Saturday, March 4, 2017

Snow Day!!!


Last week we had a first of March snowpocolypse.  One day, we had green clover showing on the garden mound and the next a ground blizzard rendering our driveway nearly impassible.  Although lighter vehicles were able to drive on top of the drifted snow, Sir Knight's heavy service truck just sank and stopped.  After he managed to back his truck out of the knee-high drift, Sir Knight called dispatch and told them he wouldn't be in - his first snow day of the year!

After a "weekend" breakfast of pancakes and bacon, Sir Knight decided to get down to business and put his bonus "snow day" to good use - it was time to reload!

A few months ago Master Hand Grenade and I moved Sir Knight's reloading bench out of the living room and into our bedroom.  It has been great arrangement.  Now the reloading bench is easily accessible (no more moving the furniture to get to it) and the reloading equipment within arms reach.   Not only did we move the bench, we also hung an LED shop light over the reloading area.  Now, Sir Knight has ample light for precision reloading and a tidy area in which to work.  Perfect for snow day reloading.

Picking up primers



Pouring powder

Reloading! 


Loaded Ammunition



Sir Knight uses a "wet" tumbler for brass.  Really, it is a rock tumbler, however it works beautifully for cleaning brass, especially the really tarnished, dirty range brass.  It is tumbled for about an hour and a half, with water, Dawn dish washing detergent, Lemishine and about five pounds of stainless steel media.  What used to take 24 hours with a traditional vibrating case cleaner now takes an hour and a half!  And now we have piles and piles of clean brass just waiting to be turned into ammunition!

Wet tumbler


Cleaned brass

The Dillion 550 RL progressive reloader has been Sir Knight's reloader of choice for the last 26 years.  He has reloaded thousands of rounds of ammo with his Dillion and wouldn't use anything else.    For his "snow day" reloading project, Sir Knight decided to reload .556 match ammo.  He is very particular, visually inspecting every round.  When all was said and done, Sir Knight had 500 rounds loaded, on stripper clips and in bandoleers!  He even put them into cardboards and stacked them in an ammo can!

Stripper clips and chargers (also known as spoons)

Isn't that a thing of beauty?

Labeled and ready to go on the shelf
What a family fun day!  After reloading, we sat down to a wonderful dinner of Bangers and Mash with Onion Gravy.  We visited, we laughed, we enjoyed each other's company.  What began as the snowpocolypse turned into the perfect snow day!  I know everyone would love to see the blooms of springs, but I say - bring on the snow!!


Some of my favorite faces!
Bangers and Mash!

8 comments:

  1. Anything worth doing is worth doing well. (I keep telling myself that!)Very nice job and cozy supper. Phil/Minnesota

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  2. My hubby loves his Dillon as well.... what a blessing your snow day was!
    A.Jones

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  3. I love the picture of your family having dinner together. And no one futzing with a cell phone!
    Montana Guy

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  4. Onion gravy? There are recipes online but I would like your version. Perhaps a post?

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  5. I still weigh each charge for my rifle reloads. because of this I still use a single stage press. For pistol ammo I do not due this as I can not shoot them well enough to make a difference.


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  6. I love Sir Knight's tshirt. I need to find one like it for my own knight!

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  7. Something to try-a solution of two tablespoons of citric acid to a quart of water is a great rust and corrosion remover, that's safe and easy to use. It's slow (up to a week ), but effective and "forgiving". For aluminum or zinc alloys, use a weaker solution and keep an eye on it. I found a cheap knife I had lost in the yard probably 20 years ago. The brass had corroded, as had part of the (cheap) stainless steel blade and backspring. The wood handle was intact, but darkened from..mold? A soak of about four days, and it looked near new..
    For some reason, it turns some steel black-once dried,it looks like it has been misted with flat black paint.
    Great for small parts..it won't damage threads or images/words stamped into the steel. Give it a try sometime.

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  8. You have such a lovely family, Enola. Thank you for sharing with us and the bangers and mash looks delicious! I've never had onion gravy. It looks like roast gravy. Can't go wrong with gravy. 😉

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