MORE Carbine?? And Odds & Ends: 30-30, 357, 44, 45ACP, 223, and 30-06!

Had company come over tonight and we had dinner, so didn't get to spend the whole day on the reloading room, but that's OK. The wife and daughter had the day off too, so we got to do some running around together.

What I did get done, was still good, steady progress on the reloading room. I transferred the last (I thought) of the 30 Carbine from the box near the tumbler to some more permanent storage (two old cardboard 8-lb powder drums). Then, of course, I ran across about 35 more primed cases, but these were actually sparkling clean. So, these were resized and bell-mouthed, and added to a bag of 150 prepped cases I got in that deal last Monday. So, 185 cases are prepped and ready to go, in case I want to load some up... Speaking of loaded up, I have all those grungy-cased loaded rounds, and decided that they should be used to fill the magazines I got in that deal last Monday. Didn't have a clue how many rounds I'd loaded, but after a half-hour, I had EIGHT 15-rd mags loaded, plus the one 30-rd that I got in that deal. I had to go into the safe and get out 4 more 15-rd mags to load up all that grungy loaded ammo for a total of 212 rounds!! Put them in an ammo-can along with my 30-06 cast boolit loads for shooting in the Springfields. Guess the Carbine will get a bigger work-out than the '03s next range trip!!

Also in the loading block in which I found those primed 30 Carbine cases, were 18rds of 30-30 factory ammo and 15 empty cases (PMC brand, but sized, polished, and re-primed... Who did that?!?). Those were boxed up and put with the other 30-30 stuff on the shelf.

Got to looking at my back-counter (behind my reloading bench) which is where I keep my tumbler and media separator. It's really a mess! Decided to start going through it, and stumbled upon an old margarine tub of 44 Mag cases. They had been cleaned but left there. (I really need to quit being so sloppy!) 57 size, bell-mouth, and re-primes later, and I had them boxed up and placed in storage on the shelves.

Kept at the job of clearing off the back counter, and found a large box of 357 Mag brass. This had also been tumbled some time ago, and there was still some media inside cases here and there. Cleaned them all out and sorted them. Lot of odd-lot stuff here. Some really weird headstamps, like "Nevins," "M-M," and of course "Midway," and "*---*" (Star-Line). Some Winchesters too. I policed these up and put them in a large plastic bag and incorporated them into my 357 brass stash.

So, I start to notice that I have die boxes here, there, and everywhere on the reloading bench... Picked them all up and got them under the shelf on the bench top, but I did NOT manage to actually pick up the dies and put them in the boxes! That'll be another day! As I'm clearing these die boxes away, I stumbled upon a small lot of 19 (yeah, I know -- I always seem to lose one...) nickle-plated R-P brand-new 30-06 cases... I like keeping things organized, compartmentalized and for a certain purpose. Well, I have a hunting rifle in 30-06, and I have a box of Winchester 180gr Fail Safe bullets, so I suppose these cases are going to be loaded with those bullets for that rifle! 19 rounds should last me a few seasons! So, I put the bullets and cases together in a small box and set the on the shelf with the other 30-06 stuff.

I seem to have three main "messes" still out needing to be cleaned up. I have about 500 military 223 cases which I was in the process of de-burring the flashhole on, I have a few thousand 45ACP cases, some of which have grown big, black scabs of corrosion, and I have about 100 swaged 44 Mag bullets I need to finish by putting a cannelure on. Onward tomorrow! We'll see what I get to then.

I've also been thinking pretty hard about re-organizing the reloading room. A good brooming before the final lay-out and then maybe I can find the battery for this stupid camera and get you all some pictures of a clean and organized reloading room??