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The 1894 Marlin in .357 is an excellent gun. Accurate, easy to shoot, can hunt all manner of game with it too - and handy. I had an 1873 Uberti in .45 Colt that didn't shoot worth a darn, I tried a...

No, but I've had some good results with Varget.

Yup - 'your mileage may vary.." - it was very hard to find one load that was as accurate as possible in an M1903, 1903A3, and a two M1s. That's part of the fun...

For a less expensive option, I've also had good results from the Hornady 150g FMJs.

That's bound to be a good combo. Overall, I've had better luck with the 155's and 4064 than most other combinations. (altho' 80g seems like quite a bit!) Also, I have a Hornady gauge for .308 that...

I had one for a while, it was nice looking and not expensive. Experimented with different charges of BP and some nice Minie projectiles from Pat Kabosky. Was accurate enough. I found myself...

I did the math on this too - WWBs were .27 each one place I looked, and some back-of-the-envelope costs for reloading plated projectiles and pick up brass came out to about .17 or so. So you can...

You know... for 9mm you might as well use Winchester White Box off the shelf, I'm not at all sure I can load that cartridge for less, unless I went the cast bullet route.

I've also had good success with 125g flat-base bullets from Speer and Sierra.

For 9mm at pistol range you are good to go. Don't bother with 147g .30 cal pulldowns, if you care about accuracy.

If you don't like that GAW stock, surely he'll make up a EMcF or GHS to order....

I think bullet selection is more important than powder. 4895, 4964 and Varget all work. I've had good luck with Sierra and Speer 125s, and 155 and 168 SMKs. Widener's 168g 'surplus' bullets had...

I've had the best results with the Speer and Sierra 125g bullets for a lighter payload M1 cartridge.

10,000 guys have had zero luck getting those surplus 147 grainers to shoot well. I'm one of them. Unless you just want plinking ammo, save your money and buy better bullets. For me, the effort in...

I finally bit the bullet and got the RCBS Chargemaster. For large batches, I'll let that run and dispense charges into extra cases while I resize and prime the cases for cartridges to be loaded. I...

Cherry red is 'way too hot. You're over 950 degrees at that point and your brass is ruined. If you heat the brass just to the point where it changes color to blue/black - that's fine. I use it for...

I have since learned that a standard flaring-type expander die is not the way to go with cast bullets, if you want best accuracy. A Lyman M two-step expander allows the projectile to align best with...

They're the same diameter as the jacketed, so don't bulge cases, especially after taper crimping. Once I adjusted the expander die to open the case mouths a little more, the problem of smearing waxy...

The lube I was talking about isn't case sizing lube, it's the sticky stuff in the lube groove of the cast bullet.

Anyhow, I set the case mouth belling a little bigger and the problem went away. I...

Thanks for the replies.
PWC, I took the ones I didn't 'trust' - either too light or too heavy (and some of the too-heavy were in oddball brand cases, which I didn't have a big enough sample size...

What I also did was set up a head with a spare set of 45 ACP dies - this one for cast bullets only set to bell the case mouth a little more. With FMJ's, only a minimum amount is needed to work the...

Agreed, the cases themselves varied in weight by as much as 12 grains. R-P, Federal, and Starline were the most consistent. Winchester (fine font) was the least, although W-W was pretty good, but as...

I like that idea about keeping them cold. I'll try it.

The lube I mean was the smears of red sticky stuff from cast bullets. I haven't tried the powder coat method yet - have quite a stockpile of the traditional lubed cast on hand.

Thanks! After...

i reloaded a bunch of .45 ACP loaded with 230g cast bullets. There's lube all over the outside of the cartridge casings. Can I tumble (vibrate-clean) the finished ammo? Or is there a risk of...