Quote:
Originally Posted by Rock&Ice
snip
then bought a tumbler for the brass and decided on corn media. I can’t quite remember what we did when we were kids but I am absolutely certain we never had anything to clean the brass except for some brasso (which I also used to polish my brass after a couple hours in the tumbler).
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I prefer crushed walnut for cleaning as it is more aggressive and cleans faster, (buying in bulk is a LOT cheaper than any branded stuff), place some small pieces of used dryer sheet in the walnut to catch the crud and keep your walnut clean longer.
I suggest you save your corn cob media for polishing.
AFAIK, Brasso contains ammonia which can leach zinc from brass and make it brittle, avoid Brasso.
I prefer NuFinish car polish, which I thin 50/50 with paint thinner/mineral spirits.
I use 2 cap-fulls of thinned polish in the first batch, then ~1 cap-full for subsequent batches (or as required).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rock&Ice
I tried to set up the powder dispenser in the 54 -55 gr range and was a bit surprised that others trust this without weighing every load. I had a lot of variation and to set it up I dispensed a crazy amount powder through it. I think I will have to do more work on the set up of the dispenser as it wasn’t accurate or consistent enough for me.
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Few powder measures are able to accurately dispense extruded stick powders. Most of us set the powder measure to dispense low, and then trickle up to our desired charge weight. Powder measures may work better with ball or flake powders.
NOTE: Most of us use starting loads lower than you did, Some suggest starting -10% below max,
but NOT below the manual suggested starting load.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rock&Ice
I did a lot of reading about trying to determine the bullet seating depth specific to your rifle but that seems above my pay grade. After more reading and some logic, I figured that if the factory load worked then I should trust that length. I definitely spent a lot of time measuring the bullet to see if perhaps I was seating it too far but that seems like wasted time now.
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Factory loads will (usually) be SAAMI spec, but are NOT designed for best performance in YOUR INDIVIDUAL firearm.
COAL is really just a SAAMI spec, that is mainly relevant to maximum length that will fit and feed from the magazine.
I suggest you research CBTO (Cartridge Base To Ogive) length, and obtain a comparator attachment for your caliper to allow you to measure it properly.
http://www.hornady.com/assets/files/...structions.pdf
I suggest purchasing the body attachment for your caliper and individual inserts for your bullet caliber and also the correct case shoulder bump insert for your cartridge (the case shoulder bump insert will be used to properly adjust the FL sizing die for YOUR INDIVIDUAL chamber).
The Hornady and Sinclair inserts fit in both bodies, the inserts are slightly different, I use both as some situations are better measured by each.
http://www.brownells.com/search/inde...ator&ksubmit=y
I prefer the Sinclair case bump inserts (as they are fitted to shoulder angle) and Sinclair XL body as it allows measuring the case shoulder over a seated bullet.
http://www.brownells.com/reloading/m...prod35265.aspx
Welcome to the affliction,
Good Luck, YMMV.