Hey all,
Hope everyone's feeling good.
I knew this was coming and I did it to myself. I'm out of 357 magnum cartridges. Yeah, none. Now this is no small thing, a year ago I had close to 5,000 loaded and ready to go. I shot my last 100 a few weeks ago.
2020 was a strange year for all of us, I was working for a small business at which I was the only employee . times were tight and the boss only had me working a day or two a week and many of those were half days. That left me nothing but time, a luxury I've never had in my adult life. What was a guy to do? I reloaded. Almost every day for an hour or 2.
I had built up my stockpile of loaded cartridges to a level I never had before but was doing almost no shooting. 2021 was a better year and I was generally working the first half of the year and in late June I changed jobs to a company that has endless work and longer hours. I was able to hit the range again and burned up ammo like it was going out of style. I get a certain satisfaction from setting up at the local indoor range and firing 1,000+ rounds while other shooters shuffle in and out after shooting their box of 50 or 100 trying to conserve ammo.
I did a little loading here and there but mostly to keep my 45-70 fed (I don't have brass or powder to make thousands). I didn't keep up with my 357 consumption and I knew I was getting low but when I pulled the last of my 357 ammo out my heart sunk a little. I knew I had a monumental task ahead.
I've got bullets , molds, lead ect , no problem. I've got 6 # of 2400 powder and a few thousand spm primers. I've got brass coming out my ears. That stuff isn't the issue, the issue is reloading it all. Not the worst problem to have but it's going to take some time. I deprime on a lee app which makes quick work of it. I tumble in walnut shell with some nu finish - I can only tumble about 300 at a time. I load on a single stage press, that's where my time gets soaked up. It's never been an issue, I load for quality not quantity . this is going to take a while.
Normally I wouldn't mind but like I mentioned before, my schedule has become pretty hectic. If I'm moving at a good pace I can do 100 rounds an hour. I can usually only squeek an hour or 2 per weekend . That means I'm going to have to spend the winter building back up. Not the end of the world but I need to remember not to get in this situation again. It's overwhelming but it'll be a project that pays good rewards . I did my first 100 today and I'm just going to stay at until I can get back to at least a few thousand and make sure I'm handling the brass as soon as I get home from the range. Having a mountain of dirty brass in a box is no way to be.
So not awful but I figured I'd share that with you all. Don't be like me, keep your inventory up and try not to fall too far behind.
Hope everyone's feeling good.
I knew this was coming and I did it to myself. I'm out of 357 magnum cartridges. Yeah, none. Now this is no small thing, a year ago I had close to 5,000 loaded and ready to go. I shot my last 100 a few weeks ago.
2020 was a strange year for all of us, I was working for a small business at which I was the only employee . times were tight and the boss only had me working a day or two a week and many of those were half days. That left me nothing but time, a luxury I've never had in my adult life. What was a guy to do? I reloaded. Almost every day for an hour or 2.
I had built up my stockpile of loaded cartridges to a level I never had before but was doing almost no shooting. 2021 was a better year and I was generally working the first half of the year and in late June I changed jobs to a company that has endless work and longer hours. I was able to hit the range again and burned up ammo like it was going out of style. I get a certain satisfaction from setting up at the local indoor range and firing 1,000+ rounds while other shooters shuffle in and out after shooting their box of 50 or 100 trying to conserve ammo.
I did a little loading here and there but mostly to keep my 45-70 fed (I don't have brass or powder to make thousands). I didn't keep up with my 357 consumption and I knew I was getting low but when I pulled the last of my 357 ammo out my heart sunk a little. I knew I had a monumental task ahead.
I've got bullets , molds, lead ect , no problem. I've got 6 # of 2400 powder and a few thousand spm primers. I've got brass coming out my ears. That stuff isn't the issue, the issue is reloading it all. Not the worst problem to have but it's going to take some time. I deprime on a lee app which makes quick work of it. I tumble in walnut shell with some nu finish - I can only tumble about 300 at a time. I load on a single stage press, that's where my time gets soaked up. It's never been an issue, I load for quality not quantity . this is going to take a while.
Normally I wouldn't mind but like I mentioned before, my schedule has become pretty hectic. If I'm moving at a good pace I can do 100 rounds an hour. I can usually only squeek an hour or 2 per weekend . That means I'm going to have to spend the winter building back up. Not the end of the world but I need to remember not to get in this situation again. It's overwhelming but it'll be a project that pays good rewards . I did my first 100 today and I'm just going to stay at until I can get back to at least a few thousand and make sure I'm handling the brass as soon as I get home from the range. Having a mountain of dirty brass in a box is no way to be.
So not awful but I figured I'd share that with you all. Don't be like me, keep your inventory up and try not to fall too far behind.