This forum saved me money

[ryan42]

I was so glad I joined this forum,for several reasons,the most recent reason is I was reading a post about reloadable brass that was damaged.I went to a gun show bought 1000 45 acp casings to reload,the vendor told me they had all been pressure tested and inspected so after looking at a few I took there word for it.When I got home I realized alot of them were bent at the mouth and I was getting ready to throw them out.Then I was reading on here that when you size them it should take care of it as long as they were not cracked.I grabbed them up and went to town and saved about 90% of them.That saved me money.The second reason I like this forum,there are alot of great members on here.They have never met you and they are willing to teach you what they know and share there personal experiences with you and thats just cool.I was reading the same post about damaged casings and the guy wanted to see some pictures of damaged brass that was reloadable and it was about midnight and very cold,I cant remember the members name but he said it was to late and cold and they were in his shed and he would look for them in the morning before work.And Ill be darn 10 minutes later in his night clothes he went out in the cold and got them and put the pictures on here for them. Now where else is someone going to do that for you or us.Its just awsome.Thanks Ryan

[jlloyd73]

That would have been gdmoody.....great guy.

I agree with all you said, these guys have saved my butt may times.

http://thefirearmsforum.com/showthread.php?t=99920

[howlnmad]

I'm not sure what the guy meant by pressure tested unless he was trying to be funny. The only way I know of to pressure test is to load and shoot them.

Now that you've culled out the damaged ones...... go through them again and look for any headstamps with a NT on them. Don't trash them, just seperate them.

[BETH]

Welcome to the forum glad everyone helped u on here

[ryan42]

Originally Posted by howlnmad

I'm not sure what the guy meant by pressure tested unless he was trying to be funny. The only way I know of to pressure test is to load and shoot them.

Now that you've culled out the damaged ones...... go through them again and look for any headstamps with a NT on them. Don't trash them, just seperate them.

hey howlnmad,I just glanced at a few had some fed,cci,winchester I didnt see any NT but I wasnt lookin but I will.Then what do I do with them?

[woolleyworm]

Originally Posted by ryan42

hey howlnmad,I just glanced at a few had some fed,cci,winchester I didnt see any NT but I wasnt lookin but I will.Then what do I do with them?

the NT use small pistol primers; be CERTAIN to seperate them prior to trying to cram a LPP in them. Check the each primer to make sure you've got all LPP. I don't pay much attention to the headstamp; it's primer size that matters no matter what.

[gdmoody]

Ryan and jlloyd, thank you for the kind words.

[ryan42]

I did check for the primer size and they are all large primers so Im good there

[howlnmad]

woolley done answered it for me. There's nothing wrong with them. I just didn't want you to try to smash a LPP into a SPP pocket

[JLA]

I came up with a rather efficient use for the small primer pocket .45s rather than separate them and load them separately. They make excellent action proving/training dummies. And its a worthwhile assembly since a-zoom and pachmeyer snap caps are around 16 bucks for 5 of them.

Just a little crazy glue around the bullet, then seat it to desired OAL, then a little crimp and then fill the primer pocket and headstamp with RTV silicone. Choose your color, they even have snot green. They are equivalent to snap caps, only better because they didnt cost much and they are actually made with THE bullet you intend to run thru your gun.

And as you can see the NT stamp arent the only Small Pocket .45s either..

[carver]

Originally Posted by JLA

I came up with a rather efficient use for the small primer pocket .45s rather than separate them and load them separately. They make excellent action proving/training dummies. And its a worthwhile assembly since a-zoom and pachmeyer snap caps are around 16 bucks for 5 of them.

Just a little crazy glue around the bullet, then seat it to desired OAL, then a little crimp and then fill the primer pocket and headstamp with RTV silicone. Choose your color, they even have snot green. They are equivalent to snap caps, only better because they didnt cost much and they are actually made with THE bullet you intend to run thru your gun.

And as you can see the NT stamp arent the only Small Pocket .45s either..

Yep! I picked up a few hundred rounds the other day at the range. All of it Federal, and none of it marked NT. Cleand them, sized them, and set them aside. I look to see more, and more, manufacturers going to the SPP in the .45ACP to save money on the loaded round. Keep em if you find them, just keep em seperated. Makes reloading em a lot easier. Thinking about making me up some dummy rounds. Mix a one, or two, in a mag, and practice FTF reloads.

[RandyP]

GREAT idea for those home-made snap caps - one suggestion would be to paint the bullets some bright color so they can never be confused with a live round.

[Gahunter12]

Like the snap cap idea! Also two thumbs up for GMoody. I had a chance to talk with him on the phone about a month ago. He's a great guy that really loves the hobby/sport of reloading and shooting. I had some questions about my RL550b and he took the time to send me pics of his, which helped a lot. I visit many gun/reloading boards, and by far this is my favorite. Everyone is willing to help each other out.

[JLA]

Originally Posted by carver

Yep! I picked up a few hundred rounds the other day at the range. All of it Federal, and none of it marked NT. Cleand them, sized them, and set them aside. I look to see more, and more, manufacturers going to the SPP in the .45ACP to save money on the loaded round. Keep em if you find them, just keep em seperated. Makes reloading em a lot easier. Thinking about making me up some dummy rounds. Mix a one, or two, in a mag, and practice FTF reloads.

YEP! thats how beck and I practice. rarely do we have a range session where we arent clearing FTFs.

[JLA]

Originally Posted by RandyP

GREAT idea for those home-made snap caps - one suggestion would be to paint the bullets some bright color so they can never be confused with a live round.

Easy with a colored sharpie. Though for my purposes, when Im helping a new shooter leard to shoot a handgun or just training with the wife its best they look like real ammo. That way they get loaded in at complete random and are a suprise when they chamber and dont shoot. Expecting a weapon to malfunction is one thing, Knowing exactly what to do when it does without hesitation is quite another. Plus I have watched my wife evolve into an unflinching shooter training with dummies. There was a time when she couldnt hit anything but the ground in front of the target, and now shes almost robotic with her pistol control. Its awesome.

[ryan42]

I might sound stupid but im not up on all the lingo whats ftf

[JLA]

Fail to feed or Fail to fire, and FTE is fail to eject

[BlackEagle]

Is it alright to use spent primers instead of some other filler in the primer pocket?

I just took some used cases with spent primer, ran them through the press without adding powder, crimped the heads down as I would with regular cartridges, and painted them blue (nearest color to hand).

[JLA]

Yeah. Ive done em that way too. Spent primers wont go boom twice..

[BlackEagle]

Thanks Josh. Just a little worried about damage to firing pins, but it sounds like I'm OK.

[JLA]

Most centerfire designs are safe to dry fire. The only exceptions I can think of are the cheap saturday night specials like the Jennings, brycos, ravens, lorcins etc. that utilize the firing pin as the ejector. Those are prone enough to breaking as it is. that and of course rimfires, dryfiring rimfires is bad juju.

[oldgunfan]

Originally Posted by JLA

I came up with a rather efficient use for the small primer pocket .45s rather than separate them and load them separately. They make excellent action proving/training dummies. And its a worthwhile assembly since a-zoom and pachmeyer snap caps are around 16 bucks for 5 of them.

Just a little crazy glue around the bullet, then seat it to desired OAL, then a little crimp and then fill the primer pocket and headstamp with RTV silicone. Choose your color, they even have snot green. They are equivalent to snap caps, only better because they didnt cost much and they are actually made with THE bullet you intend to run thru your gun.

And as you can see the NT stamp arent the only Small Pocket .45s either..

This is a good example of saving me some money, I'll have to make me some JLA. He just saved me about 30 bucks.

[JLA]

I made up some more last night. This time I cleaned the brass and the bullet with denatured alcohol first, then crazy glued and seated and crimped the bullet. The I tested their durability by chambering one and then dropping the slide on another from the magazine so the one feeding would slam into the chambered one. the bullet didnt move into the case further. The pistol used is a CZ75 with a 15# recoil spring.

I like using these a whole lot more than the A-zoom snap caps.

[oldgunfan]

Looks good JLA I'm going to make some myself. I think when I'm done I'll paint mine some brite color like yellow or orange so someone doesn't make a mistake and think there a good load.

[BlackEagle]

Originally Posted by oldgunfan

Looks good JLA I'm going to make some myself. I think when I'm done I'll paint mine some brite color like yellow or orange so someone doesn't make a mistake and think there a good load.

...or mistake a real load for a dummy load.