I resupply.
I do use almost exclusively HS-6 powder though.
when I recently got the new lee Powder Drum measure I ran 200 rounds of 380, 9 MM, 38 Super, 10 MM and 45 acp and didn't have any boxes to put them in due to my stockpile so they are sitting in plastic baggies waiting for me to shoot them.
I have shot 100 of the 9 MM and 45 and 10 MM and they ran 100% , so now to test the others.
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My stockpile is running very low on every caliber, need to get back to the benches. I am very well stocked up on components, so it's just me being lazy. :)

My change over consists of moving my stool from one press to another, I have 5 lined up ready for action. The only real change over I have to do, is from 44mag to 45LC and 357mag to 38sp. That only requires a tool-head change, everything is set, may need minor tweaking.

I have been using Titegroup, it works well in 9, 40, 45 and 38sp... a little dirty, but I don't really care since I'll be cleaning anyway. I have a couple pounds of HS-6 I'm going to try, it seems to work well in 9mm so far.
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When I go through loading sessions, I general load what I need first, then move to what I want to load second. Since I rarely crank out more than 400 rounds per session, it's never really a problem. With powders, I work up a standard load with a common powder and stick to that. If I'm changing powders, it'll be for versatility of calibers I can load and economy of powder. If I'm loading with 2 common powders and for say 9mm I get similar results with Powder X at 4 gr charges than I can with powder Y at 5.8 grs I'll use powder X as my default loads. I want maximum number of rounds per pound of powder, not how many pounds of powder I can burn through per 10,000 rounds.
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I went crazy last month getting ready for the Meet & Shoot here in Wisconsin. I loaded bunches. 380, 9mm and 45acp. As it turns out when we finished and returned I still have 200 380acp, about 350 9mm and about 250 45acp left. Though checking my shelves I'm down to my last 800 small pistol primers and about 700 large pistol primers. Powders and projectiles are still good.
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Since I have a turret ready for each caliber I reload for I never get into the I'm tired of loading this caliber syndrome. Only takes a couple of minutes to switch calibers. Generally I'll load a different caliber each night that I reload just to break things up. If I had a progressive press I could see loading one caliber until I was out of a component for it then switching to another caliber. I'll stick with my turret press for now.
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During the 10 years that all my reloading equipment was packed away, I managed to accumulate several large coffee cans of spent brass that just gathered dust in the shop. So, it's been fun sorting, cleaning, and getting the stash back in order. It's amazing, and kinda scary how much you can forget over time - almost like starting everything from scratch.
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BY the way fellow re-loaders!
I ordered 3-K projectiles from Extreme on July 3rd and have yet to receive a notification of shipping---SO!
the bankruptcy filing might have resulted in some shipping/warehouse people being let go.
I normally receive the order in a week or less.
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BY the way fellow re-loaders!
I ordered 3-K projectiles from Extreme on July 3rd and have yet to receive a notification of shipping---SO!
the bankruptcy filing might have resulted in some shipping/warehouse people being let go.
I normally receive the order in a week or less.
That is not good. I would hate to see their product disappear. I probably still have a good 2+ year supply since I really stocked up last 20% off deal they had.
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BY the way fellow re-loaders!
I ordered 3-K projectiles from Extreme on July 3rd and have yet to receive a notification of shipping---SO!
the bankruptcy filing might have resulted in some shipping/warehouse people being let go.
I normally receive the order in a week or less.

I have heard the same from other folks. I may try coated projectiles if the Xtreme goes away or gets priced higher:

snscasting

Acme Bullet Company - Wisconsin
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I have heard the same from other folks. I may try coated projectiles if the Xtreme goes away or gets priced higher:

snscasting

Acme Bullet Company - Wisconsin
Yea, I like the product and the pricing was good, especially when they had the 5 buck shipping.
but I can always go back to ranier or berry.
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I have heard the same from other folks. I may try coated projectiles if the Xtreme goes away or gets priced higher:

snscasting

Acme Bullet Company - Wisconsin

I've had really good results with the ACME Bullets. I cast most of my own but I wanted to try something different. I tried both their coated and non-coated with good results on both.
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Getting back on topic, with my Dillon XL650 press, I tend to go into production batches of 2000 rounds or so, depending upon Bullet Supply. I've never tired of loading any one Caliber, but that's just me.

As for W231, I tried 6 pounds of it back in the thrilling days of yesteryear, the mid 1980's. It worked great in the 9mm. In the .45 ACP, it was only okay performance. Not great.
What I found most objectionable about it in the .45 ACP, was the brilliant muzzle flash, particularly with the 185 and 200 grain SWC target loads.
Later on, I found that it could also produce lower velocity in cold weather temps. Something Match Shooters found out the hard way on a cold (45 degree F) day in Colorado, during the USPSA National Matches.
Some of them were trying to warm up their Ammunition on the hoods of their Cars to pass the Chronograph Tests for Major and Minor Power level scoring. Major Power level being the more desirable outcome.
This particular incident sent many reloaders and serious competitors scurrying away from W231 and onto other powders. Notably, the then new Vihtavouri Powders.

Now supposedly, from some of the chatter on the Internet, the formulation of W231 has been improved, to eliminate most of it's prior bad characteristics, but I've never seen any official press release from Winchester/Olin to that effect. I've not bothered to test any of the newer batches of W231, and probably won't.

While I have tested and used many different Powders in the .45 ACP, I've pretty much settled on Alliant Red Dot as my go-to powder for the bulk of my .45 ACP loading. A big plus for Alliant Red Dot is that it works in quite a few other Handgun loads, notably .38 Special, light 9mm bullet loads, my 12 gauge Trap Loads, and I've been able to find it during Political Induced shortages of Reloading Components. Not to say it's the only game in town, but it's a good one!

Also, FWIW, my favorite .45 ACP loading uses a 200 grain Berry's Plated Bullet over Red Dot for 850 fps, from the muzzle of a Tanfoglio .45 Witness or a bit more from a 1911.
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That's good to know I could hardly believe the group's I was getting with the 9mm
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