Which caliber to start with... 9mm, .40S&W, .38spl, .357mag?

[S_Constitutionist]

Hello,

I was recently given a new Lee four hole turret press and I have been in the process of learning (slowly) over the past few months. I have been saving all of my brass in the calibers I shoot, and I plan to get started soon. I have a manual and I only want to make light, cheap, target rounds at this time.

I figure it would be a good idea to purchase dies for and start with only ONE caliber until I really get the hang of things, then buy seperate turrets for the others.

I shoot the following regularly:

9mm
.40S&W
.38 Special
.357 Magnum

Occasionally .380ACP, .243, 30-30. Eventually I want to buy a shotgun press and reload .410 as well as 12Ga.

I have heard that .38 special is the easiest to learn on. However, I shoot 9mm far more than anything else and .40S&W is a close second. What makes .38spl so much easier, and is it really necessary?

Thank you

[chris in va]

I'd have to say 38 special. Just be absolutely SURE you don't accidentally double charge that long case.

I started with 9mm but it was a little fiddly with the settings. Not difficult but you just have to watch things a bit closer. 45acp is a lot easier.

[g.willikers]

Straight wall and larger sized cases/cartridges are more forgiving to reload.
The .38 and .357M are both in this category.
The 9mm and 40 are less so.
And, generally, loading for revolvers is easier due to the potential feeding problems with autoloaders.
But with care and good understanding of the process, all your choices of the handgun rounds aren't a big deal.

[aarhunt]

My dad tought me how to reload at a young age around 9or10 im 23 now.the 38 special and the 357 mag is what i started learning to reload.I`ve loaded 45colt 30/30winchester 308 winchster 30/06springfield 7mm remington mag and 9mm.i have dies for 40s&w and 380auto but havent loaded them yet.so far i think the 38special and the 357 mag are the easiest to reload.One thing that i have found that it really important with all pistol and rifle revolver or auto is to make sure the case is sized all the way or it causes major problems like with my grandpas 9mm.i had a guy reload some for me and he had his son in-law do them and they werent sized all the way and a live round got jamed and my grandpa had to take it to a gunsmith to get it out.

[MSD Mike]

I would have to agree with the 38 special. It is very easy and forgiving to load and is a great round to learn the basic loading processes on. Auto rounds take a little more effort to load reliable ammunition. They are not particularly difficult but they will be less challenging to load if you already have a good grasp on the basics.

Thank
Mike

[serf 'rett]

I started with 9mm and then 40S&W.

Looks like I did it all wrong by not starting with 38 Special.

Guess I need to start over and do it right. I'll have to explain to the household banker that I must get ...

... a 38 or 357

She'll understand .... right?

[MSD Mike]

Just get it and have a friend bring it over and act like he is lending it to you.

[dlb435]

Start with the 9mm. Double charges show easily and they are very forgiving rounds. I like either fmj or plated bullets at 115 grains.

[howlnmad]

The wheel-gun cartridges are by far the easiest and most forgiving. Length is not as critical, as long as they're not protruding out of the front of the cylinder, you're good to go. Make an autoloader to long and may not go into full battery, make it to short and you may get a FTF. Crimping is more critical on the 9 and 40. With the 38, seat the bullet to the top of the cannelure and roll crimp them. I wish I had started on the 38.

[m&p45acp10+1]

If it is being fired from a revolver chambered for the .357 mag I would recomend the .38 spcl. get the dies for .38 spcl/.357 mag you can load for both. I would recomend Trail Boss for powder. It gives great case fill, and is literaly impossible to miss a double charge due to the fact that it would be overflowing the case. Though you will not be getting any super boomer high velocity loads you will get good target rounds. Also the Trail Boss is very clean burning powder. I use it in .41 mag with home cast LSWC with great succes.

[Huskerguy]

I agree with the 38 as a place to start. Flexible load, lots of different powders to select from and an easy case to work with. The 9 would be my second choice but you do have to pay closer attention to OAL as was stated above. This is not to say you can be all over the place with the 38. Enjoy

[JR_Roosa]

.38 and .357 will use all the same stuff except for brass, so that gets you 2 for 1 and it's the easiest to load by far. It's really hard to screw up a roll crimp, and as long as it fits in the chamber you don't have to worry about feeding problems.

9mm would be a fine next step, but it's almost not worth the trouble since factory ammo is so cheap.

.40 runs at the ragged edge of pressures and depending on the gun and how hot you want to go you might get in trouble quick. People load it safely every day, but it's probably not a great place to start.

You really need a 1911 so you can load .45ACP since it's only a little bit harder than .38 (taper crimps and feeding reliability), you get a big difference between factory loads and handloads in price, and it's really fun to punch 45 caliber holes in stuff.

-J.

[Clark]

38 sp is easy to reload, cheap to reload, and safer because it has has gobs of safety margin.

Take the easy shots first - Minnesota Fats

[Champion5]

I started a couple months ago with .45acp. There is a great write up at the top of the forum by Johnny Guest that was priceless to me. I recently started .38 and I think it is about the same. It's way easier to spot an over charge in a .45acp especially with Unique.

[sonick808]

I started with .40S&W. Definitely start with straight-walled cases. THe nice thing with .40S&W is that you can't double-fill the case without it spilling (wit most powders) and being obvious you've double charged. I'm presuming 9mm is the same way. The fact that you're going nice and slow is good. Methodical and safe is the way to go.

[89blazin]

I started with the 9mm and had no problems. Let's you work into a repetitive routine without worrying about a double load.

[Sevens]

.38 Special beats every other caliber out there when it comes to the question, "which is the best for the brand new reloader to start with?"

It's been my opinion for a long time that there exists NO CALIBER in the world that is better suited to learning how to reload than the .38 Special. The following is why I think so:

It's a rimmed case for use in revolvers, so you will never have to consider making sure the round will feed or be compatible with a feed ramp, as you load them by hand and not mechanically as in semi-auto cartridges.

To further that thought, bullet setback isn't a possibility as the rounds aren't being violently shucked in to the chamber by the self-loading nature of a pistol.

And you don't have to consider the dimensions of the magazine when setting COAL, and many/most bullets made for this caliber show you a decent bullet seating point with a crimp groove or cannelure, taking a lot of guesswork out of the picture.

Since Glock and HK don't make .38 Specials, so there's not much chance of non-standard polygonal rifling which isn't typically compatible with cast or swaged lead bullets.

The .38 Spl round isn't a short, tiny little SOB so it's not often fumbled when handling. And the larger space means there is a less radical pressure shift when your internal space is altered by the shape of a bullet or the depth to which it was seated, which can be a pretty big deal in a small case like 9mm or a high octane round like the .40 S&W.

This round runs at a pretty anemic pressure (17k to 20k PSI) so it's not a high-horsepower round like some of the more modern rounds. Brass lasts a long time and is quite plentiful.

Brass doesn't get beat up by a racking pistol and it doesn't get chucked off in to the tall grass where you can't find it. From the cylinder to a brass bag, the handloader's dream!

Most often we are handloading the mild .38 Spl round in .357 Mag revolvers which are built to withstand nearly twice the pressure with EVERY shot, which gives you a ridiculous margin of safety. .357 Mag runs at around 33-34k PSI, more than 50% higher than the top pressures of .38 Spl +P. Not that you should be goofing around with MAX or over MAX loads... but if you happen to make some big error, you have a much bigger defense against trouble.

Unless you are building .357-hot .38 Special rounds, you aren't likely to see bullets in the other cylinders jumping under recoil, so a light roll crimp is more than enough. Less working of the case mouth and less trial and error in working with crimps.

Given how long the .38 Spl has been with us, load data is enormous and bullet selection is as good as any caliber in the history of the world. Options galore! Finding component brass is easy... since shooters have been emptying the stuff for a hundred-plus years. Component bullets are easy to find... nothing goofy, non-standard or hard to find here.

.38 Spl has a long and established history of Bullseye competition accuracy, especially with wadcutter loads. Great for a beginning handloader to work with a round that shows great accuracy the first time he rolls his own loads.

For all these reasons (and maybe some I forgot?) I really believe the .38 Special is far and away the single best caliber to learn on as a new reloader. I can't imagine any other with all these "features" that make it ideal as one to learn on.

Any round you can compare it to will fall short somewhere else.

[chasep255]

I would think that any common straight walled cartridge would be easy.

[Ken - Oh]

I agree that .38/.357 is a good place to start. 9mm is also easy, that's what I started with.

I would avoid .40SW since it is a more risky cartridge to reload.

Why?
1 -- it is a high pressure round with limited case space and a little extra deep seating can cause high pressure spikes, especially with 180 gr bullets.

2 -- more kabooms happen in 40SW than in other cartridges, even with commercial ammo

3 -- more issues with bulged brass, etc.

4 -- although I've reloaded over 70,000 rounds, 40SW is the only one I've had problems with. I have only now began to venture back into 40SW after avoiding it for ten years.

Ken