Reloading and Shooting Delimmas

funny....

I can relate to each point.

When I finally figure out a certain load for a gun I never want to use the brass, bullets or powders that didn't work for that gun again. I always want to shoot with the best possible ammo that I can make and I end up having a bunch of left overs with nothing to do with them.

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It's great to have favorite loads and to buy components to keep making that load, but part of the fun of reloading is continually trying new things. There is always another combination you haven't tried with the components you have on hand, and your next experiment might turn out to be the best load you've ever tried. Also, there is no best possible round for every shooting situation. Most accurate or fastest usually isn't best for economical plinking, and vice versa.

2. When I reload the OCD in me hates it when I screw up a peace of brass and don't have the perfect ammount of ammo to fill my ammo boxes. I have learned from this mistake and always have a few pieces for back ups.

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I tend to load quantities based on the capacity of the magazine of the gun I'm loading for. Instead of 50 9mm, I might load lots of 48, filling three 16-rd mags rather than filling the box. If I screw one up, I consider it a learning experience.

3. When I go shooting I have to shoot the entire batch of ammo that I brought with me because I hate having a few bullets left over that might get mixed up in the rest on my loads.

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Develop a cross-reference system for keeping all of your load data in one place and for attaching specifics to each lot separate and storing each lot with complete data. The perfect data sheet comes with MTM boxes, but there are plenty of reloaders who have developed their own system.

Seriously, any money contemplated on being spent for reloading would probably be better spent getting psychotherapy/medication for the OCD and some tutoring on how to use Spellcheck.

I have a tendency to stick with a load once I find one that me and my gun like. I load in increments of 100 and and use the plastic ammo boxes made by MTM, Dillon and Berrys for the ammo I take to the range. Each box has it's own label. I don't have enough plastic ammo boxes for all the ammo I reload so I store the overflow in used military ammo cans that are appropriately marked.If I take different calibers to shoot I will only set out the ammo for the gun I intend to shoot i.e. a 9mm. When I decide to move to .45 or .357 the 9 and the ammo go into the bag and the next gun and matching ammo get moved to shooting bench.

Responses in red

ngaither said:

I was doing some reloading this weekend and it got me think about some of the personal delimmas that I face while reload and go shooting and was wondering if other people fill the same way.

1. When I finally figure out a certain load for a gun I never want to use the brass, bullets or powders that didn't work for that gun again. I always want to shoot with the best possible ammo that I can make and I end up having a bunch of left overs with nothing to do with them.

I eventually get around to using unused components. Sometimes, I just load up a batch of plinking ammunition. This is primarily for rifle as handgun I usually settle on something pretty quick and do not have much leftovers left over.

2. When I reload the OCD in me hates it when I screw up a peace of brass and don't have the perfect ammount of ammo to fill my ammo boxes. I have learned from this mistake and always have a few pieces for back ups.

While I do have extra cases around, I rarely load up all that I have on hand, most frequently I have an odd number of primers. I just use them up even if one of my boxes are short.

3. When I go shooting I have to shoot the entire batch of ammo that I brought with me because I hate having a few bullets left over that might get mixed up in the rest on my loads.

Yup, I usually shoot what what i take to the range. Although, as i age, I am more willing to have partial boxes left over for the next session

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If you are dwelling on those points you are not shooting and reloading enough to keep your mind occupied.

I have settled in on a few favorite loads, but I don't dismiss the loads I chose not to use. After all, I may have had a bad day at the range that time and re-trying them later might reveal a useful load.
Those that don't prove themselves get shot up plinking, as I want the brass and need the practice.

Unused loads from a batch will get used eventually, held until the next target session. No dilemma here. I try to keep my various psychoses away from lethal objects.

I sympathize.....I really do.

Those things used to bother me, too.

After you have been reloading for a few years, you will get over it. Especially if you load semi-autos, where a few lost cases will screw up your "full box" obsession quick. Even worse is when you wind up with a few extra cases.

The 8-buns 10 hot dogs mis-match used to bother me, too.

So, how do you fell about a 50-round box not going evenly into a 6-chamber revolver?

Lost Sheep

Re Primers, bullets, cases and powders:

Think of each like you do powder in the Hopper. When it starts to get low, just refill it.
There are no extras or odd pieces . There are just your supplies on hand.

It's a river of components and money that never stops flowing---

If you buy enough guns of different calibers will solve all your reloading issues. There will never be enough time or money to reload for any of the guns. Problem solved.

Joe

1. I standardize. Bullets will always eventually get used and they don't spoil. Most of my handloading and shooting is done with revolvers. I may have half a dozen or more in the same chambering. Well, I'm not gonna use 9.0gr Unique in one gun with a 240gr SWC, 9.5gr under a 200gr RNFP in another and a 250gr Keith over 10.0gr in another. I standardize with loads that shoot acceptably well. So anytime I pick up a box of .44Mag ammo that's loaded with a 240gr SWC, I know there's 10.0gr of Unique in there. So it doesn't really matter if I go out and shoot 50rds or 5rds.

2. I've bought very little brass so it's doubtful that I have increments of 50rds of any cartridge case. While I usually load in increments of 50rds, sometimes it's 10 or 20rds for testing or other purposes. It's not something I obsess about.

3. When I go shooting I have to shoot the entire batch of ammo because I love to shoot and can't stop until I'm completely out.

QUOTE: "I never want to use the brass, bullets or powders that didn't work for that gun again."

I can certainly sympathize with being soured on a particular bullet for a particular caliber.

I can understand that you could come to the conclusion that a certain powder just doesn't work in a certain load.

I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around not wanting to reuse brass because you didn't like the load that it was used in.

Do you sell the brass? Sell the gun? Or buy a new gun and allow the brass to try again with a new partner?

Seriously, try to relax and concentrate on the fundamentals.

Why do you reload?

If you're like most of us you do it so that you can afford more shooting, with better ammunition that will allow you to better attain whatever goals that you've set for yourself.

If it makes you feel any better, I've got a hang-up that's just about 180 degrees from your desire to shoot up an entire lot of ammo at one shooting session.

I have a strong compulsion to save some rounds to shoot six months from now in different climatic conditions.

A BIC Sharpie works great to mark cases so that you'll still know what the load is in the future.

Buy a chrono and start shooting ladders, THEN you'll understand...

I have a strong compulsion to save some rounds to shoot six months from now in different climatic conditions.

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I guess we all have little things we obsess about.

I have always used the plastic CaseGard ammo boxes. Started reloading again a couple of years ago after about a 40 year layoff. All my loaded ammo, that had been moved at least a dozen times during that period, was still in good condition and all fired.
I now load only for handguns and use the 100 round boxes. I had a hard time at first not keeping track of my primers and bullets in 100 round increments and wanting to load an even 100 each time. Now shooting mostly pistols and the brass goes everywhere. Seldom come back with 100 cases. If I have spares handy I usually fill up the empty spaces before reloading. However, with 7 and 8 round 45 ACP magazines and 9 round 9mm and 38 Super mags, they never come out even anyway, so I quit worrying about it.
I do keep one brand of brass together in the box and clean and reload it together and keep track of the loads I have used by using stickers on the box.

I do that all the time, and I mean all the time. I have partial left over boxes of loads every where. All are really good loads that gorup super nice, ut the problem is, is that they all have different POI's at 200 yds, different velocities, different weight and type bullets, different powder charges, just plain different.

I've tried keeping them in their own separate containers and labeled as to what they are, what the scope turret adjustments are for them at 200 yds., which action they were loaded for, and all the rest of the details. But there just aren't enough small containers, or enough space to store so few rounds in wait for another identical batch to add to them. So when you figure out why we do this and how to avoid doing it in the future please let me in on the secret. As it stands now, I have a good 3 decades of mixed loads in mixed up boxes. at least I can be sure thay are all good grouping loads, just not matched to one another on paper.

GS

One article I read said that odd lots of ammunition or components need not go to waste.

Nearly anything will do for offhand practice and we need offhand practice after all those hours hunkered down over a bench squeezing out the last fraction of a MOA from a steady position of no use anywhere else.

I can definitely relate to 2 & 3.
I HATE having less than a full box to start with
& HATE having partial boxes, so I shoot the whole box while at the range.

I'm not quite as bad with #1.
I will use up open boxes of bullets, even if they aren't the absolute most accurate.
As far as powder goes, I reload for 8 calibers, I can probably find some excuse to use up what powder I have.

I used to obsess about the full boxes etc.
After I upgraded to a progressive press though, I started making a lot more ammo and for the handgun stuff I don't even bother with boxes anymore, just use ziplock bags and keep those in an ammo can. I was running out of room trying to keep them in boxes and anyway it slows me down too much repackaging the rounds into boxes.

Now I go with 1SOW's school of thought- it is indeed a river or hopper of components on one end and a stream of ammo coming out the other end. When one thing gets low, I either buy more powder or primers, or cast up another batch of bullets. It's almost easier to measure my ammo stocks by weight than it is by numbers of rounds...

I don't seem to have much of a problem with leftover components or partial boxes of ammo. It all seems to get shot up about as fast as I can reload it. For reserve ammo storage I use big plastic coffee cans with a postit note in the can that tells me the load and total number of rounds in the can. It doesn't bother me if there is an odd number of rounds in the can.

Problem I see no Problem !!!

I also like to keep boxes of ammo even .

As far as the components go that`s the challenge we face ,to make em work !!