[lklawson]

Too late, next time.

Although, Got a good DIY for cleaning brass?

Hot soapy water and a brush.

I use a rock tumbler that came from a garage sale. One of the cheap ones made for children but it has lasted Untold number of hours and still keeps going. If you go that route then go to the big box pet store and buy a bag of crushed lizard litter. It is crushed Walnut. Buy some Nu Finish Car Wax from Walmart and maybe the cheapest toothpaste you can find. Add a squirt of those into the lizard litter media.

Peace favor your sword (mobile)

 

[moona11]

Save used dryer sheets. Toss a couple in the dry mix walnut. It knocks down the dust. Wet mix is hot water with dish soap and lemone shine. I have used a old crockpot or bucket with lid and shock it up. The crockpot works good to heat it and soak the brass. I stir is once and awhile. Then rinse real good. Then lay brass on a cookie sheet and place in oven at 125 to 150° till dry.

 

[dirt_19]

Handy and good reading even if its pretty old lots of good data and info.https://archive.org/details/Modern_Reloading_1st_Edition_by_Richard_Lee

 

[greg_r]

The kenetic bullet pullers are tough. Doubt you will ever break it.ni use the RCBS , which is all plastic, to pull lead bullets. I use the RCBS collet type to pull copper jacketed.

The unique is good lube. I keep a jar around even though I make my own as talked about in the thread Kirk posted.

A good way to clean your brass is to use a Rock tumbler, hot water, dish detergent, lemi shine, and BB's as tumbling media.

My use the Harbor Freight dual drum wet tumbler. Fill it about 2/3rds with brass. Top with BB's, fill with hot water, add dish detergent and a small bit of lemi shine. When done tumbling i strain through a collander into a bucket. Shake it around, the BB's will fall through. Then I dry the brass in a food dehydrator. I get the BB's back by pouring the bucket contents through a strainer. I decaap my brass first using the Lee decapping die.

I don't buy name brand, just the dollar store equivalent. The Goodwill store is a good place to find equipment. Catch a Harbor Freight sale, go on line and download a Harbor freight coupon, they honor both at the same time. You can usually get stuff as much as 50% off. Don't forget to to pick up your free stuff too!

 

[cicpup]

Pricing supplies. On average, how many pistol rounds will you get out of 1lb of powder?

 

[lklawson]

Pricing supplies. On average, how many pistol rounds will you get out of 1lb of powder?

This is where you break out your calculator and go get some load data.

Every pistol cartridge has a different "recipe" combining the bullet weight with the chosen powder. There is a maximum powder charge and a minimum powder charge. There are 7,000 grains (weight) per pound of powder.

So to find out, you'd have to find out what recipe you're using. For instance, if I use Hodgdon Universal powder and load for 9mm in 115gr. bullet weights, I see there are two bullets listed. Hard Cast Lead Round Nose and Gold Dot Hollow Point, but they have very different max and starting loads.

Universal
LRN Starting 4.0, Max 4.5
Gold Dot HP Starting 4.5, Max 5.O

So if I loaded min for starting charge LRN, I'd get 1750 charges but if I loaded max charge for GDHP, I'd only get 1400 charges.

If I chose Titegroup powder, I'd have a 4.5 - 4.8 spread for LRN and a 3.9 - 4.3 spread for GDHP. Or anywhere from 1793 charges for min on GDHP to 1458 charges for max on LRN.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk

 

[cicpup]

TY Sir. I do enjoy math. So that's approx 686 for the Tok (10.2) and 760 for the 10mm (9.2). Recipes have been chosen. I think.

 

[SavageGuy]

I get 1944 loads out of a pound of Titegroup for 9mm. Costs me less than a penny per powder charge

 

[histed]

Another suggestion for cleaning cases is to take a plastic container and mount it to a vibrating sander, fill the container with what ever solution you choose (I use hot water, Dawn and a little vinegar) and fire up the sander for about 30 minutes. Poor man's sonic cleaner. (Hey Kirk - this should appeal to your frugal nature). There are several detailed descriptions on the net, if you really need them. Oh, yeah, use a container with a locking lid. Bad things happen if the water sloshes on the sander.

 

[cicpup]

Pay Day

I did OK at best, but my son has had a great three weeks in a row. So thanks to his generosity and my fast talking, the following equipment was purchased today.

$33.32
LEE-STEEL-3-DIE-SET-7-62x25MM-TOKAREV

$42.89
LEE-40-S-W-10MM-AUTO-CARBIDE-4-DIE-SET

$19.57
Hornady-Chamfering-And-Deburring-Hand-Tool-17-To-45-Caliber

$23.14
Forster - Case Trimmer Pilot & Collet 40S&W/10mm

$35.00 - A lightly used, much improved powder measure and new beam powder scale.
Lee-Precision-Perfect-Powder-Measurer-and-powder-scale

That's $276.89 for hopefully every piece of equipment, tool and literature (minus a tumbler) needed to load both Tok and 40s&w/10mm.

Also purchased from Graf & Sons today:

1lb ACCURATE #5
2lb Accurate #7
1llb ALLIANT POWER PISTOL
CCI PRIMER 300 LARGE PISTOL 1000/BOX
CCI PRIMER 500 SMALL PISTOL 1000/BOX
2x HORNADY 30c(.308) 86gr SP-RN BULLET SoftPt-RN 100/BX
3x PRVI PARTIZAN BULLET 30c/7.62 85gr JHP (.3065) 100/BAG
NOSLER 10MM (.400) 150gr JHP BULLET 250/bx
AMERICAN QUALITY AMMO 10mm 180gr FMJ 250/box (great price, free brass)
2x FIOCCHI AMMO 7.62 TOKAREV 85gr FMJ 50/bx 20/cs (great price, free brass)
STARLINE BRASS 7.62x25 TOKAREV UNPRIMED 100/bx (new learnin' brass)

Total incl S&H + Hasmat = $438.16

This allows me to try 2 different recipes for each bullet (soft nose Tok, JHP Tok and JHP 10mm). Seems like a good start.

Really hope this works out because we're pretty much into it a brand new Springfield 1911-A1 incl FFL ($715.05).

Moon - Wanted to try the Tok recipe you posted but they only had 2400 powder in 8lbs. Tried LGS. They've been on the waiting list for 6 months and Midway was more than happy to rape me on shipping (2x the cost of 1lb just for shipping).

 

[histed]

Another good powder in the 2400 burn range is Ramshot Enforcer. I can't find it local, but you might.

 

[cicpup]

Another good powder in the 2400 burn range is Ramshot Enforcer. I can't find it local, but you might.

When I become comfortable and understand powders better I'll think about substitutes. For now I'm sticking to the load data exactly as written.

 

[GoesBang]

Hey Rich. Send me a message

 

[cicpup]

Dumb question time. Is there a difference between primer brands? Say one recipe says cci sp and another says winchester sp. Would cci work fine in both or not?

 

[RACHGIER]

I use tula primers on everything but magnum.

 

[lklawson]

Dumb question time. Is there a difference between primer brands? Say one recipe says cci sp and another says winchester sp. Would cci work fine in both or not?

Yes, there is a difference but it's usually not enough of a difference to make heart-rending changes. Some primers are a tad harder or softer. Some brands are more consistent in ignition or "charge." But as long as you stick with "small pistol primers" and don't mix "magnum" then you should be just fine. In general, especially for plinking ammo, you can substitute winchester, tula, cci, or whatever.

Long range accuracy shooters find one band which is "premium" and work up loads based on that. I've read that they even sort primers by weight to get more consistent down-range results.

For me, brand is relevant inasmuch as which one is the best price. I usually use CCI or Winchester, mostly because that's what's been available when I bought.

Peace favor your sword,
kirk

 

[histed]

In addition to what Kirk said, some primers are supposed to be "hotter" than others. CCI used to be the hottest, but that may have changed. CCI has a rep for being the hardest, then Remington (I think). So long as you are not working with max loads AND using the same brand of brass, everything Kirk said is, as usual, on the money.

 

[GoesBang]

Rich. I replied to your message.

 

[moona11]

I generally use cci primers. But I ended up with a few thousand Winchester cuase I couldn't find cci. I don't notice much difference between them in shooting target loads. But I avoid Remington for some reason I forget

 

[histed]

Never had much luck with Remington primers either. My rifles don't like them and I never bothered looking for pistol primers. My first choice is CCI, then Winchester and Federal, Never tried Tula either,