"Easy round to reload for"

.32 Long is tricky on a progressive, because the cases are small and tippy. That's the only one I've had trouble with. Maybe a .25ACP reloader will chime in.

I could be wrong but when I read that I think about it as being "this cartridge is difficult to screw up" or that it is not finnicky. I'm interested to know from somebody with a little more wisdom though haha.

I've all but quit loading for 9mm. Not because it was hard but because there is little to gain. I can buy new ammo for about the same cost as reloading. If I pay myself $10/hour it becomes much cheaper to buy new for this caliber.

Working up a load for best possible accuracy can be a little challenging but that's where the fun is for me.

.40

I took "easy to reload" as something like 38 Special. Very forgiving. Tons of components available. Very simple; size, prime, charge, seat, shoot. It's almost hard to screw up a 38 reload.This applies to most revolver cartridges, semi-auto reloading being a bit more involved maybe can be called "harder"; OAL and case length (for chambering), pressures to cycle action more "critical".

I really haven't found any "hard" to reload cartridges, some may take a couple more steps, but none really "hard"...

I have XXL hands, so loading 9x18 Mak with its little weird shaped bullets is not what I call fun. If you have a heavy crimp tendency, it's easy to collapse the shoulder of 30/30 rounds. Reloading for multiple service rifles of the same caliber can be a challenge, esp if you want to try to use the same ammo in them all.

I was reloading for three 7.62x51 rifles, and the chambers went from sized well, to loose as a goose... Headspace for all was fine, just how generous was the factor. Pretty much had to maximally resize, which killed case longevity firing in El-Wideo. Along the same lines, if you have rifles like my No4 MKII, and Japanese Type 99 Arisaka that like to bulge a bit to one side, you have to wrap a layer or two of tape around the base on first firing to reduce the bulge. Only have to do it once, but it is tedious, time consuming, and not fun.

5.7x28 is a pain. I wouldn't trust any powder measure i own on that one.
I can't imagine 25 acp would be easier either. The bullet is bigger than the case and .1 grains off is 10 percent. Other than those two, I load for 30 or more cartridges and see nothing special about any of them other than finding the correct crimp and such for the gun.

Rimmed, middle to large straight wall pistol cases are by far the easiest to load for.

No shoulder to worry about setting back or crumpling with too much lube.

Carbide dies so no lube is needed.

Minimal case stretching so trimming isn’t always necessary.

Cases and bullets are large enough to handle easily, .32 on down are tiny!

Can be roll or taper crimped: with the rim there are no issues regarding head spacing on the case mouth (or shoulder for a rimless case).

Huge variety of components, loads and data makes almost anything possible.

Stay safe!

I have some *firearms* that are tough to reload for due to case dimensions, mostly 9mm. I don't find any caliber particularly difficult but some are very time consuming. 5.7x28 as previously stated is a pain. I don't have any trouble metering True Blue powder but that case neck setback and small dimensions are tricky. I use BT bullets to avoid flaring the case.

22tcm is not tough, but tricky with the small size and bullet. I ordered a case gauge and separate crimp die. I loathe crimping in the seating die.

Straight wall pistol cartridges are more straightforward and forgiving.

If you do what I do for .270 and trickle powder from a dixie cup to an empty 16ga shell to weigh it then that makes .270 a somewhat difficult cartridge to reload for...
Not to mention trimming the case with a deburring tool while I wait for a lyman pilot backordered on brownells.

I dump them and weigh every charge in 5.7. I just dont trust that margin. Like I said .1 gr is a big variance with such small charges. Also the polymer coated casing makes it tricky, as does the awkward dimensions.
I have some guns like the 329pd that require things others don't. Until then I had a decent crimp on thousands of rounds of 44 with no issue. But in the 329 it wasn't enough. 460 and 500 too. In those I don't crimp and seat in one stage either. But not really a pain to load. Just had to crimp more after learning.

I would say that the .41 Swiss Vetterli is a tricky cartridge to reload for. All the brass is made from another parent cartridge (8mm lebel), and different "makers" cut it at different lengths. Vetterli's have a tube magazine and a very simple lifter, so you have to get an overall length that is long enough to only allow a single round onto the lifter at once... this is a challenge, since it's roughly a .429/.430 bore, and most bullets made for .44's aren't nearly long enough... you've got to find some 300+ grain monsters to have any prayer of keeping them long enough.

Like others, I would also say small cartridges can be fiddly to load. .32 S&W short... too small for me to confidently meter powder, so that means everything is hand-weighed, which is kind of frustrating for a cartridge fired mostly from guns with limited accuracy potential. I'd rate the .223 kind of tricky with flat-base bullets; they're tough to get seated/started completely square. It's a joy (as bottleneck rounds go) with boattails, though.

.357SIG I had a difficult time with. Everything else seemed easy in comparison.

300BLK supersonic loads I struggled a bit too. They weren't technically hard, just took a long time to find something that rifle liked. In fact, on it's 2nd Daniel Defense barrel & still haven't got it under 1MOA - kind of quit tinkering with it at 1.5-1.75" @ 100.

I take “easy to reload” as meaning

1) large enough to handle and inspect
2) don’t have to trim after shooting
3) hard to overload
4) don’t have to worry about small changes in powder or seating depth causing dangerous pressure spikes
5) straight wall cases
6) wide variety of powders and bullets
7) brass lasts a long time
8) multiple ways to crimp
9) cost effective

This describes a lot of cartridges, but hits .38 Special dead on; especially when using something like Trail Boss and cast bullets.

Rodentman said:

I have some *firearms* that are tough to reload for due to case dimensions, mostly 9mm. I don't find any caliber particularly difficult but some are very time consuming. 5.7x28 as previously stated is a pain. I don't have any trouble metering True Blue powder but that case neck setback and small dimensions are tricky. I use BT bullets to avoid flaring the case.

22tcm is not tough, but tricky with the small size and bullet. I ordered a case gauge and separate crimp die. I loathe crimping in the seating die.

Straight wall pistol cartridges are more straightforward and forgiving.

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Yep, 5.7 would fall into the hard to load for.
5.7 seemed to be not only a PITA, dangerous but costly. By the time I calculated all the supplies needed it would cost more to reload than to buy factory ammo.Heck just the cost of the projectiles pretty much makes it a no go to reload. I bought a case of Federal Ammo when they had the rebates, not a round I shoot a lot.

Seemed to me, loading 22 LR would be just as much fun.

22 Hornet can be tricky and easy to mess up the brass, as opposed to 38Spl where even my 6 year old kids could do it right from the first get go.

Olon said:

I could be wrong but when I read that I think about it as being "this cartridge is difficult to screw up" or that it is not finicky. I'm interested to know from somebody with a little more wisdom though haha.

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I think your right, something like the 45acp, 38 or 357 is hard to screw up where the 380 or 9mm could have a few more issues due to weird brass, concerns with OAL and what not. My thinking this mainly applies to new reloaders as once one gets a little experience they find that it's all easy with maybe a hiccup here or there.

The only one of those that could be considered kind of difficult is 223 since occasionally a shell gets stuck in the sizing die.

Mn Fats said:

Easy round to load for ... I read that all the time on these forums but don't understand.

Maybe someone can explain, or name a cartridge that's difficult to reload.

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For me, 45ACP and 40S&W with larger cases are easier to size and bigger bullets are easier to handle. 45ACP 230RN/200SWC and 40S&W 180TCFP/165JHP with longer bases are fairly easy to develop accurate loads for.

In contrast, 9mm with smaller case is harder to size (especially with advent of 9mm Major fired brass) and smaller bullets are harder to handle. 115 gr FMJ/RN with shorter bases are more prone to neck tension/bullet setback issue and can be more difficult to develop accurate loads for, requires more careful bullet/diameter selection depending on barrel groove diameter/leade length and some bullet/barrel combinations need to be pushed near max load data to develop accuracy. With small internal case volume, even small changes in reloading variables can affect accuracy.

But I like challenges in life (That's what I keep telling my wife of almost 25 years ) and made 9mm my focus of reloading consistency - https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...-and-discussions.778197/page-10#post-10966692

Basically "easy to load for" to me means the cartridge is very forgiving of inputs versus performance.

By this I mean, something like Walkalong mentions with the .38 Special. It's very difficult to find a bullet/powder combination that won't give at least acceptable performance in the .38 Special. A new reloaded can take a pile of .38 Special brass, some small pistol primers, any of at least half a dozen powders, pick a bullet and have good results.

I'd also classify the .44 Magnum/.44 Special, .357 Magnum, .45 ACP, .30-06, .308 Win and .223 Rem as being fairly forgiving. Again, there are some generally available powder/bullet combinations that WILL work fantastically without any fuss.

As an example, I can quote 3 .223 loads that if they won't shoot well in your rifle, your rifle won't shoot anything well. Loads with 52gr, 69gr and 75gr bullets, depending on rifling twist rate.

Another example, there are a large number of .45 ACP shooters who like W231 under a 200gr SWC bullet for a target load. And we've all somehow arrived at roughly the same powder charge.

I can't think of anything I've loaded that has been particularly tricky. Though I do think the 9mm Luger can be a bit frustrating at times, as there seems to be a fairly narrow window between "works well" and "too hot!" My .38 Super was a bit of work to sort out initially, mostly due to some bad brass that I had.

And lest I forget, I do occasionally find .30-30 Winchester likes to give me trouble when seating bullets. I've managed to crease a few case necks when things slipped out of square.

I realize the OP mentioned "cartridge", but, get half decent press and 12 gauge is about the easiest in my opinion. Just follow the recipe EXACTLY. No workup. I have always "patterned" any new load I try, but I've yet to find a recipe that didn't pattern well.

Yep the 357 SIG can have neck tension problems. The 25 ACP well it is just darn small as is the .22 Hornet. Getting the neck/shoulder of 300 Savage sized without collapsing it and the thin necks of the 30-30. The force to size a 30 Carbine brass is crazy hard even with carbide dies. The 500 S&W really has to be seated and crimped separately. There are others that come to mind but compared to throwing together some 38 SPL loads with most any pistol powder/projectile the above mentioned are not beginner easy IMO. Going down the reloading section and seeing that what I thought was an easy round to reload has somebody stumped just reinforces that some rounds are easier to assemble successfully than others. YMMV

Good old double tap here sorry.

I can think of several that are more challenging than average. 25 ACP and 32 Auto because of their size. 1/10th of a grain can be a big % of the charge weight plus the difficulty handling these tiny cases. 22 Hornet because of the thin brass. 9mm because there are so many. Brass and chamber specs are all over the place. Some of the 6.5 mm's can be picky about bullet weight depending on the rifling twist. 7.62 X 39 can require different diameter bullets between rifles. Probably a few others but these immediately come to mind.