Reloading technology

For those who prefer to de-prime cases before stainless pin wet washing, this is the ideal equipment to do it with. Handles many calibers including 9mm, 45ACP, 38 Special and many others including some rifle cases. Many home reloaders still insist on de-priming and then re-priming cases on their progressive presses when reloading cases. This is false economy in the long term. Primer pockets need to be clean to ensure correct fitting of new primers as well as avoiding contamination of new primer and fresh powder. A clean primer pocket and particularly the primer flash hole ensures more consistent velocities in your reloaded ammunition. The extra step or operation is well worth the effort.

A more detailed view of the automated machine casting process of handgun bullets. The machine is fed only virgin lead alloy from Northern Smelters in Queensland. It is known as their "hard ball" bullet making lead alloyed with 92-2-6...92% lead, 2% tin and 6% antimony. After casting this alloy averages 15-17 Brinell hardness which works extremely well in all types of handguns with mild right up to very hot loads with extremely accurate results. All our cast bullets are Hi Tek Coated twice for excellent results in hugely reducing friction, reducing smoke output and virtually eliminating leading of your gun barrels even with the highest velocity loads. We realise many bullet casters today still use special lubricants in the lube grooves of many bullet designs in preference to a modern coating like Hi Tek. Our view is that there are too many advantages to the Hi Tek coating versus the old traditional lubes still often used. The key to effective casting of these bullets is not only a high quality machine like this Magma Mark 8 Bullet machine. The moulds are VERY important obviously and we use a variety of excellent mould sets from Magma, Accurate Moulds and LBT Moulds. Mould temperature is critical to casting good fully filled bullets. Sprew cutter adjustments are also critical to obtain consistent bullet base integrity which greatly affects accuracy. Lead temperatures are constantly changing as the lead ingots are being added regularly to the mix. This will affect the whole process and an eye must be kept on output quality constantly to ensure consistency by adjusting rotation speeds or lead drop volume and speed. Machine rotation speeds are very important and are often varied with bullet mould types, ambient temperatures and bullet weights. The lead dropping volume and rate of drop is one of the most critical areas one is required to optimise to ensure full mould filling. There are many more factors and it's not a case of set the machine and forget it. An operator is constantly watching the results and adjusting some of the above parameters to maintain a constant flow of top quality bullets. When you can take a large number of bullets from a batch, weigh them to ensure small variations you know you have mastered the process. The bullets here are being cast using a Magma 45ACP 200grain Round Nose design and we keep the weights generally within a 5 grain range. Bullet sizing after coating completes the manufacturing process. These bullets will be sized to .452" proving extremely accurate results in your typical semi auto or revolver hang guns.

The 300BLK (300Blackout) caliber rifle cartridge is often looked down upon in comparison to many other currently available rifle calibers. Here in Australia this is even more prevalent since we are not allowed to use suppressors on rifles at all. The 300BLK bodes very well in suppressed form especially in military, security and Police applications. It was developed for its ability to be suppressed using a heavy bullet and lighter than normal powder loads. Since it was mainly intended as a closer quarters round in suppressed form to reduce noise but still have sufficient torque to take down enemy forces in stealth mode. Shooters who mainly hunt or do target shooting immediately looked at the ballistics of this round and noted its longer distance bullet drop to be excessive compared to other flatter trajectory cartridges even in higher velocity unsuppressed loads. The fact is, most hunters of varmints and small to medium pests and game are most often shooting at distances of 50 meters to about 150 meters and up to 200 meters. In distances like this the 300BLK shines very brightly in my opinion with typical supersonic loads. My own experience with the 300BLK is in two distinctly different carbine style rifles...a Ruger Ranch Rifle bolt action with 16" barrel and a Warwick Firearms straight pull bolt rifle with 14" barrel. I'm not a hunter but have shot both these rifles extensively at targets mostly at an average of 100 to 150 meters. Even with the rounds shown in this video which features a 138gr cast lead Spitzer style bullet which has been double coated with polymer Hi Tek coating eliminating the need for gas checks even at velocities to 2000fps. The load shown here is deadly accurate at 100 meters or so and develops 1750-1800fps through the 16" barrel Ruger Ranch Rifle. About 100fps less in the Warwick but only marginally less accurate than the 16" barrel rifle at 100 meters. The coated lead bullet leaves absolutely no lead deposits in either rifle barrel. The coating has greatly reduced friction compared to a jacketed bullet and reduces barrel where dramatically. Bullet cost is a fraction the price of a jacketed bullet although the reloading process with a cast bullet like this adds a few steps... 1) Station # 1 Case flaring die 2) Station # 2 Powder drop 3) Station # 3 Bullet drop 4) Station # 4 Bullet seating 5) Station # 5 Taper crimp die to secure bullet and close case mouth flare

An important aspect of case preparation prior to reloading, particularly rifle cases is trimming these back to size. Once a round is fired in your rifle the case expands and distorts to fill the dimensions of the rifles chamber. This totally changes the original case shape to emulate the chamber. That's fine if you will only ever use these cases in one rifle. If so, some reloaders only use a neck sizing die to restore the neck where a new bullet will be inserted into the same brass case. I am not a believer in this process at all except for some competition applications where one rifle and chamber will only ever be used. For me, having several rifles with the same caliber the more logical approach is to do the following... 1) Deprime cases. 2) Wet tumble clean cases with stainless pins and burnishing compound. 3) Full length size cases. 4) Trim cases to the lower point of overall case length to provide complete uniformity of lengths and provide sufficient room for expansion during firing. Trimming is even more important when full length sizing cases as this process of sizing often lengthens cases during the reshaping process of sizing. This logically also means cases may potentially have a reduced life since case material has to thin out with numerous full length sizing operations. In my opinion this is still the best way to maximise performance, accuracy and consistency of velocity regardless which rifle the round is fired from. The process of restoring cases back to original factory specs ensures proper chamber fit without jamming or difficult extractions so long as the final load is not overly hot and beyond the recommended limits of pressure. The trimming machine used here is the Giraud Power Trimmer... https://www.giraudtool.com/giraud-power-trimmer.html I have had two of these machines for the last 5 years and they are accurate and very quick to use. Large volumes of brass can be trimmed precisely relatively quickly. Cases shown here are 300BLK (Blackout) but the machine is available with cartridge adapters to suit a huge range of calibers. I have several including the 300BLK, 303 British, 223 Rem and 308 Win. The trimmer cutting tools supplied are ground to both trim and chamfer the case inside in the single cut. A big time saver.

A case gauge should be part of every reloaders tool box. One for each caliber you load is essential. The gauge is basically a machined steel replica of your guns chamber which allows you to physically drop a completely restored case and a completely loaded round to verify it drops fully into the chamber unfettered. If this happens successfully you know it will chamber correctly in your gun. You can also do the same test with your gun barrel in the absence of a gauge by dropping a case or loaded round into the chamber of the barrel to ensure it drops fully and freely into and out of the barrel's chamber. We see shooters at the range often suffering annoying and sometimes dangerous jams, incorrect or inconsistent feeding as well as faulty ejection. Many of these issues are related to case prep being incomplete such as a lack of final crimp of handgun cases, flawed sizing of the case and case bulge that reaches the point of interfering with successful chambering. With a case gauge you can verify your cases and new fully loaded ammo will work in the gun successfully.

There have been numerous methods developed to eliminate the inevitable "bulge" in fired brass cases. Effectively what happens when you fire a typical handgun is the case expands disproportionately at the base of the case where it is allowed to do so due to clearance in the chamber. This prevents excessive pressure buildup and allows the case to take the brunt of this combustion pressure. The problem that arises is that typical full length re-sizing dies cannot fully resize the case right to the very bottom of the case because of the thickness of the shell plate on your reloading press. This thickness means the sizing die can only reach the top of the shell plate while the bottom of the case sits in the shell case below the top of the shell plate. After full length sizing, the bulge often remains. This is more prevalent with guns having a generous chamber tolerance like service weapons but also with heavy powder loads. Nevertheless it becomes a problem even with light loads as many firings tends to build the bulge further and further and often to the point where case separation from the case head occurs, or more annoying the rounds fail to feed correctly or worse still jam in the action. The remedy is to Rollsize all cases after firing before one does the final full length sizing during the reloading process on your reloading press. This process brings the case geometrically back to specification just like brand new cases. It also extends the possible reloading cycles of your cases. Shown here is an automated Rollsizing machine with a very quick cycle rate. The same manufacturer has a home consumer model which is slower in processing speed but ideal for the lower volume reloader. Most importantly, you will always have the most consistent and reliably cycling ammunition in your gun by adding this important step to your ammo reloading process.

Any media separator can be used to separate the stainless cleaning pins from the brass. These separators are actually designed to separate dry media from brass but frankly they work equally well to separate pins from brass. A quick rotation and all the pins are at the base of the basket ready to be poured back into the tumbler drum. The brass is now ready to have the bottom case bulge removed by Rollsizing. A very important step which restores many times fired cases to factory new brass tolerances.

After running a rotation cycle which cleans your brass very effectively it's very important to thoroughly rinse the brass and stainless pins till the water remains very clear. All impurities and waste products will be rinsed away leaving brass looking like new, stainless pins clean and the tank clean ready for the next batch to be cleaned. I will repeat a previous comment regarding the use of disposable gloves. It's best practise to get into the habit of doing so the same way you would do when casting bullets from lead and even while loading ammo on your reloading press. It's surprising how many and varied the toxic substances exist in the reloading, bullet casting and most other aspects of firearms use. Gloves like these are a small price to pay to keep oneself as healthy as possible. It is unlikely you will wash gloveless hands effectively enough to clear all remnants of these toxic components after working on the reloading process for hours on end. Something we all tend to do in preparation for the next range outing.

Once loaded with stainless pins, your used brass and burnishing compound all in warm to medium hot water the rotating tanks are left to run for anything from one to two hours. The length of run is dependant on how full the tanks are. For example, if you fill 1000 or so 9mm cases I would normally run the tank for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. With say 500 cases one to 1 1/2 hours is plenty.

There are a number of cleaning methods available to clean your brass ammo cases after firing and preparing to reload them. There is dry media tumbling which utilises walnut or corn cob dry media as an abrasive when used in a tumbler. This method is the fastest but it's also the dirtiest, makes lots of dust and never cleans as well as wet cleaning. Then again for many reloaders time is money so the fastest method is often adopted. Wet cleaning using stainless steel pins and a good quality burnishing compound in warm to hot water is THE most effective cleaning method in my opinion. This video highlights the loading of the brass, water and cleaning compound. Note the wearing of disposable gloves. I have always worn such gloves during any of the reloading processes and when cleaning firearms. This is because it's inevitable your hands will come into contact with many hazardous heavy metals and chemicals contained in ammunition including primers, gun powder and bullets. Using gloves ensures you minimise such contact with open skin and more importantly avoids one injesting such nasty chemicals in food if your hands could not be cleaned fully. Holding onto that burger or sandwich with hands containing such hazardous components will do you no favours. Washing with cold water and soap is the best idea even if you have worn gloves. The cold water prevents skin pores from opening up and allowing the bad stuff to enter the bloodstream via the skin. I'm sure most of you do the same thing washing your hands after shooting or casting lean bullets. The logic is the same and so is the housekeeping procedure for all these processes.

This machine pushes used primers out of fired cases. A tedious job for those who prefer to deprime cases before cleaning and further processing. Not everyone believes this is even required before cleaning and even before the reloading process. I personally prefer to deprime and then clean cases for two main reasons... 1) Primers contain lead and other dangerous substances so removing primers as the first step towards reloading these cases, is one step towards protecting ones health. 2) Once deprimed cases can be properly tumble cleaned in hot water containing stainless steel pins and a suitable burnishing compound which insures cases and primer pockets are spotless and free of harmful substances. This step adds time to the reloading process but for me personally it is well worth it from a health perspective...better visual inspection of cases when they are totally clean is made possible...also importantly, the new primers have a clean unfettered path when they are being installed ensuring they seat fully and often more easily in primer pockets. I normally use a collator or multi case feed tubes on this little machine but when a small batch of less than 100 cases is being deprimed as in the case of this video, I simply feed cases in the feed tube by hand. I use this machine to deprime large numbers of 9mm and 45ACP cases. Other calibers are possible with rimless cases.

After cases are deprimed, wet stainless pin tumble cleaned, Rollsized to remove lower case bulge then sized using Hornady Titanium coated sizing die. Cases are then ready to be fully loaded. Cases are kept sorted to brand names or case weights for more consistency in velocity. This machine is a Hornady LNL Progressive reloading press with the addition of Hornady case feeder mechanism and collator. The bullet feeder also uses a Hornady collator but has a Mr.Bulletfeeder bullet feeding die used in preference to the Hornady bullet dropper dies. The Hornady dies are designed for copper jacketed or copper coated bullets and are not effective at all with cast bullets due to minor differences in bullet diameters. The cast bullets shown here are 135gr Round Nose design sized to .3565"while the Hornady bullet dropper dies are designed for a .355"diameter jacketed bullet. Powder used is ADI APS450 (Australian) dispensed through the case activated Hornady powder drop in a relatively light load using 2.7-2.75grains of powder. The overall cartridge length with this bullet is 1.110" and this provides a velocity average of 840fps with excellent accuracy from a Colt 1911 Gold Cup Trophy with 5"barrel. Stations used on the press are as follows... 1) Case mouth flare to accept bullet. 2) Priming. 3) Powder drop. 4) Bullet drop. 5) Bullet seating. 6) Taper crimp to close case flare and secure bullet.

Shows the automated bullet casting process. In this particular example a 200 grain round nose 45ACP bullet is being cast. This is most commonly a handgun use bullet. The lead alloy used in this process is a fully alloyed mixture of 92% lead, 6% Antimony and 2% tin and will produce bullets of between 15-18 Brinell in hardness. The process involves the heating of the lead alloy in the top mounted pots and then rotation of the mould wheel which in this example contains 8 identical moulds. This process begins with the lead streams being dropped into each mould pair till the cast iron moulds themselves reach an optimum temperature.. From that point on the process continues and good quality bullets are dropping from the moulds as they rotate past the sprew cutter and are pneumatically vibrated to dislodge the new bullets which drop into a collection tray at the base of the machine. The quality of the end product bullets is dependant on the quality of the lead alloy, the accuracy of machining of the bullet moulds and a good control of alloy temperatures, speed of rotation, adjustment of lead drop streams and more. The final accuracy of such bullets will be determined by the above factors along with proper Hi Tek Coating and final sizing of bullets to an optimum diameter to suit the gun barrels being used.

Shows the final process in producing hard cast lead 9mm handgun bullets. This final step takes the cast bullets which have been double coated with Hi Tek polymer coating and automatically pressed through a sizing die which minutely swages the bullet to the size of the die. After this final process the bullets are ready to be loaded into fully restored brass cartridge cases which receive new primers and gun powder. The end result is a ready to shoot live round..