Easiest round to reload?

[goon]

I am thinking it is .303 British.
I don't need to worry about trimming with my SMLE because the chamber is so sloppy and there is no way the brass is going to last long enough to need it.
With neck sizing dies I don't have to even worry about lubing it.

 

[Kamicosmos]

large bore straight wall pistol cartrides with carbide dies.

so easy it's almost boring.

 

[Cortland]

I'd have to get a slight advantage to straight wall semi-auto pistol cartridges, as they're generally more difficult to double-charge than revolver cartridges.

 

[stans]

44 magnum with slow burning rate powders or 45 ACP with medium burning rate powders. I started with 357 magnum and Unique, it was pretty easy to get into reloading and I still have all of my fingers!

 

[SamSpade]

The 22 Hornet, just dip the case in Win 296, level the powder and seat the bullet. I don't get the guys saying straight wall pistol calibers? You have that extra step of belling the case?

 

[bp_cowboy]

For Single Stage

I would have to say that straight walled pistol cartridges are pretty easy, but in the same breath like you mentioned the 303 was almost too easy for a rifle, compared to 223, 308, and 06

 

[theCZ]

neck sized .223. No belling of the neck, no lube, no crimping.

 

[lycanthrope]

Reloading .223 for a rifle with 5.56 chamber using Varget. Easy Metering, no double charges, plenty of room to feed, cheap components.

 

[goon]

... but in the same breath like you mentioned the 303 was almost too easy for a rifle, compared to 223, 308, and 06

Yep.
I was just thinking about the last handloads I made before my experimental .303 loads.
They were made with Lake City brass. I had to resize (not a small feat), trim, remove the crimp, etc.
When I loaded .303 the other day, I was like "That's it? I can't be done yet. I must have done something wrong."


As for the pistol, I only load 9mm anymore but I will have a .357 again to feed before too awful long. 9mm is easy but you have to be careful with seating. I always found revolver rounds to take a little more work because I always needed a crimp to keep my bullets from pulling out during recoil. That meant somewhat uniform length, which sometimes means trimming.
Seems to me that it added up to more work but I guess it depends on what combo of load/gun/components you are using.

 

[rbernie]

This is too funny. I read the title, and before I opened the thread I thought to myself, "That's easy - the 303 British". Seems that I'm not alone in that sentiment.

Why is it mo' better than anything else? All of the advantages of the straight-wall pistol cartridges in a larger size that's easier to handle and much harder to double-charge.

 

[ACP230]

In my experience it's the .38 Special or the .45 ACP.
The cases are big enough so I don't keep dropping them on the floor.
The procedures are simple and I've found good loads in both calibers quickly.

The 9mm Parabellum is the worst pistol round to reload IMO. The cases keep getting away from me and I haven't found a real accurate load yet despite several tries.

 

[MAUSER88]

In my experience it's the .38 Special or the .45 ACP.
The cases are big enough so I don't keep dropping them on the floor.
The procedures are simple and I've found good loads in both calibers quickly.

The 9mm Parabellum is the worst pistol round to reload IMO. The cases keep getting away from me and I haven't found a real accurate load yet despite several tries.

Agreed, you beat me to it.

 

[Desert Dog]

IMHO, .45 ACP. Like others have said the cases and bullets are easy to handle due to their size relative to my big fingers, and the large pistol frimers are easier to deal with IMO than the small...

 

[Swamprabbit]

The 22 Hornet, just dip the case in Win 296, level the powder and seat the bullet. I don't get the guys saying straight wall pistol calibers? You have that extra step of belling the case?

That's great! I also like the way you can get 10 reloads from the Hornet case.

 

[ARGarrison]

For me it's the .38 special. Carbide dies means no lube like most of my rifle cartridges. Plus the bullets are large enough to be easily worked with, like stated above. Have reloaded .44 in both mag and spl, but still like to relaod the .38 best.

 

[lee n. field]

a tossup bettween .38/.357 and .45 ACP.

 

[45shooter]

In my experience... for handguns I have to say 38 Special and 45ACP are easiest rounds to load with the 44 Special close behind. In rifles 6.5X55 Swede is easiest to load but 308 is easy too. Its almost hard to find a bad load in these calibers.

I have found 9mm and 300Win Mag to be the hardest to load :banghead:

By "easy to load" I mean how easy or hard it is to find accurate loads that perform as designed.

 

[Clark]

Straight: 38 Special
Bottleneck: .223 Remington

 

[don]

easiest cartridge to reload

22-250 with IMR 4350. neck size. (1)replace primer (2)fill with powder (3)seat bullet

 

[cracked butt]

1.Any standard rifle cartridge if you use a Lee collet neck sizer.
2. .45 auto

 

[g56]

The easiest is probably going to be the 38 Special, or one of the other straight wall revolver cartridges, it's really hard to mess one of those up, if you mess up 45 acp, or most any of the automatic pistol calibers they won't feed.

 

[Black Snowman]

If you're looking for an accurate 9mm load here's a proven combination for me: Mixed brass, Rainier 124 gr TC or JHP bullets, 7.1 gr of AA#7, CCI small pistol primer. Works great in my CZ 75B and my father's M-43 Firestar. Punch pretty clean holes. About 1050 fps from the CZ 75B.

 

[Yo]

For pistol rounds I'd go with .45acp. Nice fat case, low pressure, most chambers are pretty fat so you don't even NEED to full-length resize unless you have a match chamber. Very accurate with a wide variety of powders and bullets.

For rifle it is hard to beat .45/70 with smokeless, loaded for a falling block.

1. deprime case (the mouth of which has been flared slightly).

2. Reprime case

2. fill with 27gr of IMR or Hodgdon 4198 with a dipper

3. Hand-seat 350-500gr case bullet.

Push bullet into lands as you close breech-block. Shoot.

No dies or powder measure needed. Results? 1 moa with iron sights

100yd group with 500gr Lee Postell cast bullet.