Reloading Hacks. What do you do to make things easier or faster.

[NightShade]

So I figured a few of us out there have developed something no tin the manual that works really well and makes things faster. Well maybe we can start sharing them and see what others think.

I don't want to see some reply saying "that's wrong" or "that won't work" etc. I would also say that anything in this thread is attempted at your own risk just for liability sake. If you don't think it will work or is wrong move on. If it's an absolute danger fine you can state your opinion but if you want to discuss it further do so in another thread.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So I will start off. I think it's pretty simple and saves a TON of time if you are dealing with something that needs to be lubed and it's not in any books. Cooking spray. It's a light oil that can coat most anything. I take the dirty cases that need to be full length resized and decapped and toss them in a bucket and give them a couple shots. Toss around and spray a couple more times. I only do what I will process in that day and run single stage so I go through them all. Before I was using Lee case lube and dealing with one case at a time so this saves me a ton of time and work.

When I get done I toss the brass in a tumbler with corncob or walnut shell and they come out clean and ready to go with a nice shine. As an added benefit no more dust in the media either. I may have to change it a little more often but honestly corn cob is not that expensive. If I was using a wet tumbler a little bit of extra soap would work just as well I would assume.

While the brass is tumbling I wipe out the die a little as some buildup occurs after 1000 cases but honestly it's not that bad. I have used it with 223/556 a few times and honestly I have not seen anything wrong with the brass before or after. Since the spray comes out in a fine mist I have never had an issue with one having too much on it.

One downfall is that if you spray more brass than you intend to process it could start turning tacky so start off with only what you intend to process in one sitting. It will stay wet for a whole day but two days later I doubt it will work so well. I also don't see it working in a progressive or turret press. The oil needs to be cleaned off before you do something else.

 

[NightShade]

The second one I have done is probably out there already but I will mention it. I have a 357SIG barrel for my pistol and a bunch of brass with a lot of it being nickel plated. Still have not found a die that doesn't need lube so I process it in 2 steps. First I use a 40S&W sizing die and decap at the same time. Then it gets ran through the 357SIG die and only the neck area is sized. No need to lube and I can process the nickel plated stuff fairly well.

The first time I did this my wife ran the second single stage press while I ran the first. She got to enjoy sitting there and chit chatting while helping me get things done. I still miss her dearly for things like that.

 

[swampratt]

I measure my cases after firing them in my rifles.
I then full length resize my cases and measure them again.
I have 3 different .308 dies and all will size the case a little more or less than another die.

Now what i like to do is resize my cases without moving the body much .002" or less.
I have honed out dies with 600 grit then 1000 then 1500 and then 2000 grit and then a bore mop with Meguiar' #3 mirror glaze machine glaze on it.

My cases size very easy in the tweaked fully polished dies and I have had .308 cases last more than 50 reloads.
All my dies at least get a polishing.
The expander decapper stem gets polished to a chrome look also.

 

[Cowcatcher]

@NightShade I often mass lube cases like you mentioned above but I use a big ziploc bag. The spray (I use oneshot) is all trapped when you spray it in the bag and a few shakes and everything gets a good coating.

 

[Aries]

I don't really have anything to add right now, but I LOVE the idea of this thread!!

 

[Fyrtwuck]

I pick up a lot of range brass. I use one of these to initially sort brass.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1012981319?pid=847836

In the final stages of my sorting it’s not uncommon to have .380 mixed in with 9mm. I use the inserts from ammo boxes for the final sorting. It takes a little extra time, but when you put fifty 9mm cases in one of those inserts and some of them are obviously shorter than others, they are .380.

I also run a magnet over my brass and it picks out any steel cases I may have missed as I was picking them up at the range.

 

[DRC458]

Great thread, John!

 

[okierider]

I wet tumble my brass in a rock tumbler with a drop of dawn and a smidge of lemishine but instead of buying stainless media I just capture some spent primers bend them in half and use them for tumble media, not really a time saver but it is a cheap bastidge hack!! Keeps a little of my pocket jingle in MY pocket!!

 

[okierider]

I also store my turrets here with a little info to save me going back to my load folder .
I am fixing to paint the board white and instead of the sloppy scripto notes I am going to get a fine felt pen and put all the pertinent load info on there . What you dont see is the turrets are on 16 penny nails

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

 

[Profreedomokie]

All of these mods I did to my Dillion 650 to make it faster, easier, or better. I drilled and tapped four 1/4-20 holes on top, down to the slot where the tool head slips in. When I change tool heads I adjust four socket head screws hand tight against the tool head to take all the slop (free play) out. I find this very handy when using the Dillion case trimmer. Second mod is I take some thin plastic shim stock and punch a hole in one end of a 3/4" long by 3/8" wide strip that the brass station pins will just fit in. This makes removing the pin easier. Third mod is I drill a 3/16" hole in the press under the fourth station. If I see powder under that area I know I missed seating a primer before I seat the bullet. Fourth mod is I drilled a 3'8" hole just on the bottom of the case feed hopper about 4 1/2" from the drop tube and to the left so I can see that it is turning inside when it is suppose to. Last mod is I made some pie shaped copper plates that are stamped LR,SR,SP, and LP. This is for the different primers used. I put one for the primers I'm using at the time on the bracket that guides the rod to the powder hopper. This way I know what primers are left in the machine. I hope these will help some of you.