First real reloading experience....

After about half of the brass, he asked me if I was tired. I told him my shoulder was killing me and he just laughed and laughed. The good thing is, I don't figure I will be doing that much brass at one time very often. We have our house sold and will hopefully be buying another. The one we want has a room under the carport that will become the "MAN CAVE!" I will be able to set up my reloader, finally. His setup is so nice, I may just camp out there! :2tup:

Thank you, Mr. SGMJody!

Another step completed this afternoon at Mr. Jody's. Got the necks cleaned and just a few of the primer pockets. Man, this reloading thing is easier when you have the right tools. A portable drill mounted to a table really takes care of the necks and pockets. Next, I have to finish the primer pockets and then polish. But, tomorrow we shoot! Finally!

We shot today, finally! I posted some pictures in my topic under the firearms gallery. The rounds we fired were SGMJody's home brew. He can tell the recipe if he wants. I thought they did really well.

The Nosler load fired the two groups I have posted in the Firearms Gallery section under "My AR put together."

If you give up, I need your .223 stuff! :bigtu:

SGMJody made a believer out of me! To see the difference in group sizes, just using a different brand of bullet. Same brass, same primer, same powder, same powder charge and same bullet weight but different brand bullet made the group double. The sierras made a decent group, probably about 2 inches. But the noslers grouped between 1 1/8 - 1 1/4! And he is diligent on his case prep!

Worked on my brass some more today. Today, I got all my primer pockets cleaned and am about halfway finished trimming. One batch is in the tumbler, as I type, being poished. And, Mr. Jody said he would have the second batch polished for me. So, I have to finish trimming the brass and polish it, then separate and deswage(?) the primer pockets of the Lake City brass. Then, when the sun and stars align, I will be ready to prime and charge. Whew!!!! Seems like a lot of work, but it will be so worth it! :mg:

Started priming today! I'm not through trimming yet, but dug out my Lee Auto Prime hand primer today and wanted to try it out. It works pretty good once you get the kinks worked out! Going back tomorrow and will hopefully finish trimming, deswage(?) the primer pockets and prime until I run out of primers. We are getting close! It won't be long until I get to shoot ammo that I rolled!

More progress! Finished trimming the brass and it all should be polished by now. I also got 500 primed. I used my Lee Auto Prime for some of them and SGMJody's RCBS press mounted primer for the rest. I like his primer better. The primer strips make it super simple! Next time we will swage the primer pockets of my remaining brass, prime them and then start working up loads! :bravo:

Quick update! I finally got to work on my ammo some more today. Moving and work sucks! I've got 1,000 primed and ready to load! That's the good news! The bad: my range brass pile is growing which means I have to start over! I guess that's some pretty good bad news.
Man, I can't wait to get out and shoot some of my own!

Captain, SGMJody told me a little about your brass pile!

I hope to do the same when I have my own place set up. Besides, it's a good hobby and sure beats watching TV.

Finally shot some of my own ammo today with SGMJody! We weren't at the range but about 5 hours or so! We let alot of lead fly and I learned alot from Mr. Jody!!!!!! I didn't know how well I could shoot until I had someone who knows what they are doing, teach me. I still haved alot to work on, but I understand the fundamentals now. I also know the difference between match ammo and regular ammo in rimfire! Wow! I hadn't shot my 1911 in a long time, and man was that a blast!

Anyway, back to topic! My reloads did a lot better than I expected for 55 grs. We'll work on them some more. I had some 55gr Cor-Bon that were not very good at all. I could tell they were loaded a lot hotter than mine. Got some modifications to make on my AR too.

I also need some Winchester 40 gr subsonics. My 22/45 really seemed to like them, almost as much as it liked Mr. Jody's match ammo!