My reloading progress - and thanks

[film495]

about 3 years ago I inhereted reloading equipmnet, and had been exposed to it a bit as a youth, but never did any myself. Took me about a year to collect it, and go through the tub in my basement and identify what was what. I knew nothing, there's a few posts on here I made, if you want to amuse yourself at how little a person can know.

I've mostly just practices with it. I've made .32 ACP and ..38 Special - and actually shot some of the .38 Special, worked fine. Much lighter than factory loads, so - they all went bang and that was the idea. I've since decided .32 ACP is a pain and I should not have even tried it. The scale is a bit difficult being so small, but also the cases tend to bulge easily in my experience. Well, for now I'm just not going to do anything with that cartrdige due to personal reasons ... lol

I've made dummy rounds that seem to check out in 9mm, .223 Remington, 30-30 Win, and 30-06

I think this next season, after winter - I'll just plan to load .38 Special and 9mm. I think I can load the rifle cartrdges correctly, but I don't mind shooting factory ammo. We don't really go through that much. At some point, I'd like to load them though - I just like the idea of it. However, I feel like I should stick to the pistol cartrdiges for a while, load and shoot more, and see if I run into any issues. Sort of as a sanity check on myself, before handloading rifle cartrdiges. Maybe I overthink things, but the pressures and nrg in a rifle is just a whole other level.... literally.

Anyway, that's my reloading journey, a hobby I don't really haven enough time for, but it makes an interesting longer term project to keep working on over time. Thanks for this site - I've picked up a ton here and fun to see there are other's out there. I don't think I know anyone else who reloads at all.

 

[redcon1]

You can't measure things enough. Try to find loads that fill the cases up over half way so you can't easily double charge something. Look inside your cases with a flashlight and make sure they all have powder in them before you seat a bullet. Start low and work up. Understand cartridge headspace clearance, how it applies to the different kinds of cartridges and why it's important to reloaders. Definitely start out with something like 38 special before you start diving into something like high pressure bottle necked cartridges for autoloading rifles. Double check everything before you commit to doing it especially before you commit to doing it a hundred or more times.

 

[lordpaxman]

Much lighter than factory loads, so - they all went bang and that was the idea.

Mission accomplished! It’s been my experience, for the most part, published start data produces lighter than factory loads. When I started reloading, it was with .22-250 first, then other rifle calibers, then pistol. Metallic cartridges all. You can choose to follow your plan of course, but 9mm can be a bit trickier than .38, and I’d say if you have a bolt .30-06, that cartridge is easier than 9mm. The standard 4895 load is difficult to get wrong. Good luck.

 

[WeekendReloader]

Congratulations on your reloading!

When I inherited a 30-30, I bought dies for it. It is a nice rifle, but I don't take it out much. Over 5 years, I think I have made only 4 boxes of 30-30 ammo. It is rather easy to reload and there is a lot of data for reduced loads for plinking. I use a LEE die set and followed the included instructions to set them up. I use both Unique and Trail Boss for the plinking loads.

 

[Charlie98]

I had loaded pistol for about 2 years when I tried my hand at loading for a .30-30. Haa haa haa. The first 20 rounds I produced were complete crap and I junked them... I didn't even trust MY own handloads! Keep loading for pistol, and then work your way into loading for rifle, even if it's limited to just a few boxes... it IS rewarding and worthy of effort.

 

[rfwobbly]

Like Lordpaxman said... load lots and lots of 38Spcl rounds with various bullets before moving on to 9mm. 38Spcl is a low pressure cartridge, and thus is much more forgiving of beginner mistakes. Try the 148gr coated DEWC from Missouri Bullet Co. Those are really fun and accurate ! Plus MBC offers a discount to THR members. And, they can be loaded flush or with about 1/10th inch exposed.

​

9mm is small, but it is far more complicated.

 

[WeekendReloader]

I keep reading this statement:

"9mm is small, but it is far more complicated."

Why is 9mm any different?
It is a smaller case. Sometime it has a narrow range of charge weights depending on the powder selected.
I started with 9mm and things went fine. I followed the load data, start low and work up. No problems.

 

[mdi]

Excellent! 38 Special is one of the easiest, most forgiving cartridges to reload, and I started reloading it in '69 with a Lee Loader. I didn't know any reloaders, so 98% of my info came from books at the library and the data card from the Lee Loader Kit. The 9mm is a bit more finiky, being a semi-auto round the finished dimentions need to be held closer and bullet choice makes a huge difference. Not "difficult", but not as easy as a straight case revolver round. A few "extra" things need to be done for auto-feeding from a magazine (OAL, bullet profile, plunk test, etc.).The only cartridge I had fits with getting clean shooting cast loads in was the 9mm. I eventually worked it out, but it took a while. I stayed away from the 9mm for quite a while, being a revolver lover and had a distaste for all the "tactical" wonder 9, plastic guns that seemed to be everywhere, but curiosity got the best of me and I now have 4, 9mm pistols and one 9mm revolver and have reloaded several thousand (tens of thousand?) rounds, many jacketed, many cast, may PCed...

 

[2ndtimer]

Excellent! 38 Special is one of the easiest, most forgiving cartridges to reload, and I started reloading it in '69 with a Lee Loader. I didn't know any reloaders, so 98% of my info came from books at the library and the data card from the Lee Loader Kit. The 9mm is a bit more finiky, being a semi-auto round the finished dimentions need to be held closer and bullet choice makes a huge difference. Not "difficult", but not as easy as a straight case revolver round. A few "extra" things need to be done for auto-feeding from a magazine (OAL, bullet profile, plunk test, etc.).The only cartridge I had fits with getting clean shooting cast loads in was the 9mm. I eventually worked it out, but it took a while. I stayed away from the 9mm for quite a while, being a revolver lover and had a distaste for all the "tactical" wonder 9, plastic guns that seemed to be everywhere, but curiosity got the best of me and I now have 4, 9mm pistols and one 9mm revolver and have reloaded several thousand (tens of thousand?) rounds, many jacketed, many cast, may PCed...

Didn’t everyone start with .38 Specials? Back around 1979 my college buddy introduced me to handloading starting with .38 Specials using Red Dot and Speer swaged lead bullets, and worked up to .357 Magnums with 125 gr Speer JHP’s and Unique and Alcan AL-7. My .243 Win., followed and down the rabbit hole I went and have been living there happily ever since. So many cartridges, so little time…

 

[Highland Lofts]

Congrats on your reloading.
Stick with it and when the time comes around you'll be hooked.
At today's prices for loaded ammo I save a lot by making our own ammo. I load so many different calibers, some you will never see on a shelf at any gun store.

If you have any one close by that reloads you should get together once a month and pick their brains.
I have people come over who never reloaded and wanted to give it a shot.
I bought lots of different caliber dies, brass for them calibers and bullets so I have what they need to start reloading.

 

[Blue68f100]

I keep reading this statement:

"9mm is small, but it is far more complicated."

Why is 9mm any different?
It is a smaller case. Sometime it has a narrow range of charge weights depending on the powder selected.
I started with 9mm and things went fine. I followed the load data, start low and work up. No problems.

It's a tapered case and no 2 chambers seam to be the same. So OAL is all over the place with the same bullet. Being a high pressure round, a little as 0.030" setback can over double the pressure (depending on powder used) = Bad things happen. Wall thickness of the brass varies a lot depending on mfg. This can lead to fat rounds if you have a tight chamber. Just to name a few things that are a constant battle if your changing components.

 

[Seedy Character]

I started out on .30-06, was 7 years before I owned a centerfire handgun, a Ruger SBH .44M. Had to load for that hand cannon.

9mm is about as small as anybody wants to load. .32ACP is a PITA. .22 Hornet, .204 are bad, the .17s are worse.

Congrats on feeding your addiction. Keep it up. You will get even better.

 

[Hooda Thunkit]

As I've often stated; I started reloading in the 1980s, back before Algore invented the Internet.
I knew nobody that reloaded.

ALL of my information came from the sheet of paper included in the set of Lee dies. I must have read it until the ink wore off.
That sheet of paper, those dies, and a Lee hand press (the hinged, ThighMaster lookalike) were used to load thousands of rounds.
No scale, no tumbler, no mentor - no problems.

Read and understand what you are trying to do before you do it.

If you want to do it, you will figure it out.

 

[Highland Lofts]

As I've often stated; I started reloading in the 1980s, back before Algore invented the Internet.
I knew nobody that reloaded.

Al Gore invented the internet and Richard Lee invented reloading.

 

[splattergun]

Don't be afraid of reloading 30-06 or any other rifle cartridge. The principles are the same. If you follow the procedure closely and carefully you can, and likely will, load ammo that surpasses the performance of your store-bought stuff and usually for a lower cost. And you won't have to worry about it being out of stock when hunting season comes around.
as for your soft-shooting .38 Sp, load, now that you are now successful, you may begin tuning your loads to perform their best in your gun. That's where the fun really begins!

 

[Nature Boy]

you may begin tuning your loads to perform their best in your gun. That's where the fun really begins!

you mean that’s where the sickness begins

 

[BJung]

you mean that’s where the sickness begins

That sickness doesn't end. First, there are other components. Then, you buy another gun. There are billions of them. You need to fix the situation and join a self-help group like this and instead you join a club of fellow addicts. Then you might meet the benchrest shooters and what more tools. Or, you meet the bullet casters who tell you about lead alloys and gas checks and the sickness grows.

 

[Hooda Thunkit]

Al Gore invented the internet and Richard Lee invented reloading.

Perhaps Lee didn't invent reloading, but he certainly put it in financial reach of many that otherwise would not have been able to engage in the activity.

Myself included.

And, Lee never claimed to have invented reloading; although he holds many patents for tools used by many.
Unlike Algore, who did indeed claim to have invented the Internet.

 

[Bazoo]

An interesting thread. Thanks for sharing. I say go for rifle calibers. It's not much different and easy as pistol. In a way it's safer, because the powder charges are so large, a slight difference doesn't increase pressure to catastrophic levels.

I've loaded over 600 30-30 in the last 6 years. Not counting some factory shot.
A load of 32 grains w748 and a cast 31141 duplicates factory recoil, poi and is generally a fun full power load. The data goes higher, to 35 I think, and that's a compressed charge. I've worked it to 34, but didn't like the recoil. This makes it very hard to get into trouble loading 30-30.

I've loaded a bunch with lee dippers.

And I use a fair amount of lee stuff, but I use lyman dies for 30-30. Just cause that's what I found used. And I've loaded a bunch with a whack a mole lee loader. Fun! Loading for 30-30 is just plain fun!

So is shooting all the 30-30 you want when you take your gun out.

 

[mdi]

"Sickness"? Not for me! I understand the remark was made in jest, but reloading opened up a whole new world for my shooting, guns, hobby time. I enjoy a new hobby, I learned a lot about my guns, and got a whole new understanding of centerfire ammunition. I don't have any idea how much time I've spent researching, reading, learning, experimenting and shooting since 1969. Retired now, health problems, but I now have even more time for reading, researching and reloading (but getting to the range is much more difficult).

 

[FROGO207]

The thing about reloading is once you have dies and some components on hand you will never fear an ammo drought ever again. Just make sure you work up loads when supplies are plentiful and put away enough "to get you by". So far this has kept me in ammo without supply pain.

 

[Walkalong]

I keep reading this statement:

"9mm is small, but it is far more complicated."

Why is 9mm any different?
It is a smaller case. Sometime it has a narrow range of charge weights depending on the powder selected.
I started with 9mm and things went fine. I followed the load data, start low and work up. No problems.

Small case with high pressures, so small changes make big differences, tapered case.......

Ah, I see

It's a tapered case and no 2 chambers seam to be the same. So OAL is all over the place with the same bullet. Being a high pressure round, a little as 0.030" setback can over double the pressure (depending on powder used) = Bad things happen. Wall thickness of the brass varies a lot depending on mfg. This can lead to fat rounds if you have a tight chamber. Just to name a few things that are a constant battle if your changing components.

beat me too it.

 

[rfwobbly]

I keep reading this statement:
"9mm is small, but it is far more complicated."
Why is 9mm any different?

Here's just a couple of reasons...

• The chamber pressure for 38Spcl and 45ACP is around 18,000psi. The chamber pressure for the 9x19 Luger is around 33,000psi. That's nearly DOUBLE the pressure. Therefore, smaller changes make far larger differences. The inherent danger cannot be overstated.

• When you load for 38Spcl you never worry about OAL. The bullet is seated until the case mouth comes up to the cannelure. When you load 9mm, there is no cannelure. You have a RANGE of safe, acceptable OALs, not a single, one-size-fits-all number.

• When you load for revolvers your main concern is alignment of the cylinder to the barrel (the “timing”). When you load for an auto-pistol you need to be very concerned with OAL. Choosing an OAL that's too long can create a dangerous OOB condition.

• Members of the 9mm family (9x19, 9x21, 9x23) are one of very few pistols that use a tapered chamber. When you have a problem, with say for instance Taper Crimp, if you are loading for 38Super, 40S&W, 45ACP the problem is immediately obvious because the round won't enter the straight walled chamber. It's easy to diagnose, as shown below...




But when you load one of the 9mm family, a poorly crimped cartridge can enter the tapered chamber half-way where you cannot see what's happening. Using the wrong TC, or having a poorly sized cartridge case, or really any cartridge abnormality can thus create a dangerous OOB condition, as shown below...




These are just a few of the issues you might encounter.

I started with 9mm and things went fine. I followed the load data, start low and work up. No problems.

What you meant to say was “No problems... so far”.

As your broker will tell you, “Past performance is no indicator of future results”. You might as well say, “The feral dog I feed hasn't bitten me”. You might have just been lucky, or maybe you have a gun with a very forgiving chamber. 9mm pistol chambers come in all shapes and sizes. A High Point chamber is not like a CZ chamber. And a Gen 1 Glock chamber is nothing like a Gen 5 Glock chamber.

Furthermore, this statement promotes a lax safety standard for reloading. There's nothing about 33,000psi in your hand to be lax about. We are better than that.