Primo handloading season for us Deep Southerners ...

Airborne Falcon said:

... 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.

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Going to the rifle range this time of year is a no-go for me. Too many dangerous characters showing blatantly unsafe gun handling for my tastes. Indoor range is less crowded so I’ll be pistoling some. Calves are out of the flat pastures but we got a whole lotta rain this fall so there’s flooding where we normally shoot.
I’m fortunate enough to have more SR and LR than I can use before my extended warranty expires, as well as more SP and LP than I need for a two year extension to the current shortage. I also haven’t been shooting as much lately since my department is short-handed, still. For some reason we’re having a hard time finding people who want a job.
My next special runs are going to be .32Mag for my wife’s Taurus and some .32-20 for my Colt Official Police. The Taurus is getting 85gr. XTP’s w/ either Red Dot or Autocomp. The .32WCF is 115gr. LFN w/ 4.0gr of Unique. We ran down our loaded up .32 supplies plinking cans and stopping the rampaging hoards of dillers. My wife hates it when the dillers get into her flower beds.

I'm planning on finishing a second reloading bench and getting my BL550 setup. For actual loading, I've had some 50gr VMAX .224 projectiles I've been wanting to try out.

GeoDudeFlorida said:

Going to the rifle range this time of year is a no-go for me. Too many dangerous characters showing blatantly unsafe gun handling for my tastes. :

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The 'go to the range once a year' hunting crowd I'm assuming?

ParallelCode said:

The 'go to the range once a year' hunting crowd I'm assuming?

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Nah, those guys are already in their tree stands. The real danger is the Black Friday Black Rifle crowd. The same fellers who tend to have that rather modern hair style that sounds like an edible pastry we aren’t allowed to mention anymore because it offends some folks. I live close enough to a big University that the local ranges fill up with young fellers with lots of money for discount ammo, bored and hopped up on latte’s, who think playing “Call of Duty” is good enough training.

GeoDudeFlorida said:

Nah, those guys are already in their tree stands. The real danger is the Black Friday Black Rifle crowd. The same fellers who tend to have that rather modern hair style that sounds like an edible pastry we aren’t allowed to mention anymore because it offends some folks. I live close enough to a big University that the local ranges fill up with young fellers with lots of money for discount ammo, bored and hopped up on latte’s, who think playing “Call of Duty” is good enough training.

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I was going to reply about COD and Range skills… but decided not to

Airborne Falcon said:

Y'all have any special runs or projects planned for this happiest of handloading seasons?

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A few more .223 rounds, and then on to (hopefully) a pile of 45acp. After that, I may do a few small runs of 38spcl, 357mag, and 45LC. Maybe a few 480 Ruger as well. If I get around to getting brass, I may do some 7.62x39.

chris

For me this is the time of year to start processing all the brass I have shot over the previous warm months. Plenty of ready to process range brass that'll keep me busy till its leprechaun time at least then let the chootin begin again.

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.

GeoDudeFlorida said:

Black Friday Black Rifle crowd

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Same here. They bring 'whatever' straight from the store to the range. Cardboard box and all,,,
One shooting a bolt action rifle that had no sights,,, (Liked to hear it go bang, I guess)
Another shooting an AR using just the front sight. (Rear sight folded down),,,
The memories!

Skgreen said:

Same here. They bring 'whatever' straight from the store to the range. Cardboard box and all,,,
One shooting a bolt action rifle that had no sights,,, (Liked to hear it go bang, I guess)
Another shooting an AR using just the front sight. (Rear sight folded down),,,
The memories!

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You mean you use sights?!?

Skgreen said:

Same here. They bring 'whatever' straight from the store to the range. Cardboard box and all,,,
One shooting a bolt action rifle that had no sights,,, (Liked to hear it go bang, I guess)
Another shooting an AR using just the front sight. (Rear sight folded down),,,
The memories!

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LOL!!! Yup. Seen it. Last year I saw the RO at GTR about went apoplectic at the MB kid with his Bronies who brought a Mossberg 590 to the long rifle range then started bugging people to show him how to load it - on a cold range!
Evidently COD doesn’t teach range etiquette.

I have to set up a set of dies in a RL550 toolhead for my 44 Special and load up some softball target loads - Swaged 240gr Hornady bullets over American Select.

I’ll be working on some 44 especial. I got 450 pieces cut down from hornady magnum brass that needs annealing. It’s sooting all the way to the case head.

I got a mess of lead to render into ingots. And I need to turn them into a few years worth of bullets. Then I need to lube and size them. Ahhh the joys of casting and loading.

Rolled 200 357 mags for my son's match rounds. Mom brought me a box from dad's of starline and I feel blessed to help the boy shot some first rate loads. I mean I even cast the bullets, what's more refined than that!!!

GeoDudeFlorida said:

The same fellers who tend to have that rather modern hair style that sounds like an edible pastry we aren’t allowed to mention anymore because it offends some folks.

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For real? We cant say it here? Ugh... What a bunch of bleepity bleep bleepin bleep.

For me, ive got wildcats to load this winter. 30 and 357 Herrett, 357/44 Bain and Davis, 256 Win Mag, and my own, 257 Short Bob. And i need to load up some "boring" 44 specials.

BigBlue 94 said:

For real? We cant say it here? Ugh... What a bunch of bleepity bleep bleepin bleep.

For me, ive got wildcats to load this winter. 30 and 357 Herrett, 357/44 Bain and Davis, 256 Win Mag, and my own, 257 Short Bob. And i need to load up some "boring" 44 specials.

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No, that's just me trying not to be offensive.

.357/44 B&D is one of those T/C barrels I regret passing up.

GeoDudeFlorida said:

No, that's just me trying not to be offensive.

.357/44 B&D is one of those T/C barrels I regret passing up.

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Ah i see.

This barrel is the only one ive ever seen. I wouldnt say i overpaid for it at $350 but i would have been happier around 200 or 250. Im excited to try it out.

BigBlue 94 said:

Ah i see.

This barrel is the only one ive ever seen. I wouldnt say i overpaid for it at $350 but i would have been happier around 200 or 250. Im excited to try it out.

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When I bought my T/C frame the seller gave me the option to pick one barrel for it. I picked the .30-30 10” barrel. Of all the options… anyway, water under the bridge. I should have picked the .256Win and bought the .357/44B&D but he was asking $100 for it! I’d already shelled out $300 for the frame, two grips, two foreends and the .30-30 barrel.
I don’t even have the excuse of being a “kid” as this was only 25 or 30 years ago.

GeoDudeFlorida said:

When I bought my T/C frame the seller gave me the option to pick one barrel for it. I picked the .30-30 10” barrel. Of all the options… anyway, water under the bridge. I should have picked the .256Win and bought the .357/44B&D but he was asking $100 for it! I’d already shelled out $300 for the frame, two grips, two foreends and the .30-30 barrel.
I don’t even have the excuse of being a “kid” as this was only 25 or 30 years ago.

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I've never shot a contender but the 357 max and the 7-30 watters seem interesting

I moved south to New Orleans around 1978. I built our house with a climate controlled garage for working on my race car. It was a perfect place for reloading when I started reloading in 1980.

Every move since then, the new residence has a place for climate controlled reloading. I can reload what I need at anytime in comfort.

Now, shooting in the south has its limitations. High humidity and beastly temperatures can make shooting sessions unpleasant. The cold in winter, while not bitter, seems extra cold due to the humidity. So, sometimes you have to grin and bear it.

But frequently in the south, the adage “If you don’t like the weather, wait 10 minutes, it will change” applies.

I’m a damn Yankee, I moved south and stayed. I don’t regret a minute of it.

An aside, while I lived in New Orleans, I shot at an indoor range in downtown New Orleans over top of a parking garage and across the street from the Federal building. Lots of FBI agents would practice at the range. They had a photo of Lee Harvey Oswald standing outside the range at the entrance.

Unfortunately, the parking garage and range has been demolished and replaced with another building.

cfullgraf said:

I moved south to New Orleans around 1978. I built our house with a climate controlled garage for working on my race car. It was a perfect place for reloading when I started reloading in 1980.

Every move since then, the new residence has a place for climate controlled reloading. I can reload what I need at anytime in comfort.

Now, shooting in the south has its limitations. High humidity and beastly temperatures can make shooting sessions unpleasant. The cold in winter, while not bitter, seems extra cold due to the humidity. So, sometimes you have to grin and bear it.

But frequently in the south, the adage “If you don’t like the weather, wait 10 minutes, it will change” applies.

I’m a damn Yankee, I moved south and stayed. I don’t regret a minute of it.

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Smart man!

AJC1 said:

I've never shot a contender but the 357 max and the 7-30 watters seem interesting

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How useful a SSP like the T/C is depends on what you’re wanting to do. I bought mine for still hunting in ground blinds and tree stands. One shot at very close range is all you gonna get around here unless you’re over clear cut. Then again, after years of hunting with a SA Ruger, the T/C almost seemed magical in how accurate it is. I used to shoot pins - it was fun for a while - and silhouettes - ditto - but I’m not a paper plugger and never will be. YMMV.