My reloading "journey"

[ditto1958]

Earlier today I posted about my attempt at emulating Elmer Keith. My double charged .357 magnum round felt like shooting a .500 Smith & Wesson. Alas, unlike Mr. Keith, I did not blow up my gun. Thankfully, both the gun and me are fine.

That got me to thinking that I should share a bit about my experiences as a beginner reloader. I am far from a highly experienced expert, but I am also not a novice either. If you are thinking about taking up reloading, here are a few of my thoughts, observations and lessons learned.

It took me quite awhile before I finally took the plunge and started. Partly it was financial- I had other priorities which came before investing in reloading gear and components. It was also partly hesitation on my part, perhaps out of fear that I was not sufficiently mechanically inclined to make my own ammo. So, I studied. Over time, I read a lot about it, and watched a good many videos on how to set up presses and how to work them. I talked about it with others, and learned from conversations others had about their experiences.

I started by taking baby steps. I bought a Lee Classic Loader for .357 magnum/.38 special. It's the little kit where you can load anywhere using the tools provided and a mallet. I knew going in that the kit would be a temporary step, but one which would allow me to make perfectly good ammo. I wanted to get experience with handling compoments- prepping brass, measuring powder, setting up a die correctly, etc.

Using the Lee Loader, I confirmed two things. The first was that I was comfortable working with ammo components to make ammo. The second was that I could make excellent ammo myself. I also quickly confirmed that the Lee Loader, while really cool, was also limited, as it takes awhile to make 50 rounds of ammo with it. *

After using the Lee Loader for a bit, I decided to take the next step, which was to get a press. Over time, I got lots and lots of advice on reloading equipment, from watching videos, from reading and participating in forums, and from friends at the range.

The two biggest questions for a beginner are: 1. Which brand to buy, and 2. Single stage or turret press.

I'm not here to try to sell a particular brand, but I did decide on Lee. I like the value they offer, the design of their products, and also the fact that they're from my home state. Although I decided on Lee, it became very clear to me during my learning process that the competitors' products are also in most cases outstanding equipment.

As for single stage vs. turret press? I got a lot of advice to start with a single stage press. If I had gone that route, I think I would have gotten the RCBS Rockchucker Supreme. Many reloader swear by that thing. I decided to start with a turret press, however, because I knew I would want more speed than I would get with a single stage press. ** I also knew that I could run the turret press as a single stage press. And in fact, I have run the turret press both as an indexed press as well as a single stage press. I like that versatility.

Price was also a big factor. I found a sale from Amazon where I was able to get the Lee Classic Turret Press Kit for $185. I felt that was quite a bargain.

*I'm definitely keeping the Lee Loader. It's an excellent, ingenious kit.
** I knew going in that I would want to load both postol and rifle ammo. If I were a hunter,many reloaded only hunting ammo for rifles, I'd have likely bought the single stage setup.

[ditto1958]

Duplicate post.

[ditto1958]

Part 2

I mounted the press on my workbench, and got things set up. I wanted to continue loading .357 magnum, so I bought the dies for that. Setting the dies up took about an hour, and was not hard at all. I read the instructions, and followed along with a YouTube video I found where a guy goes through it step by step. I got things working with no issues. Getting the rest of the press set up- installing the powder measure system, and the priming system, was fiddly for me, and probably took me a lot longer than it would take a handier person to do. Still, I encountered no major problems.

Looking back at things, I'm not sure why I was somewhat hesitant to take up reloading. Things went more smoothly than I anticipated.

Some conclusions:

There are a few things you hear over and over about reloading. The first is that although you can make ammo yourself for a lot cheaper than you can buy factory ammo, you are unlikely to save any money. Why? Because you will just shoot more. I would say that is definitely true.

The second thing is that a big reason to load your own ammo is that you can make ammo that's better than factory ammo. A lot of people find that difficult to believe. I would have to say, though, that even as a relative beginner, it's true. My first batches of .357 magnum ammo shot noticeably more accurately than any factory ammo I had been shooting before. I'm not completely sure why, but it's true.

Lastly, while a person does not have to be amazingly mechanically inclined to do reloading, you do have to have some degree of "handiness." Understanding how machinery works, and how to use basic hand tools is a must. Also, being able to read and follow instructions is really a good idea. The main thing a reloader DOES need, is a good dose of maturity and level-headedness. Being able to concentrate on a task, to follow safety rules, pay attention to measurements and components, all are very important if you don't want to blow up your gun, yourself, or others.

Bottom line? I'm glad I took the plunge, and I recommend you try it if you are interested.

[Rugerfanboy]

Do you know what caused the double charge of powder...???

[ditto1958]

Do you know what caused the double charge of powder...???

No. The load I was making only fills the case up to a little less than half full. So it was possible to charge it twice and seat the bullet without noticing.

All the rest of the rounds I shot that day were fine. I weighed the remaining rounds I had at home (about 150) and they all were within about two grains of each other.

[Rugerfanboy]

So it was possible to charge it twice and seat the bullet without noticing.

Always look inside of the casing to make sure it has the proper amount of powder before seating a bullet. If you'd done this safety check, you'd not double charged that casing. Not bashing you, just letting you know what process you skipped. Put it this way, we all have to learn from our mistakes.

Kind of a funny story that had happen to me once that blew my mind at the time cause I thought I was doing something wrong on my part, which turned out, was not me causing the problem. I was even told by well seasoned hand loaders, that it was something I was doing causing the problem that I had at the time. To this day, when I found the problem, I took a picture of the problem to remind me of what was going on with my problem and to never forget. Put it this way, it drove me nuts until I figured it out.

Here's the problem I was having. I was getting a failure to fire (FTF). I bought a brick (1000) of primers and as soon as I started using these primers, FTF showed it's ugly mug. It never registered that something was wrong with the new primers. I was giving so many reason as to why my rounds wouldn't fire. Was told that I was not seating the primer deep enough, even thou I was uniforming the primer pockets. Was told that my press priming system was not set up right. Was told that my weapon was malfunctioning. I finally broke done and was about to throw in the towel and bought a box of factory ammo. Low and behold, everyone of those factory rounds fired. So, I knew it was something about my powder or those new primers that I had just bought. I decided to buy some new primers and some new powder. Build a hundred rounds and yes, you guessed it, they all fired just fine. Now, it was time to mix the good with the bad. I took the fresh new primers and used the old powder and built another hundred rounds. Fired them and each of them fired fine. Bingo, I think I found the problem, something was wrong with the brick of primers that I bought the first time. I took and used hundred of the old primers and used the new powder. Out of another 100 rounds that I built again, several of them failed to fire. I took that brick that I bought in the first place and started looking at them and found several of them had about half of the primer compound missing. That was what was causing the problem. Took a few of them bad primers and loaded them up and tried to fire them and I could not get even one of them to shoot. The rest from that brick fired fine once I separated the bad from the good.

I'll see if I can find a picture that I took of them. From that day, I look at every primer that gets installed and I even check my powder before I put it in my powder thrower/hopper/despencer. I make sure the powder is not clumped up and has no moisture in it. From that experience, I inspect everything like my life depends on it. Maybe someone can learn from my experience.

[ditto1958]

Those pics are a good thing to have for a reference.

[Squatch]

Interesting. Those must be the primers PMC uses!

[Rugerfanboy]

Interesting. Those must be the primers PMC uses!

Don't know, but I like there brass casings.

[CT_Shooter]

Always look inside of the casing to make sure it has the proper amount of powder before seating a bullet...
...From that experience, I inspect everything like my life depends on it. Maybe someone can learn from my experience.

Thanks for your post, Rugerfanboy. Almost every thing I have ever owned in my life has had some kind of flaw.

But, reloading is something over which I have a bit of control. I once seated a bullet without adding powder to the case. I was lucky. The bullet was only pushed by the primer inside the forcing cone of my Henry and stuck; it wouldn't allow another round to be chambered. Now, I check the case for powder each and every time before the bullet gets seated. And, like you, I inspect everything else, too.

Lucky mistakes are powerful teachers.

[CT_Shooter]

I've been reloading for nearly as long as I've been shooting and that's about to become three years. Even before I started and ever since, I've continued to read everything I can find about the reloading process. As a result, I decided early on to load by a proven volume rather than by a recommended weight. These two sources helped me make that decision:



If nothing else, it may lead to an informative discussion.

Even if you weigh your powder precisely on one day, on another day it MAY be different due to humidity changes.
Whether it's weighed or measured, a .1gr+/- is not going to show any significant change in velocity, but due to the same humidity change, it may show a significant vertical dispersion on target due to changes in combustion.

This is a little known fact by many loaders, that's why in bench rest they tune their loads on the day, not the week before!

I always use the same setting on my measure, whether it corresponds with the initial weight setting or not! I have had differing weights of 1.5gr's on any given day, and it doesn't seem to affect accuracy or velocity a great deal. Rarely does this pose a problem once a 'node' is found, a good 'node' will run 1gr+/- without affecting anything drastically.
-- http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/ ... ght-48149/

…Once a container has been opened, (and even slightly before it's opened), the chemicals used for 'drying' the powder "off-gas". That doesn't, to my knowledge, change the burn characteristics of the powder, but it does change its "bulk density". You may recall that this came home to me 'in spades' a few years back when I took the .338 MAI to Colorado for the first time. The charges of BL-C(2) were not even 'warm' let alone hot, but I was blowing primers - REALLY blowing primers when I got down there. Turns out, the powder I used for loading THOSE cartridges up was the last of a cannister of BL-C(2) that I had had for almost 30 years, and that I used almost the last of loading those cartridges.

A 50-grain charge of "new" powder will contain less energy than a 50-grain charge of "old" powder because the "old" powder will have a higher bulk density than a "new" cannister of powder does. So...

My suggestion is that you work up on the TRULY 'low' side of "book" charges to start with 'til you get to 'know' that cannister of powder. AND, when you get a new cannister, don't expect it to produce the same MVs or pressures that a really old cannister did.

This isn't an issue once a cartridge is loaded because the chemical energy is fixed forever - the amount of powder doesn't change, only it's weight. That's why milsurp ammo from the late '30s (and especially the nazi 8x56R stuff), is still good to this day.

-- http://thehunterslife.com/forums//showt ... hp?t=15459

But, I wonder what other members think about it. Powder Volume vs. Powder Weight. Why?

[ditto1958]

Hmmm... I'd forgotten I started this thread.

My biggest observation about reloading now that I have a small amount of experience under my belt? It's not nearly as hard as I thought it was going to be. Now, mind you, I'm far, far from being experienced or knowledgeable about it. I have, however, been able to make .356 magnum and .38 special ammo that shoots just fine. More accurate than factory ammo, and much, much cheaper.