Counting 9mm reloads by weight

[Bang]

Been shooting my G23 (normally a .40S&W) with a 9mm conversion barrel, scooping up the ejected brass and reloading it. I had built up a couple thousand shells from an outdoor range, some purchased at gun shows, et cetera. The reloaded ammo goes into 50-round ammo boxes, into screw-top containers (holds 85) and into a canister that used to hold 2.2 pounds of powdered Coffee Mate.

I got to wondering how many 115gr rounds (containing +/- 5.2 gr of Unique) are in that now full container. I weighed ten rounds, added them up and dividing by 10, establishing an average. That was repeated five times, and the whole thing averaged 181.34 grains per round. Knowing there are 7000 grains in a pound, I weighed the canister of ammo at 17.6 pounds, converting to 679.36 rounds. I threw in one more round to bring it to a relatively even 680. A few other containers of known quantity brings it to 1000 rounds. (There is at least another thousand, brass sized and belled awaiting completion).

These were all loaded one at a time on an old turret press. Many primers were decapped with a punch, small machinist's ball peen and a plate steel with a hole in it held by a machinist's vise at my computer/TV desk followed by pocket cleaning with a small screwdriver blade. After sonic'd, resizing and belling in the shop, all were primed with an RCBS hand-held primer at this desk. All were charged here at this desk using a dipper made of a 7.65 pistol brass with a length of copper wire soldered to it that throws 5.2-5.4 grains of Unique which is down around the "start" column in the reloading book. Then they are carried back out to the shop and the bullets seated and crimped enough to pass the "plunk test" in the chamber of the 9mm barrel.

If anyone has been thinking about, but hesitating, obtaining a hand-held priming tool...I too dragged my feet for a time. They are one of the greatest reloading inventions ever! All priming is monitored through feel as you go. If a pocket is loose, you know it immediately. If too tight, a stop and ream is quick. Loading the feeder tray is seconds, compared to tediously loading a drop tube. Safer, too. If a primer should fire stacked in a tube, there go all of them. I would not want to be in the room, let alone at the press should that (admittedly unlikely) accident occur.

[Chief Brody]

I've been reloading for 25 years or so , all I've ever used is a Lee handheld primer loader.....

[Bang]

I had been using the primer tubes at the press since around 1970. It was the stage of reloading I enjoyed the least. I guess I got the hand held maybe three years ago. Son loaned me his, told me to keep it and bought another. Was really happy to learn how fast it is.