Reloading bullets

jellyrug

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Who here is into reloading?

About 18 years ago, I spent a lot of time on this as a hobby. One of the first rifles I purchased was a Savage 30 06 from Walmart at around $350. Did a lot of work in that, seated the stock properly to the barrel using fiberglass bedding, crowned the barrel, and modified the trigger. Those mods plus reloading got me to the point where that el-cheapie rifle competed well enough with the bench rest shooters.

Back then my reloading was simply to achieve accuracy and I enjoyed the physics challenge.

Today I have a 10’ tall cabinet full of reloading stuff, which I have not used in years. I have probably forgotten how to do this.

Yesterday went to the range and ouch, every time I pulled the trigger it was $5 plus for my 338 Winchester Magnum.

So maybe it is time to get back into reloading, still have around 2 gallons of gun powder, empty cases etc.

BTW, the session yesterday was with a bunch of Fort Bragg guys. They don’t say much about anything, other than being prepared for what may be coming.
 
I have several good friends into reloading.....they did a bunch or rounds for me...

I've watched them do it but that's as far as my experience goes.

I kind of laughed one time, one of the guys asked me if I wanted to see what he had just got-it was in the back of this truck..

We walked to the parking lot and in the bed of his truck with the cap and tailgate unlocked was a complete reloading set up he had got from a widow we both knew....he had several thousands of casings and all the gear to reload them...there was everything from 9mm to 30.06 and all kinds of calibers in between. She just wanted it out of the house...
 
I do a little but haven't been in the mood lately. LOL I have a bunch of brass that needs to be resized and I got burned out. I need to get it done and hit the range again. It's been to long.
 
Was a time I used to reload my own 10 gauge, 12 gauge and loads of 9mm stuff, but that was long ago!
I had a buddy doing the shotgun stuff. Use to make his own shot, running molten lead wheel weights through a water curtain and sifting them.

I no longer have my 9mm FN Browning HP, but I use to get close to 1400fps safely with my own reloads.
 
I had a buddy doing the shotgun stuff. Use to make his own shot, running molten lead wheel weights through a water curtain and sifting them.

I no longer have my 9mm FN Browning HP, but I use to get close to 1400fps safely with my own reloads.
I had nothing to do with it, but my cousin made me a bunch of .45 round ball for my Muzzle loader from a bunch of old car batteries! Shot just fine!
 
Same-
Have 2 tumblers full of brass, 9mm and .40
I do 9mm, .40, & 45 on my Dillon for the last 25 yrs.
5 years ago, I was having issues because it was worn out.
Dillon sent me everything to rebuild it for free.
All my rifle ammo 2 reloaders do and I have no complaints ever.
1 does my 308 , the others done my 5.56

Only thing I really "Need", is more spp's.

Im setting up to run some 147 subs for my scorpions next wk or two.
Tic Toc.....
 
Any of you folks into bench rest shooting?

For accuracy, this is what I use to do.

Resize the case and trim it to length.

Load the cases with a light load and shoot them into a sound damping pipe filled with sand in my backyard.
The top of each case as it goes into the chamber was marked, so they go into the chamber exactly the same way they were in before when back at the range. The light loads stretches the cases to fit the chamber exactly, eliminating any possible variances.

The cases are then loaded with powder and bullets based testing for accuracy over many sessions and a lot of reloading. I use to use a chronograph to compare bullet velocity to accuracy and went as far as attempting to draw a sine curve of the barrel vibration after pulling the trigger. The key was to get bullet exit from the barrel crown top or bottom of the curve, rather than on the way up or down the amplitude.

Use to spend hours and hours on the range. Think it was more the Engineering of all this stuff that I had fun with.

Bench rest, on a good day at 100 yards, I could normally group within 0.75" using an elcheapo 30-06 which I put a lot of work into.

Maybe one day will get back into this.
 
A buddy and I do a lot of reloading, more him than me. We load 9, 380, 40, 45, 223, 357, 454, 500, and a few others. We really focus a lot on 223 rounds alot. I cant even tell you how many rounds we have. Caps becoming a problem to get.

We cast our own lead and gas check everything we do lead wise. We constantly look for used cases and usually can find once fired. Its good hang out time for us.
 
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A buddy and I do a lot of reloading, more him than me. We load 9, 380, 40, 45, 223, 357, 454, 500, and a few others. We really focus a lot on 223 rounds alot. I cant even tell you how many rounds we have. Caps becoming a problem to get.

We cast our own lead and gas check everything we do lead wise. We constantly look for used cases and usually can find once fired. Its good hang out time for us.
Great!

I have molds for casting bullets for all my hand guns. Use to do that just for plunking at the range.

Could not buy a mold for a 0.25 pistol, so I machined and made one in the tool room after hours, when I was still working in the plastics injection molding industry.
 
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