James2
Member
I have been loading since 1958. I have never had a mishap that caused any damage to shooter or gun. I think its a great hobby. Did I save any money? Probably not, but I got a heck of a lot of shooting for the buck.
Safety concerns
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Publius1688
Member
I crushed my left index finger while de-priming. Almost lost the nail and got blood all over my press. That's as serious as it gets for my reloading injuries.
But seriously:
financial: you probably won't balance out with savings if you really get into reloading. Sure, you'll save boatloads making .45 ACP etc, but you'll spend it by shooting more, and getting interested in new calibers, guns, etc. For example: I'd never even held a .32 S&W Long handgun, but got interested in the cartridge, bought dies, brass, bullets, and had loaded rounds---all before I ever bought a pistol to shoot them.
safety: as others have said, if reloading was patently dangerous, the lawyers would be all over it, and insurance companies wouldn't allow the gear in a residential property. Sure, people hurt themselves (see my finger drama above). People hurt themselves playing tennis, too. If you are dedicated to safety, you will have no problems.
time: you'll spend a lot of time reloading. Heck, I'm in my shop every day, if I'm lucky. But---I'm home. Wifey knows where I am, and we have a futon where she can hang out and read while I'm working. Our daughter likes to 'help' me in the shop, and that's just awesome. Also, if you're reloading, you ain't drinking or getting into trouble. Heck, you're not even watching TV.
intangibles: most people in our society today don't make anything. They work in offices all day, and watch TV all night. They pay strangers to rotate their tires. Reloaders are by definition 'old school'. We use our hands and our wits in a fairly arcane pursuit: personal manufacture of ammunition. In my personal experience, reloading has given me more confidence to tackle other projects, and spurred interest in related fields: metallurgy, ballistics, smithing, etc.
In short, go for it. This is an awesome hobby.
But seriously:
financial: you probably won't balance out with savings if you really get into reloading. Sure, you'll save boatloads making .45 ACP etc, but you'll spend it by shooting more, and getting interested in new calibers, guns, etc. For example: I'd never even held a .32 S&W Long handgun, but got interested in the cartridge, bought dies, brass, bullets, and had loaded rounds---all before I ever bought a pistol to shoot them.
safety: as others have said, if reloading was patently dangerous, the lawyers would be all over it, and insurance companies wouldn't allow the gear in a residential property. Sure, people hurt themselves (see my finger drama above). People hurt themselves playing tennis, too. If you are dedicated to safety, you will have no problems.
time: you'll spend a lot of time reloading. Heck, I'm in my shop every day, if I'm lucky. But---I'm home. Wifey knows where I am, and we have a futon where she can hang out and read while I'm working. Our daughter likes to 'help' me in the shop, and that's just awesome. Also, if you're reloading, you ain't drinking or getting into trouble. Heck, you're not even watching TV.
intangibles: most people in our society today don't make anything. They work in offices all day, and watch TV all night. They pay strangers to rotate their tires. Reloaders are by definition 'old school'. We use our hands and our wits in a fairly arcane pursuit: personal manufacture of ammunition. In my personal experience, reloading has given me more confidence to tackle other projects, and spurred interest in related fields: metallurgy, ballistics, smithing, etc.
In short, go for it. This is an awesome hobby.
are you reloading for pistol or for rifle, or both?
One of my concerns is putting pistol powder into a rifle casing (boom). To avoid that, I keep them separated and I deliver them differently. Rifle cartridges are always loaded from the rcbs chargemaster, into which ONLY goes rifle powder. Never pistol powder.
On my rifle casings, it is basically impossible to double charge (they won't hold it)
I load several pistol calibers on a cheap Lee turret. I don't need all the openings (it has 4) but I was able to get a cheap LED penlight to shine down through the empty one so I can SEE the charge on every case easily. that helps.
On 38special, the case is so large, and the charge is so small, that you might miss a generous charge. I made little paperclip depth checkers that made it easy to tell exactly how deep is the charge in the case.
I've been amazed at the accuracy of the Lee accudisk delivery system, at least with Win231 powder....they are right on the money every time for pistol charges at least.
My biggest remaining concern is forgetting to PUT powder in a case. A couple of times I have weighted an entire group to try and be sure I hadn't done that, or pulled several apart when I was concerned. With the rifles, I do them in a batch mode on a single stage press and I can easily check every single case at one time, but on the turret, your mind can wander. If the gun doesn't go BANG, be certain not to pull the trigger the second time until you figure out what went wrong! I saw a video of an AR15 that came apart when someone didn't follow that rule! He probably had a squib round, and a bullet stuck in the barrel. that has never happened to me. Every single round (of thousands) has gone perfectly.
Incidentally, it is pretty easy to test pistol loads and you'll find out that just about ANY powder in the case, and the bullet is going to clear the barrel! So as long as you put ANY in there, you're safe. I never load to reallky MAX levels, so I don't have to worry about being super accurate anyway.
Lee producdts are great, but get a digital scale from RCBS.
One of my concerns is putting pistol powder into a rifle casing (boom). To avoid that, I keep them separated and I deliver them differently. Rifle cartridges are always loaded from the rcbs chargemaster, into which ONLY goes rifle powder. Never pistol powder.
On my rifle casings, it is basically impossible to double charge (they won't hold it)
I load several pistol calibers on a cheap Lee turret. I don't need all the openings (it has 4) but I was able to get a cheap LED penlight to shine down through the empty one so I can SEE the charge on every case easily. that helps.
On 38special, the case is so large, and the charge is so small, that you might miss a generous charge. I made little paperclip depth checkers that made it easy to tell exactly how deep is the charge in the case.
I've been amazed at the accuracy of the Lee accudisk delivery system, at least with Win231 powder....they are right on the money every time for pistol charges at least.
My biggest remaining concern is forgetting to PUT powder in a case. A couple of times I have weighted an entire group to try and be sure I hadn't done that, or pulled several apart when I was concerned. With the rifles, I do them in a batch mode on a single stage press and I can easily check every single case at one time, but on the turret, your mind can wander. If the gun doesn't go BANG, be certain not to pull the trigger the second time until you figure out what went wrong! I saw a video of an AR15 that came apart when someone didn't follow that rule! He probably had a squib round, and a bullet stuck in the barrel. that has never happened to me. Every single round (of thousands) has gone perfectly.
Incidentally, it is pretty easy to test pistol loads and you'll find out that just about ANY powder in the case, and the bullet is going to clear the barrel! So as long as you put ANY in there, you're safe. I never load to reallky MAX levels, so I don't have to worry about being super accurate anyway.
Lee producdts are great, but get a digital scale from RCBS.
ArchAngelCD
Member.
It's almost impossible to double charge a .38 Special round when loading on a Lee turret press with the auto-index rod being used. I just don't understand the fear of double charging unless you're using a progressive press.
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