Primo handloading season for us Deep Southerners ...

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We live in the mid-south. Reloading room is indoors and climate controlled. I shoot at least 200 rounds of 9mm a week at a climate controlled indoor range. So there is no on or off season for me. I get to pull the handle a lot year round. Rifle loading is a bit more sporadic, since I'll only go to the public rifle range when the weather is nice and it's not crazy time.

My "winter" projects are finishing up a master bath remodel and prepping/breaking in my new motorcycle.
 
Well us northerners just throw another log on the fire and the reloading room is at a balmy 80. It’s time to put the trim head on and process a whole lot of .223.
Weather forecast says we’re going to get down to 89% humidity today and tomorrow. Perfect weather for a nice long walk in the swamp. I need to see how the gators are getting on in this frigid 60degree weather. Dry and cold. Perfect!
 
Winter is prime loading season in the North as well. Outside things can be shall we say "challenging" this time of year, so my ammunition supply seems to proliferate over the winter months. Helps that my loading room is one of the warmest in the house when I open the big gravity vent and let the heat up from the lower level where the wood stove is!
 
Load year round regardless of the temps here in Florida. I shoot all year long, got to stay sharp. The range at Strickland has huge fans for shooting and I dump cool air from the house into my garage reloading space during the summer. I reload for something all the time. I'm blessed.
And you've got REAL good hunting grounds around you too! I used to do the annual pig hunts at Tiger Bay and Dexter-Mary every season. Until they changed the regulations requiring us to present "intact" pigs to the wardons for data collection. If you don't cut a boar hog soon after it falls it spoils the meat. :( Still really like going to D-M and Tiger Bay for deer. It's less crowded than Ocala. You picked a great place to live for shooting! Ever been to the Titusville gun club? It's over by Sanford.
 
And you've got REAL good hunting grounds around you too! I used to do the annual pig hunts at Tiger Bay and Dexter-Mary every season. Until they changed the regulations requiring us to present "intact" pigs to the wardons for data collection. If you don't cut a boar hog soon after it falls it spoils the meat. :( Still really like going to D-M and Tiger Bay for deer. It's less crowded than Ocala. You picked a great place to live for shooting! Ever been to the Titusville gun club? It's over by Sanford.

I must admit I'm not a native to Florida. I am from the great white north and not Canada. I picked this area for many reasons and much data. Been here 5 years. I have several choices for shooting. The big range in Sanford is nice, Strickland is close and really well run, that's my main range. I have not been to Titusville, and Flagler also has a big club. My hunting days are behind me at this point. I love angus much better than venison. I mainly shoot paper and steel when its available but that's scarce around here close by. I've seen every wild animal Florida has to offer except rattlers. We have real jungle environments real close, so game is always close by.
 
I must admit I'm not a native to Florida. I am from the great white north and not Canada. I picked this area for many reasons and much data. Been here 5 years. I have several choices for shooting. The big range in Sanford is nice, Strickland is close and really well run, that's my main range. I have not been to Titusville, and Flagler also has a big club. My hunting days are behind me at this point. I love angus much better than venison. I mainly shoot paper and steel when its available but that's scarce around here close by. I've seen every wild animal Florida has to offer except rattlers. We have real jungle environments real close, so game is always close by.
You chose well and Welcome! from a "native." I was born in a little incorporated township about 40 miles south of Ormond. It's not around anymore, got annexed long ago into the city, but right down the road from where I grew up was Johnny Weissmuller's Tropical Wonderland, one of the first herpetariums opened to the public as a tourist attraction. Yeah, we got some mean critters down here but for the most part, if you don't bother them... etc.
There's a big skeet club up by JAX NAS, I forget the name, but it's where my Navy brethren used to like to go shooting back when I was stationed at Patrick near Melbourne we'd take a day pass and go up there to shoot. This was forever ago but last I heard it was open still and bigger/better than ever. Check it out. JAX Beaches are an easy drive from Ormond. :)
 
My loading room is in the house so its not weather dependent. But schedule and activity wise most of my loading and casting are done after hunting season closes in December and before it starts warming up in the spring. My casting set-up is in the garage. Late Winter is also when I get together with a few buddies for our annual smelting party where we melt the past years aclumniation of scrap lead.
 
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My man cave has central heat and air. :D

I never seem to be able to stock up on handloaded ammo. It all gets spent. Been easier the last year or two with the high prices of primers. I did just order 1500rds of 9mm to blast over the next few months. Got several projects to get to work on.
 
Dang, so many of you reload in climate controlled rooms! I'm near Houston too, but I reload year-round in my un-climate controlled garage, except for when the temps drop below the mid-40's. I shoot year-round too. I'm used to the heat and humidity, but the cold gets me in a bad way anymore. I've still got enough primers for now, but they're starting to show up again, so I'll restock soon.

... it's that time of the year when the man cave doesn't need AC, the humidity is low and the nights are long. If needed (rarely) a little space heater might be all one needs to spend some long hours in the reloading room.

I'm in Houston. I spent the summer inside my home reloading. It's now time to shoot here, but plenty of rainy days to reload as well.



Amen, brother!
I reload for something all the time. I'm blessed.
 
Dang, so many of you reload in climate controlled rooms! I'm near Houston too, but I reload year-round in my un-climate controlled garage, except for when the temps drop below the mid-40's.
Do you keep your powder and primers in a climate controlled area? Maybe I'm just paranoid, but I'd think components would degrade quicker if not kept in climate controlled storage until usage.
 
Do you keep your powder and primers in a climate controlled area? Maybe I'm just paranoid, but I'd think components would degrade quicker if not kept in climate controlled storage until usage.

This is a good question, and I think the answer will vary for each of us.

I load on the second floor of our house, in an unused bedroom that is my man cave. It's an old house with little/no insulation, and it can get into the 80's up there in the summer, and on occasion it will hit 90ish. It doe's cool down every night into the 60's or low 70's due to being in the mountains at about 2400' elevation. There is heat in the winter, and the room stays around 66 degrees unless I turn on the electric fireplace.

I keep a few pounds of powder in that room, basically what I use on a regular basis, along with some primers, but the majority of my powder and primers is kept in the basement, where it stays pretty much in the 60's year round.

chris
 
Nope, it's all kept in the garage, nothing special. Some is nearly a decade old, and in theory, the powders will deteriorate sooner in my garage vs. in a climate controlled environment. But, I've observed no appreciable performance deterioration...no duds, no noticable change in velocities.
Do you keep your powder and primers in a climate controlled area? Maybe I'm just paranoid, but I'd think components would degrade quicker if not kept in climate controlled storage until usage.
 
Do you keep your powder and primers in a climate controlled area? Maybe I'm just paranoid, but I'd think components would degrade quicker if not kept in climate controlled storage until usage.
I keep mine inside, but I worry way more about the heat and humidity, than the cold. Nothing good happens to ammo or components during the summer.
 
This is a good question, and I think the answer will vary for each of us.

I load on the second floor of our house, in an unused bedroom that is my man cave. It's an old house with little/no insulation, and it can get into the 80's up there in the summer, and on occasion it will hit 90ish. It doe's cool down every night into the 60's or low 70's due to being in the mountains at about 2400' elevation. There is heat in the winter, and the room stays around 66 degrees unless I turn on the electric fireplace.

I keep a few pounds of powder in that room, basically what I use on a regular basis, along with some primers, but the majority of my powder and primers is kept in the basement, where it stays pretty much in the 60's year round.

chris
Buuuut… this sure don’t sound like someplace in the Deep South. :scrutiny:
 
Deer Season here in Texas. No time to sit in the reloading room until January...

Absolutely, we've been hunting since first of Oct. got a couple in the freezer, working on some pork to go with it. We loaded up on fish Sun and Tue.

Probably pick up at least one or two more deer and hopefully at least that many hogs before January.
 
Absolutely, we've been hunting since first of Oct. got a couple in the freezer, working on some pork to go with it. We loaded up on fish Sun and Tue.

Probably pick up at least one or two more deer and hopefully at least that many hogs before January.
We’ve got hogs and fishing year round here on the Gulf. Atlantic Coast is better (imo) for blue crabs and shrimp but it’s a drive and crowded now.
Good luck with the hogs! They’re vermin.
 
... it's that time of the year when the man cave doesn't need AC, the humidity is low and the nights are long. If needed (rarely) a little space heater might be all one needs to spend some long hours in the reloading room.

Lasts from like right now through late March, early April at best. No crops to tend-to, no grass to cut, lots of time to roll'em up and do some shootin'.

Small pistol reloads are going-to-be thin-pickin's this year, I'm down to a couple of 1000 SPPs. Guess I'll focus on large pistol and small rifle mostly, may try to sock-away a few 1000 rounds of M1a feed in the process.

Y'all have any special runs or projects planned for this happiest of handloading seasons? Especially since the primer Grinch is still hoarding the small pistol primers in his lair somewhere. Can't wait for that new VV facility up around Texarkana to get up and running.

Shot a very good amount of .45 Colt and .45 acp during the year, except in the dog days of summer. So, that's what I'm catching up on. I don't believe I need to load any more .38spl, as I've lost count on how many I actually have. LOTS!! Something about shooting those .45's; I just enjoy the heck out of empting those cases! Retired man's problem.:)
 
Weather forecast says we’re going to get down to 89% humidity today and tomorrow. Perfect weather for a nice long walk in the swamp. I need to see how the gators are getting on in this frigid 60degree weather. Dry and cold. Perfect!
When we lived in New Orleans, a radio station had a contest when the temperature would break 100 degF. During the four years we lived in New Orleans, the summer time temperature never broke 100 degF and the relative humidity never dropped below 90%. The radio station stopped their contest in after the summer we were there.

We ran the air conditioner 3 of the four Christmas' we were in New Orleans. The fourth, we were out of town at our parents for Christmas.

I'm sure gators get a bit sluggish when the ambient temp drops down to and below 60 degF. Gator hunting was a thing in the parish (aka county in Louisiana language) that we lived in down river from New Orleans itself.

Down one bayou, at the end of the road was a sign "The end of the world.":)

Unlike living up north where racing season was during the summer time, Racing in the New Orleans area stopped during the peak of the summer due to the heat. We raced in the spring and fall and stayed in the a/c at the peak of summer.

I shot some Second Chance Bowling Pin competition while I lived in New Orleans (1980-1982). I got me interested in 1911 pistols.
 
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