Reloading for Friends

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Lee Q. Loader

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I know reloading for a friend is really never a good idea. Here are the circumstances that have me considering it.
My friend bought a brand new Ruger Redhawk 44 Magnum. This is a gun that I have coveted for a long time and I think he bought because he's heard me talk about it so much, but for now it's beyond my reach. I honestly think it is the best looking gun I have ever seen! The wood is so nice and the stainless finish...beautiful!
He says he loves to shoot it but only does so on a limited basis because of the cost of ammo.
He bugs me to reload for him on a weekly basis and I tell him it's not a good idea and explain to him why. Now he says that he will give me the gun to work up the loads. He will buy the dies and all components, and, here's the best part, he will let me take the gun whenever I want to target shoot.
What do you guys think? If I do it what rules should I set?
I would for sure tell him that the reloads must only be shot in this gun.
 
I have loaded for friends . Not a big deal. I do use their firearms to develop the loads however. Have also used friends handloads when they have been tested in both their and my rifles. Often chamber dimensions are close enough that setting the shoulder back the same and overall length will work well in two rifles. Others times it doesn't work out. Here's an example . My dad and I could share 30/06 ammo. My brothers chamber was so short he had to full length resize every time.
 
Lee Q. Loader said:
I know reloading for a friend is really never a good idea.
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Yes, this is correct.

drband said:
Lee Q. Loader said:
Reloading for friends ... He bugs me to reload for him
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not a good idea. There’s always a small chance of a reloading error that results in gun damage, or worse, shooter injury.

You’ll have to make up your mind about the level of risk you are comfortable with.
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Just say no.

We had multiple threads where "friends" became legal adversaries when their guns blew up and got injured and sued for damages. If they are truly "good friends", they will understand the liability issues of shooting someone else's reloads.

Problem is once your reloads leave your hands/eyes and your "friend" takes possession, you have no idea how the reloads will be stored or transported, etc. And anything bad that happens with shooting of your reloads which have been out of your control (possibly for years to decades) could make you liable for any damage or injury.

Offer to teach the "friend" to reload instead. If the "friend" keeps bugging you, find another friend who won't bug you or who will happily learn to reload.

stringnut said:
I have loaded for friends . Not a big deal.
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No big deal until something bad happens. ;)

Your reloading knowledge and experience may vastly differ from the OP. A blanket statement of "reloading for others is OK because I do it" is not prudent advice, especially for reloaders who are new to reloading or lack knowledge and experience.
 
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I will let family shoot my reloads. After he came to trust them, my father won't shoot anything else. I also have a friend who learned reloading with me so I know his technique to be as reliable as my own. I'll shoot his reloads and vice versa. Beyond that, nobody else. More risk than I am comfortable exposing myself to.
 
When it comes to target shotshell loadings, the guys I shoot with will gladly give you one or two if you're short on a stand while shooting; that is a tad different than metallic hwere instead of PSI in the 9-10K range, you might be talking about smaller cases going 55K+
 
The one time I reloaded for a friend, he ended up committing suicide with the gun (I had helped him pick it out at a gun show; needless to say, I had no idea he would even think of killing himself 2 years down the road); I never did find out if he used one of my reloads, or the factory ammo he bought with the gun, and I don't want to know.

As for alibi shells, I've both borrowed and lent reloads there. Never had a problem.
 
I've given a few rounds to a couple of friends. If they wanted more than that I invite them over and I assist/guide them through the process on my equipment. A couple became reloaders themselves, the others went back to buying commercial loads. My loads are safe but my time has value to me and it's not spent saving other peoples money.
 
I traded a friend some range 45acp SP brass for some range 45acp LP brass. The SP brass I traded him locked up his Ruger SR45 so badly he broke the extractor hook off trying to remove the live round. He had to send the gun back to Ruger.

So no, I don't reload for friends.
 
This what I did for a friend of mine he bought the components and I done a load work up shooting his gun when I finished I showed him the load in my reloading manual and set the Dillon up for him to let him load his own ammunition. That's been a couple years ago he wasn't very fast on the machine so I don't think he wants any more,I believe it was to much work sense he had to do it lol.
 
entropy said:
The one time I reloaded for a friend, he ended up committing suicide with the gun (I had helped him pick it out at a gun show; needless to say, I had no idea he would even think of killing himself 2 years down the road); I never did find out if he used one of my reloads, or the factory ammo he bought with the gun, and I don't want to know.

As for alibi shells, I've both borrowed and lent reloads there. Never had a problem.
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Omg
I had a student kill themselves not long after we chatted. So hearing this makes me cringe. I can’t imagine how you feel and I know what I went through. If it helps I can’t offer anything but you can private message me if you ever need someone who has been through something similar to chat with.
 
I had one experience several years ago that could have gone bad, and it happened while letting a friend shoot my reloads.

I never make mistakes with reloads.:oops:

I had just bought a new Remington AR10 clone and reloaded my first batch of LC 762 brass.....100 done properly and "safe". We were out in the desert shooting at a cliff.....and he asked to shoot my new AR. Sure thing. (all I had to shoot was reloads...and he was a reloader so thought nothing of it.)

He aimed at the target, and it went ba-bang.....yup two of them....as in full auto. At least after the two it didn't continue. Scared the jeebies out of us tho. I was absolutely sure it was loaded properly and safe......and the LC brass was clean, swaged, and two grains below minimum with IMR 4895....shoulda been fine, primers were loaded by hand and bottomed by feel.

Well I looked at the 98 rounds left and found two with high primers! How could that be!!!!!! How could I have missed them....I bottomed all of them. So I took took the two proud ones apart and found rings of brass in the pockets! I took the two spents that he fired, removed the spent primers and one had a sheared ring of brass in the primer hole! Never saw that before ever.

So what happened was, the swager did not swage, but sheared the primer crimp off and deposited tiny rings of brass into the bottom of the pocket (it was 1967 brass---so very old and evidently hard as hell)........so the new primers "bottomed" alright, but on top of the brass shear rings........and I even uniformed the pockets.....but the cutter must have just turned in the bottom of the hole rotating over the shears. Did not notice.
Learned a couple of important lessons.:cuss:Check swaged brass for shear rings in the pockets, and VISUALLY look for proud primers, I already knew they aren't safe in guns with floating firing pins, but I didn't do a final visual.

Nuther important lesson? Triple check cartridges you plan on letting someone else shoot! Maybe even make a mandatory Check.....LIST.
 
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George P said:
Why not tech him to reload his stuff on your equipment?
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By far the best idea. It may not be probable but with the legal world we live in now and absolutely no liability coverage available, you are risking everything you have. He may be the best friend ever, but heirs, third parties with legal standing who suffered damage, any number of possibilities. Just don't.
 
Skip everything else and look at the legal side. An ammunition manufacturer (or remanufacturer) has to have a specific FFL to be able to operate his business. If you are construed as making a gain by remanufacturing ammunition for your buddy then your up a creek without much of a paddle. That is an extremely remote risk, but it’s something to consider...especially if you already don’t want to do it.
 
drband said:
You’ll have to make up your mind about the level of risk you are comfortable with.
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I would work up a mid-range load for it, I don't see a problem. I would not load maximum (think W296/H110) loads, however. I load a very limited amount of cartridges, both rifle and pistol, for friends... we're talking a box a year or thereabouts, and I individually weigh each charge and take a little extra care assembling them.
 
I outright loaded cartridges for one person. The other time was a demo for a 550. These situations were very controlled with minimum risk. Would I do this again-no way. The guy for the demo has over time has accumulated more reloading gear than I have. What's the payoff loading for somebody else?
 
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