What did you do today in the world of reloading?

[phatcyclist]

My brother mentioned that he didn't have any soft point 7.62x54r, so I loaded him up a few for an upcoming hunting trip. Aside from that, I prepped twenty .45-70 cases.

 

[ROGER4314]

The 300 Blackout is very impressive to the point where I went diving head first into the .458 Socom! I traded for my rifle and started ordering reloading gear. Versatility of these cartridges opens up lots of doors to experimentation! Friends hunt with silenced rifles so we'll try some subsonic rounds, too.

The 458 Socom is pretty easy to describe. It's like carrying a 45/70 rifle using the AR 15 platform. It isn't a long range cartridge but it's the hog hammer of death to piggies and at piggie hunting distances.

Got all of the stuff to rig the Dillon RL550B's for 458 Socom and found out a few things that may be of interest to the members.

The Socom uses a larger than normal powder funnel so the standard Dillon RL550B powder dies won't work. Dillon makes and sells an oversize powder die for the Socom and it's only a few bucks more than the standard powder die. Dillon conversions will not work without the larger powder die.

I prefer RCBS dies because I use a lot of them and keep spare parts at home for them. There were NO RCBS reloading dies for the Socom! A call to RCBS revealed an interesting story. Alexander Arms has a death grip on rights to the 458 Socom and permits dies and other tooling to be made only under license. RCBS did not pay the license fee and does not plan to. My investigation found that Dillon, Lee, Hornady and Redding have paid the license fee.

I use cartridge case gauges religiously but have not found one for the 458 Socom. I'll keep looking.

The new Lyman 50 edition loading manual has good information and loads for the 300 Blackout and 458 Socom. It's worth the $23 or so to get the new version.

458 Socom is more like a pistol cartridge than a rifle cartridge. Strangely, one of the popular powders for the 300 BLK and 458 Socom is H110 which is the also powder I use to load .410 shotgun shells. On the Socom, H110 works well until you load heavy bullets.

That's all for now. It's a giant learning curve!

Flash

 

[Dawico]

The 300 Blackout is very impressive to the point where I went diving head first into the .458 Socom! I traded for my rifle and started ordering reloading gear. Versatility of these cartridges opens up lots of doors to experimentation! Friends hunt with silenced rifles so we'll try some subsonic rounds, too.

The 458 Socom is pretty easy to describe. It's like carrying a 45/70 rifle using the AR 15 platform. It isn't a long range cartridge but it's the hog hammer of death to piggies and at piggie hunting distances.

Got all of the stuff to rig the Dillon RL550B's for 458 Socom and found out a few things that may be of interest to the members.

The Socom uses a larger than normal powder funnel so the standard Dillon RL550B powder dies won't work. Dillon makes and sells an oversize powder die for the Socom and it's only a few bucks more than the standard powder die. Dillon conversions will not work without the larger powder die.

I prefer RCBS dies because I use a lot of them and keep spare parts at home for them. There were NO RCBS reloading dies for the Socom! A call to RCBS revealed an interesting story. Alexander Arms has a death grip on rights to the 458 Socom and permits dies and other tooling to be made only under license. RCBS did not pay the license fee and does not plan to. My investigation found that Dillon, Lee, Hornady and Redding have paid the license fee.

I use cartridge case gauges religiously but have not found one for the 458 Socom. I'll keep looking.

The new Lyman 50 edition loading manual has good information and loads for the 300 Blackout and 458 Socom. It's worth the $23 or so to get the new version.

458 Socom is more like a pistol cartridge than a rifle cartridge. Strangely, one of the popular powders for the 300 BLK and 458 Socom is H110 which is the also powder I use to load .410 shotgun shells. On the Socom, H110 works well until you load heavy bullets.

That's all for now. It's a giant learning curve!

Flash

I smelled burnt H110 for the first time yesterday that I know of. That stuff stinks and I have decided that it will never be in my stable of powders for that one reason. It is an assault on the senses.

 

[orbitup]

I might be interested in 458 if the bullets weren't so expensive.

 

[rp-]

Yep

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[texasjohnboy]

I ordered myself a Hornady Classic Single Stage Kit, .223 dies and shell holders. Hoping to be doing more in the world of reloading before too long

 

[rp-]

Welcome to the club. Soon youll find you shoot more to reload more. Eventually you might even make it to casting your own bullets.

Today i ran the pro1000 and finished off 260 or so 40s ive been putting off. Organized some of my stuff as well.

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[Charlie]

I ordered myself a Hornady Classic Single Stage Kit, .223 dies and shell holders. Hoping to be doing more in the world of reloading before too long

Good for you. You'll enjoy the quiet time!

 

[deemus]

I finally got around to sorting a myriad of cases that various people have given me. A buddy works for a large city, and he scored a ton of brass for me that officers had shot: 223, 308, 40, 9 and 380. My wife saves those potato salad tubs for me. Those things work great for sorting cases. I usually watch Longmire while sorting cases. Bag of cases in my lap, tubs lined up on the coffee table in front of me. The mouths are big enough to pitch them in without moving around too much.

I need to load some more 45 Colt rounds, and also some 30 Carbine. Finally bought some 30 Carbine bullets last month, now to get them loaded.

 

[ROGER4314]

The friends and I started a shopping list for .458 Socom components. Yes, bullet cost is high, but the performance of this cartridge is off the scale! We are going to stay below 325 grain bullets so we can double up the H110 powder with .300 Blackout. Anything over 325 grains, H110 stops being listed in .458 Socom recipes.

I priced a box of 20 .458 Socom cartridges today. It was over $51!

I'm using the Lyman #50 brand new manual and following it closely. Strangely, the recipes call for using large pistol magnum primers in the .458 Socom! The manual also cautions against loading a cartridge through the ejection port then allowing the bolt to slam forward. They say that because they're using pistol primers (thinner shell) the possibility of a slam fire is greater. Charging normally through a magazine is recommended.

The .300BLK and .458 projects are proceeding smoothly!

Flash

 

[rp-]

The friends and I started a shopping list...

Daaaang... Thats a good idea. When i went to cabelas this weekend i went for a pound of h335 and large rifle primers. Neither of which i got.

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[Txhillbilly]

The friends and I started a shopping list for .458 Socom components. Yes, bullet cost is high, but the performance of this cartridge is off the scale! We are going to stay below 325 grain bullets so we can double up the H110 powder with .300 Blackout. Anything over 325 grains, H110 stops being listed in .458 Socom recipes.

I priced a box of 20 .458 Socom cartridges today. It was over $51!

I'm using the Lyman #50 brand new manual and following it closely. Strangely, the recipes call for using large pistol magnum primers in the .458 Socom! The manual also cautions against loading a cartridge through the ejection port then allowing the bolt to slam forward. They say that because they're using pistol primers (thinner shell) the possibility of a slam fire is greater. Charging normally through a magazine is recommended.

The .300BLK and .458 projects are proceeding smoothly!

Flash

The 458 is a fun cartridge,but it does get expensive to shoot. I had one for several years,the short range of the cartridge just wasn't good for me. I shot 4 different bullets out of mine,for range fun the 300 gr JHP was cheap and accurate. For hunting,I used the 300 gr Nosler Silvertip,325 gr Hornady FTX,and 405 gr Remington.
My main powders were H110,Lil Gun,and Reloader 7. Buy your brass directly from Starline,it'll save some $$$

I never worried too much about having a slam fire when single loading the rifle.
You'll find all the info you need for the 458 over at - http://458socomforums.com/index.php

 

[ROGER4314]

I decided not to put optics on my .458 Socom rifle due to the short effective range. Instead, the MagPul folding peep sight does that job. The rifle has a rail that extends from the charging handle to the muzzle, so right radius between the front and real sights is very long. I hope my cataracts will accept this departure from the "optics only" policy in use for about a year.

Daaaang... Thats a good idea. When i went to cabelas this weekend i went for a pound of h335 and large rifle primers. Neither of which i got.

We have a small group that hunts a lot so we combined efforts. 300 Blackout is not too expensive to load, but the .458 Socom is off the scale! I bought all of the reloading gear because that's my expertise. Yes, it was expensive, but now it's mine and except for a few back ordered items, everything is here.

I get to partake of their game cooking. Yesterday, Bonnie and I got to dig in with a pot of venison stew. It was terrific! The guys feed their families with deer and piggie meat. It's almost like the way things were in the early days of the US!

Flash

 

[southtexaspilot]

Loaded 50 rounds for the Raptor. 225gr ftx. Sized and decapped about 60 pieces of brass. At 80 cents a piece for new brass, I've become more aware of picking it up. Need to buy a cleaner. Looking into stainless media.

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[Mike_from_Texas]

The 300 Blackout is very impressive to the point where I went diving head first into the .458 Socom! I traded for my rifle and started ordering reloading gear. Versatility of these cartridges opens up lots of doors to experimentation! Friends hunt with silenced rifles so we'll try some subsonic rounds, too.

The 458 Socom is pretty easy to describe. It's like carrying a 45/70 rifle using the AR 15 platform. It isn't a long range cartridge but it's the hog hammer of death to piggies and at piggie hunting distances.

Got all of the stuff to rig the Dillon RL550B's for 458 Socom and found out a few things that may be of interest to the members.

The Socom uses a larger than normal powder funnel so the standard Dillon RL550B powder dies won't work. Dillon makes and sells an oversize powder die for the Socom and it's only a few bucks more than the standard powder die. Dillon conversions will not work without the larger powder die.

I prefer RCBS dies because I use a lot of them and keep spare parts at home for them. There were NO RCBS reloading dies for the Socom! A call to RCBS revealed an interesting story. Alexander Arms has a death grip on rights to the 458 Socom and permits dies and other tooling to be made only under license. RCBS did not pay the license fee and does not plan to. My investigation found that Dillon, Lee, Hornady and Redding have paid the license fee.

I use cartridge case gauges religiously but have not found one for the 458 Socom. I'll keep looking.

The new Lyman 50 edition loading manual has good information and loads for the 300 Blackout and 458 Socom. It's worth the $23 or so to get the new version.

458 Socom is more like a pistol cartridge than a rifle cartridge. Strangely, one of the popular powders for the 300 BLK and 458 Socom is H110 which is the also powder I use to load .410 shotgun shells. On the Socom, H110 works well until you load heavy bullets.

That's all for now. It's a giant learning curve!

Flash

I believe you were given incorrect info on the SOCOM. Alexander was not involved in the development of the Socom that I am aware of. Alexander has their own proprietary big bore cartridge with the .50 Beuwolf. Much like the 6.5 Grendel Bill Alexander did and may still have a death grip on the rights of the .50. People were starting to build variants of the 6.5 Grendel so he had to finally release it to SAAMI for standardization.

I have a 458 Socom SBR that is a hoot to shoot. I've been trying desperately to get a pig to volunteer to take one for the team but have so far been unsuccessful. I load the 300 grain Barnes TTSX, 325 grain Hornady FTX, 325 grain frangibles and 500 grain Outlaw expanding subsonics. Now I just need a willing volunteer so I can test out the effectiveness of each. I want to say I'm using Titegroup for most of my loads but I would need to check my Quickload data.

Gratuitous pic of 458 Socom SBR. The Vortex Strike Eagle has since been tossed and replaced with a Leupold VX6. The glass was terrible in the Strike Eagle.

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[Mike_from_Texas]

Loaded these little missiles. 6.5-284 Norma, Lapua brass, Berger 140 VLD, RL25 powder, Federal 215 GMM primers.

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[jacobite]

Those are too pretty to shoot.

 

[STXdevilsquid]

Loaded these little missiles. 6.5-284 Norma, Lapua brass, Berger 140 VLD, RL25 powder, Federal 215 GMM primers.

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Those look like they would just scare something to death, awesome.

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[A & P]

Here's what I did this week in the world of reloading:

Finally worked up some test loads for my 9mm. Have a Hornady LNL AP in the office collecting dust. Changing to Berry's 115gr RN to test. Looks like 1140 fps is where I'll be at. Then shot some of my Hornady Critical Defense to see how it chronys and it was right around 1150. Had to wait for the sun to come up though. First tests were reading 660fps...low light/fog.

Now I have my data for my target loads: 5.3gr WSF under Berry 115gr RN, mix brass, Win SPP. When I have a few minutes, I'll spin my chair around and crank out a few hundred rounds at a time. And in case anyone is wondering, no, I don't have a favorite load. I just happen to have 12 pounds of WSF to work through before I start trying other loads. I also just got in a ton of 124gr THP (target hollow points) that I'm also hoping to test.

I'm also anxious to work up loads for my 308 and new Savage Stealths in 338LM and 6.5CM

And now for something more unique:

I called Dillon to see about getting set up as a dealer. We carry some Hornady products (lots, actually) but so does everyone else. I saw a few people mention being Dillon dealers and the guys who seem "serious" frequently use Dillons. Also, before an ammo manufacturer ramps up production needing a Ammoload or Setpoint or Camdex, they usually have a few Dillion 1050s running. DoubleTap and Black Hills still use 1050s for low production runs as I understand it. So it seems to be the king of presses. Figured maybe I could be special by carrying Dillons. The margins are okay, but not much better than the other brands (if any). The presses and equipment is more expensive by about 20%. But the thing I was really concerned about (and sent an email about without response yet) is that they don't appear to support their dealers. If you go to Dillons website, they don't appear to even list dealers. If you go to Hornady's website, they actually have you put in a zip code and send you to a nearby dealer. So I was concerned that if I sold Dillon products that nobody would know, Dillion wouldn't direct them to me, and then as I educated people on Dillons "superior products" I'd just be building their online business. It appears their business model is really just to sell direct to the customer and cut out the middle man...but if a dealer wants to carry their products, we can buy at a slight discount.

I think their brand is great, their reputation is stellar, and their customer service is top notch (as is my experience with Hornady). I don't have any Dillon products, but everyone I know who does is almost religious about them. Just wish they appeared to have a better dealer support and promotion concept. I like that their toolhead move down to the shell holder versus moving the shell plate up to the tools. And my Hornady decapping pin on my 9mm resizing die reseats the primer about 1 in 10 times. Very annoying. My solution has been to have an employee manually deprime brass if we are slow or have down time.

Anyone have feelings on Dillon either way? Would you like to see more local gun shops/reloading shops carrying their products? Ever been curious why more shops don't carry their presses and products?

 

[A & P]

Today i made the long trek to cabelas but found they were out if titegroup powder. Bought some win231 though. Seems to be a pretty universal powder.

Also picked up a box berrys 40 bullets to finish off my 40 brass.

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Too bad you're not closer. I have two 8# Titegroup in stock right now. You're in Converse? I went to Kitty Hawk JHS and Randolph HS. That was back in the days of parachute pants and mall hair, though. I think Judson HS was just splitting into two campuses. My mother is visiting us in Houston for Thanksgiving. Maybe you'll have to put in a special delivery request. Also have about 95,000 Berry's bullets left from the order we just got in.