Thanks for asking our advice.
Any recommendations on cleaning the brass? A tumbler looks like the easiest option, huh? What's a good, reasonable tumbler to look at?
Thanks again everyone,
Warner
For 30 years I just wiped my brass clean with a soft cloth. Looked ugly, but shot just fine. The main thing you want is no grit on the brass, outside or inside. I have a tumbler now and my brass looks prettier, but shoots just the same.
Your cost figures have already been commented on, so I will just add this. I keep an eye out for sales. Wal-Mart had 45 ACP on sale a couple years ago (Remington UMC) for less than my cost of the components (primer, powder, bullets and brass). Now I have enough 45 ACP brass to last for a decade or two at least. Maybe the rest of my life.
There are some reasons to reload that go beyond money, though.
Quality: Ammo you craft yourself can be tuned to your firearms particular characteristics. Handloaders for rifles quite often find some individual guns have quite striking differences in group size when shooting tuned ammunition.
Knowledge: As you study reloading, you will, perforce, also study internal ballistics. The study of internal ballistics leads into the study of how your firearm works.
Customization: Ammo you load yourself can be tuned to your particular needs. My fried with the 500 S&W loads full power loads and "powder puff" loads that clock 350 grain slugs a little under 800 feet per second. I know that's more than a G.I. 45 ACP's power and momentum, but they shoot like 22 rimfire in that big, heavy gun. Great for fun, familiarization, training and letting the curious bystander go for a "test drive" with a super-light load, a medium load, a heavy load and, if they are still game one of the big boomers. This tends to avoid the "rear sight in the forehead" mark.
Satisfaction: Punching small bunches of small, medium or large holes in paper or bringing down a game or food animal with ammunition you crafted yourself has a good deal of satisfaction. Same reason I prefer to make my own biscuits instead of store-bought.
Smug satisfaction: When the ammo shelves are bare during a market or political scare, loaders are demonstrably less affected by the shortages. A couple of pounds of powder, a thousand primers and bullets (or few pounds of lead) and a hundred cartridge cases wouldn't fill a small book carton, but lets the loader know he can shoot while price-gougers take advantage of non-loaders.
Self-satisfaction: The repetitive, calm, attentive concentration of the reloading activities is often found to be so much fun as to bring to the shooter's mind the question, "Do I reload so I can shoot shoot or do I shoot so I can reload?". Some find loading to be as satisfying a hobby as shooting or fly-tying or many other hobbies.
The more fanatical among us combine a couple of the features I have mentioned and, instead of shooting for bullseye accuracy at the range, reload in a search for the "magic load" that achieves perfection in a given rifle. Then, they move on to the next target, another rifle and another tuned load. But you do have to be at least a little fanatical to even get it. It is the hunt they seek.
I am sure there are many other reasons, but these are the main ones I can think of.
Lost Sheep
