Not so Idle hands
So yesterday John and I went out and picked up about 2000 once fired cases, the new powder measure (gack, $100 including the stand for the RCBS one), and the vibratory case cleaner and media; oh and we ended up paying less for the 9MM brass, but about $0.025 per .45acp case.
So we spent most of the day yesterday decapping and sizing brass; lots and lots of brass. I dont know exaCtly how much .45 brass we got, but it was WAY more than the 1000 we paid for. I'd estimate it was more like 1500, and by 3am we had decapped and sized them all; John got a bit more than half, and I got the rest. Let me tell you, my back, and my arms are definitely feeling it. I would assume that John is feeling it worse than I am, because at least I've been working out some lately.
I timed it out, and I was doing about 10 cases per minute, with a few interruptions for food, drink, doing a trigger job on Johns SW1911 (that grip safety plunger interconnect is a PITA), and some press maintenance. We popped two decapping pins clean off in the process before I figured out the turret was just a little too loose, allowing a misalignment to creep in.
Oh, and I figured out, or rather verified something I already knew; S&B brass is really shit. We had maybe 20 bad cases in the entire lot, and juSt about all of them were S&B. Not only that, but the damn things were a bitch to resize, meaning they were stratched out more. You could definitely see the brass was thinner, and less consistent, especially in the case heads. Winchester brass on the other hand is great stuff.
There was a fun variety of headstamps, everything from WCC 53 (and 62, 64, 76, and 77), to brand new Winchester marked stuff. There was also some TZZ (IMI military contract brass); which was almost as bad as the S&B for sizing pressure required, but the brass was very consistent, and had very good solid case heads (unlike the S&Bs).
So we need to grab some more decapping pins, a couple more shell holders, another set of .45 dies so John and I can work simultaneously on the same operation; and .223 and .308 dies so I can relaod for my rifles.
I'm thinking I need to get back into IDPA shooting, now that I can get the ammo cheap enough.
