I normally write my daily postings the night before. The article about pulling bullets was written Friday night for Saturday morning. After I wrote the article, around 2322, I decided it was time for bed. And got distracted on the way there.

The reloading press was right there. I had warmed up the scale before starting the article. So I sat down and reloaded the bullets I had just pulled.

Per the Hornady manual, 14.5gr of Alliant 2400 under a 156gr HDY GTX. Success!

Today I did a test firing. The .357 Mag was an afterthought.

I couldn’t find any 30-30, I knew I needed to load some. That required I find the 30-30 brass and prep it, locating the powder, then setting up the reloading bench for 30-30. The first crate I checked was labeled “brass”. Yes, it was full of brass, none of the brass was 30-30. The next two crates were labeled bullets, not worth checking.

This required more digging. I cannot find the crate or ammo can that should be full of powder, nor can I find the can or crate full of 30-30 brass.

I do find the 30cal can labeled “30-30”, I open it, hoping to find cases. Nope! Instead, I found the mother load. Two boxes of bullets. Old bullets. A couple of plastic ziplock bags labeled for 30-30. A bag with a single case ready to reload.

The bottom half of the can was full of loaded, ready to use 30-30.

Using the instructions I got from the owner of boxes for ammo, I started backing them in nice white boxes. 6 boxes, 20 rounds each of 30-30. I don’t need to reload any 30-30 today!

I took the Marlin 30-30 with scope out to try to zero it. Not a lot of joy there. I need to do it again. Since I was taking the 30-30 out, I took the Ruger GP100 with .357 Mag loaded up. Fired off the cylinder. Perfection. All the cases ejected as they should. No sighs of over pressure on the primers, and I’m below max load.

The 30–30 Marlin punched my shoulder harder than I expected. It didn’t zero. I’m not sure what is going on there. My Winchesters, firing the same loads, do an outstanding job of ringing steel and punching holes in paper, exactly where I want. Iron sights and all.

Sunday I need to finish digging through the reloading room. I know there is a couple of cans of powder in there. I just need to find them.

When you make a mistake, own up, do the right thing.

I didn’t do the right thing. The right thing was to pull all the bullets for the hot loads I made. I didn’t want to because it is a bit of work, and I’m lazy. It should be safe to unload them through the R92.

Lazy, safe, reloading do not work. You have to be careful, you have to do the right thing, every time.

I have two or three powder throws. I do not use them. The consistency I was getting with them wasn’t good enough.

The two presses I have are both Lee presses. One is an OLD single stage. I like it. I don’t use it. At this point, my main complaint, using it to deprime, is no longer an issue as I use a different method. The press I do use is a Lee Turret press.

When I started using it, I used it as a turret press. Everything was all setup and I could crank out the rounds quickly and easily. First I would deprime, then clean the cases in a wet tumbler. From there, it was time to run it through the turret press.

Put the case in shell holder. Handle down to resize the case. While the handle is down, place primer in the primer cup. Handle up to insert the primer and rotate the plate to the next station. Handle down to flare the mouth, throw the powder charge. The Lee charger is semi-automatic. As the case presses into the die, it causes the charger to throw one charge. Handle up, place bullet in the case. Handle down to seat the bullet. Handle up to move to the next station. Handle down to crimp the case. Remove the cartridge, put the case in the shell holder, repeat.

Today, I use the turret press as a quick change plate. There is a universal depriming die, sizing die, mouth flare, bullet seating+crimping die. I rotate the plate to the die I want, then use it like a single stage press.

Which brings us to how I do it now. I have an automatic powder measure. You input the weight you want, press the “drop” button. The machine twists a trickle tube until the scale reads exactly the weight you wanted.

It takes just a few moments to throw the charge accurately. I have a standalone powder charger stand. I have just the base in it. This gives me a big enough target that I don’t need a funnel. I hold the case mouth against the bottom surface, pour the pan into the top and the case is charged.

The pan gets placed back on the scale for the auto-throw. Once it stabilizes, it will start throwing the next charge. While that charge is being thrown, I’m putting the case in the press, putting a bullet on and seating it along with the crimp.

Not as fast as a progressive, by far. Not as fast as just using the turret press. But it is the way I do it today.

So back to pulling bullets. I have a collet puller which hasn’t worked for me. Instead, I use an inertia puller. Put a round in the puller. Hit it on a hard surface a few times, the bullet pops out. It works, it just takes more of an effort than I like, as a lazy person.

Now that all the bullets are pulled, I can reuse the bullets and put the correct charge in place.

Thank you to everybody who told me I was being a dumb ass. I was. Your gently chiding was enough to make it clear I needed to do the right thing.

This is what I was thinking of:

Since the video, they did discover that the SLAP rounds that he was firing were not military surplus. That they were way too hot and the cause of the exploding 50 BMG rifle.

Things are getting better. I have a few rounds to be pulled. All the “hot” rounds have been put in a safe place, and I’ll pull them tomorrow.

There have been a couple of horrific opinions issued by the courts in the last few weeks. I’m going to be looking at more of them.

There have been a few wins. The 11th Circuit has vacated the opinion of the 3 judge panel and is currently planning on hearing the 18-20 yo aren’t a part of The People en banc.

The 2nd Circuit is still dragging their heels. The 7th Circuit hard testimony and is not going into wait it out mode. The 4th circuit still hasn’t made up their mind if they are going to follow Bruen and declare Kolbe bad law.

I’m still looking for dana950 and OldNFO to contact me via email.

Have a fantastic weekend!

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