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EagerNoSkill wrote:Quick tip for volume reloading .357

Advice also applies to rifle rounds

THE TIP
When finished reloading the round place the cartridges in an old bank bag and put in some baby /foot powder!


Rub it around a bit in your hands - run excess powder off in and old towel

RESULT
Result any small lead shavings are striped off
All residual lube on outside of case removed
Any sweat /oil from your hands is neautralised
They don't tarnish if stored
Any oil in the primer area also cleaned out

They feed better

Your rounds also smell nice!
:goodjob:

I was wondering about the tarnishing of my rifle rounds...

Good tip, thanks :)

If you have lead shavings on the outside of the case along with lube then there is something wrong with your loading proceedure and needs to be addressed to get the best accuracy from your rounds. Shaving lead is a sign of serious case to boolit misfit and or the seating of cocked boolits as are lube smears.

ooppps (going to fast on enter key )

4. When the press rotates sometimes the bullet can cant / tilt the bullet.

IMPACT
1. A small sliver of lead can be shaved off the edge of the round as it is both pressed down by the die and the crimpng process start.
2. BIG sliver are easier to spot and as Dromia says - REVIEW your process and settings :roll:
3. This small silver often are missed BUT they can prevent your firearm from seating properly - causing a JAM (costly in competion where measurement occurs in 0.00 seconds)

PRIMARY BENEFITS
The "Baby Powder Bag" trick for me was focussed primarily on removing the greasy residue of lube on the cartridge after the process was complete.

SECONDARY BENEFITS
1. Improved cleaniness : less lube on cases meant that accumulation of grit, grime and dust in the magazines was reduced
2. Rounds actually fed better

Very valid point Dromnia

I was referring the volume reloading of straight walled pistol cartridges (9mm 38/357 and 45ACP) on some progressive presses
Pistol cartridges shorten as they get fired / reloaded The effect of the belling die is thus reduced.Typically cases are not as thouroughly sorted or batched and occasionally a "short case" may appear.

SMALL SLIVERS
I am also referring to small edges cutoffs that get scraped off the bullet.

CAUSES
Typically in loading and place the bullet on the prepped case (stage 3) the bullet is
1. Misaligned at outset (to llittle belling, lube fingers / speed / inattention)
2. Moves as the press rotates.
3. May even be "Canted" due to a lump of lube or lube build up in the die

I should point out i liked it for the fact of it stopping the tarnishing of the bullets afterwards... mainly because from touching them with my fingers i leave acidic sweat - I do this on everything metal i touch (mainly apparent on my guitar stop tails outside of shooting), so neutralising it to keep my bullets shiny is a good tip for me... never had excess lube or brass slivers though.

TattooedGun wrote:I should point out i liked it for the fact of it stopping the tarnishing of the bullets afterwards... mainly because from touching them with my fingers i leave acidic sweat - I do this on everything metal i touch (mainly apparent on my guitar stop tails outside of shooting), so neutralising it to keep my bullets shiny is a good tip for me... never had excess lube or brass slivers though.

I have same problem - I've even seen thumb prints (in tarnish) on cases that I've handled, which can't just be polished off. I generally load the night before I go shooting, and then put the emptys straight in the tumbler when I get back, so tarnish is not a problem. But if I'm loading rounds that are going to be unused for more than a few days - I just give each one a polish with a clean dry cloth before it goes in the box...and this seems to work fine.

This is going to sound daft, but I've even considered getting one of those gloves that antique dealers use, for when I'm handling lots of cases and bullets.

ACID Hands :-P

Yeah frustrating - in the past I have also wiped down rounds using a kitchen cloth using a light layer of "MR MUSCLE" and then drying with towel and then "the Powder Trick"
This was specifically for rounds that were going to be stored or travel
I must admit I love clean and shiny cartridges!

Clean Hands
Reloading - specifically Depriming has a very tough residue that gets into your skin pores
I also used "Invisible Hands" in the past to make sure I could wash my hands easily afterwards

Breathing in the dust from tumbler media ....Safety with the dust of tuumbler media must also be remembered.
The tumbler gets alot of "stuff out" from inside the case...

Best not breathe it in!!