Id throw him a 100 cases for that.
I got some brass from the inlaws let me see whats there when I get home next week. If theres a bunch of .30-30 Ill send you some. No promises cause I dont know whats there.
Dont stress it too much. Theres a lot of things to check but if you break it down and go step by step its actually pretty easy.
Theress nothing wrong with range brass, but its better to pull from the buckets than out of the dirt. I used to hit the range buckets all the time, especially for straight wall pistol cases. I dont gennerally use range brass for my precision rifle cases. I use once fired hornady or federal brass but if theres a pile of nice clean brass in my flavor Ill scoop it up and do a full resize. For .30-30 where you proba ly wont shoot over 200yds range is fine. Tumble it clean inspect it for cracks or signs of over pressure bulges or flattened primers(which means it may be someone elses hot reloads). If its good resize it and go to town.
Matter of fact Ill be at the range next week. With deer season coming up theres liable to be a bunch of people sighting in their deer guns. Ill check the buckets .30-30 probably a bunch of Rem cases. Lever gun guys loke their corelokts.
Last couple of times Ive been there Ive watched guys literally go through boxes of ammo on their "new" first guns trying to sight in before they asked for help. Lots and lots of new shooters that have no clue. The one guy was amazed that I zeroed his rifle with 3 shots after going through 2.5 boxes of .270 trying to get on paper. Used gun from a pawn shop. They slapped a scope on and called it done. He then killed his last box dinging the 200 yd steel smiling like a little girl. Yes I grabbed all of his empties after left. Hi. My name is Stuck and I am a brass whore. What was I supposed to do? My buddy shoots .270, and I do have dies for it.
I think I may still buy a full kit even after this guy makes me the trade. I can't help but think when I was piecing shit together to build my Samurai, and I had mismatched parts all over; nothing every lined up or ran right. Just get a full kit, top to bottom, a digital scale, and a quality caliper.
As for primers and powders, I think that is going to have to wait. There just aren't any primers around. Once the election is over, there should be a slight sigh of relief, and things start to head back to normal. I'm not going to be firing my rifle anyways since I hunt in my backyard and don't want to be scaring off any deer/bear during season.
Need to start collecting coffee tins to start storing and sorting the brass now.
If you wait till after the election and god forbid biden wins you aint gonna find shit.
That looks like a complete setup... you just need the dies.
The big thing with reloading is getting OCD and "starting low".
OCD means fine tooth comb over the brass. Someone already mentioned all the checks. I didn't see looking around the base of the brass. That is another failure point. OCD means double and triple checking your powder; double charging is an issue with single stages when someone isn't paying attention. I don't know if 30-30 is one of those cases that allow it.
"Starting low" is starting with the low charge from your book and working your way up(called laddering). A low charge will squib a round and possibly get it stuck in the barrel... or semi-auto may not cycle. If I were working at an ultra low charge, I would do a barrel check after every shot to ensure no squib.
That's a Lee perfect powder measure. You can download data and instructions from Lee or get his book and load by volume. Close enough if you are careful.. Check the thrown loads with that POS RCBS balance scale. Post up when you load up and then again after you BANG and smile !!!
I'm pretty sure I'm going to buy a digital scale. Just make that part a bit easier. Then one of those tools, I forget the name, where you turn the dial and it feeds out a grain at a time.
Oh, calipers. So it seems like the most popular one on Amazon is the same one I got from Harbor Freight. Is that going to work? Or am I going to need some NASA approved one?
new calipers under about $50 flat suck to use. keep an eye out a pawn stores or spend the 50-100 for a decent pair
Hrm. mmk.
I see this one:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000GSLKIW/?tag=91812054244-20&th=1
But I should hold out for something better then, huh?
now you can have 20 people chime in about how their cheap import digitals work plenty good enough for this stuff
Man, I haven't touched a micrometer since high school. Iunno, I'm fine with digital. I do still wear a mechanical watch so there is that. I'm not a full millennial.
That's where I'm at. After reading all about this, I'm kind of iffy on skimping out on quality gear. "Good enough" doesn't really appear in a lot of the stuff I'm been reading lately.
Ordered.
Man, this nickel and diming is killer.
it would be cheaper if you'd've bought a good set of measuring sticks years ago for checking u joint caps and bearing journals
Anyone have luck finding small primers lately?