Well it's official, Eric is now completely corrupted and has turned into a brass whore and a reloading psycho. Got Eric all setup today and now he doesn't want to stop reloading. I told him he had to shoot the rounds before he could reload more. So he made it a point to go shoot for ten minutes before he had to go to a family obligation just so he can come home tonight and reload.

 

Officially a psycho!

You can never have enough ammo what did you set him up with?

got him reloading some 30-06 and he did quite well

Well it's official, Eric is now completely corrupted and has turned into a brass whore and a reloading psycho. Got Eric all setup today and now he doesn't want to stop reloading. I told him he had to shoot the rounds before he could reload more. So he made it a point to go shoot for ten minutes before he had to go to a family obligation just so he can come home tonight and reload.

 

Officially a psycho!

 

My name is Col. Mortimer and I'm a brass whore. It's a reloading thing. You wouldn't understand.

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one.

My name is Col. Mortimer and I'm a brass whore. It's a reloading thing. You wouldn't understand.

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one.

 

There's a lot of us out there

It was just a matter of time.

Matt do you have a good recipe for the Garand? Will they shoot 175 gr. bullets okay, as that is what I use for my other .308s or do I need to go with a 150 gr.?

I'd stick with the lighter bullets 160 and below. I actually havn't reloaded for the garand yet, today was the first time reloading 30-06 for me with eric and he just went to the range to make sure they went bang.

 

I prefer a 150 grain bullet as I've read those are the most accurate but your gun will determine what works best.

Next is an XD 9mm, then a Daniel Defense AR!!!

I'd stick with the lighter bullets 160 and below. I actually havn't reloaded for the garand yet, today was the first time reloading 30-06 for me with eric and he just went to the range to make sure they went bang.

 

I prefer a 150 grain bullet as I've read those are the most accurate but your gun will determine what works best.

 

Yeah that's what I figured. I just saw that the CMP also sold Hornady 168 loaded for the Garand. I will look around and try different loads, just trying to save wasting bullets and powder. I am very surprised that you guys didn't reload for it yet since I consider you and Eric the experts in Milsurp.

I've been stacking greek HXP ammo so deep that I just keep shooting the milsurp stuff without even bothering to do my own reloading.

 

plus currently my single stage press is down so I can't reload rifle right now either so thats my other excuse.

 

Within the next month or so now that college is over I will be reloading some rounds and getting the D all squared away and taking her out to 300 to see what she can do

I've been stacking greek HXP ammo so deep that I just keep shooting the milsurp stuff without even bothering to do my own reloading.

 

plus currently my single stage press is down so I can't reload rifle right now either so thats my other excuse.

 

Within the next month or so now that college is over I will be reloading some rounds and getting the D all squared away and taking her out to 300 to see what she can do

 

 

Hey Desparado... If you come up with a good load. I'll set up the Dillon for 30-06. I can do that pretty much on the cheap. Gotta use a ball powder so it measures well and we can load for about $.45/rd

 

Forget it!! It's cheaper from CMP

I am addicted and really surprised it took me so long to get into it. Last time I was home the guy down the street brought me up all of his reloading stuff. All I needed was a press so that is what got my butt in gear to get goin. I am using the basic Lee single stage press which although I have nothing to compare it to, I think feels like it will work out for what I need. The greatest thing I got though is the Hornady automatic powder trickler. THIS THING IS AWESOME-- you just enter on the keypad what grain you want to load and press start, it automatically measures out your powder. Once you empty the powder pan into a case and put the empty pan on the scale, it automatically shoots out another charge of powder. This thing does everything but wipe your butt!!!!! I am a brass freak too, I went to the range yesterday to test fire some of my loads. There was a guy there shootin a garand and the first thing out of my mouth was "you want your brass?" He laughed and said take it all. YAY- My name is Eric and I am a brass ho.

I am addicted and really surprised it took me so long to get into it. Last time I was home the guy down the street brought me up all of his reloading stuff. All I needed was a press so that is what got my butt in gear to get goin. I am using the basic Lee single stage press which although I have nothing to compare it to, I think feels like it will work out for what I need. The greatest thing I got though is the Hornady automatic powder trickler. THIS THING IS AWESOME-- you just enter on the keypad what grain you want to load and press start, it automatically measures out your powder. Once you empty the powder pan into a case and put the empty pan on the scale, it automatically shoots out another charge of powder. This thing does everything but wipe your butt!!!!! I am a brass freak too, I went to the range yesterday to test fire some of my loads. There was a guy there shootin a garand and the first thing out of my mouth was "you want your brass?" He laughed and said take it all. YAY- My name is Eric and I am a brass ho.

 

 

Welcome HO!! PM me your favorite Garand load!!

I am addicted and really surprised it took me so long to get into it. Last time I was home the guy down the street brought me up all of his reloading stuff. All I needed was a press so that is what got my butt in gear to get goin. I am using the basic Lee single stage press which although I have nothing to compare it to, I think feels like it will work out for what I need. The greatest thing I got though is the Hornady automatic powder trickler. THIS THING IS AWESOME-- you just enter on the keypad what grain you want to load and press start, it automatically measures out your powder. Once you empty the powder pan into a case and put the empty pan on the scale, it automatically shoots out another charge of powder. This thing does everything but wipe your butt!!!!! I am a brass freak too, I went to the range yesterday to test fire some of my loads. There was a guy there shootin a garand and the first thing out of my mouth was "you want your brass?" He laughed and said take it all. YAY- My name is Eric and I am a brass ho.

Welcome to the club Eric, I just got into reloading last year and am still getting the hang of it. As you now know, it's not that complicated once you learn what it's all about.

"You want your brass?"

 

I smell t-shirt!

I smell t-shirt!

 

I would wear it

This is Matts way of getting Eric back for the recent drain of his Checking Account.

OH TRUST ME- My checking account is screaming at me right now!!!

Alright I have a friend that is a major competition Garand shooter. He is semi-retired so on his time off he travels the country shooting in competitions. He walked me through competition brass prep yesterday and sometime this week he is coming over in the evening to walk me through some "competition" reloading. If I ever wanted to learn reloading Garand specific, it is from this guy. Although I am a noob, he wants to teach me now and have me learn his way the first time rather than have to fix old habits later. I am just reloading for fun not comp, but figured i want to learn all that he wants to share.

 

Like I said I am a complete noob, so some of this may seem like basics to you experienced guys, and like I am thinking some of it is WAAAAAAAY overkill. Here is what he walked me through yesterday with the brass prep. I may have forgotten some of the stuff he mentioned so I will add to this as it comes back to me.

 

1) uniformity is absolutely everything. MEASURE EVERYTHNG

 

Clean your brass then do a full length re-size. He likes the RCBS x-dies for sizing so I may have to order a set. He said the Hornady dies I am using are excellent dies though and will work good for me. Once the brass has been re-sized dump them in the tumbler again. You want to remove absolutely all traces of case lube.

 

First off do your best to get all of your brass uniform. This includes reaming your primer pockets on all your brass to a uniform depth. Do all your brass so that way everything is exactly the same. Then deburr the primer flash holes to get them all exact and uniform. A variation of the flash hole will effect how the primer ignites the powder.

 

Trim your cases every time you reload them. If they dont need it, nothing will get trimmed off. This way you know the length of all your brass is uniform. Verify the lengths afterward with a caliper on all cases. Then do a debur and ream on the case necks.

 

Then he showed me all about neck turning. He said I shouldn't even bother with this right now, but showed me anyway in case I want to get into comp in the future.

 

Now is where I think he goes overboard. Have a bunch of brass processed and ready to go. Then get a couple of coffee cans and sort your brass by WEIGHT! he said even commercial brass varies in wall thickness depending on the lot of brass sheets supplied to the manufacturers before they make it cases. This variation of case thickness effects the volume of the case once bullet is seated. Although this volume is minute he says it does effect the powder burn coefficient.

 

 

I know most of yall are laughing, going duh- I do this normally but to me a noob I learned a bit from him. I will add some notes once he comes over this week to show me how to actually load up some ammo. He actually said the brass prep is the easiest part and loading up the rounds is extremely time consuming and meticulous.

Eric, I use to try and be that anal. It made me friggin nuts.

Eric, this is the process for making match grade ammo. If you just want to make go bang ammo, weighing and trimming cases, weighing bullets, reaming flash holes and retumbling are not necessary. The most important thing is to weigh your powder charges accurately. Your Hornady dies would be more than sufficient.

Yeah, I know this is for match grade ammo. But what the heck, if the guy wants to teach I will learn all I can. And he's given me free tools to do it all too! I worked up a basic but very accurate load that all of my m1's seem to like. I verified this today shooting some VERRRRY long range with one of my D's. This reloading stuff is fun, kinda addicting. MIDWAYUSA LOVES ME, and my checking account HATES MATT!

Yeah, I know this is for match grade ammo. But what the heck, if the guy wants to teach I will learn all I can. And he's given me free tools to do it all too! I worked up a basic but very accurate load that all of my m1's seem to like. I verified this today shooting some VERRRRY long range with one of my D's. This reloading stuff is fun, kinda addicting. MIDWAYUSA LOVES ME, and my checking account HATES MATT!

Agreed, learn anything you can from him, you may decide to make match grade someday and his experience will be invaluable.