Fine tuning the process

[Cory porter]

I wanted to reach out to more experienced loaders. I’ve been doing it for a couple years and this past calander year pickup up benchrest and competitive shooting. I recently had some misfortune and will not be able to finish out the year, but with that being said I want to take the time to fine tune and hopefully improve on my reloading. This post will be exclusively for straight 6br reason being I have a very limited time to load and shoot so I am going to focus on my custom 6br and factory.

Now I have a couple single stages that I use, I had the idea to have one press dedicated to a body die and use reeding comp shell holders to obtain the desired shoulder bump that way I never adjust the die. That should give me consistent should bump every time right?

I use a 21st century hand primer and a hand tool to clean primer pockets and corn cob to tumble. I have a partner press dedicated for a neck bushing die. Also use the chamfer and debur hand tools. Sinclair micro adjust trimme and bench source annealer. Ribs chargemaster and Redding comp micrometer dies.

Corn cob tumble, deprime, body die, corn cob, expander, neck die, clean pockets prime then load. Obviously trim when needed.

Any thoughts on the dedicated body die press, and possibly adding and arbor press in For seating or any other tips?

 

[Immike]

“The harder you work the luckier you get” - Gary Player

If you can-then do it, money is just a vehicle. At some point you have to take the reins and drive forward with the plan by attention to detail and removing unwanted components. Getting everything as perfect as you can gives you a huge confidence boost going to the line.

 

[JFrank]

Cory
The simple way is to use a Harrell's body die, mine is a B-1 coupled with Redding/Wilson bushing.
I also have a Harrell's arbor press for use with a Wilson microseater.
simple and accurate "
J
Addendum- to expand on this I also use a old school beam scale to ensure powder charge is resolved to .01
I don't tumble brass just hand clean the pocket wipe down and prime.
My cases rarely need trimming just chamfer light brush and seat.

 

[JMayo]

Two things I'm really glad I've gotten....
A PMA die adjustment tool is one of my best expenditures. I can get the shoulders exactly what I want.
Also a super scale, sartouius, this has taken the "guess it's right" out of the process.

 

[group therapy]

this may start a firestorm but it was my experience. I quit tumbling my brass. I resize with imperial wax and wipe them, no tumble. in my short-range shooting it did not matter, in my 600 yd br my worst groups coincided with the only time I tumbled them. maybe a correlation, maybe not, idk. but I don't tumble anymore. ymmv and good luck with a great sport, there is a universe of info here bryant

 

[jpx2rk]

this may start a firestorm but it was my experience. I quit tumbling my brass. I resize with imperial wax and wipe them, no tumble. in my short-range shooting it did not matter, in my 600 yd br my worst groups coincided with the only time I tumbled them. maybe a correlation, maybe not, idk. but I don't tumble anymore. ymmv and good luck with a great sport, there is a universe of info here bryant

What do you use to "just wipe" your cases? Any issues with greasy feeling cases??

 

[Richard Coody]

What do you use to "just wipe" your cases? Any issues with greasy feeling cases??

i use ballistol. usually wipe them down with a clean rag dampened with ballistol at the range while it is cold and you are waiting for people to post targets. the sooner you clean that carbon of the easier it is.

use it for sizing too on br cases. then wipe off with a clean dry rag

imperial sizing wax for sizing the larger cases and still just wipe off with a clean dry rad

 

[group therapy]

What do you use to "just wipe" your cases? Any issues with greasy feeling cases??

I used to resize and then tumble them for a little while, gets the lube off and makes them shine. when I had that bad day at the 600 yard line( when the cases were tumbled) I decided to stop tumbling. after I resize them now I just wipe them off with a blue paper towel( you know, the heavy duty ones). there is no greasy feeling on the brass( but I don't go crazy with the imperial either) and they don't look terrible(you know, just dull, not SHINY) but I just shot a 2.2" group (which is good for me) at 600. one of my friends shot a 1.8" and he doesn't tumble either. I don't know what I don't know but several GREAT!!! shooters have told me they don't tumble ever. like I said, maybe no correlation at all or maybe a bunch, but I stopped.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

You got a lot of stuff goin on there. Simplify your life- ditch the drawer full of dies and get a fl bushing die and whatever flavor seating die you like. Id quit reloading if i had to make things that complicated. Corn cob tumbling? You can tumble them for a week and the inside and primer pockets are still dirty. One wipe with a krazy kloth will get them shinier than corn cob if thats what youre after and you can do that polishing on your couch. Itll instantly remove the carbon from the outside of your neck as well. The more times that case runs into a die the more chances you have to induce runout if thats a concern. Once you get a proper fl bushing die you wont even have to check concentricity anymore just load and go.

 

[jpx2rk]

I was just curious about the end result, that's all. I've given brass a bath in alcohol to remove the lube and it dries quickly when using Imperial.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

I was just curious about the end result, that's all. I've given brass a bath in alcohol to remove the lube and it dries quickly when using Imperial.

A wipe with one of those blue shop towels that come in the box from an auto parts store is usually all you need to remove imperial. You can do it as you transfer them to their final resting box.

 

[JFrank]

You could use all the old T shirts your wife hates.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

You could use all the old T shirts your wife hates.

My harley shirt collection from around the world since the 80’s?

 

[JFrank]

My harley shirt collection from around the world since the 80’s?

Yes and the Wife beaters as well.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Yes and the Wife beaters as well.

Thats alabama. We dont wear those in the north arkansas hills

 

[group therapy]

A wipe with one of those blue shop towels that come in the box from an auto parts store is usually all you need to remove imperial. You can do it as you transfer them to their final resting box.

thats what I wuz talkin bout!!!!

 

[JFrank]

Thats alabama. We dont wear those in the north arkansas hills

I think there is still a few in NJ and LA

 

[walker2713]

I think there is still a few in NJ and LA

I trust you're speaking of that West Coast "LA"......