In comments below Matt says I’ll have to start handloading- and he’s right. I bought a case of ammo for the K31, but it’ll be gone someday, and then I’ll start rolling my own.<\/p>\n
I know a lot of people won’t touch reloading for love or money, and I don’t blame them- if you’re not very meticulous about what you’re doing, handloading can be deadly dangerous.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, if you want to keep your ammo costs down, if you want to shoot a lot for not a lot of cash, handloading is a good option. <\/p>\n
I started handloading for my 45, and then for my 38 special, but lately those calibers are so plentiful and so cheap that it’s almost not worth it. <\/p>\n
On the other hand, rifle ammo is expensive, and the most expensive part is the brass.
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\nI buy new fresh ammunition of one variety and one only. Buying ammunition is a good way to get the brass, because loaded ammo isn’t a hell of a lot more expensive than new brass. <\/p>\n
Once I’ve gotten the brass from the initial firing I begin to treat it. I decap it and polish it using corncob media. I have a tool I’ve made for cleaning the primer hole that makes the hole exactly the same on each round, and once they’re done I scribe a mark on the head.<\/p>\n
Because I keep brass for a single rifle, (I have three rifles chambered for 30-06 and each has it’s own boxes of ammo) I neck resize only, cut the brass to length, and clean again.<\/p>\n
I then prime as many cartridges as I can load in one period, usually fifty. I use Winchester (olin) standard large rifle primers. <\/p>\n
I primarily shoot nosler partition bullets. I weigh each bullet and discard anything which varies more than 1\/2 percent. I have thrown out bullets of all types but Nosler. I’ve never gotten a bad batch of those. I also use a go\/nogo gauge to make sure I don’t have one bad diameter. Again, Nosler bullets seem to be the best bang for the buck. <\/p>\n
I use several types of powder but I find the Vitavuori N150 nicest from an accuracy\/cleanliness of burn standpoint. I have an old type RCBS measure that throws 95% of charge, and then I trickle the last 5% into the pan. I then dust the pan into the cartridge. I measure the pan to make sure it was completely emptied of powder. I use a beam balance scale by Lyman, the only one I can find that has an oil dampening system. It’s about 30 years old. I bought it new. I may upgrade to a digital scale someday. <\/p>\n
When I put the charge in the cartridge, I immediately insert and seat the bullet. This makes sure I don’t accidentally double charge a round. With some rifles, a double charge is a death sentence. You cannot get this wrong. In order not to get this wrong I weigh all fifty rounds to make sure they don’t change from one to another. I then write down the weight, charge, powder, primer, and put it in a label which I stick on the top of the box. If I think I’m going to let the ammo sit for a long time (more than a couple of weeks) I light a beeswax candle and dip an artist’s brush into the hot wax, and paint a stripe of wax on the end of the cartridge where it meets the bullet. <\/p>\n
This is not for the caffeine junkie. it’s not something you do unless you’re totally calm. It’s not something smokers should think about doing unless they can easily go a long time without a butt. You don’t need a nicotine jones to distract you and let you throw a double charge of powder in something as unforgiving as a 30-30 wcf. <\/p>\n
No, reloading isn’t for everyone- but it can give you cheap ammo and better control over your shooting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In comments below Matt says I’ll have to start handloading- and he’s right. I bought a case of ammo for the K31, but it’ll be gone someday, and then I’ll start rolling my own. I know a lot of people won’t touch reloading for love or money, and I don’t blame them- if you’re not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neanderpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neanderpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neanderpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neanderpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neanderpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/neanderpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neanderpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neanderpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neanderpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}