Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Reloading is complicated

I started at 17 and was self taught but I had been reading gun mags for years and picked up some tips there even before I started loading. I started with a Lyman Spartan press and a manual scale. I read the instructions in a Speer manual and the die set and went to it.

It’s a simple process and you can make it as simple or as complicated as you want.

Get a copy of the Western Powder load manual, it has very well illustrated and clearly written instructions on reloading. I will go so far as to say that it is IMO the best load manual ever written for someone just getting into the game.

With a little searching it can be found for less than this price but even at this it is a bargain - https://www.amazon.com/Western-Powders-Handloading-Guide-Reloading/dp/B0051521C4/ref=sr_1_1?crid=296AKV5IPJS4V&keywords=western+powders+load+manual&qid=1654962847&sprefix=western+powder+load%2Caps%2C1074&sr=8-1

drover

Yep, we sell it on www.riflesandrecipes.com for $38--which includes shipping.

I also totally agree with your assessment of the Western manual!

John

I do not find reloading a pain.

I have been doing it for close to 40 years and do not consider myself very good at it, average at best. I enjoy load development, reloading, and shooting, but like most, struggle with the time factor. I enjoy it when I have time, and do not let it bother me if I do not have time.

I am still learning as I go, but do not plan on giving up anytime soon.

You can make it as hard or simple as you want. My advice is this. If you do not like it, why do it?

There's a DVD on advanced reloading that's pretty good too. I think it was easier in some ways to get into reloading 50 years ago because the reference market was not dominated by published data but by how I did it books by the truly experienced. I bought Phil Sharpe's handloading book from shelf stock at the local book store and followed up with Naramore. Whelan's Why Not Load Your Own was floating around as well. George Nonte and John Wooters each produced a full book later and Bob Hagel's book from Knopf was pretty good. I can't imagine a publisher as well known as Knopf was then doing a reloading book today.

I started with straight walled pistol cases and both cast and jacketed bullets. I didn't know that the suggestions to match brands in cases and primers included paying attention to domed and flat primers - though today my Hollywood primer turret has a variety of punches for show only. I made no assumption that any particular set of dies would be all that great regardless of the brand and cartridge on the label. Rumor said that Winchester and Remington pistol cases were different case neck thickness and were better with different dies and technique. I looked for a sizing die that squeezed enough and far enough down and an expander that reached just far enough into the case and belled the case mouth usefully. That might mean a mix and match among 9x19, .38 Special, .38 S&W and .357 Magnum dies each with a different expander. I didn't and couldn't watch YouTube in the mistaken belief that if I went through the same motions I was guaranteed perfect results. Process control meant something different than matching the moving pictures.

Turns out I was wrong about this--because the Western Powders manual is out of print right now.

Eileen contacted the people at Hodgdon about buying some copies, after Hodgdon bought Western a year or so ago. They said they were planning on printing some more copies, but apparently haven't gotten around to it yet.

But we do have plenty of copies of my GUN GACK books, and some people think they contain some useful handloading information. They're also 15% off the list price through next weekend, and any purchase includes a free year's subscription to RIFLE LOONY NEWS.

For years, as a poor boy, I reloaded .270/150 gr. Speer Hot-Cor's over IMR 4831 and CCI 200 primers.

Lee Hand Loader, a mallet, and powder scoops.

They would bug-hole at 25 yards and killed everything they hit.




GR

You don`t like to tinker, do you? IMHO, that is manditory.

I started with a Rockchucker kit many years ago. Add components and dies, and it had everything you needed, sans maybe a dial caliper. I believe they are still sold?

The good thing with that kit, IMO, is that you had a good, basic gear as a starting point. From there, well ...

Over the years I’ve gone down the rabbit hole on various hand loading deals, as most of us have, and thankfully have come out again after having figured out what is worthwhile for the rifles and shooting I do, and what isn’t.

For example:

I don’t turn necks anymore.
I don’t weigh brass anymore.
I buy good brass, spotcheck for weight, and even though I probably don’t need to, on hunting ammo I recut primer pockets and deburr flashholes once, when brass is new, and then I don‘t clean primer pockets again.
I only weigh charges on hunting ammo, where say 50 rounds is going to last a few seasons (or much longer). Otherwise, thrown charges are just fine, for me.
I don’t sort bullets on a Juenke machine. I believe this does make a difference, but I don’t do it.

And on and on: runout, neck tension, annealing, brass sorting, bullet sorting ... you can choose a new deep-dive anytime you want and keep yourself engrossed, if you so desire, and many do. I don’t begrudge them. I enjoy reloading and understand the pull, and still play in various deep holes of my choosing.

But you can make good quality, eminently serviceable ammunition with the basics, like that contained in a Rockchucker kit.

You inherited a more “advanced” kit. Great. You might just find a lot of that stuff useful down the road. Your capacity to appreciate it may have changed.

But start at the start. As was posted above: clean and inspect cases, size and de-prime, prime, charge, seat bullets. Plenty of fun to be had in just getting those steps done correctly, and game will die just fine with nothing more complicated than that.

Put off diving into holes until later, if at all ...

And ENJOY.

Funny, the OP never ever took the time to go over to steel banging, ammo crafting friends house to see what was going on. More than likely never even thought about it till his buddy passed. Now it’s difficult (not). Don’t think he’s the type to go out and buy a bunch of books, DVD’s or a bunch of YouTubing.
Sorry for the loss, but the way things are now I wouldn’t sink a lot of money into it, IMO I believe his interest is going to wane fast since (it’s too difficult), and he never had any interest in the first place.

The first edition of the Western Powders Load Manual is currently available directly off the Hodgdon website for only $4.99 per manual with free shipping: https://shop.hodgdon.com/official-gear/western-powders-load-manual That seems like too good of a deal to pass up...

It sure does. Thanks. Got ‘er done.

Reloading can't be complicated because I started when I was in high school

Thanks - Order placed

I need to start handloading. Picked up a fast twist 22-250 and want to load for it.

I concur.

Another this that happens; A guy gets into reloading and thinks that the ONLY press to own is a Dillon XXX. To the person who just wants to crank out rounds, that might be a good fit after you have learned for 5 years on a single stage. When you were 16 and had a "fresh" driver's license, you didn't run out a buy a Corvette or Ferrari. You started in dad's truck or mom's station wagon. Then you bought an old Charger with a worn out engine, then a Monte SS, then you got the Hellcat Challenger. Trying to learn on a progressive is overwhelming. There is TOO MUCH going on, and if you make a mistake, you are 50-100-200 rounds before you catch it. If you want to discuss discouragement: let me know how it feels to pull the bullets on 200 rounds of 40 S&W (that you Factory Crimped the hell out of), because the primers are seated upsidedown.

With all due respect to your enthusiasm for the higher levels of the game (and mine), cranking out decent ammo for hunting, practice, and futzing around is pretty easy with the minimal equipment I started with. Not a single deer I’ve killed in the past 50+ years would have escaped because of the quality of the ammo from those simple tools wasn’t up to the job. Handloading can become its own reason for existence if you let it, which is fine, but I hate to see anyone pass on it because they feel overwhelmed by the need for a bunch of gear, or all the jargon and complexity associated with the advanced practices. I still remember the satisfaction of simply refilling my fired cases and cracking them off another time or two. More folks should get involved at that level, if primers ever get back on the shelf anyway.

Yup. As a kid on the ranch I used the good 'ol Lee Loader for my beat up, 3rd-hand, pump-action, .30-06 that wore a Tasco 4x scope
They said you shouldn't use it on pump-actions, but I never had a problem.

I continued with that all the way up until .gov invited me to an all-expenses-paid trip to SE Asia. They lied.

After that little soiree, I got all sophisticated and started using a Rock Chucker.

MT DD FAN - Thanks for the link - I ordered a couple as gifts.

drover

Thanks for the link, I also put in an order; and not just for the manual.

I think most reloaders only get into it as far as they feel comfortable. Some only reload as a means to an end. Reloaders have "options to intensity".

For something that appears simple - assembling four things to make a cartridge - there is a lot of mystery. The longer you do it, the more mysterious it can get. Some slide down the rabbit hole.

Whatever your reason, have fun with it.

Three Older Men Discuss Handloading