A man must know his limitations.
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I put it to my wife this way....... Your car payment, $360 a month, $4320 a year, Mine $0, Your nails, $20 a month $240 a year, Mine $0, your hair cuts, $75 every 2 months $450 a year, Mine $0, I cut my own hair, Make up, average of $20 a month(we all know is a lot more than that) $240, Mine, $0., there is no make up in this world, that would make me look pretty. So $0. Your lunches, Average $5 a day for 48 weeks(leaving vacation time out) $1200, Mine $0, I pack my own lunch. Her total every year.....$6,450...Mine $0, and I told her, " and this is with out counting underwear and bras, Cus I don't use bras, and I don't wear underwear" followed with " you work 2080 hours a year, I work 2860 hours a year", I finish with "Baby, I'm just trying to keep up with you, and I can't" And you know how it goes, the roll of the eyes, the confused look, and the angry face.... followed with "But you still spend to much money" LOL. She don't complain any more
I just tell the SHTW if I can't enjoy the fruits of my labor I'm stayin home...She's usually much more reasonable after that.
I actually sold 2 presses I had, shocking as that sounds.
That frees up some room on the bench for the stuff that took its place.:banana:
Finally got the Wet Tumbler and wet/dry media separator. I love the result of the wet tumbler, with just 3 hours of tumbling(was told, that I only need a 90 min tumble, or 2 hours tumble, if brass is really dirty). Also love the idea, of the media lasting forever( if I don't loosed). Primer pockets are clean also. After reading about the drying complain, I will be working on a drying station, made out from a 5 gallon paint bucket and lid, spaghetti strainer and an old hair blower. I used a car drying chamois and the blower and the brass dried really quick. Attachment 10333Attachment 10334Attachment 10335Attachment 10336
Cheap drying station for wet tumbling brass Attachment 10363Attachment 10364Attachment 10365Attachment 10366Attachment 10367Attachment 10368
I dry my brass in the oven usually. Set it on 170, put the brass on a pizza tray and let it relax.
My first reloads of 308 win. Now I need the range to open for 100 yards to test. Attachment 10676
Just for whatever it's worth... I'm pretty much appalled that the term "manual" didn't come up (so far as I saw) till Post # 48, and 30plusretlaw had to bring it up himself. I ain't been 'round lately, or that wouldn't have happened. In his case, his plans seem fairly simple and to the point, and yet I just really don't feel comfortable about "helping" anyone learn to hand load with out telling them that "THE FIRST THING YOU DO IS GET A MANUAL. THE SECOND THING YOU DO IS READ THE MANUAL... NOT JUST THE PART ABOUT THE PARTICULAR CARTRIDGE YOU WANT TO LOAD... BUT ALSO THE GENERAL EXPLANATION PART. THEN YOU READ THE GENERAL EXPLANATION PART AGAIN (AND AGAIN, UNTIL YOU ARE PRETTY SURE YOU UNDERSTAND IT). THEN YOU CAN START WORKING OUT A SPECIFIC LOAD FOR A SPECIFIC CARTRIDGE, SPECIFIC BULLET, AND SPECIFIC POWDER.
Several of you mentioned the Lyman Manual, but actually there are TWO GENERAL metallic cartridge smokeless powder manuals (Lyman's Reloading Handbook 50th Edition and Richard Lee's updated second printing of his Modern Reloading Second Edition) that I know of, that have good general introductory sections, and especially for REDUCED LOADS of rifle cartridges using cast lead bullets. Lee skins that cat a whole different way. Actually Lyman has several manuals, a Cast Bullet Handbook now on its 4th edition, a Black Powder Handbook and Loading Manual, 2d Edition, a Shotshell Reloading Handbook 5th Edition, and an AR Reloading Handbook, that I know of. If one happens to be into shotshell reloading Ballistic Products has a large manual that I have a copy of but have not read, plus some smaller, specialized, manuals. The general precautionary note is that those tested loads, published in a proofread book with a big company's name behind it... those are safe to use if you understand them. Loads posted on the internet by Joe Dyslexic, perhaps after two six-packs and a 50 tokes on a bong... not so much. And making your own "mathematical adjustments" on a load... Un Unh. It don't work that way... Don't do that!
If you want to stick to products of one company, several companies have manuals that reference only their own products and especially for powders there is also some online load data from the powder company. But Lyman and Lee in general list multiple companies' products. When you get to the point of trying to load something different without having to buy another powder, though, it helps to have Lyman, Lee, and possibly others. But, in general, the more guns you load for, the more powders you are likely to end up "needing", and only a few of them work in both hand guns and rifles, or shotguns.
Since I load smokeless and/or black powder cartridges for almost everything under the sun, I've come to appreciate how versatile black powder is, although most of the rules for smokeless and black powder are very different and there is considerable danger if you don't know that.
And for "we few, we happy few" who actually got this far, this isn't so much for 30plusretlaw as for whatever silent souls who may just be lurking out there, and absorbing things. It's nice if they can absorb sort of right-ish things, every once and awhile.
<--- Short attention span.