At the Bench

I'm watching grandkids today while the parents work. That's one of the benefits of working in the schools, that I get to be off work while the kids are out of school for the holidays. They don't stay with me every day, but I'm certainly one of the safety valves of child care, and I am a PawPaw, so there are those days when I watch kids. However, those young'uns know what they can get into and what they can't, so I don't have to hover over them like a buzzard.

I decided that it would he a good morning to reload some .357 magnum cartridges, both in 180 and 158 grain loads, so I went out to the bench and spent a half-hour removing clutter, organizing brass, brushing the bench for a clean work surface. I loaded a loading block with 50 pieces of .357 brass and ran them through the full-length sizer. Then, I noticed that I am out of small pistol primers. Howthehell did that happen? Oh, yeah, I loaded a bunch of .38 special this summer and ran out of primers. Was going to order some and forgot. Well, damn.

So, I decided to replenish my .30-06 stock, and took down my Nosler bullet box. It rattled lightly and when I opened it, I saw four bullets. Four. I thought I had better than half a box, then I remembered those .308s I reloaded in October. Well, hell. I'll use those four, that'll be better than nothing.

Then, I got down the jug of Reloder 19 powder. It was light, too. I poured the remnants into a container and realized that I had enough to load the four bullets I had remaining. Dug out the brass, went through the process of trimming, camfering, cleaning primer pockets, ... you know the routine. When I took out the large rifle primers, I realized that I'm down to my last hundred of those too.

I'm not out of ammo, not by a long shot, but my component stocks are depleted. After Christmas, it'll be time to make a primer and powder order. **sigh**