rkittine
Gold $$ Contributor
I was reluctant to add anything to this post except for what I already did, because I am just getting back into reloading and things were very much different when I was not only reloading, but running a business in Rockland County New York called Mt. Ivy Reloading Company, Inc.
There were no LLCs in those days, no electronic Scales, not Internet / Google and no On Line No Less on Line Forums.
Without going into a lot of background I applied for a Manufacturers license so I could load for a local indoor range that I frequented in Haverstraw, New York. This was 1970.
I moved up to Star Reloader's and my garage was turning out about 1,600 rounds an hour of target 38 / 45 / 9mm and some 357 and 380auto.
I had developed some good loads for my Parker Hale 1200 in .30-06 and my Remington 700BDL Varminter in .22-250.
Through a mix up initially received a dealers license for the ATF and they told me it would be easier to keep it and re-apply for the manufacturers license, which I did.
So I started selling some rifles also and the buyers knowing that I was reloading for the local range asked me if I would work up hunting loads for them. With no internet, I purchased some loading reference manuals and got started.
As a member of a Haverstraw Gun Club, I could shot 25 - 300 yards on the grounds of Trap Rock (Now Tilcon) Quarry in Haverstraw. I went out and bought all the equipment and a chronograph, a pretty pricey piece of equipment in those days that also required a pair of sheets for the holders for every shot.
To separate once fired brass, I tumbled clean and emptied, neck sized, trimmed to length, check the neck inside diameter and weighed the cases. I tried filling with water, which in the days of no electronic scales was pretty much a waste of time. More spillage trying to get the water fully into the pan. (A note on Full Length Resizing - I am now learning that the current thought is to full length resize, where in those days using fireformed cases in the exact same chamber was the rule of thumb.) I also tried kiln dired fine sand with limited results, but it was easy to fill the case. You must remember that I was not loading for bench rest shooters, but for hunters that wanted accurate and consistent loads out to about 200 yards.
It was also a time when you could buy any kind of chemistry equipment at a good pharmacy as no one that I knew was cooking crystal meth if it was even known about then.
I bought a overflow beaker - one that had a glass tube on the side well below the neck. Filled it with water till it overflowed. Then with a volumetric tube below the overflow tube I put one case at a time into a full beaker and measured the volume of the water that it displaced and separated cases that way and then reweighed them.
My theory was that brass from the same lot, would PROBABLY have the same metalergical make up, hence if the the cases were fire-formed, cleaned, trimmed and the inside neck diameter returned to the same size, then they should weight the same. Since actual volume was not my goal, uniformity was, this was the method I started with.
After weighing enough cases post water emersion, I concluded for my requirements, the consistency I got with just prepping the cases consistently and weighing them got me good results.
Probably too loose for Bench Rest Shooting, but it sounds like people are having problems getting consistency using water even now in this electronic era.
OK, I am ready for getting holes blown into this. 8)
Bob
There were no LLCs in those days, no electronic Scales, not Internet / Google and no On Line No Less on Line Forums.
Without going into a lot of background I applied for a Manufacturers license so I could load for a local indoor range that I frequented in Haverstraw, New York. This was 1970.
I moved up to Star Reloader's and my garage was turning out about 1,600 rounds an hour of target 38 / 45 / 9mm and some 357 and 380auto.
I had developed some good loads for my Parker Hale 1200 in .30-06 and my Remington 700BDL Varminter in .22-250.
Through a mix up initially received a dealers license for the ATF and they told me it would be easier to keep it and re-apply for the manufacturers license, which I did.
So I started selling some rifles also and the buyers knowing that I was reloading for the local range asked me if I would work up hunting loads for them. With no internet, I purchased some loading reference manuals and got started.
As a member of a Haverstraw Gun Club, I could shot 25 - 300 yards on the grounds of Trap Rock (Now Tilcon) Quarry in Haverstraw. I went out and bought all the equipment and a chronograph, a pretty pricey piece of equipment in those days that also required a pair of sheets for the holders for every shot.
To separate once fired brass, I tumbled clean and emptied, neck sized, trimmed to length, check the neck inside diameter and weighed the cases. I tried filling with water, which in the days of no electronic scales was pretty much a waste of time. More spillage trying to get the water fully into the pan. (A note on Full Length Resizing - I am now learning that the current thought is to full length resize, where in those days using fireformed cases in the exact same chamber was the rule of thumb.) I also tried kiln dired fine sand with limited results, but it was easy to fill the case. You must remember that I was not loading for bench rest shooters, but for hunters that wanted accurate and consistent loads out to about 200 yards.
It was also a time when you could buy any kind of chemistry equipment at a good pharmacy as no one that I knew was cooking crystal meth if it was even known about then.
I bought a overflow beaker - one that had a glass tube on the side well below the neck. Filled it with water till it overflowed. Then with a volumetric tube below the overflow tube I put one case at a time into a full beaker and measured the volume of the water that it displaced and separated cases that way and then reweighed them.
My theory was that brass from the same lot, would PROBABLY have the same metalergical make up, hence if the the cases were fire-formed, cleaned, trimmed and the inside neck diameter returned to the same size, then they should weight the same. Since actual volume was not my goal, uniformity was, this was the method I started with.
After weighing enough cases post water emersion, I concluded for my requirements, the consistency I got with just prepping the cases consistently and weighing them got me good results.
Probably too loose for Bench Rest Shooting, but it sounds like people are having problems getting consistency using water even now in this electronic era.
OK, I am ready for getting holes blown into this. 8)
Bob
