Speeding Up my Process

[romack991]

As an update to my "speeding up the process" dilemma:

1) As mentioned already, I have gone full bore to priming on the XL650. Big increase in throughput, and I am never going back to hand priming for pistol rounds.

2) Minimal brass sorting: I am still going through my cleaned range brass and culling out the bad cases (very few), and a few brands that seem substandard (Tulammo, FM, etc.). I also separate out the crimped NATO primers (I seem to get a fair amount of those, maybe 10-15 out of 500?), but for the most part, it is pretty quick and has saved a ton of time.

3) I am now wet tumbling without decapping, and I now decap as part of the loading process. HUGE time savings!!! Who cares about nice clean primer pockets again???

All in all, I am actually in an ammo surplus mode for the first time all year! I have about 1,200 rounds of 9mm stocked, and as soon as my new bullet order arrives on Tuesday, I want to get a couple of thousand more loaded up this week. That won't last very long (I am at about 11,000 rounds fired for the year), but it is better than being "Old Mother Hubbard who went to the cupboard to get her poor SIG some ammo"! At least I am making progress...

Now to get moving on the .45 stockpile. I am literally down to about 50 rounds.

You're shooting 10k+ and still looking at headstamps and primers? My brass gets sorted with the shell sorter bowls, dumped into the tumbler, then a quick shot of oneshot and thrown into the case feeder. Practice ammo goes straight into a ammo can. Match ammo "typically" gets checked with a hundo gauge. Anything that fails gets thrown in the practice can unless there is an obvious crack or something.

Are you wet tumbling with pins? A lot of shooters don't bother with the pins, you just need the outside of the case clean. That would save time as well.

For 45 on the 650, I go ahead and size/deprime ~50 extra cases to have in a bin. That way when you run into a small pistol primer, just pull that case out, pop the previously sized/deprimed case in, and keep going. Throw the small primer case in a tub to save for a rainy day when you don't have large primers. (That's assuming you don't sort before hand. I would much rather handle 5 or 10% of cases that way instead of handling 100% of the cases sorting by hand.)

 

[Doublehelix]

You're shooting 10k+ and still looking at headstamps and primers?

Yeah, nuts isn't it??? I am pretty OCD, and sometimes I just need to let go, which is what I have been doing as of late. Feels great actually, and a heck of lot less work.

For 45 on the 650, I go ahead and size/deprime ~50 extra cases to have in a bin. That way when you run into a small pistol primer, just pull that case out, pop the previously sized/deprimed case in, and keep going. Throw the small primer case in a tub to save for a rainy day when you don't have large primers. (That's assuming you don't sort before hand. I would much rather handle 5 or 10% of cases that way instead of handling 100% of the cases sorting by hand.)

Yeah, this one has worried me in the past. When I decapped, it was easy to tell the LPP from the SPP, and I would sort before priming.

So you can tell when you go to prime a SPP case that that the LPP doesn't fit, and you stop the press? You are just feeling the resistance? I have heard of Kaboom! stories with trying to force a LPP into a SPP hole, but those must be from folks that are trying to force it I take it?

So can you easily tell when you come across a SPP .45 case? That's awesome, and will make that aspect of the .45 loading easier. What do you feel, just a total stop when you use normal pressure?

 

[romack991]

Yeah, this one has worried me in the past. When I decapped, it was easy to tell the LPP from the SPP, and I would sort before priming.

So you can tell when you go to prime a SPP case that that the LPP doesn't fit, and you stop the press? You are just feeling the resistance? I have heard of Kaboom! stories with trying to force a LPP into a SPP hole, but those must be from folks that are trying to force it I take it?

So can you easily tell when you come across a SPP .45 case? That's awesome, and will make that aspect of the .45 loading easier. What do you feel, just a total stop when you use normal pressure?

Yeah, with normal pressure, you can feel the stroke stop short. I'm not sure how someone would set off a small primer with a large primer plunger. The plunger is as big as the primer. The biggest thing is the edges of the primer can get slightly deformed. Putting a new case in, there is no issue. The primer goes in and works fine. However, initially I was letting them go down the ski ramp and then putting them back through the tube. Every once in a while the primer would get snagged on something and get stuck or flipped sideways. That's why I recommend having the presized cases ready to swap in.

 

[Doublehelix]

Yeah, with normal pressure, you can feel the stroke stop short. I'm not sure how someone would set off a small primer with a large primer plunger. The plunger is as big as the primer. The biggest thing is the edges of the primer can get slightly deformed. Putting a new case in, there is no issue. The primer goes in and works fine. However, initially I was letting them go down the ski ramp and then putting them back through the tube. Every once in a while the primer would get snagged on something and get stuck or flipped sideways. That's why I recommend having the presized cases ready to swap in.

Actually, they would be setting off a large primer that the large plunger is trying to shove into a small primer pocket.

I love your suggestion of having some cases sized and de-capped and ready to go. I am absolutely going to do that. Love it.