Catch-22

Walnut shell is better than the corn cob media. Agree that those sold by most gun shops are waaaay, waaaay overpriced. I bought 25kg off eBay a few years back for around £15 delivered. I now ultrasonic clean as the dry tumbling method leaves a fine dust and soot around, evident when handling the cases after tumbling. Your hands and fingers go black with it...that’s all those toxic chemicals and carbon. Horrid. To stop your dies and action from also receiving this film of dust, really you have to wipe your cases down. Above is all a faff when compared to U/S cleaning, so much simpler, quicker and mess free imho!

Tbh, I’d be looking at RAMSHOT Hunter as a good replacement for Varget. Only thing I don’t like about it is it’s a ball powder. Fine if you have an accurate thrower but I hate using ball powder in my Autothrow/Autotrickler.

Rogiet is helpful for some load dev. Shortest range I have. As Sennybridge F is a FF range (so out of commission) and now J3a is too, I’ll take what I can get. Regardless of range, a .338 is always guaranteed to put a smile on your face. Point is though, the Mil are just being a bit of a pain. All very unnecessary.

Nope! 😤🤬😭

I suspect this could have something to do with the wider field firing ban currently imposed on MoD ranges. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the Mil were doing an arc of fire assessment across all MoD ranges. Once they’ve sorted it and agreed conditions/rules for all ranges, the ban will be lifted. Whatever is happening, let’s just hope it’s over very soon as my .338NM is itching for some more range time. I was hoping to be out on Rogiet and Sennybridge J3a soon...but this has put the kibosh on it for now 😭

Alright Misery, Yeah all the dry tumbling - just a real PITA. And it just takes sooooo long to actually get a half decent clean, at least 1/2 day rattling around in there. So a key goal of mine was to keep it cheap. Looking around on Amazon and EBay, there are super cheap (and small) and also more expensive models. Many of them all appear to come out of the same factories somewhere in China. The ‘industrial’ units suggested above also appear on EBay, just under different names. Looking at the control panels and the specs you can see they’re the same. My issue with many of the EBay units were a lack of any guarantee. In the end I went with a unit off Amazon. Cost £63 and I think it’s exactly the same as the Lyman but half the price. Slightly different control panel and name badge, but everything else appears to be the same. Has a 2.5L tank and is small enough to pack away in a draw when not in use (another consideration for me). It was one of the few units that came with a 1 year warranty and had a few reviews, so I thought I’d chance it and can always return if it goes kaput. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B07PZVK5P1?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title I also bought a cheap food dehydrator: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B01N8OWBLQ?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title Works well and dried the cases and muzzle brakes nice and quickly. Based on the advice from Fizz, I got some Bicarbonate Soda and Citric Acid. Cheap off eBay and using only a teaspoon or two of each, will last a while! https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F161958572264 https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F401647051460

John - I’m sure you’d said somewhere you had been using RS80 in your .330NM as well as me in the bigger brother? If so, how did you get on with RS80? I managed to quickly find loads that grouped into 0.2” and 0.3” with an SD of around 5-7fps. Below are some 5 shot groups during load dev. I’ve yet to alter seating depth as I don’t think there is much need. Following that I bought 10KG of RS80 but still intrigued about RS76 as it’s more inline with H1000. However I’ve read from numerous sources that H1000 is just a tad too fast for the .338NM and heavy bullets, more suited to the 250gn rather than the 285gn and 300gn. What do you plan to shoot in the 33XC?

Anyone tried this powder yet? I’m actually very satisfied with RS80 in my .338NM, shooting tiny groups with the 300gn Scenar. But interested to know what people think of RS76. Cheers

If anyone doesn’t follow the Precision Rifle Blog (PRB) you should. Some excellent posts about the above calibres, including a bunch of useful load data. 6mm Dasher 6mm Creedmoor & 6.5mm Creedmoor 6mmBR / 6mm BRA / 6mm BRX 6x47 Lapua & 6.5x47 Lapua 6mmXC Enjoy!

Thanks again for all the advice. Managed to clean up around 100 .338NM cases and two muzzle brakes. Some primer pockets were squeaky, some still a bit dirty but cleaner than with walnut media. Inside of necks were nice, very fine film of carbon left, so will definitely use some HbN before bullet seating. The brakes came out nicely too. Couldn’t have done that in dry media, and saved me getting the old toothbrush out and scrubbing with Hoppes #9. Everything dried off nicely in a cheap food dehydrator. Very handy, waaaaay less mess & faff than tumbling. And none of that horrid fine dust going everywhere. Really annoyed me having to wipe each piece of brass down in a towel to remove the fine walnut powder before sizing. Drove me nuts and my hands were always filthy. Happy days! 👍

Yeah J3a is always good fun - not been out on it for quite a while though. Definitely not looking forward to the Sennybridge weather though! ☀️⛈❄️☃️💨🌪 I’ve yet to shoot at Warminster. Issue is that it’s only Thursdays. The last shoot I could make but it was suddenly cancelled. ☹️ Hope you enjoy Rogiet on the 21st!

I concur with your findings, Varget around 0.02gn a kernel, which is roughly 5 kernels to a 1/10th grain. I had originally stated 0.01-0.02gn a kernel but don’t know why I then said 10 kernels to a 1/10th grain. I think my crap fractional mathematics got the better of me that day. Top = Viht N140 (2 kernels = 0.02gn) Middle = VARGET (1 kernel = 0.02gn) Bottom = Lovex SO70 (formally Accurate 4350) (1 kernel = 0.04gn)

Ralph - indeed, between the three of us we had fun doing a number on that v-bull at 300m. Sadly I won’t be at Rogiet on 21st Sept but I’ll be there on 19th Oct, 9th Nov and Sennybridge J3a on 30th Nov. Hopefully I’ll meet you two then!? Those last two dates I’ll switch the gun from 6.5x47 to its .338 Norma Mag guise. With my brake, it’ll be murder being in the lane next to me ☠️ 🤣

I would suggest that you also research into availability of mil-surp ammunition to feed the rifle. I’m not 100% sure, but I don’t think there’s all that much 6.5x58 available, so really you’ll need to reload for it I should think. Something in .303, 8mm Mauser, .30-06, 6.5x55 SWEDE or 7.5x55 GP11 will be more available in either mil-surp and factory loadings...plus easy to reload for.

Superb - many thanks for the insight and help! 👍

Never been an issue for me when exporting from the US. Their export licensing process has been relatively straight forward...just takes a while. However on a recent application they wanted more info from me regarding what import authority I had. As a private individual, I don’t require a UK import license (nor can I acquire as they don’t do one). Interesting that the US a state department wanted to know if I could import. The export from the US wasn’t an issue. If you work with a good US exporter, then you’ll be fine.

Bargain - good luck!

Many thanks to all who replied. I’ve gone ahead and got a mid-priced unit off Amazon. My goal was to keep the budget lower than the Lyman and Hornady types. It was one of the few that had a 1yr warranty (many of the ‘industrial’ types off Amazon and EBay don’t list having any warranty). If the unit packs in after a year, I’ll send it back and shell out for a more expensive unit. Thanks also for the tips regarding home made solution. I like the glass jars to preserve the unit itself. Especially useful if intending to use the US for cleaning other items that you don’t want carbon and the more toxic remnants to be on. In addition to water and citric acid with wash liquid, I’ve read a few people use cheap supermarket lemonade (has high citric acid content) and wash liquid to do the job. I’ll try a few things to see. And a great tip regarding the dehydrator. Another purchase made. Now I’ve read that applying some graphite or HbN to the inside of the necks prior to bullet seating is necessary as the US cleaned necks are ‘grabby’, not having any carbon on them. A few articles suggest having some lube there helps with neck tension and ES/SD values. I use HbN on my bullets, so i think I’ll give the inside of the necks a quick swab with HbN on a q-tip prior to seating too. Thanks again!

It is actually very easy - the instructions are super simple to follow. I am not a DIYer, my best endeavour with making something from wood was about 20yrs ago in DT class at school. But I found this nice and simple and everything available from B&Q. I’ll snap a few pics of mine later on.

Free standing. With the press it’s heavy as f***. Doesn’t move around unless you’re doing a f/l sizing operation, but I simply hold the front down with one hand as the ram handle goes up with the other hand. I must say, I thought I’d really miss out not having a dedicated reloading bench with press bolted to it. But the portability with this is great!

Right - I’m just about fed up of using the dry walnut media for tumbling. Takes too long and I just don’t like all the fine material in the air...especially when it’s been mixed with all the hazardous particles left over from firing. And the fine dust left on the cases...just hate it. So Im thinking of buying a U/S cleaner. I’m a cheapskate and I’m not looking to buy a Lyman or RCBS unit. Has anyone bought/used a cheapo unit off Amazon? Thoughts and recommendations welcomed! Will be used for anything from .223ai to .338Norma Mag. Thanks!

I followed these instructions and built a portable stand for my RCBS Rockchucker Supreme press. Works a complete treat. My loads have very little run-out. I reload off my dining room table, so it’s easy to take the press out of the cupboard and plonk it on the table. Or if doing more mundane tasks (eg depriming, expanding necks etc) I can place it on the sitting room floor whilst I watch some TV. https://precisionrifleblog.com/2012/11/12/portable-reloading-press-plans/ https://precisionrifleblog.com/2012/07/17/rcbs-rock-chucker-reloading-press-mounting-template-dimensions/

Generally speaking, ‘magnum’ primers of the small and large variety have thicker cups than standard primers.

It’s always worth visually checking charges...just common sense I think. I check the scale before each reloading session with my approved check weight. Never been out of whack. As with anything electrical, you need to recheck. Do you check your GemPro?

Now Sold!