Tell Me About Reloading Ammunition

[jyl]

I tried a friend's Ruger at the range last week. Long bull-barreled stainless "Government Target" model, $525 on Ruger's website. It was very nice. Really nice trigger, practically no recoil, nice sights, grip had a thumb shelf, did about a 2" group at 25 yd. I am positive the pistol will group much better than that.

Another friend had one of the 4" barrel blued ones, 15 years ago, and I don't recall liking that one too much. This one was so much nicer.

[Shuie]

commercially loaded .45 isnt too bad, but if you shoot A LOT (like Jordi said) you are definitely going to save some money by handloading. Its senseless not to reload for things like .38 super, 10mm, or 9x23.

[Rick Lee]

.22 and .45 are two worlds apart. I will probably get one of those Ruger auto .22's one of these days, but don't get all confident because you can get 1" groups with one of them and then think you'll be like that with a .45 in a life or death situation. Since I CCW all my SIG's, I am very serious about being super competent with all of them in their original calibers. My two .357 SIG's are getting expensive to shoot since I live walking distance from the NRA HQ range. But a box of .40S&W ammo (when ordered in bulk) is only about $.75 cheaper than .357SIG. So it would take a LOT of shooting in .40 to make the $100 or so back I'd have to spend on a .40 barrel.

Nostatic, I have the nicest P220 around and have put many thousands of rounds through it in the last 10 yrs. Get one. You won't regret it. .45 is a super platform. I'm building my own 1911 now too.

BTW, if anyone is interested (through their FFL, of course), I'll soon be selling two .22 revolvers. One is a stainless Ruger single action bicentennial edition and the other is a blued S&W double action with a super light trigger.

[pwd72s]

A rangemaster at our local range summed it up well, I think. When I asked him about reloading, he replied that the cost per round will go way down, while the number of rounds fired will go way up. In other words, saving money is a good way to sell a reloading bench to your wife, but actual money savings may not happen.

[KevinG]

I received an RCBS single stage press for a wedding present many, many moons ago, and reload everything I shoot except the .22's. I can see the advantage of buying bulk for the more popular rounds, but it's not possible for my 45LC and I can load all I want to shoot in the 44mag for a whole lot less.

I will be getting back into a semi-auto soon, probably a 45 or 40, but even then I imagine I will reload for them as well - I just like to tinker with loads too much.

[Rick Lee]

Anyone here have any experience reloading .357SIG? How does that work with the tapered neck?

[jyl]

I dunno, I'm getting frustrated with live ammo guns. I'm thinking of switching to BB guns. Something like this

http://www.pipersprecisionproducts.com/

[Shuie]

Originally posted by Rick Lee
Anyone here have any experience reloading .357SIG? How does that work with the tapered neck?

Its not supposed to work very well at all. I entertained the idea soon after the cartridge came out and dropped it quickly after I read about how the brass didnt last very long and the case mouths split real easily. Its an over pressured cartridge built on too weak of a case. Worse than .40 S&W in those respects. It works well in smaller subcompact autos, but Im not a fan of the round in general.

If you want a 125gr bullet w/.357 ballistics out of an auto, try a 9x23. The case is basically chopped .223 rifle brass. Factory ammo can be tough to find at times, but the brass will last. Its also a real hoot at the range.

[Rick Lee]

Well, I can't change the fact that two of my SIG's fire .357SIG, so I need the ammo. I bought a batch of 500 from Georgia Arms, which I believe to be reloaded brass and had not a single problem with any of them. I want to get a .40 barrel, but the savings on ammo doesn't offset the cost of the barrel until after around 7000 rounds.

[fastpat]

Originally posted by Rick Lee
Well, I can't change the fact that two of my SIG's fire .357SIG, so I need the ammo. I bought a batch of 500 from Georgia Arms, which I believe to be reloaded brass and had not a single problem with any of them. I want to get a .40 barrel, but the savings on ammo doesn't offset the cost of the barrel until after around 7000 rounds.

In the past, I've annealed cases to prevent case mouth splitting. It's pretty easy, and low tech.

You might want to go as far as getting a sizing die custom fitted to your gun, but I see you have more than one, so perhaps that won't work. I see one other issue, trapped sizing lube denting the shoulder, not too bad, that straigtens out on firing if not too extensive. Care with the lube will help.

[Shuie]

Pat, what do you shoot it from? Not related to the mouth cracking issue so much, but out of curiosity, how long before before the brass starts to bulge at the shoulder and become questionable?

[fastpat]

Originally posted by Shuie
Pat, what do you shoot it from? Not related to the mouth cracking issue so much, but out of curiosity, how long before before the brass starts to bulge at the shoulder and become questionable?

Bottle necked cases, and my experience with them is only in rifles, stretch just a bit above the web, which is just above the extractor groove. Since rifle cases are much longer, you can probably use them longer, but then again they operate at much higher pressures than even a .357 Sig, so maybe that's not an issue. With a rifle case, you measure its length, and when it gets to the safe maximum, you trim the case back to the minimum length, or close to it. Typically, rifle cases can be fired at least five times, and trimmed once. The brass at the web thins out, and the case splits there, you can see it sometimes as a smile like on a golf ball. Cases like the .30-30 Winchester that head space on the rim can be used longer, but I don't know how much longer.

[Joeaksa]

I have used Dillon presses for the last 15 years. First was a 650 and last one was a 550. Best in the industry and are guaranteed for life. If you ever have a problem or issue with them, send them back and they will be completely overhauled FOR FREE for LIFE!

Its easy, just be careful and do it with no distractions. DO NOT SMOKE while doing it and no hoards of kids running through the area. Its easy to make a mistake when that happens. Make sure that your reloader has a powder check so if something happens and you double charge a load, its senses it and you stop.

Well worth your time and money.

JoeA

[Jeff Higgins]

John, if your .45 is on a 1911 platform, you can use one of the Ciener or Kimber kits to convert it to a .22. Or just buy a .22; one can never own too many guns. Unless you see reloading as a hobby unto itself it will quickly turn into just another chore. There are two kinds of reloading shooters out there - those who reload so they can shoot, and those who shoot so they can reload. That's a bit of an exageration, but suffice to say if you do no have an equal interest in the reloading, you should probably look at other options.

I've been reloading ammo my entire life. I started with an old Lymann nutcracker loading stuff for my dad's .45 Colt. After awhile he even "let" me cast bullets for it. By the time I was a teenager I had sworn the whole thing off; it was too much like work. I picked it up again in my early 20's for my own enjoyment, and to feed some oddball calibers for which commercial ammo is not available. That's where I'm at today; reloading oddball stuff as the only means to make it go "bang". The scrounging components, playing with different bullet molds, and stuff like that keeps me interested. If I were just feeding an ammo-hungry auto pistol I would be buying bulk stuff from the sources these guys mention.

If it looks like something that may interest you, by all means give it a go. It sounds like you have a line on one of the best progressive presses around. The guys that I know that use them tend to be competitive shooters, like IPSC, traditional 2700 bullseye, or whatever. They demand lots of high quality ammo and can only get it if they make it themselves. They love those Dillons, that's for sure. On the other hand, the non-competitive shooters, the "plinkers", that start reloading purely for the cheap ammo usually give it up and go back to the bulk stuff. It works great for what they like to do. So, give it a try and see what you think. I think it's fun in its own right. You may or may not; time will tell.