Handloading in General...

[acarpenter]

Ok so, I am becoming more and more curious about handloading and all the hype about it. I know you will definately get some more accurate shots, but I am curious how much more accurate you might could be. As of now, I am content with saving money and using all the surplus ammo I can get my hands on for blasting, but in the future, I have a feeling I will be looking more into custom loading...

I have an m39, m91/30, m44, a westinghouse, a 1903a3, a k98, an enfield no4, a steyr m95, a k31, and a carbine coming in the mail. If you guys have had good luck with specific configurations with any of these, hook a brother up.

[SwedeSteve]

Reloading offers you a choice to tailor the rounds to the rifle. In addtion, it gives you ammo at a cheaper price. It is a hobby you can take up, and gain great pleasure from. There is nothinhg like toucing off one of your "home rolls". If you talk to anybody that reloads, they will tell you that they haven't looked back as far a achieving the maximum accuracy for any given rifle.

[Midas]

I have recently gotten back into reloading for the rifles I shoot, and boy do I wish I never would've stopped in the first place! I had forgotten how much fun it is, you can tailor loads to fit one particular rifle, for the best accuracy possible, and the sky is the limit as far as bullet selection is concerned, not to mention the amount of money you can save. Reloading may seem confusing, and complicated at first, but once you get everything set up, it's really not too hard. I recommend searching the internet for articles concerning the process of handloading your own ammunition. In this day and age, with the outrageous price of factory produced ammo, reloading is darn near a necessity if you plan on shooting a lot.

[Taurus Fan]

No matter how many guns a person owns or how much they shoot, if they don't ever get into reloading their own ammo they are still n00Bs. I've known people who'd been shooting for years and never handloaded, their basic grasp of the different ballistics of their guns was almost child-like.

[rfc357]

I suggest you buy a reloading manual and read it for the most reliable information. The Sierra manual has the best explanation of reloading's advantages, in my opinion.

Reloading will allow you to realize the accuracy potential of your firearm. Reloading will not make an inaccurate firearm accurate. If you have a crummy barrel, you will still have crummy groups.

If you are interested in blasting, reloading will not do much for you. If you are interested in accuracy, reloading may be worth exploring.

Reloaded ammunition can be less expensive than purchased ammunition, but your time is worth something. You must also amortize the expense of the reloading equipment.

[toolman]

One aspect that hasn't been metioned yet is that handloading gets you away from all of the corrosive ammo headaches. FWIW, Graf & Sons - The Reloading Authority , has the Speer #13 manual on sale right now for $9.99, it's a good place to start and is very informative.

[forgunsandgame]

I haven't shot anything but hand loads for many years, but a while back a buddy gave me some military .308 ammo. I fired it just to see how it was. And I can tell you that if I had to shoot that stuff all the time I'd give up rifles and take up golf.

[Cyrille]

I have been having trouble casting 500 gr. bullets for my .45/70. I cast 1 to 20 lead, that's 1 part tin to 20 parts lead. The mould I'm useing is an RCBS .45-500-BPS P/N 82085 which casts bullets in the 500 to 507 gr. range which is not bad for general shooting but bad for BPCR matches where there should be no more than a .5 variance in weight for match grade projectiles. That, however is not the problem the problem is that the majority of bullets I cast are .0001 too large in circumference to fit into the brass case and chamber in the rifle. Any suggestions?

[Mike Franklin]

Cyrille, Run your bullets through a sizer. That close ought to be easy and you can lube at the same time.
Factory ammo now days is real good stuff. Way better than what was sold in the 70s. I could live with factory ammo if I had to.
The biggest advantage of reloading is tayloring your loads to match what you're shooting at or for. I shoot a bunch'a .45 Colts at a reduced velocity for Cowboy Shooting. I can load for bear or for bunnies. If I can use one gun to do most of my shooting it only makes me better with that gun.

[Paul T]

NO NO NO. Dont get started it will damage your better judgement and make a serious loading dummy out of you. First you get tighter groups, and you may save some dough then you wind up buying more loading manuals , powder tricklers, and then it may get even more seriouser and you will wind up with progressive loaderitis and the fun never stops. Its pure evil. The smell of H4831 and the sight of new Vmax bullets will make you go wobbly in the knees. Hell you may even quote ballistic coeffcients
in your sleep. Your kids will wonder why you weigh their froot loops on a powder scale. So dont even think about getting started but if you do dont blame us and enjoy yourself and quit drooling over that rockchucker.....

[deadman03]

i realy enjoy reloading, plus its cheaper for me, but i dont think anyone mentioned that it probably isnt cheaper to reload if you are using surplus ammo. i dont know how much surplus ammo is, dont have anything to put it in anyway.

[Cyrille]

Originally Posted by Mike Franklin

Cyrille, Run your bullets through a sizer. That close ought to be easy and you can lube at the same time.
Factory ammo now days is real good stuff. Way better than what was sold in the 70s. I could live with factory ammo if I had to.
The biggest advantage of reloading is tayloring your loads to match what you're shooting at or for. I shoot a bunch'a .45 Colts at a reduced velocity for Cowboy Shooting. I can load for bear or for bunnies. If I can use one gun to do most of my shooting it only makes me better with that gun.

I goofed It should be .001 not.0001

[SwedeSteve]

I can reload 7.62x54R for cheaper than you can buy milsurp with a reduced load!