The only commercial centerfire ammo I have bought in years are the 158gr LHPSWC +P .38 Spcls and 200gr GD .44 Spcls I keep for PD/HD. Otherwise, none of my new revolvers have seen a commercial round since they left S&W or Ruger.
I started reloading initially due to the cost and local availability of .45 Colt rounds, but I have recently added what may be my most important reason to handload - for the level I want or need. In my case, this is less than commercial levels. For example, I love shooting .45 ACP 230gr FMJ's from my 4" 625 - but I don't need the 850+ fps of typical 'ball' ammo, so I load my own at 800fps - very comfortable and accurate. The same goes with my 'wimpy' .357 Magnum and .44 magnum loads. I also load my own in oddball calibers - like the .45 Auto Rim and .44 Russian, or the really hard to find, 7.62x38r for my 1895 Nagant revolvers.
I know GA Arms reloads a lot of ammo, but they also load 'all new', ie, new brass, as well. Great folks - and excellent ammo. I have bought mostly their cast bullets as components in the three years since I bought my new Dillon 550 press. That purchase was the first time I had ever touched a reloading device of any kind. Thus far, I have made two bad rounds... one, the primer wouldn't fire... turned out it was missing it's guts. The other had a primer fire, pushing the lead bullet partially into the barrel - and leaving some gooey black yuck in the case. It could have been some WD-40 overspray. Diligence is important in loading, as is quality equipment. By comparison, I have had several bad rounds in one commercial ammo box before - and at least one bad round from every commercial source I have ever used, prior to my reloading hobby's beginning.
The carbon and lead build-up before the case-step in a .357/.44 Magnum chamber caused by shooting Specials in them can and should be cleaned out with a bore brush and solvent prior to loading them with longer cased Magnums. If that build-up is your problem, it is easily solved. If it is the blast residue between the forcing cone and cylinder face, which presents as grey-ish rings around the cylinder exits, and you have a blued finish, you must be careful. Decent polishes, as you would use on a SS cylinder's face, can go right through the blueing, which is actually just a controlled oxidation on a highly polished virginal carbon steel face. A safer bet is to let a decent cleaner/solvent, such as Hoppes #9 or BreakFree, and keep it wet for ten or more minutes while it softens the residue. Use a nylon M16 style brush - or tooth brush - to 'help'. The key here is to give the solvent time to work... and make sure it is 'okay' on blued finishes first.
Stainz
