With my 416 Rigby nearly finished (don't ask )I rang around a few gun shops to get a price on a box of ammo.

Shop 1 $195 for Hornady
Shop 2 $155 for Hornady
Shop 3 $135 for Hornady

That's a hell of a difference.

does it come with the vaseline

On the bright side, it comes with crap brass.

Just reload

quote:

Originally posted by Dogleg:
On the bright side, it comes with crap brass.

Why do you think it crap mate?

I will TP but I have to get a bigger press

quote:

Originally posted by Matt Graham:

quote:

Originally posted by Dogleg:
On the bright side, it comes with crap brass.

Why do you think it crap mate?

Too soft. So is Federal. Norma though, that stuff is indestructible.

Unfortunately Norma here has a price to match

Tony:
Next time you're talking to them, find out what 4831 per pound is and LRM primers too, please.

What do you and Matt know about brass being sent in ahead of time. Any problem if it's primed brass? Much better for me IF it can be primed as I'd do it here with stock on hand and not have to hassle with it over there.

I asked but, w/o a reply. IF we fly in somewhere south, and buy powder n primers. Can we fly in country with it over there? I know we can't bring it from here.

Many thanks, and check with: Kiwishooter2 for presses he has several of them for sale. Might make you a deal on what you need.

Wish you well,
George

quote:

Originally posted by Bakes:
Unfortunately Norma here has a price to match

Its somewhat dear here too, but worth it. Its been a long time since I've bought any, but $156 per fifty is the last price I remember. Still worth it.

quote:

Originally posted by georgeld:
Tony:
Nxt time you're talkin gto them, find out what 4831 per pound is and LRM primers too, please.

We can only get H4831SC [ADI AR2213SC] here, BTW.

quote:

What do you and Matt know about brass being sent in ahead of time. Any problem if it's primed brass? Much better for me IF it can be primed as I'd do it here with stock on hand and not have to hassle with it over there.

Rifle brass is both US export and Oz import restricted, and needs an import permit at the Oz end. The permit doesn't cost anything, but an Oz firearm licence is needed to apply for it. Primed brass cannot be shipped at all by air, and surface freight would not be practicable [expense and paperwork].

quote:

I asked but, w/o a reply. IF we fly in somewhere south, and buy powder n primers. Can we fly in country with it over there? I know we can't bring it from here.

No, you cannot fly in country with powder or primers. Same IATA rules as on international flights here. Properly packed ammo only, 11 lb/5 kg weight limit.

One of the domestic airlines [Tiger] does not permit firearms/ammo, but Virgin and Qantas/Jetstar do; a permission letter from Qantas Dangerous Goods Management is required for ammo on both Qantas and Jetstar.

quote:

Originally posted by Gadge:

Rifle brass is both US export and Oz import restricted, and needs an import permit at the Oz end. The permit doesn't cost anything, but an Oz firearm licence is needed to apply for it. Primed brass cannot be shipped at all by air, and surface freight would not be practicable [expense and paperwork].

To be clear to our overseas visitors - when you say an 'Oz firearms licence' - this would include the 'OS Visitors Permit' - which you get when you come here to hunt (in most provinces and instances). You apply for your Permit and include on that application the items you wish to import and the authorities send you the Permit AND the import permit - so it is one application only.

My Aussie gun permits have had component bullets listed on it, although I've never actually got around to using them.

I plan to do the same this year, with some bags of sized or new brass and boxes of bullets. Even an El-cheapo hand press will work for seating bullets, this should get around the airline weight rules nicely. Some assembly required, but not that big of a deal. A hand primer would make short work of priming a couple hundred cases. There always seems to be mid-day dead time anyway.

Appreciate the info guys. The more I can learn the easier it'll be to deal with the nonsense when the time comes. Or at least eliminate some of the surprises maybe.

Matt: you said in another post Darwin is just an outpost. I just read something there's 100,000 population there. That's gotta be one hell of an outpost imo.

By the way, what do those ranches/cattle stations do for electric power? Too many miles for a powerline to be run. They all have their own generators? OR???

SO: any suggestions on how I could get 250 or so bullets and primed brass to Matt? Remember these are a caliber that are NOT made by anyone other than a couple of us hard heads.

Thanks,
George

quote:

SO: any suggestions on how I could get 250 or so bullets and primed brass to Matt? Remember these are a caliber that are NOT made by anyone other than a couple of us hard heads.

List the bullets and unprimed brass on your import permit along with your rifles and ammo, put them in your luggage and say "Here Matt" when you pass them to him. The savings on the components compared to Australian prices will pay for your overweight charges if they apply. You can't fly with primed brass so you will have to prime them at that end. Powder and primers are available locally.

Bakes, I stared reloading 416 Rigby this year and I use the Redding regular "O" frame press (Boss?). It is the same size as my Lee alluminium cast press (which came as part of the Anniversary kit). I find no need to move to a larger press.

Norma brass is worth it. You may pay $3+ each there in Oz but it will go a long way. Your cost of bullets & powder is also a lot less than what we pay here!

It costs me just on $3 per round to reload here in NZ - Case cost $0.25 (Norma $5 spread over 20 rounds). Woodleigh bullets $1.70, Powder $0.95 ($69 per 500 gms) Primer $0.10.

Good luck.

quote:

Bakes, I stared reloading 416 Rigby this year and I use the Redding regular "O" frame press (Boss?). It is the same size as my Lee alluminium cast press (which came as part of the Anniversary kit). I find no need to move to a larger press.

Oh well there you go. Thanks mate. I thought my lee press wouldn't be big enough.

Here you go Bakesy


My two presses as set up in my man-cave.


The Redding - clearance from shell holder to top of frame was about 3.6 inches. The Lee has almost 4 inches clearance - that is BIGGER than the Redding!

You can see the differnce in the below photos

[/URL]

Tony:
IF you need/want another press. Contact kiwishooter2, he has several he hauled home from the US over the yrs. Some of them are looking for a new home.

Naki: good looking setup there mate. Sure a clean bench compared to my loading desk. I mounted four presses on a 2' sq 1/2" steel plate and clamped it to an old office desk left over from the business I had in there.

An OLD 1950s Lyman 4 hole turret I use mostly, the open el cheapo Lee for sizing cast bullets and belling cases, two Lee 5hole turrets for when I'm loading thousands of pistol ammo. It's on a corner of the desk so I can roll the chair around to work any of them as desired.

Wish you guys well over there.
George

Don't need one now George. Looks like my little old Lee press will do the job. Thanks Naki

Glad to be of help Bakes. Just remember that Lee has a larger diameter die for some of the big bores & it fits their larger press.

I have a Lyman die set for my 416 Rigby & it works fine. I even got a Lee 416 Rem mag crimp die opened up by a tool maker to work on the 416 Rigby.

I crimp all my loads as a second stage on the seating die and have had no collapsed shoulders etc.

Good luck with your gun.

Brass just got much more expensive for me tonight.
Bought 112 .300RUM cases from a guy in Tx. Polished them up nice and resized, then started expanding the necks out to 35. Damned if 34 didn't split the necks, still have about 30 more to go yet. Those had some rust spots on the body. Will spin them in the drill press and run some steel wool on to see if they clean up. IF not, more in the recycle bucket.
Only paid a buck each for these. Not cheap but man when 30% end up scrapped it sucks.

George PS: the horns just started going off, it's one minute past now and I'm still here. Wonder why!

You may have anneal the necks before trying to size up that far. Its worse if they have been fired already.

I neck up .300 RUMs to make .338 Edges all the time. I might lose 1 out of 100. You could try going up in stages too.

Brass update a bit:
Ended up comparing whether it makes a difference if water cooled once annealed, or just let 'em air cool as they will.
This is only a dozen of each so no long term testing to compare with. Out of the first 12 three split of the chilled, not a single one of the air cooled did.
Ended up from those supposedly 112 pcs, actual count was 107, then 56 split. For $100, makes it rather expensive for this batch.

I bought three hundred more though. All at a buck each. Have one last batch of Annealed brand new 7mmU/M 100pcs that need to be sized yet.
2/1 UPDATE: All these new cases I annealed sized well, not a one cracked. They were air cooled also. Do believe this is the way to do it.

Of 40 once fired factory and lost one of those after annealing them all.

Had 156 from a few yrs ago trading, and lost one, next batch of 300U/m once fired didn't lose any of those and neither batch were annealed.

I've marked the bad batch to keep seperated for practice only. Sure don't need to have a problem with known bad product when it can easily be kept out of the field.

Am planning on turning my own copper and brass bullets on the lathe. Partly because I have a lathe, and enjoy running it and to see if I still have the knack to turn fine parts as I used to for a living when in my early 20's, damned near 45 yrs ago. I'll be 70 on Jan 28th.

I turned one brass bullet on the lathe so far. To save more expensive material I used 5/16" (.312") rod. And made a .308" bullet quite close to how Saeeds are made. It turned out as well as I'd expected it. Re: nearly perfect.
1.312"ovl, 185gr. FP, FB.

With many dr's appts, some sickness, and the cold weather I haven't gotten back out in the shop since.

I got an old discarded valve facing stone and mounted it on a 5/8" bolt, chucked in the lathe. Used a wheel truing bit and spun the stone at 2000rpm, trued it up both sides and edge. Then dressed the edge to leave a .050" lip about .050" high.

Used this to cut five notches in the end of a 1/2" HSS tool bit. This cuts the brass and copper rod just perfectly with the grooves and lands. The rest of the bullet body was turned down with a standard V point bit, and both ends tapered to make a boat tail and tapered point with 1/8" FP I'm plumb proud of my first ever turned bullet. Since two commericial tool grinder outfits claimed they couldn't grind this bit for me. It didn't leave much other way to get it made other than do it myself. Glad I went ahead with it. Sure proves when determination and no other way out gets in the way. A person CAN make some fine tooling himself.

Am telling this as much to brag as to share with you others that might wish to give it a try sometime encouragement in going ahead with it.
Thanks for the space,
George

Bakes re reloading the 416 Rigby.

Do yourself a favour and get a RCBS or similar that will allow you to screw out the sleve for standard dies and screw in the larger 1.25x12? dies. Then order yourself a Lee factory crimp die for the Rigby. Or go down the path Naki did with the 416 Rem lee die.

I did this to prevent the odd neck failure while crimping my 416 loads. I found the crimping to be needed to stop the bullets being pushed back into the case during recoil.

For cheaper but good cases get some seconds from Bertram bullets in Symoure Vic. I also use his 416 bullets, about $1.00 each for cheaper shooting. Bruce will tell you they are soft and for game up to deer. Scrub bull or biger use Woodlieghs. He is right. I have not found Bruce's brass to be any worse or better than Hornady brass, at this time.

You are going to love using the Rigby, a great calibre IMHO.

For cheapest shooting Dave who now owns CBE up near Oakey will make cast lead projectiles for you. They shoot well with no lead fouling in my CZ with 1800fps MV.

Cheers

Greg

George,

Thanks for the info on the neck annealing and cogratulations on your turned bullets. Hope they work well for you.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by georgeld:
Brass just got much more expensive for me tonight.
Bought 112 .300RUM cases from a guy in Tx. Polished them up nice and resized, then started expanding the necks out to 35. Damned if 34 didn't split the necks, still have about 30 more to go yet. Those had some rust spots on the body. Will spin them in the drill press and run some steel wool on to see if they clean up. IF not, more in the recycle bucket.
Only paid a buck each for these. Not cheap but man when 30% end up scrapped it sucks. [QUOTE]
I regularly size up 7mm and 300 RUM brass to .375 RUM in one step, without annealing, and have never split a case (in 50-70 cases).

I use a long taper expander that I made from a 7/16" bolt that screws into my RCBS size die body. I just lube the inside of the case neck with Imperial Sizing Wax, and run the case through the die.

It took me about 1/2 hour to make the expander. The only tools that I used was my 1/2" electric drill, a metal file, a piece of fine emery paper, and a cutting disc for my Dremel tool (or a hacksaw).

The point is 0.25" diameter, taper is 0.9", expander width is 0.380". I also cut a waist between the expander width to the threads, and I cut a slot in the end of the threads for screwdriver adjustments.

quote:

Originally posted by georgeld:
Appreciate the info guys. The more I can learn the easier it'll be to deal with the nonsense when the time comes. Or at least eliminate some of the surprises maybe.

Matt: you said in another post Darwin is just an outpost. I just read something there's 100,000 population there. That's gotta be one hell of an outpost imo.

By the way, what do those ranches/cattle stations do for electric power? Too many miles for a powerline to be run. They all have their own generators? OR???

SO: any suggestions on how I could get 250 or so bullets and primed brass to Matt? Remember these are a caliber that are NOT made by anyone other than a couple of us hard heads.

Thanks,
George

Some of them have large solar units but most have a diesel generator to supplyy power.

As Dogleg says: list any components on your iimport permit. No worries..

Thanks again Matt:

Buffy: The expander button I'm using is an egg shape. Not sure but, believe it came from the .35 Rem dies. I polished it with 800grit paper on the lathe til it shines like a mirror. Am using Hornady's brand of Imperial Wax. Believe it's the same stuff just put in their cans. I've used both and can't tell the difference.

More snow and still chilly, am staying in reading mostly, but ,lots of naps too. Making a lazy sob outta me and I don't need the practice!

You guys wherever you are, stay outta trouble and have some fun!

Matt: wish you were closer during the down time in Vegas. Will you be flying home out of LAX, or the east coast? When? Enjoy yourself.
George

You could try fire-forming the necks up using the C.O.W. method. I blew 50 .300 Win Norma brass into .458 Win Mag today. Easier than falling down a well. Hardest part was trimming the cases. Starting with .338 Win Mag would have avoided that, but I have 2000 of the .300s and they are indestructible as near as I can tell.

Hi Mike:

Don't need to fire form these. Just neck 'em out to .358" and load 'em up now. They're just RUM's. Cases are all the same size other than necks. (except the .338's are shorter and can't be used for this)

I've got 'em all resized now. Gun won't be ready til July anyway. So getting the brass ready to load up was the main thing. Dies should be here about April.

Plan to load some cast SWC .38's to play with at first. Then I have about 250 or so Speer 250gr SP's.

For now, I'm about done with it. Am going in Thursday morning for a L shoulder joint rebuild so I'll be out of it for a couple months. Then once I've healed up enough, plan to go in for back surgery. That will surely put me into late summer pretty easy. After that's healed, then it's the Right shoulder rebuild. As you can see this summer is gonna be a painful sob for me. At least I'm getting my health back after two yrs of nearly dying from Chron's. The last three months I've been feeling much better. Now it's time to get some of these painful joints repaired and get on with life.

George

I wish you luck. I've had some experience on "comebacks"

I know that its just a straight neck up, I do the same to make .338 Edge out of .300 RUMs. I just thought that it might get you past the neck splitting problem.

I had a real hillbilly way to neck up to the Edge; just charge the .300 Rum cases and set a 300 grain .338 SMK on it and pull the lever a bit harder. Crude as it sounds I was dropping those into 4" at 800 yards with my BAT actioned Carlock gun.

George I hope the surgery goes to plan and you get back to your old self as soon as possible. Bit of a bugger being laid up.

Thanks rule. Been right at two yrs this go round. 2/8 was a 1yr getting home from month in hosp (21 days in a coma) and 9 wks in a N/Home. Late wifes b'day too.

Am doing well so far. Had it done thurs 2/6, came home Fri at 4pm. Pains mostly stopped Sun 5am. Cut back on the pills since then. Don't hurt, don't take 'em.

George

georgeld, seems to me you have the right mindset and that is a big help. Good on you.

You're a brave man, George.

My dear old father gave up using shotguns at your age because of his shoulder, let alone the stuff you shoot.

All the best ...

Time for an update since some of you fellows have commented, assume you'd be interested in hearing more since.

Still doing well. Had the sling off since two wks ago now. Told not to "do anything to strain it, and just some minor motions, let it heal there's lots of time to build up strength".

It's still aching some, more so with the change in weather we have. Gets warm n nice, then turns cold and snows again. More to fall tonight, but, warming up Sun n Mon. Sporatic this time of year starting into spring. Most anytime the strong winds can be expected to start up for a month or so.

Far as the shoulder. The bottom of the stem where it's pushed down into the arm bone has expanded the bone much like a rod down a hose does. There's pains at that area now. That hadn't bothered until last week. He said it's normal and will let up before long.

I'm still eating a pill as needed and got another refill again so I have them on hand.

Won't know for sure about the back surgery until the 19th when I go see the back doc with fresh x rays and MRI. IF he see's something he can fix, I'll have him schedule it. IF I'm up to having it done by then.

Having had 9 months of bad sickness that nearly killed me, then not healing up all last yr, a second belly surgery to take out what was left the first time, two minor surgeries now the shoulder all since March '12. It's taken a toll on me and I've felt quite run down and tired this last month much of the time. Am doing better all the time though. It's just worked me over a bunch. I'll make it yet, just watch!! One thing I've got a lot of practice at is: "healing up."

Both sides of my family have nearly all lived into their mid 80's, Mom 86, Dad 92.8mo, his oldest sis is now 93 almost 94 this spring. I feel once all these things are taken care of I should have another ten yrs yet. I just turned 70 end of Jan. Am pretty healthy, or was until this Chron's nailed me. If I'd seen a decent GI dr it wouldn't have gotten that bad. As it was I was relying on a half assed medic that kept treating me for the shits when I had something a lot more serious. Here's some advice: IF you get a serious case of the shits that won't clear up within a couple weeks. Get your arse to a good GI dr and find out why and what's attacking you. Don't just keep taking shit stopper meds in hopes it does. Facts mates, facts!

Sambarman: it ain't being brave, it's being too damned stubborn for my own good! Wish you well,

Thanks much for the concern and comments.
George

Hoping you've recovered further, George.

Sorry I didn't look in earlier. My problem is I forget which threads need looking at or have new posts.

Cheers
- Paul

Hey Paul:
I'm doing well. Better most everyday it seems.
Thanks for the reply etc.
yeah I know, can't find what I want much of the time when I don't get back to it everyday.
Has to do with age, right? at least that's what
I'm told.
George

Yes, George, age doesn't help the memory. Yesterday, I cleaned a hare and left my best pocket knife there. Went back to get it later - the crows had not only taken the entrails but the knife as well.

On the other hand, I've always had a talent for losing knives and don't buy expensive ones any more.