On The Reloading Front…

Today I received my Lee Pacesetter Dies in 7.62×54R from MidwayUSA. That’s them below. Now all I need is some brass, powder and bullets. The Lapua brass looks good, but expensive. Another thing I could try, as Jeffersonian suggested, is buy some Wolf Gold ammo and reload the brass. Winchester also makes a loaded hunting round in this caliber, but it’s also very expensive. Any suggestions? For powder, I think I’ll be using IMR 4320, and for bullets, Sierra makes a good .311 bullet in 125 gn (ProHunter #2305). It’s a softpoint hunting bullet, and while I’d prefer a FMJ, it looks to be pretty good. Not to mention Sierra’s reputation for quality.

Oh, I got around to modifying my reloading setup the other day. I got a piece of scrap plywood from Home Depot and some assorted mounting hardware and this is what I came up with.

What do you think? The powder measure, reloading press and case trimmer are all mounted to the plywood with bolts from the back side, the heads mounted flush, and the whole mess can be clamped to the counter top and then removed as needed. I had been clamping just the press to the counter top before, but that has proved to be unsatisfactory. Now, with four clamps along two sides of the plywood, I have a secure enough platform I can operate the press with no worries of ripping the decorative molding off the edge of the counter. Also, under the reloading press, there is a small hole cut out of the wood that roughly matches the interior recess to aid in removing spent primers, since they collect in the body of the press.

BTW, that brass you see is .303 British rifle brass and the die currently in the press is the decapping/resizing die for the same caliber.

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