My First Experience With Reloading Ammunition

[Gerowen]

A friend of mine has started reloading his own ammunition, so in exchange for me letting him borrow a circular saw for a week, he took me out to the range to help test out his first batch of reloaded rounds. He had a bunch of .40 and .357 magnum. I had him go first, ya know, kind of like tasting your own food before you feed it to someone else I guess, lol. It turned out pretty cool and was pretty accurate. I've definitely had much worse factory made ammunition. It has me thinking about maybe starting to reload my own ammunition. Anybody have any suggestions for affordable, quality starter kits for reloading ammunition? I'd like to be able to do .40 S&W, 5.56mm/.223, and 30-06. Anyway, here's a video I clipped together of the experience.

[KingCracker]

I wish I could get into reloading but I don't have the space to set it up :(.

[DocM]

Be very careful in weighing out your .40 charges and staying within total case and cartridge length specs!!

The .40 loads in the 33,000-35,000 PSI range so it's VERY easy to over-load them, and that can be bad. Definitely a time to be obsessive-compulsive, even it it means adding powder 1 granule at a time to nail the spec load for your bullet & powder.

[Gerowen]

Yeah that's why I had him go first, if there was a double charge or anything I didn't want to be the one to find out. I haven't watched him actually reload, but he seems like he knows what he's doing and was talking about double checking his rounds about every 5th round to make sure the powder charge was the same. I've actually bought cheap, factory made target ammo at ranges and had some rounds that were so bad they actually sounded different than the rest, and his seemed really consistent. I'll have to get me a book on reloading or something before I'll feel comfortable doing it myself though.

[Buttus]

My dad and i used to reload his .38 ammunition, and his .264 hunting rifle and .223 mini-14.

it's definately WAY cheaper!

[SirEvan]

"Reloading ammunition"

....

Don't you mean, "loading ammunition"? the bullet gets destroyed on impact, and the primer in the case is used up, so technically you are loading your own, you're not reloading...unless they make reusable cartridges?

[SupportGeek]

"Reloading ammunition"

....

Don't you mean, "loading ammunition"? the bullet gets destroyed on impact, and the primer in the case is used up, so technically you are loading your own, you're not reloading...unless they make reusable cartridges?

You can pop the primer out of the spent brass, clean it up and its good to go to be reloaded with new primer, powder and projectile.

Its one of the best ways to save money, reusing the once or twice fired brass.

So the term kinda covers both loading your own with all new stuff, or reloading spent brass casings.

[DocM]

It saves money if you burn through enough ammo in that caliber to make it worthwhile. Sometimes it doesn't.

I reload 12, 20 and 28 guage shotgun shells, .40 S&W, .45 ACP, .50AE, and .500 Mag. I don't shoot enough .380 ACP, .357 SIG, .38, .357 Mag, .44 Mag or 9mm to make it worthwhile.

In rifle rounds I do .45-70 (for Marlin lever rifle and my T/C Contender pistol), 30-06, .25-06, .264, .270 and .300 Mag.

[Gerowen]

"Reloading ammunition"

....

Don't you mean, "loading ammunition"? the bullet gets destroyed on impact, and the primer in the case is used up, so technically you are loading your own, you're not reloading...unless they make reusable cartridges?

He collects his own spent brass, or spent brass of the right caliber from other people who don't want it, removes the old primer and cleans out the primer pocket, runs the brass through a tumbler to shine it up and get rid of old powder residue, and then inserts a new primer, powder charge and projectile, crimps it down and it's ready to roll. If the brass happens to get slightly deformed, he has a re-sizer that re-shapes the brass into the appropriate dimensions. I've just always heard it called "reloading", the end result is the same as "loading ammunition" I guess.