The Reloading Thread

DISCLAIMERS - 

• This is a thread about the theory, technique and practice of reloading ammunition. It is not about the politics or morality of firearms. Take those discussions elsewhere. 
• This thread is a result of a great deal of member interest in a thread on a related topic, so I thought we'd find a separate thread useful
• Mods - if this topic isn't right for this board, or if anyone gets out of hand here, PLEASE don't hesitate to delete it , lock it, do what you need to do. 
• Be nice, be respectful, be helpful or be somewhere else. 

Instead of continuing to threadjack a discussion of rifle choice, I thought we could start a thread about reloading. I don't reload, but I've kind of been interested in it since ammo is becoming more scarce and expensive. It seems like we have a lot of knowledgeable members here and several people interested in getting started, so here's the place to discuss it. I'd like to invite matthewmcl to copy his post from the other thread over here if he's willing, just to provide an outline of basic equipment. Anyone else who wants to outline a basic process or setup for those of us interested in getting started, please share as well.

I'm in to learn.  I remember researching a lot some 25 years ago but never jumped in.  Of course my memory is gone from that many years ago.

If anyone has a good book to recommend on the subject I think that'd be a great place to start. 

Given the price of 9mm ammo right now I'm interested in learning how to reload

I'll be keeping an eye on this thread, there's a .358 Yeti upper on my horizon and I'd love to be able to reload for it.

In reply to docwyte :

I've been thinking of buying a 9mm because it's so much cheaper than .40 S&W now!

JesseWolfe said:

I'll be keeping an eye on this thread, there's a .358 Yeti upper on my horizon and I'd love to be able to reload for it.

Would you happen to be dabbling in .277 Wolverine? I've picked up some parts and plan on making an upper for it and possibly getting into reloading for it.

Brett_Murphy (Forum Patrón) said:

JesseWolfe said:

I'll be keeping an eye on this thread, there's a .358 Yeti upper on my horizon and I'd love to be able to reload for it.

Would you happen to be dabbling in .277 Wolverine? I've picked up some parts and plan on making an upper for it and possibly getting into reloading for it.

Not as of yet.  Wife and I had a hog hunting trip in Texas planned for this past spring before COVID-19 hit, .358 Yeti and .308 were our planned calibers to take.  All of that's on the back burner now until some semblance of normality resumes.

I can probably answer some basic questions.

I have some experience reloading, mainly for pistol calibers.  For Cowboy Action, and general plinking/practice.  Most of the loads I make are not required to be super accurate, so if you're looking to put rounds into 1 MOA at 1k yards, I'm probably not the guy.

I started years ago with a secondhand Lee turret, using it for 357 Magnum and 45 Colt mostly. Occasionally using it for 45-70 and a bit of .308. 

I then added a Lee Pro 1000 for 45 ACP, never could get that one to run consistently, there would always be some hiccup, but they can be made to run.

Then I was shown the light.  A blue light.  I now run a Dillon 550 for most of the short run stuff, and two Dillon 650s for the higher volume stuff.

I also use a Ponsness-Warren 275 for some 12 ga. black powder loads.

Brett_Murphy (Forum Patrón) said:

JesseWolfe said:

I'll be keeping an eye on this thread, there's a .358 Yeti upper on my horizon and I'd love to be able to reload for it.

Would you happen to be dabbling in .277 Wolverine? I've picked up some parts and plan on making an upper for it and possibly getting into reloading for it.

If you get into wildcat cartridges, reloading is almost mandatory.  I first got into reloading for 6.8 SPC II.  I had a hell of time finding decent powder for it and its pretty much back burnered these days and I focus on .223 and .308 loads.  

From what i learned with 6.8 was that there are very few appropriate and accurate powders for a 270 size projectile in a short action cartridge, unless you want to go small pill at a pretty high velocity.  I was trying to push a 110gr projectile around 2700 fps and pretty much the only powder for it was reloder 10x which i could never find.  I did have decent accuracy with 8208xbr and 115grain bullets but velocity was slow.  like 2450fps slow. like i said now i stick to .308 and .223 as they do what i need pretty reliably and with well established load recipes. 

In reply to JRGunfighter_John :

The phrase "12 gauge black powder loads" is terribly intriguing

In reply to ultraclyde (Forum Supporter) :

Not as interesting as the 10 gauge ones I make by hand, to use in my original 1887 Winchester and the hammered double...

ultraclyde (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to docwyte :

I've been thinking of buying a 9mm because it's so much cheaper than .40 S&W now!

I sold my .40 for the 9mm for the same reason.  Then all this craziness kicked up and 9mm is $0.80/round!

docwyte said:

ultraclyde (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to docwyte :

I've been thinking of buying a 9mm because it's so much cheaper than .40 S&W now!

I sold my .40 for the 9mm for the same reason.  Then all this craziness kicked up and 9mm is $0.80/round!

That cannot be right. 0.80 a round? I just checked I have 10K rounds of 9mm, of course I am in Clifornia and cannot sell them privately.

I think I paid like 0.11 a round back when I got them. 

wearymicrobe said:

docwyte said:

ultraclyde (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to docwyte :

I've been thinking of buying a 9mm because it's so much cheaper than .40 S&W now!

I sold my .40 for the 9mm for the same reason.  Then all this craziness kicked up and 9mm is $0.80/round!

That cannot be right. 0.80 a round? I just checked I have 10K rounds of 9mm, of course I am in Clifornia and cannot sell them privately.

I think I paid like 0.11 a round back when I got them. 

It is. I was just checking back on 9mm, the best you can do is about $0.80 for flat nose range ammo. Currently .40 S&W is $0.90.. so they're about the same, I just hadn't checked lately. A year ago .40 was $.021, so still about ten cents more than 9

I started reloading  a couple years ago on a hornady single stage, which is what I think most people should start on, at least until they get an idea on what exactly they want to do.

Reloading really comes in handy for when you want to load custom light loads to plink with, or to save money on some of the more expensive calibers. I don't reload 9mm or 223, because it's just not worth my time when 9mm was 10 CPR. However I can load my own 357 mag with Powdercoated lead for much cheaper, 15 CPR instead of 60. I can load my 30-30 with a 135gr PC bullet, with a few grains of bullseye and have something that shoots like a .22 with much more energy for pests around the yard, and plinking fun. I've even loaded 90gr FN bullets in my 32acp for something that hits much harder for critters as apposed to the normal 71gr RN. There are just so many options for different calibers when someone starts loading their own.

I would say the easiest way to start is picking up a beginner kit from one of the big three, as well as a reloading manual. The manuals really do go through everything for beginners, and as long as you follow their recipes and guidlines you shouldn't blow anything up. At the end of the day it's not rocket science. Just make sure you're being consistant and paying attention and things should go well.

As far as reading material. I don't really have any reloading specific books, but one that I do recommend is six guns by Elmer Keith. Elmer was a gun writer in the 60's, and was definitely someone who believed in hot rodding cartidges. He was a big part of creating the .44 magnum we know today.

Here's a picture of all the versitility. All 357 mag, 175gr SWC,  160gr HP, 158gr SWC, pistol shot shells.

In reply to JRGunfighter_John :

10ga just scares me.  I have an ancient Damascus steel 12ga hammered double barrel Remington that belonged to my grandfather. I'd love shoot the thing but there's no way it's safe, even with a light black powder round.

Strizzo said:

Brett_Murphy (Forum Patrón) said:

Would you happen to be dabbling in .277 Wolverine? I've picked up some parts and plan on making an upper for it and possibly getting into reloading for it.

If you get into wildcat cartridges, reloading is almost mandatory.  I first got into reloading for 6.8 SPC II.  I had a hell of time finding decent powder for it and its pretty much back burnered these days and I focus on .223 and .308 loads.  

From what i learned with 6.8 was that there are very few appropriate and accurate powders for a 270 size projectile in a short action cartridge, unless you want to go small pill at a pretty high velocity.  I was trying to push a 110gr projectile around 2700 fps and pretty much the only powder for it was reloder 10x which i could never find.  I did have decent accuracy with 8208xbr and 115grain bullets but velocity was slow.  like 2450fps slow. like i said now i stick to .308 and .223 as they do what i need pretty reliably and with well established load recipes. 

There is plenty of data on 6.8 these days (though the forum most of it is on is toxic), and .277 Wolverine has a few published loads on a different forum. I have some 6.8 stuff (the 15 is lighter than the 10) and I'll probably start reloading with that, simply because it will be the most cost effective at the moment. I've kept every piece of brass I've shot that I could find. 


 

ultraclyde (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to JRGunfighter_John :

10ga just scares me.  I have an ancient Damascus steel 12ga hammered double barrel Remington that belonged to my grandfather. I'd love shoot the thing but there's no way it's safe, even with a light black powder round.

I would rather shoot 10 ga black powder all day than a handful of Turkey 12 ga or even Super Handicap 12, through the "light" cowboy guns I run them in.   You may be surprised how tough the old Damascus barrels are, my club hosts a couple of vintage SxS trap/skeet/sporting clays matches a year (usually), and there's a lot of century old shotguns busting clays.  If you have a gunsmith in the area that works on old shotguns, they can likely give you an opinion as to it's safety.  Remember most of those shotguns have shorter chambers for the old paper cartridges and can not use modern plastic ones. However there's one or two companies still loading paper hulls.

I tell you what boys, I'm seriously thinking of ordering a couple boxes of .40 leads while i can still find any, even though I've never reloaded anything in my life. Just in case.

In reply to Brett_Murphy (Forum Patrón) :

There were plenty of recipes back then, but still many of them used hard to find powder, and/or were for 90gr or less bullets.  

like i said the 8208xbr was probably the most accurate, but you can't get enough of it in the case to get decent velocity.  I would have been happy with 2600 fps but 2300-2400 was just not going to work for what i was trying to do, and ultimately i found my other guns worked well enough that i can just stick to factory loads for 6.8.  also all the spc/spc II differences made for silly problems like max recommended loads being way too light, and most people going well over the spc max recommended load in an spc II gun with zero pressure sign. 

I just dug out all the reloading stuff my uncle left us. Remember when I said it wasn't like I had a complete reloading setup?

I was wrong about that...

with all apologies to the guys who were interested in buying, I think I'll be keeping this and getting into reloading...
so let's see...

• RCBS- rock chucker supreme press, partner press, powder measure, powder measure stand, balance scale, lube pad, and dies for 44mag, 38/357, and 30-30. 
• lee press , unknown die, set and a half of powder measures
• 1000 each large and small primers, 3/4 lb pistol powder
• bullets - 3 bags 44mag, 3 boxes various 38, small boxes of 38 and 44mag JHP
• brass...bags of range collected stuff in 44, 38, 357, one bag of 100 purchased single use .40 S&W
• Plenty of various other bits and fobs, books, guides, etc. 

in a 5 minute assessment, I think the only hardware I need is casing prep stuff and a set of .40 dies. 
 

since everything else is RCBS, should I just buy their die set too?

next I have to decide how much I'm going to pay my aged mother for all this since it technically went to her and she could use the money. What do you guys estimate the family price to be on that lot?

and also..holy E36 M3. Thanks Uncle Johnny. 

In reply to ultraclyde (Forum Supporter) :

That is a lot.  If you decide there's extra stuff I would still be interested.  I'd like to know what the reloaders think about the different presses.  I remember Lee and Rock Crusher from back in the day.  I see Dillion mentioned above.  I also see different presses used for large lots say pistol ammo and something else for say rifle ammo.

In reply to ultraclyde (Forum Supporter) :

I think keeping g it and learning is a plan you will not regret! Someone with the knowledge will throw out some ball park amounts. 

I agree. Plus it's a link to my uncle, and I have a good friend who can show me the ropes. There's also a big stack of reloading and gun smithing books here.