GUN STUFF

[kopfjäger]

Troy made a gun for my boy with his name stamped in the lower. That's his on the bottom and the one they made for Kyle Lamb on top. This is from the Shot Show.

[fastwin]

I love these commercials!

I love that!! And the model 19 is my favorite G-gun.

[DRKWNG]

Oops?

[ducpainter]

yup 

[Zaster]

400 rounds a month is pretty low.

I can do 100 rounds/hour on my single stage.

That said, who doesn't want a Dillon?

I use the Hornady Lock-N-Load to do my high volume handgun ammo and an old single stage Lyman to customize my hunting rifle ammo

[Cicero]

So if I wanted to get started loading my own ammo, what do I need to know? If you're kind enough to answer, please assume I'm an idiot.

I just started loading this summer.  I have a Lee single stage press that I mainly use for .357 and .38, but .270 as well.

I was way nervous the first 3 batches, took 2.5 hours to load 50 rounds, weighing each powder load, triple checking and so on.

Now I load about 100 rounds in a little hour before going to the range.  I stopped over-thinking and trusted my equipment.

While their is a lot of reliable loads for .45 and 5.56 online, get a good manual such as the current Speer or Lyman. I have several old manuals which work, but do not have load info for current powders.

Also on the .45, lead is cheaper, but some of the more current powders burn hot enough to lead plate your barrel after 50 rounds, not fun to clean. I've found that loading plated flat or hollow points are almost as accurate as my lead bbwc's and only cost $5 more per hundred (pre sandy hook) and are much more forgiving on the heat and hopped up loads.

I find it relaxing to load, its actually a fun hobby in itself.   

[Monsterlover]

It is relaxing to load, I will agree. 

I find a recipe that works and stick with it.  I've used Bullseye powder from the start and don't feel the need to change.  I run 5gr of it for my .45 with lrn bullets and it works great, cycles the slide perfectly and doesn't lead the barrel.

For my 9mm I could find no published load data for Bullseye.  I did my best to let common sense take the lead and found some numbers on the net.  I took an average and tried a low/medium/high load.  I tried 3.5gr, 3.8gr and 4gr.  Loaded 10 rounds of each.

3.5 fired fine (no squib) but wouldn't cycle the slide to fully eject the case.

3.8 fired fine and cycled the slide for all 10 rounds.

4.0 felt the same as 3.8 and also cycled all 10.  I settled on 4.0 and have run hundreds of rounds through the SR9c with no leading of the barrel, no fail to eject, no fail to feed and only a couple fail to fire (primer seat issue that was corrected by switching to cci primers)

I do not weigh each charge.  I cycle the charger a bunch of times to settle the powder, dump that all back in the hopper and throw one charge and weigh it.  As I don't mess with the settings or the scale it's always right there. 

I'll charge 50 cases and then sometimes randomly pick one or two to check and recharge.  Never an issue.

In the beginning i also intentionally double charged a case and found that it's not big enough to hold two full charges of powder.  This way I don't have to worry about a double charge by accident.

Also, after i charge all 50, i take a light and look at each case, comparing the powder level to the adjacent cases.

It's all very zen

[Cicero]

I use hp 38 and titegroup....  in a .38 case you can triple charge and still have room to seat the bullet 

I weigh every 10th throw,  I've never had it deviate more than a 10th of a grain, and since I mainly load middle of the road loads, its not an issue. 

[ducpainter]

You guys should try Vihta Vouri N-320 for 9mm.

It's more money than HP-38 or Win 231 but it's way cleaner and is a single base powder and burns cooler.

I run it under plated bullets. I haven't tried lead.

[fastwin]

My older brother was the reloader in the family and I saved all my brass for him. He ran out of time for me and became a dick... as sometimes family members can become. So no reloads for me for years. Wish that wasn't the case in these expensive times. Nothing better than saving $$$ on ammo.

[Monsterlover]

.45 for about $.06ea and 9mm about $.08ea

[The Architect]

.45 for about $.06ea and 9mm about $.08ea

  . Wow!

[ducpainter]

.45 for about $.06ea and 9mm about $.08ea

At today's component prices, I don't see how you're doing that...

even with lead.

Primers alone are almost .04 ea right now at my LGS.

You can buy cheaper online, but you need to buy several thousand to offset shipping and hazmat and you'd still be at .03 ea.

'Splain to me Looocie.

[Monsterlover]

The last time I bought any loading supplies was 2 years ago...

[ducpainter]

The last time I bought any loading supplies was 2 years ago...

That would explain some of it, but unless you cast your own, I don't think $4/50 is possible. I could be wrong.

You'll have an eye opening experience the next time.