New folks to the craft in out of stock world

Well à friend of mine wants to get into the reloading craft.
Granted a econovirus forced shutdown, and shortages of components, does hamper things.
Primers, well scarce is a very enthusiastic term that seems appropriate.
But I don't remember when it reached all the way back to shortages and out of stock on priming tools, scales, shell holders, dies, presses like it has in these times.

I have some vintage gear he can use to get started, he found a little, and he can borrow some books I have. Abc's of reloading, Richard Lee 2nd edition, maybe Lyman 49 edition, that should be good general knowledge to start with.

So he will have to prime off press, but it's doable. Everything he learns will be used when supply lines return to normalcy, and the education is worthwhile.
So straightwall brass seems feasible at this point for him. That's the easiest place to start anyway.

Damn sure a bad time to get into reloading...

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Originally Posted by 12bhunting

Damn sure a bad time to get into reloading...

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A little behind the curve, but still better than $50 a box 9mm.

It ain't just re loading, canning stuff, meat grinders, body armor, all kinds of stuffs are getting hard to find. People that have laughed at my "hording " for years are now wanting to know where they can find some of whatever it is they were to arrogant to buy in the past. My answer...

"Man I don't know, I wish I would have bought some too."

No matter my situation on said items

Mason Jars were absent from shelves for several months

A few jars are around but usually get snatched up quick, even though they are expensive. Lids....good luck. I did find some reusable lids that weren't bad and bought a bunch of them.

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Originally Posted by 0utlaw

A few jars are around but usually get snatched up quick, even though they are expensive. Lids....good luck. I did find some reusable lids that weren't bad and bought a bunch of them.

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I have been ordering jars and lids off Walmart.com and Target.com for delivery and they were in stock and normally arrived with a couple of days. Last order was like a month ago. They may not have had the preferred wide mouth jars in Quart size, but had them in regular mouth size.


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I also had success at the local Tractor supply and I saw some at Ace Hardware stores out of town just a few weeks ago.


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Originally Posted by mapper

Well à friend of mine wants to get into the reloading craft.....

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What is your friend looking to load, Mapper?

9,45,223,308 pistol is achievable but rifle hard to find dies.
In rifle he would need more case prep tools, to deal with chamfer, deburr, crimp removal.
Sure I'd like to find a set of rcbs or redding dies and a 223 size shell holder.


The best i can scour up is the following
Tumbler, media, separator, std shell holder for 308/45, extended one for 9
Hand primer, a lyman all American press, Lee dies and pro autodisk for 9 and 45, and a 505 scale.

That will do pistol.

But yes all kinds of previously common stuff seems to have evaporated, canning lids, among them.
Well, I guess on the brighter side of things, it's nice to see a resurgence in self sufficiently skills.
Break out the foxfire books..

what is the extended shellholder?

It looks like this, it makes working with short cartridges easier.

Attachment 17570

huh interesting.

I thought he was talking about the adapters needed to use "new" (standard) shell holders with very old presses, but one of my presses is a pretty old Lyman Spartan and it uses standard shell holders so I was confused.

Well, if I could get a set of 223 rcbs dies, that would complete the kit.
I found a 3 die set of rcbs 308, from when I switched to redding dies
I have a powder measure he can borrow.

And there still is availible bras prep centers with military crimp removers.

I have a set of 45 colt Lee dies, and à rcbs 243 case micrometer

I'm pretty sure I have a set of 223 dies for you...

That would be great 12b,
Now in my travels I did find 2k of Remington LP primers
And 1K of Winchester shotgun primers

There were also 2 red presses, a single stage and a progressive it looked like.

Ive been trying to pick up stuff to start reloading for 6 months. Got most of the tools and components. Got to build a bench and set it all up. Its been hard to find for sure. Primers being the biggest hurdle, but I have managed to get a few to start.
Ill be using a Rock chucker
Going to load 223,6.8, 300BO, 260,7mm08, and 308 for now

The wood bench at harbor freight is a good starting point for a bench.
Solid top, 4 drawers, all wood, no wood by products or fillers.

This is what it looks like with a few modifications for deployment.
https://forum.capitalcitygunforum.co...3031-new-bench

I have some (probably a few hundred, maybe 500, going to check) 250? grain cast and lubed .45 bullets for the .45 colt I would probably willing to trade/sell. I don't load for the .45 colt.

I also have a few thousand of 200 and 230 grain .45 auto cast bullets (some lubed and some coated), I might sell or trade for the right stuff.

Now my ears perked right up on that unobtainium for unobtainium trade idea :goodjob:
I'm thinking since this is a public view section, maybe a post what you seek, and handle the rest in pm.
Rumbler built the house as a community.

And I do like cast lead in pistols, and have a lubrisizer i can use.

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Originally Posted by mapper

And I do like cast lead in pistols, and have a lubrisizer i can use.

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I like cast lead in any kind of device a lead projectile can be used in. But lead is rapidly becoming scarce if not yet unobtanium. Another notch or two on the regulatory garotte will probably drive it completely underground if its available at all.

I may have to expand my knowledge set to casting, in the future.
I just need to pick up a few things to do that.

I got a good deal on a bunch of wheel-weight lead, a Lyman electric pot and some molds a couple years ago. I now cast for basically every gun I have the ability to reload for. Many of them are more accurate with cast bullets than factory ammo.

I also only powder coat, I don't bother with lube (I sold my lubrisizer to WinterSoldier actually), they shoot incredibly clean, and let you cheat a little with the alloy and still get good results.

Lead is still around. I have hundreds of pounds and I've never paid for any of it. It isn't as easy to get as it was at one time I'm sure, but it isn't like it's difficult either. you can still find lead plumbing boots from roofing jobs in trash piles after all.

I have some molds, some lead, à lubrisizer, but need to pick up a ladle and a pot.
Need to pick up another mold or 2.
Ill have to sort through the stuff I have, and see what I have or not.
There is a old electric pot I have, but I don't trust it until I check/rebuild the wiring on it,
The molds are all lyman, sizers are setup in 38 and 45
I think I have a Noè 124 gr 308 mold as well I got in a trade.
Just haven't gone through them before, it may be time to see what is there.
And include that education to the list.
I'll look at my lyman book and see what insights it tells me.
Dad used to cast, and reload, but that knowledge was not passed on..
The lead he alloyed in corn bread molds, but what brinell hardness it is, I don't know.
I know he used to cast 44, 45 swc, 38 dewc,

you could get buy with a old cast iron pan or bean-pot on a propane burner, whitegas stove or even an open fire if you really want to be 'Old-school'.

I've never worried too much about hardness, the powder coat acts as a kind of "jacket" that has it's own hardness. I generally do some range scrap "alloy" mixed with some pewter for mold fillout. This makes pretty accurate bullets in my handguns that don't lead.

The Cast Bullet Handbook by Lyman is well worth getting, it is full of data for all kinds of cartridges and references molds from other companies besides Lyman which is nice.

I've shot thousands of my own cast .38 wadcutters and they have beat or at least been equal to off the shelf cast bullets from Hornady.

The CE harris "universal load" of Alliant/Hercules 2400 under a cast bullet in basically all full-power rifle cartridges is accurate in everything I've tried it in as well. Unless you are loading magnum pistol, and some rifle, powder coating eliminates the need for a gas check at lower velocities.

I’ve been looking at the Lee bottom pour electric pot to get started. But I’m with Mapper I need an education on how to make Alloys correctly and know the hardness. Where do you find tin and antimony ? I asked the guy at the local scrapyard and he acted like I was speaking German and didn’t know was I was talking about.

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Originally Posted by Mad Man

I’ve been looking at the Lee bottom pour electric pot to get started. But I’m with Mapper I need an education on how to make Alloys correctly and know the hardness. Where do you find tin and antimony ? I asked the guy at the local scrapyard and he acted like I was speaking German and didn’t know was I was talking about.

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you can buy tin and antimony ingots from places online like Rotometals

Also, if you go to thrift store and look for ugly grey dishes and cups that are able to be bent with your hands, those are pewter and contain tin and antimony. Many times they are also marked "pewter" on the bottom, and some I've bought have the alloy makeup in percentages printed on them.

The aforementioned Lyman Cast Bullet book goes into extreme detail on alloying, hardness testing and whatnot.

Also checkout Fortunecookie45lc and ElvisAmmo channels on youtube, they've helped me a lot.

fortunecookie45lc

Elvis ammo

I’ve seen some of the fortunecookie videos. I saw a guy on YouTube making lead shot for shotgun shells one time. That is a cool process.

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Originally Posted by Mad Man

I’ve seen some of the fortunecookie videos. I saw a guy on YouTube making lead shot for shotgun shells one time. That is a cool process.

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yeah it is, I've considered looking into building a shot dripper. I just don't shoot shotguns all that much to justify it. My old man used to load his turkeyloads on a Mec Jr., and he still has the machine and a bunch of shot. But ordering new shot is prohibitively expensive.

lots of people that make shot drop it into a fabric softener and water mix, since it's thicker than water the shot doesn't have to fall from as great a distance to form spheres and your "tower" can be shorter. At least that's my rudimentary understanding of it.

You need to build something like this, and charge those Wakulla hayseeds $10 to sightsee. You’ll make your money back in no time

Attachment 17587

I've got some advice on lead pots... Buy the largest one you possibly can. It's not that you need vast amounts of molten lead in the pot... It's that the more space between the top of the lead and the top of the pot... and also area to drop ingots into... the better. Also, if you are molding really large bullets, fast, having to load new ingots in drops the temperature a bit much. Results are more even if the temperature is kept more even... and having a larger molten lead supply pool helps you keep molding more constantly.

But... I don't know for certain but best I recall I've never bought a LUBRIZIZER locally. I bought a RCBS and heater for it new, somewhere on the internet, probably MidwayUSA. And I bought a really old Lyman on eBay. I have bought several presses locally, more kinds and quantity of Lees than I can even remember, one of which I eventually resold without ever using it because it just didn't ring my chimes, and most recently a really old Rockchucker... so old it was made by Ohaus instead of Blount, I believe. It's up in North Georgia, so I can't check that... and so is one of the Lees presses I don't remember exactly who I bought the Rockchucker from... but THAT may have been BWest.

But, as to shotgun shot... If you aren't so very fastidious about the minor considerations such as a swaged ball vs a molded ball with a sprue... you can make one size of buckshot in an EIGHTEEN-GANG Lee mold... if I recall right it is probably .36 cal., whatever caliber size ball works out in shotgun world to "triple aught". But the sizes available in round ball molds, if you are buying old ones off of eBay, is virtually infinite. You can find any size you want if you wait long enough, and the better brands typically don't leave much of a sprue. If you wait long enough and are lucky, you can probably also find a two-gang, three-gang, or maybe even several-more gang mold, and those speed up the process considerably. I'm particularly addicted to fine old Hensley and Gibbs molds or even moreso to the even older AND better George S. Hensley molds.

BUT... In PISTOL, for anything except extremely high-pressure rounds there is no need for particularly hard lead, and it's LUBRICATION not hardness that determines leading. The ONLY handgun leading problem I've ever had was with linotype in a Great War .450 Webley. It shredded that hard lead into myriads of thin splinters that literally coated both lands and groves in a dangling stalactite stalagmite forest of lead.

I've got a variety of muzzle stuffers from heavy duty to extremely light, that I hope to get around to giving a major workout to, some day... maybe after I'm so old I can only shoot by sense of smell and Braille.

Well, dad had a star lubrisizer, after sized and lubed they drop out the bottom. He just put cigar boxes under them and dropped into them.
There was 2 lead pots, a larger one in better shape, and a smaller one that was bottom pour that needs to be rewired and both needs looked at and cleaned up. Worse case, I can get a 20 lb pot if these don't work, or I can resussicate them. These are mid '60s models, so I don't think they owe any previous or prospective user much money.

There is a basket with his alloy ignots,
So I have enough to use to get started.

I'll clean the stuff up and go through it, and clean up the molds.
I have some bullet lube and a heater I can use, I think he used a mix of railroad side rod grease and maybe some beeswax,
I'll pick up a lyman cast book, and start with what I have..

Do people still use wheel weights? I may have a few pounds around if they're any good.

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Originally Posted by 0utlaw

Do people still use wheel weights? I may have a few pounds around if they're any good.

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Wheel weights are good for smokeless handgun loads, so long as they are actually LEAD. If you get one or two of the alloy ones in the pot you've ruined your bullets.

But, BTW. I only got into lubrisizers after I moved more towards black powder, so I mostly use them for black powder soft lead (pure or near-pure lead) bullets. For smokeless I prefer the Lee Precision sizers and a Lee (or other) alox bath. My 9x18mm hand loads using cut-down 9mm Parabellum brass and wheel weight lead bullets lubed with alox consistently cut my group sizes by at least half of anything Russian commercial ammunition can do for me... and the burning powder smells a lot nicer too... not to mention not propping-up Putin.

They were my primary source of bullet casting lead.

But... I've got a 120 grain lead bullet that I make in soft lead from a mold I designed for two very different uses... For a 9x18mm a bullet of that weight has to be very short and blunt... almost a ball. I couldn't make the mould with as large of a grease groove as I would have liked but I prefer lubrisizer lubrication for those, because I also use the same bullet in Pietta .36 cal. Remington 1858 revolver reproductions. Pietta for reasons unknown to the sane parts of society uses a rifle twist in that handgun and it's NOT a fast enough twist to stabilize ANY commercially available lead bullet that I know of. It WILL, however, stabilize the bullets that I designed quite nicely. And, for black powder, I want a beeswax-based natural lubricant, not petroleum, which gums up from black powder fouling.

Well, those live inventory ordering things that places use, are not without issues at times.
And it seems like if the product is in stock and you buy it but it is out of stock when the order gets assembled later the item is deleted from the order, a refund given, and then it shows up as a return for something that wasn't there in the first place, and generates a email saying it is in stock, so you can order the non existaient item again, and not get it again..

Isn't that great?
Imaginary unobtainium.
:rant:

But between what I had, could order, and could trade for
There is enough to get my friend set up.
Thanks to those that helped make it happen. :goodjob:

I think he will like the craft, as he is detail oriented.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mapper

There were also 2 red presses, a single stage and a progressive it looked like.

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They were still there today at lunch time.

where at? guns and gold?

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Originally Posted by BWest

where at? guns and gold?

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yes

ah, I never make it over there.

have interesting stuff, but never much liked the people who worked there or their prices.

Well, i hopefully picked the last fly out of the ointment,.
This old press used a j type shell holder, so I had to find a j to x shell holder conversion. That would allow standard shell holders to be used.
It was a lyman 7095762, the priming posts are 7095763, but I'm not going to try and source them now..

Attachment 17608
So it's coming from Grafs,..

how old is that press? my Lyman spartan is from the 60's and it takes standard shellholders

Mid 50's early 60's if I had to guess, I'm just glad the turret has 4 standard 7/8" holes for dies.
I have another that was dad's that has 3 standard holes and a oddball size one relating to shotgun stuffs, now tracking down an adapter for that would be a challenge. But I know folks with a good skill set that could help if absolutely needed.

Dads press is in a bit more used condition than this one.
But back in the time when stuff was American made.

I was finally able to get that elusive set of molds :goodjob:
Attachment 17612

Hooray, missing puzzle piece showed up today.
Attachment 17667
Only took 10 days to go from middle Tennessee to here.
Now the one from graf's has not even gone through processing yet.

But this will complete all things needed for my friend to get started.
I'll even let him borrow a caliper.
Took a while to get it together thanks for the help brothers