Do you reload at the Range?

[Skinny Shooter]

Was wondering how many other folks do this?

A friend recently brought his progressive press to the Range.
We were reloading 45acp as soon as we could make empty brass.

It worked very well and am considering it for rifle reloading with a rockchucker.
All the down time spent waiting for the barrel to cool could be spent rolling the next loads.

The Range doesn't have electric but I do have a small (and quiet) Yamaha 1K inverter generator that shouldn't screw-up my powder dispenser and scale.
Allen

 

[Gene]

I have reloaded at the range with my Arbor press and Wilson dies and with my RCBS Partner toggle press, mounted to the bench with "C" clamps. The arbor press is much easier to use and carry around. I have a Harrells measure on a fixture which clamps it to the bench. Do not use powder scales that might be moved by wind. Either place a box over the scale, or use a small battery operated digital unit. You will need something large to carry everything you need. Don;'t forget micrometer, caliper, deburring tools, lube, primer seater, and all components.

 

[Chas1]

I don't reload at the range. For me too many distractions and folks wanting to hang around with lit cigs. Now if your able to go to the range when hardly anyone is there...then maybe...not so here. Some here have ranges on their property so that would be ok.

 

[Mike6158]

I've got a range or two that I can go to that is usually empty (My 600 yard range is my brother-in-laws place) so I've been building up a range kit. Power isn't necessary the way that I'm going. The two big pieces of my kit are still missing.

(1) 12 x 12, 1" thick aluminum plate for a clamping base (shipped)

(2) Forster Co-Ax press so I don't have to disassemble my bench every time I want to go. (waiting on Sinclair. It's cheaper to buy Forster from Sinclair than it is Forster)

The other parts that I have:

(1) Harrell powder measure
(2) RCBS beam scale

I have yet to come up with a good wind blocking idea but I think that will be easy enough to come up with.

I'm going to prep and prime my brass before I go so that all I have to concern myself with is bullets and powder. I may change that around and reload what I shoot at the range later but I think that I would rather not deal with the finer aspects of reloading at the range so I'll do that at home where it's more comfy. I'll get more shooting time that way too. If I'm at my brother-in-laws place and he or my nephew is there that'll change things because we'll be reloading cartridges that I'm not set up for

 

[Aldon]

Forster press at Midwayusa is 15 dollars cheaper than Sinclair.

If you are near a Cabellas, they are running specials quite often. I got 20.00 off mine at Cabellas and they at the time price matched as well.

I got mine for just less than 200.00

Cabellas used to price match the Internet stores but now they recently changed their policy to only walk in stores local to them.

here is the link to Midway if anyone is interested.

Forster Co-Ax Single Stage Press - MidwayUSA

 

[Chas1]

Mike6158, that's a good idea...never thought about doing all the prep work at home...so you just measure powder, throw it and seat bullet at the range...correct?

 

[Mike6158]

Mike6158, that's a good idea...never thought about doing all the prep work at home...so you just measure powder, throw it and seat bullet at the range...correct?

Yessir... I figured that when I'm at the range my big concerns would be seating depth and powder charge variations and how they affect groups not brass and primers.

One things for sure though... if the range is active reloading on-site can be hard because of distractions. Thankfully the places that I have to shoot are usually empty.

 

[Skinny Shooter]

Wouldn't reloading the same 5 pieces or so of pre-selected brass help to find a good load?

 

[Mike6158]

Maybe... but you'll see more "difference" between seating depth or powder charge than you will brass. By the time I get to the point of loading at the range I'm down to a few key elements. Powder charge and seating depth. Until I discover a new powder or new bullet or new primer that is Then it's back to the drawing board again.

I do a lot to make sure my brass is as good as it can be. I check run out and neck thickness. I wrinkle my nose if thickness varies more than .003 and sort so that the .001 stuff is what I load first and anything past .004 is tossed into the fouler bin. My seater die "guides" the bullet into the neck and runout has always been .001 - .003 when I check it (99.9% of the time it's .001).

 

[winmagman]

Like Mike I do all the case prep at home. When I get to the range I just pop this into the hitch on the truck and bolt on the press.

The truck has a topper on it so I can usually use this without to much trouble with the wind.

Usually don't have much for company where I shoot so distractions are minimal.

Chris

 

[Chas1]

Great idea with the hitch and your table looks really good...It's giving me some ideas. Thanks.

 

[Mike6158]

The scale and powder measure table are gorgeous

 

[winmagman]

Thanks guys,

I had to come up with something anyway. We have a finished basement so I don't have a "man cave" where I can just leave things set up. I needed something I could set on top of the gun safe in the closet when not in use. So I went over to dad's place, told him what I wanted to do and this is what we came up with.

The legs are threaded into "T" nuts so I can level the whole board as needed. Shell holder is screwed down and has both size holes. Scale holder has a lip underneath the scale so you can't knock the scale over or off. Here's a pic of the bare board.

Chris

 

[FEENIX]

No, but I can if I want to ... bench is built to be mobile.

... and fits perfectly on my 20" x 60' cargo carrier on my Suburban.

(Pix is a year old and have accumulated more stuff since then and installed removable internal shelving/storage units).