jaysouth

I am tempted to buy one of the CVA Scout single shots in .35 Rem from Buds.  This is a hard gun to find and they have them ready to ship.  However, as the rest of you have observed there is a shortage of ammo.  Bud's has Federal for $34.95 per 20, but I am going to pass on that.  the only brass I could find is machined 7.62X51 for a buck a piece.  I am going to pass on that one too.   This might be a good candidate for reaming to .358 Winchester for cast bullets.  I need to research the barrel twist on the CVA.

      Try this link:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Explosive_Incendiary/Armor_Piercing_Ammunition   A fairly common .50 BMG round was .50 APIT (Armor Piercing Incendiary Tracer)  The stuff would show up in VN once in a while for grunts.  Quad 50 units got a lot of it.  On our Brigade HQ LZ, we had two Quad 50s and two 40MM Pom Pom Dusters.  They could put on quite a show at night.  

The 7.62x54 Russian is gaining some foothold in single shot rifles.  Break open single shots work better with a rimmed cartridge.  A simple chamber reaming of a 30-30 or.308 Handi or Encore gives you a rifle with 06 ballistics but less stress on the gun than a rimless cartridge.  Just remember to reload with .308 bullets.

Look for a bullet that will expand.  I have never heard of a 150 or 170 gr. flat point  bullet "tumbling" from a 1:12" barreled Winchester m-94.  "tumbling" is an indication of ballistic instability from too short or long a bullet for the barrel twist.  I want a bullet that will go straight though from point of impact expanding along the way.  That way I can pick the organs/bones I want to destroy to bring down a game animal.   Round pure lead balls going 500 fps killed about half the deer killed in this country since white people began hunting deer.   "tumble" is only sought after when you cannot use a hollow point or expanding bullet on a human target, like the 5.56 from an M-4.

I have a place to hunt next week where ranges will be 10 to 50 yards. My favorite rifle is a Remington Pump in .308. However, last year, I shot a small buck under my stand and destroyed a lot of meat. A 30-30 would have been just about right. So, this year I am loading 30-30 level loads in my .308. I am loading a 150 gr. Hornady Flat point designed for 30-30 velocities on top of 28-29 grs. I-4895 which will get me about 1,800 fps. However this is a reduced load which does not give best accuracy and lacks the pressure to seal the mouth of the case to the chamber resulting in sooty cases. Here is a photo of two groups shot at 50 yards with the load described. (target sticker is 1" diameter) I was using a scope set on 3 power off a rest on a bench. Here are a couple of groups that I shot with the same load, but with 3/4 grs. dacron fiber filler between the powder column and the base of the bullet. Here is another three round group that had excellent potential before a little "operator error". 3.photobucket.com/user/jaysouth100/media/dacron%20filler/20141107_143037_zps8774435a.jpg.html][/URL] All of the rounds fired with the dacron filler got excellent seal between case mouth and chamber and were much more accurate than the cases half full of air. My game plan for future reloading is to use dacron filler for all cast and jacketed loads of less than 80-90 % powder volume in the case.

If you go visit Butch at A-H, you will be happy with his prices.  Whatever you do, do not tell him how much powder is selling for elsewhere.   He gets $26.99 for IMR and Hodgen pound containers.  8 pounders of what he has are right on $200 give or take a couple of bucks.   Bass Pro had limited selection on line for IMR and Hod.  $31.99 per pound.  Emphasis on limited.

Bass Pro had Red Dot on sale for about 4 hours earlier this week.  A-H in Nashville has Tightwad and Titegroup in 4 and 8 pounders.  Also 700X in pound jars.

you might need to resize the necks.  I bought several of these from A-H in Nashville (he still has them in stock as well as GI 5.56 primed).   I took the decapping pin out of my sizing die and ran some of  the cases to resize the necks  after pulldown.   Do what your micrometer and case gauge tell you.

Call Mike Flowers at Flowers Nursery and Deer processing in Nashville.  He processes almost 3,000 deer a year at his facility on Eaton's Creek Road in Nashville.  I think he composts the feet and bones.   Give him a call.

Those are bullets that I cast myself.  You can buy unlubricated bullets from Missouri Bullets for powder coating.  there may be others who will shop you bullets before they are lubed.   I would contact Falcon Bullets here in TN and see if they could accomodate you.

Dry, no acetone or lacquer thinner needed.     There are others who swirl plastic airsoft BBs with the bullets and powder to create more static, which is supposed to make the powder cling better.   Maybe when I find some larger mesh hardware cloth for trays, I will try this.  With the mesh on my trays, the BBs do not fall through making it necessary to pluck bullets out of the mesh with fingers or pliers.   More scientific experiments.  More dependent and independent variables.  Maybe Heinken next time.

For the next batch, I intend to put powder in the container and move into the house.  After the powder and container cool down in the lower humidity environment, I will mix bullets heated with a heat gun into the container, then vibrate.   Stay tuned, however mamma will not be leaving the house during the day for a week or so.   During the course of this experiment, I was drinking Budweiser.  Next time, it will be with Yuengling Lager.  A good scientist has to mix up the variables, for science of course.

Ace Hardware calls this "hardware cloth".  I think I bought this at Home Depot.  It only comes in rolls.  For cooking(curing), I bend up corners on  a piece of it with pliers to go in the oven.  I have a bigger one with a reinforced wooden frame.  It gets used for all kinds of chores including powder casting, gardening and treasure hunting.   It also comes in different sized mesh.  I think this one is 1/4 inch.

It took me a while to realize, but there is definitely a correlation between high humidity and poor powder coating results. The best place to powder coat is in a space with the lowest temperature and lowest humidity, like you your kitchen next to an AC vent. However, powder has a tendency to migrate everywhere, making it unsuitable for use in your home. But out in unairconditioned shop, it's often too hot and the humidity too high to get good results. After thinking about I came up with a plan. As soon as my wife left the house for the afternoon, I tuned the A/C down to max cool. I went out into the garage and dumped some a couple of teaspoons of powder (Powdersbuythepound.com, grass green) and several dozen bullets into a plastic container with a very tight lid. I then took the container inside the house for an hour. This particular one came with McCormack's soup and gravy mix (no longer at Costco). Tightening the lid down, I put it into my vibratory tumbler and took it into the kitchen. I vibrated for a couple of minutes with the container upright in the tumbler bowl. After a few minutes, I turned the container upside down and vibrated a couple of more minutes. After a couple of minutes, I dumped the container on to a screen and sifted(outside). Then into the oven out on the driveway Twenty minutes in the oven at 400 degrees f. (notice the bullets changing color in the oven) After curing in the oven, dump onto another screen,(this breaks up clumping bullets) and cool. I carefully wiped the kichen to look for powder that had migrated while tumbling, there was none. Mamma came home and never guessed I had been doing mad scientist experiments in her kitchen. Lastly, I must give credit to Dolomite for the pioneering work that he has done on powder coating. What I am doing here is just a slight variation on his work.

  Nope, My grandson got a .40 hull mixed in the .45 cases.  Blue progressive didn't notice or care.  This might have some application if some master machinist like Caster could design a chamber to hold the cartridge.  On my prototype, you have to elevate the barrel to keep the cartridge in the chamber.  Definately not good for shooting snakes.  Maybe a revolver?

This is my favorite defensive round. It is a wildcat that I developed by expanding a .40 S&W case to take a .45 cast bullet.

Every three years I clean mine with simple green, toothbrush and compressed air, and replace the recoil spring.  Once a year, I lube the rails and wipe a drop of oil on the slide.   Yes, I shoot reloads with cast boolits over Bullseye and Unique. (two of the dirtiest powders around)

Has anyone started working up loads for reduced cast bullet rifle loads with this powder?   The load for my 30-30 topper for use by the grandkids is 7 grs. Green Dot under a 150 Lee cast bullet.  Sighted 2" high at 50 yards, it will ring gongs at 100 yards with no recoil and very little noise.

AH has primed brass in stock.  I would not walk, I would run there to buy brass while it is available.  He may have factory jacketed bullets in stock if he has brass.

Who is Mr. Binkley and where does he practice?   Thanks

For lead ingots, PM caster on this board.  He may have some for sale.

Missouri Bullets offer that option:   http://www.missouribullet.com/results.php?category=21   1.  The difference in cost is slight between lubed and coated bullets from them.   2.  Contact Falcon and ask if they could cast a thou and set them aside before lubing.  This saves them money that they might pass along to you.     3.  At normal .45 ACP velocities, tumble lube is great, no need for plating or coating.

Dillon is not a favorite product for retailers.  They are not allowed to sell Dillon products at any price higher than what's in the current catalog.  The only place selling Dillon in our area is the Reloading bench in Mt. Juliet.   Not to take anything away from the fine folks at Dillon or their Very Good products.  You need to find a local reloader who will let you play with their reloading tools.  

That 215 gr. Magnus SWC has the biggest meplat of any pistol bullet available.  I think it is the old Saeco 85 mold.  If it works in your gun, it is as good a defense or bowling pin bullet as you can get.  I will take a big meplat over the potential of HP expansion any day.   It works great in 1911s and Glocks.  Some Sigs are selective about SWCs.  I had one 220 that would not shoot them and one that would function flawlessly with them.  I would jump at the chance to buy one of the old Saeco molds so I could cast them with softer alloy than Magnus uses.

In many decades of reloading, I have acquired dies from many different makers.  Lee makes very good dies, RCBS is a very good company to deal with.  Lyman dies were the standard for decades but are a difficult company from a customer service standpoint.  Redding dies are very good but very pricey.  Dillon dies work very well in single stage presses as well as their progressive presses.  Herter's made a good set of dies but went out of business years and years ago.  Pacific made good dies but they got bought out by somebody.  CH were OK.   Where is this going?  I have never had a really bad set of dies.  I would buy on the basis of function (lee comes to mind) or superior customer service, RCBS or Dillon.  Based on really bad customer service, I will not buy any more Lyman products, but YMMV.   Nothing like a very definitive answer.