My new reloading hobby, so far... so good!
 

I started reloading my own ammo last fall. My friend and fellow Pelican Tab Tanner got me started and gave me an old Lyman Spar-T turret press, books and some gear. I bought some additional stuff and after Tab gave me some instruction, I started reloading 9mm, .45ACP, .40S&W and .223 I've gone to the range about once per week to test out my loads and every single round has performed perfectly. My accuracy is improving and I'm enjoying shooting more now that I'm making my own ammo. I'm getting brass from the range and my brother is range officer at his police dept, so that helps. I'm using 2 Lyman turret presses and Lee Carbide dies and am very happy with them. I hand prime with an RCBS primer and I use a Lyman digital scale, Lyman T55 Powder Measure and Lyman digital caliper.

I'm very cautious and follow the recipes exactly, no "modifying" anything! I have a Universal bench with a Dillon 600 Swager that really helps me reload military .223 (removes the primer crimp). Next winter I will probably buy a Hornady Lock-N-Load AP press, but I'm glad I started with a turret press so I can understand each step along the way. I was looking for a new winter hobby and this fits the bill perfectly! My father has given me a few pistols (S&W Model 645 in .45ACP and a S&W Model 59 in 9mm (son's)) and I've got a Sig P239 in 9mm and a Beretta 92FS in 9mm. My Colt Sporter AR15 fires my reloads without a hiccup, so I'm satisfied with the results. Thanks to many here who have given me excellent advice (Jeff Higgins and others).

I think I'm going to step-up to a Lee Turret press this month. It's slow-going with my single-stage press.

I think I'll get one set up for 9mm.

Good for you Az. :)

Thanks guys! I really like the convenience of the turret press. With the 6 hole press, I can keep the dies installed for 2 calibers, so it's easy to switch calibers, just switch out the shellholder. Lee really backs up their products, I managed to stick a few cartridges in the depriming/resizing dies and Lee replaced them. Be sure to lube up the rifle cases well before trying to deprime/resize! From the research I've done, the Hornady LNL AP has the features I want in a progressive press. I'll use what I have until next winter.

I went to the Dillon store here on Sat. Man, what a toystore that place is! I used to use a single stage RCBS press and did it all the hard way. But I'm gonna save up for a four stager after what I saw Sat.

Dillon has stores!?

I get their "Little Blue Press" catalogue, but their stuff is way to pricey for me to justify at this point.

The Dillon Super Swage 600 is fantastic for removing the primer crimp from military cases. I'd like to see the other Dillon products!

I buy most of my stuff from MidwayUSA.com and Natchezss.com but I also buy quite a bit from Bass Pro shops, Cabela's and Gander Mountain. Much of the gear I need is "out of stock" most of the time. I'm always looking for large and small rifle primers, bulk bullets and powder and good, cheap brass. I also buy stuff at the local gun shows, whenever possible.

Dillon is made in Phoenix. Art, Midway is not a good deal. Go to ammunitiontogo.com.

Very cool, Art - congratulations on your success. As you are discovering, this is a great hobby, especially for the tinkerer. There is no end to the toys we can pick up and use. I'm glad you're having fun, and shooting more. That's the name of the game.

Rick,
Thanks for the advice, but ammunitiontogo.com sells ammo, I really need a source for the components (bullets, brass, powder and primers). MidwayUSA doesn't have the best prices but they have most of the things I need and they deliver fast! I don't buy much ammo now that I make my own but once in awhile I buy some commercial ammo for comparison and I found the best prices at WalMart and local gun shows. I bought 250 rounds of Remington UMC .45ACP 230gr FMJ for $86, and that's not too bad!

Glad it's going well. Shooting is a lot more fun with your own ammo. You don't save a lot of money, but you get to shoot a lot more on the same budget. You also are more involved and understand what's happening a lot better. Congratulations.

John

John,
Thanks! I have found reloading to be an excellent winter hobby. I'll reload all winter, then shoot at outdoor ranges in the warmer months.

I took my neighbor to the local range this PM and we shot my S&W 645 (.45ACP), Model 59 (9mm) and Sig P239 (9mm) and shot 300 rounds of my handloaded ammo and everything shot well, no FTE's or FTF's, just good shooting!

If you're gonna just be shooting paper targets, consider semi-wadcutters. They punch a perfectly round hole in the paper, which makes it far easier to see from the firing line. If you haven't used them before, you'll be amazed by the difference.

Rick,
Thanks for the good advice! My last batch of .45ACP was using Berry's Bullets in semi-wadcutter. I usually use round nose, but I found these at the Cabela's store near me a few weeks ago. My S&W 645 feeds anything, so I'm sure the semi-wadcutters will feed correctly.

I went with the Dillon 550B. I'm sure I will get faster with it.But once everything is adjusted, it works great. Just finished my first batch of .357 Sig. Need to go shooting to get my cases back. Very enjoyable.

Yeah, Ingo and I have picked up presses....he has a progressive Dillon and I have an ancient Rock Crusher that has never been used....

I take a bucket with me to the range and fill it with range brass after I'm done shooting. When I get home, I tumble it, then inspect and sort it out. I've been getting lots of good .45ACP, 9mm, .223 and 40S&W brass that way.

I just got back from Cabela's in Dundee, MI. I bought Berry Plated Bullets in 9mm, 147gr, .40S&W in 165gr and .45ACP in 230gr. I also picked up some Sierra bullets in .308 and got some large rifle primers and small pistol primers. Primers have been hard to find... Looks like I'll be reloading this week!

I've loaded 275 rounds of .223, 275 rounds of .45ACP and 650 rounds of 9mm so far this week. I'm off to the range tomorrow evening...

After going to the range and testing several batches of my reloaded rounds, I came home and made 750 rounds of .40S&W and 200 rounds of .303British. Tonight I'll be reloading 9mm. I've been taking notes and determining which "recipes" give me the best results. Unfortunately, supplies of powder, primers and bullets are in short supply and I am often limited by what I can get my hands on. I'm now going to concentrate on buying my components in bulk to reduce costs now that I know what I get the best results with. I really enjoy this new hobby!

I'm having trouble finding reloading components as well.

I think this is what I have on hand:

• 600 115 gr. FMJ 9mm bullets
• 200 115 gr. HP 9mm bullets
• 400 55 gr. .223 bullets
• 180 .30-30 bullets (forget the weight)
• 25 lbs. 7½ shot
• 5 lbs. Red Dot (used for 12 ga. and 9mm)
• 2 lbs. BL-C(2)
• 1000 wads
• 1000 misc. 9mm cases (Thanks Nick!!!)
• 120-ish AA 12 gauge shotgun shells
• 800 small rifle primers
• 1100 small pistol primers
• 80 large rifle primers
• 1000 shotgun primers (forget the type)

I used my new Lee Loadmaster .223 Progressive press this weekend. It took me about an hour to load 100 rounds, including tweaking the settings, which is about 2½ times my normal speed with my single-stage press. The nice thing is that as I was getting the settings dialed in, if I made a mistake, I could correct it with the single-stage press. I also noticed the primer feeder stopped working when the stack got down to around 3 primers.

I'm doing OK, except that primers are tough to get and I'm going to a gun show with my BIL and Tab Tanner (fellow Pelican) next weekend in Maumee, OH to buy bullets and powder. I collect brass at the range and friends/family save it for me. I like BL-c(2) for my AR15 and Unique for my pistols, but Power Pistol, Universal and Accurate are a close second...

Well done, Art. It sounds like you're well and truly hooked, now that friends and family are saving their brass for you.

Make sure you sort that brass by head stamp, and even by lot if some one gives you boxes of empties. You would be surprised how much brass varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, and even between the same manufacturer's different production runs. Heavier brass = less capacity = higher pressures/velocities. You might find you need to tweak the powder charge up or down depending on which lot of brass you are loading.

The other reason to sort it by head stamp and lot is for your own record keeping. You need to keep track of how many times each piece of brass has been reloaded. Brass stretches during the firing and subsequent resizing cycle. It must be kept trimmed at or below SAAMI maximum length. If it gets too long, the case mouth may actually be protrude into the leade a bit, restricting its ability to open enough to release the bullet. This can result in dramatically raised pressures. Your .223 brass may need to be trimmed every third or fourth loading, depending upon how hot you load them. Make sure you measure a representative sample from each lot after sizing them; you will soon get an idea of how many loads you can get between trimming them.

With all the brass you are accumulating, such record keeping gets ever more important. It's great to have a lot of brass. It sucks to lose track of how many times they've been reloaded. Brass does have a finite lifespan. Depending on caliber and load, it can be as few as half a dozen loadings or as many as several dozen.

Your pistol brass should fall into that "several dozen" end of the spectrum. It won't grow as fast as the .223 brass, but its trimmed length is every bit as important. Auto pistol brass head spaces on the case mouth, since there is no rim to serve that purpose. That makes its length very critical. You won't actually have to trim them very often, but it pays to measure them after every firing and resizing.

Jeff,
Thanks! As always, you have a lot of great info and I'm glad you share it with us! I'm sorting brass and I prefer the nickel-plated brass, since it seems to run through the resizing die a little easier. I'm checking the length of the cases and noting how many time the brass has been reloaded. Almost all of the brass I get has only been fired once and I load "light" loads, so I'm hoping to be able to reuse the brass more. I have a Dillon Super Swage 600 and I like to reload military brass and swage the primer crimp. The military brass is heavier and I like the way it performs in my AR15. I just bought a Sig P226 in .40S&W and .357Sig and I tested a sample from my .40S&W loads on Sunday and they all performed well. I don't have any .357Sig brass yet, but I'm expecting several thousand cases from a friend soon. This is really the perfect winter hobby for me and my goal is to spend the entire "non-Porsche" season reloading ammo, then when the warm weather hits I'll have enough ammo to shoot all summer, then get back top reloading in the late fall. I'm using 2 Lyman turret presses this year, but I plan to buy a Hornady LNL-AP progressive press next fall. Finding supplies is the biggest challenge I face as hardly anyone has primers, bullets and powder. Thanks again!

Still no priimers available anywhere online, but my friend found some at a local shop and he got them for me. I cleaned and sorted brass last night and the next few nights I'll be depriming and resizing .40S&W and 9mm brass, then reloading 1000 of each caliber next weekend!