"We are the Knights who say... NI."
Reloading can save money shooting pistols and produce superior quality rifle ammo - but don't get into it for just either of those reasons, but instead to increase your gun-fu. Learning about bullet weight and charge weights, twist rate and spin - and just everything else is quite interesting.
However that's all icing on the cake of drudgery, because for everything fun you intend to do the main course is still brass prep. At least it's more necessary with making rifle bullets fly right than pistols, but pistols tend to consume more...
Good luck and enjoy it as a Zen discipline.
Thank you sir.
The brass prep can be rote and repetitive - I guess that's the point about making it all exactly the same.
It is well worth it and you will get much better stuff than Wolf. (Heh, I do use Wolf primers).
Try this site out:
http://ultimatereloader.com/
Great info.
For pistol, you can get away with less brass prep. A thorough cleaning in the tumbler will suffice. Be sure to check cases for splitting AFTER cleaning when it’s easier to see. That’s probably the biggest problem in pistol reloading.
Primer pocket/flash-hole uniforming ? Save that for rifle. Check rifle cases for length more often than pistol too. Your reloading manual will tell you what each case should be at maximum, and what to trim it to when trimming is required.
Lastly, if you shoot volume – especially pistol – look at Dillion progressive presses. I use a RL550b – which I obtained used. BEST INVESTMENT EVER! Support from Dillion (even as used equipment) is unequaled. Nicest people in the business. You set-up a “head” with the dies you use for a given caliber - once. Setup the powder charge once and only change that if you change powders. If you shoot multiple calibers you can buy/use more heads. They even have stands to keep them on. Then you swap out the head for the one you need in a moment. Change the shell plate (like a shell holder on a single stage press) and if needed, change the primer feed tube. Presto – you’re ready to reload for the chosen caliber.
Each “stage” of the press does a specific job; Size and de-prime, Bell the neck and pour charge, Seat a bullet and finally crimp. After each stage has a case in it, each pull of the handle coughs out a finished bullet. There are additional doo dahs you can buy – case feeders, counters, powder level checkers…
They work well with rifle calibers too, but I like to clean primer pockets when reloading rifle.
Once you get into this – you’ll be looking for more stuff to reload. But remember; to reload for other people and charge for it – you need an FFL.
Disclaimer: My only affiliation with Dillion is as a happy customer. And NO – my 550b is NOT for sale!
Prepping .223 will go a lot quicker if you get a Possum Hollow Cutter/Trimmer.
Go here to this youtube video to see how it works:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i...h?
v=i42nDelSKf8
It's like sticking a pencil in a pencil sharpener.
The other thing to get is the RCBS X-sizer "small base" die specifically for .223 .
After the first firing, the initial trimming to 1.73", and then the second firing, run your .223 brass through the RCBS X sizer die and it is almost just like progressively reloading pistol cases like .45 ACP.
I wouldn't get into reloading just yet. I would see if I could get primers, mostly, then powder and bullets locally first.
It would suck to buy $400 to $700 worth of progressive reloader just to have it sit idle because you can't find any primers.
Commenting by HaloScan
