Reloading - Extreme Tumblers Rebel 17

One of Sir Knight's favorite pastimes is reloading.  He has been reloading for years, hauling his Dillion RL 550 B from Western Washington to the heart of the American Redoubt.   He has set up his gear in the drafty basement of a late 1800's house, the dark office of a large heated shop, on a workbench in a 40' shipping container and now, in a small niche of our shouse bedroom.   He has reloaded untold rounds of .223, .308, .45ACP, 9MM and .45 Long Colt - and even a few rounds of .300 Winchester Magnum and 35 Wheelan.  He has reloaded with Maid Elizabeth at his knee, followed by Master Hand Grenade, Miss Serenity, Princess Dragon Snack and now, Master Calvin.  He has allowed countless young men to spend hours on our shooting range, having them police the brass afterwards and then sitting them down at the reloader to replace what they shot.  Not only is Sir Knight an advocate of reloading, he is also a teacher and mentor to those who have the desire to reload.

Over the years we have accumulated a LOT of brass, much of it coming off the range, tarnished and corroded.  Sir Knight has always used a vibrating tumbler to clean his brass.  Although it worked (mostly), it took about 6 to 8 hours to tumble relatively clean brass and 24 hours to clean tarnished brass.  Unfortunately, some of the range brass we've collected has been so tarnished that it was (according to Sir Knight's standards) unsalvageable.  Hating to throw any brass away, Sir Knight began searching for a better way to tumble casings.

Tarnished .308

Lone .223 brass

Sir Knight's research led him to STM (stainlesstumblingmedia.com).  STM sells rock tumblers, however they have figured out how to use them for tumbling brass.  Through a process of trial and error, they have come up with the proper proportions and time frames to quickly and easily clean brass - even tarnished and corroded range brass!

Knowing he wanted to try the wet tumbler (the rock tumbler uses water and stainless steel media instead of dry walnut or corncob media), the kids and I pooled our pennies and bought one for Sir Knight for his birthday.  Now, I have a love/hate relationship with his new tumbler.  I love it because Sir Knight loves it.  He loves how quickly it cleans brass and how well it shines up really tarnished brass.  My hate relationship?  I never knew Sir Knight had SO much brass!  Please!  Just a moment of peace!!

STM sells a Basic reloading kit which includes the Extreme Tumblers Rebel 17, five pounds of stainless steel media and a bottle of Lemishine detergent.   They also sell a Deluxe kit which includes everything in the basic kit along with an STM media separator.  We just bought the tumbler and media (we purchased the Lemishine at Walmart) and Sir Knight uses his old media separator.

STM did all of the homework and came up with a winning formula for their tumbler.  Basically, the tumbler is rated for 17 pounds (total capacity) which equals 5 pounds of stainless steel media, 1 gallon of water (8 pounds) and 4 pounds of dirty brass (the weight depends on the caliber - it's approximately 275 - 300 rounds of .223).  Opening the tumbler, you put your brass in, 1 gallon of water (approximately 1" from the top of the tumbler), 2 tablespoons of Dawn dishwashing liquid, 1/4 teaspoon of Lemishine (available at Walmart).  Make sure you don't use any more Lemishine - too much citric acid will tarnish the brass.  Seal the tumbler and tumble for 1 hour.  If your brass is black and tarnished, tumble for 3 to 4 hours, changing the water half way through (and adding new Lemishine and detergent).  After the brass has been thoroughly cleaned pour the water out of the tumbler and rinse several times until the water runs clear.  Dump the brass and media into your media separator (fill the separator with water) and rotate to separate the media from the brass.  Pour the brass onto a kitchen towel and dry.  There are several methods for drying, ranging from sun drying to drying in a dehydrator.  Our method of choice at the moment is drying on a kitchen towel in our wood cook stove's warming oven (it generally takes 1 hour, depending on how hot the stove is).  One thing to note is that the Lemishine softens the water and prevents water spots from forming on the brass.  Another thing Sir Knight is experimenting with is using Armor-all Wash and Shine instead of Dawn dishwashing detergent (use the same amount).  The Armor-all is the equivalent of putting a polish in your dry media tumbler.

Taking the top off the tumbler

The inner seal

Stainless Steel Media

Dirty brass goes in....

Add Lemishine, Detergent and Water

The water after an hour in the tumbler

Media Separator full of water

Pouring in the cleaned brass

Rotating

The Media has been separated

Media in the bottom

Clean brass on a kitchen towel

Master Calvin helping to get the media back into the tumbler

Drying in the Cook Stove

So far, Sir Knight has been thrilled with his new tumbler.  It cleans the brass quickly and wow, does it do a beautiful job!  A few days ago we dug through our brass and found some really corroded, ugly casings.  In the past, Sir Knight would have tossed that brass, however this time he eagerly tossed it into his new tumbler.  The transformation was amazing.  The brass came out beautiful and shiny.  Perfect.  And in only an hour and a half!

The single .223 casing

Look at that shine!!

Hopefully, Sir Knight will tire of his new tumbler soon, or perhaps, we'll run out of brass.....but until then, we'll have the best looking brass in the neighborhood!

The Homefront

This has been a typical Saturday in "Little Shouse on the Prairie".  Everybody has been busy about their tasks, both work and play.

After a leisurely breakfast, Sir Knight, Master Hand Grenade and Miss Serenity hit the wood deck and split a huge pile of firewood.  We have taken to stacking it in our wood hut (built with cattle panels) rather than the sunroom because spring is in the air and our sunroom will soon be arrayed in its summer finery.

While the older set worked on firewood, Princess Dragon Snack and Master Calvin spent their morning chasing ducks through puddles and shooting arrows at hay bales.  I think they got some target practice in with their sling shots as well.

Maid Elizabeth and I washed dishes and cleaned the house.  It seems as though there is more mud on our kitchen floor than there is outside!  Keeping up with the floors in the springtime is a never-ending chore - oh!

After morning chores, we got busy having fun.  Fun for Sir Knight usually includes something to do with guns, so he and Master Hand Grenade lugged in ammo cans and 5 gallon buckets full of brass and began processing it so that they could reload.  Most of the brass had been tumbled already, but it still needed to be sized, decapped and trimmed.  When you're dealing with hundreds of rounds, it takes a looong time!

Inserting sized brass into case gage

Checking the back

Checking overall length

Press in the lower position, adding a new piece of brass

The Dillion press performing two functions at once - sizing decapping in the first stage and trimming in the third stage

Advancing the press so that we can do it all over again

Lubing the cases (we actually do this first)

Men at Work

Maid Elizabeth mixed up a couple of batches of play dough for the littles, who happily occupied themselves all afternoon, armed with nothing but a rolling pin and a few cookie cutters.  She also made some "sparkles" out of sugar and food coloring so that we can decorate our next batch of sugar cookies with a little "bling".

Edible sparkles

Cooking play dough

Ready to play

Princess Dragon Snack creating...

And Master Calvin

Me?  Well, I spent the afternoon in front of the computer working on a cookbook.  I keep thinking I'm getting close, only to remember that I wanted to include this, and this and this recipe!  I do think I'm about done with recipes and I am just finishing up sections on cooking on a wood cookstove and hospitality, and a few odd recipes on wildcrafting and homestead medicine.

That is what is going on on our homefront.  How is your weekend?

OH - and remember to set your clocks forward this evening!

Play Dough
1 C. flour
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 C. water
1 T. oil
1 tsp. vanilla (optional)
15 drops of food color (optional)

Cook all ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly, for about 4 minutes or until mixture forms a ball.  Remove from saucepan and let the play dough rest on the counter for about 5 minutes.  Knead the dough until it is smooth and blended.   Cool completely.  Store in an airtight container in refrigerator.

Edible Sparkles
1/4 C. granulated sugar
Food coloring (as much as needed to make the desired colored)

Mix the sugar and food coloring until the color has saturated.  Spread the sugar in a pie pan and bake in oven at 350° for 10 minutes.

Reloading in the Living Room

Over 20 years ago Sir Knight invested in one of our first survival tools (without even realizing it at the time) - a Dillon Progressive Reloading Press, an RL550B, to be precise.    We set it up in a seldom used room in our suburban home and Sir Knight put it through its paces.  Soon, 9mm and .223/5.56 filled every available ammo can and threatened to take over our living area.

Originally, Sir Knight made the investment in his Dillon Press so that he could shoot reloaded ammunition for practice and save our factory ammunition for "good".  The theory was that the factory ammunition was sealed and consequently more moisture resistant than what we could reload (the primers and bullets are sealed in mil spec ammunition), therefore it was prudent to save those and use our reloaded ammo.

Rather than a drudgery, reloading became an anticipated hobby.  .308/7.62x51, 45ACP, 45 Colt (also known by the slang "long colt", given to it by the soldiers of the day so not to confuse it with .45 Smith & Wesson (a shorter cartridge), and 300 Winchester Magnum soon joined the 9mm and .223.  Our home became a regular ammunition factory.  It wasn't the least bit unusual to come home to the gentle hum of the case cleaner putting the final shine on a load of dirty brass.

Installing the press in our living room

Help from Miss Serenity

Back when we started reloading it was far more cost effective than purchasing new ammunition.  Over the years, as the cost of ammo has increased, the cost of reloading components has increased exponentially and the bureaucracy has become more and more off-putting (you now have to pay hazardous material fees for both primers and powder (when ordering online), not to mention that they cannot ship together, which also increases the costs.  It is interesting to note that loaded ammunition is NOT considered that hazardous and can ship ORM-D (although not through the United States Post Office - don't even try!).

Now, rather than a cost saving effort (although it is cost effective in most cases), we reload because it is a necessary survival/preparedness skill.  In addition to the survival aspect, we can also reload match ammunition far cheaper than we can purchase its equivalent.  Reloading exotic calibers (300 H&H, 300 Win Mag, 338 Edge, so on and so on) is much less expensive than purchasing factory ammunition.

Removing .45 Colt conversion from press

Putting .45 Colt tool head on its stand

Shell plate for 9mm

Installing 9mm shell plate

9mm conversion installed

When Sir Knight was researching reloading presses, he came across the Dillon Precision Progressive press.  Although far more expensive than a single stage press, the Dillon was capable of reloading speeds of up to 500 rounds an hour (we have loaded pistol ammunition at this rate).  From a mechanics point of view (Sir Knight), it is one of the finest engineered pieces of equipment we have ever owned.  Dillon's "No BS Warranty" is truly that - no BS.   Sir Knight has accidentally broken several items on his press (due to operator error) and called to purchase new parts only to be informed that the parts were in the mail and "No, you can't pay for them".  They arrived within 2 days, UPS.  

Checking proper load for 9mm with both a reloading manual and internet source

Filling the powder measurer

Picking up primers off the flip tray

Brass in the first stage

One pull and one push - the brass in the first stage gets resized, de-capped
(old primer removed), and the push seats the new primer

Advance the press and install brass in the first stage again

The brass in the second stage receives the powder charge and the case is
slightly belled to allow easier bullet installation in the third stage

Check your powder weight (according to your reloading manual)

The third stage receives the projectile (bullet)

The projectile is seated in the third stage

The fourth stage installs a taper crimp

Check the overall length against your reloading guide

Recently, our Dillon press moved into the living room (all the guys love that).  For the past 12 years, our press has been housed, rather unceremoniously, in our 40 foot container.  Sir Knight and his friends used it from time to time, but it didn't see the action that it had in years past, due to the fact that it was inconvenient - too hot, too cold or just plain inaccessible.  Finally, after years of neglect, we moved our trusty press into the house and it resumed a place of honor.  Oh, we are excited!

Survival equipment is nothing short of an investment.  The Dillon Progressive  has proven to this family to be worth its weight in gold.  It is most definitely a worthy preparedness investment.

Sir Knight's Reloading "Bullet" Points

• This is not a "how to" reloading post.  This is a basic pictorial featuring the Dillon RL550-B.
• Using a progressive press is an advanced reloading skill.  Do your research before purchasing and using one.
• The reason I chose the RL550-B were the mechanical advances on the turntable (you turn it by hand, it does not automatically turn).  There is a feel to using a progressive press.  Once you have used one, you will understand what I am talking about.  If something "feels" wrong, you can stop what you are doing and check the cases in the cases without the press advancing automatically. 
• I have reloaded close to 20,000 rounds with this press.  Other than routine maintenance and cleaning, I can found no wear at all in this press to date.   
• Full Disclosure:  I have used this Dillon Press for over 20 years.  We have received no money to do this post.  The only thing we have received from Dillon Precision was excellent customer service.