Just wanted to crow a little...

[Calamity Jane]

Any of you folks know women who reload?

Well, now you know one.

Me.

Hubby and I recently got into reloading, and I am happy to say that in the wee hours of this morning (yup, I'm a night owl somethin' fierce), I finished loading 100 rounds of .357 Magnum: I used Lee carbide dies, Winchester small pistol primers, and 158 grain lead semi wadcutter bullets in front of 5.8 grains of Unique powder set to a C.O.L. of 1.622" with a fairly heavy roll crimp. That length makes for a flush fit in the cylinder of my Taurus Tracker. Should be a good light target/practice load.

I'm pretty proud of myself tonight, and tomorrow it's off the range to try out my new loads!

[Shoney]

Jane:

Congratulations! Welcome to the Clan of the Brass and Bullet Buffers.

Give us a range report. Bet your full of giggles, while your whole perspective on shooting will have changed.
____________________________________

Ode to Calamity Jane

Loading bullets, the magical HOOT!
The more you load, The more you shoot,
The more you shoot, The better you feel.
So just load bullets after every meal!!!!!

____________________________________

Regards, Shoney

[clown714]

you're the first one i know of.
just follow the rules and you will be fine.
clown

[Quantrill]

Jane,
Good for you and I'm happy to see that you know where to come for advice. There is a wealth of knowledge and information on this site.
Lots of luck with your new reloads and many more. Quantrill

[Bud Helms]

[Mal H]

Very cool!

I know a lot of women shooters, but only two of them reload, and one of them is you. (That is, unless some of the women shooters on TFL do reload but haven't said so.)

Out of curiosity, why did you decide on that longish OAL instead of the usual OAL for a 158 SWC?

[C.R.Sam]

Cool and goodonya.
I know a very few lady reloaders, glad you are now one of them.

Like Mal, I wonder why so long. With stouter loads you have removed any margin for bullet pull.

Then on the other hand, if they are tack drivers I will shut up.

Sam

[Calamity Jane]

Thanks, guys! I'm very pleased to be the newest member of the Clan of the Brass and Bullet Buffers. And Shoney, your Ode had me a-giggling!

Sam and Mal, the reason I set the cartridge length that way is because the brass hasn't been trimmed, and setting it at the recommended 1.570 resulted in inconsistent crimping.

Hubby (my reloading teacher ) recommended using the cylinder length as the guide and setting the bullet depth to just clear the cylinder, which also allows enough space on the bullet shoulder for consistent crimping, even though there's some variation in case length. Overall C.O.L. remains the same.

After these cartridges are fired, they will be trimmed, though!

Was planning to go the range this afternoon to try out the new loads, but it looks like it's coming up a bad storm here - DRAT! If I don't get to try 'em out today, hopefully tomorrow will pan out, and when I've made it to the range, I'll give y'all a report on how they did!

[Mal H]

Well, ok. I don't think I've ever had to trim a .357 case in my life. I just checked a few and they average 1.275" with a range of 1.273" to 1.282" - all within specs. These cases have been fired with hot and warm loads umpty-teen times. How long are your cases such that they need trimming?

Actually I don't worry too much about the OAL itself and use the crimping groove in the bullet as a guide. The OAL usually takes care of itself, but in no case is it that long.

[Calamity Jane]

Re: case length, crimping, etc. - if you crimp over the front edge of the lead SWC, they won't be consistent because of case length variation, but if you crimp in the shoulder, even though the cases vary slightly in length, they will be crimping into the same area on the bullet, thereby giving a consistent crimp and consistent overall C.O.L.

I understand what you're sayin' as it pertains to jacketed bullets, but the lead SWC are a bit more persnickety. And it's important to get a good, solid crimp on these lead bullets; otherwise, recoil can make them back up in the case or slip out, locking up the cylinder.

[WESHOOT2]

Redding Profile Crimp die; heavy, in a crimp groove.
Universal Clays.
Federal primers.
H110 or 2400 for faster.

Trust me............

[braindead0]

Wish my wife like reloading ;-). One of these days.

Let me know how you fair with the L-SWC's, I noted a fair bit of leading outside the ports on my wife's Tracker. And I suspect the HBWC's I loaded may be actually spitting a bit of lead out the ports, not good.

I've been loading 158g HBWC's with 3gr of Bullseye in .357 cases, seems to work pretty darned well.

[Calamity Jane]

It being a beautiful day today, hubby and I hit the range this afternoon to try out the new loads.

They did great! The 5.8 grains of Unique seems to be just right - plenty of oomph, but not to the point that you'd call 'em hand-busting. And they seem to be pretty accurate when I do my part.

But reloading being what it is, we'll probably be experimenting around from time to time.

Thanks for all suggestions!

[griz]

Now you've done it. You are right, you will have to experiment. Yet another soul condemned to a life of crawling around, looking for that last piece of brass, buying in bulk so you can shoot more, shooting the last of the batch so you will have more cases to fill, never being able to walk by a trash can at the range without peeking to see if anybody threw away some once fired, and finally, grinning like a fool when you find another case to load.

Ain't it great?

[Art Eatman]

Hope you're still at it, 52 years from now!

, Art

[yorec]

Now all ya need to look into is casting your own bullets. 158 gr SWC in .357 was what I started with. It's as addicting as reloading and happily related...

[Calamity Jane]

Thanks, y'all! Yup, reloading is certainly addictive. And oh, how one can shoot and shoot and shoot...!

And yorec, ya read my and hubby's minds - just the other day, we were talking into getting into the bullet casting thing...

[Art Eatman]

You can always tell the serious cast-your-own reloaders. They're the ones who stop on an Interstate to pick up wheelweights.

, Art

[Jack Straw]

Art,

Funny you should say that. Recently my wife and I were at a stop light when I noticed a rather large wheel weight in the road. I said, "Honey why don't you hop out there and grab that weight for me?"

She replied, "Well I know you won't leave me here because you would want that wheel weight."

It still makes me chuckle.

Jack

[Calamity Jane]

Art said:

You can always tell the serious cast-your-own reloaders. They're the ones who stop on an Interstate to pick up wheelweights.

And Jack, I'm chuckling a-plenty over your story!

[Frohickey]

Okay... call me silly but if you have a hubby that reloads, why are you reloading?

Make that bum reload for you while you shoot all of the reloads. :P

[yorec]

Wheel weight story - Guilty!

I also find myself checking out each new building to be torn down to see if they have old lead pipes for plumbing. Biggest find for me so far though was when they tore down an old hospital and the X-ray rooms walls were lead lined and slated to be scrapped. I'm set for a while!

Oh, and Frohickey - before Calamity gets about to it herself - You're silly! Don'tcha know that reloading should appeal to a lot more women than we ever know simply because of the sense of independence it gives along with the more complete knowledge of how this firearms related hobby thing really works? I'm sure she has her own list of reasons, but as for the rest of us - I'll bet a lot of us guys do it just to save money. Pretty good reason in itself...

[Calamity Jane]

Don'tcha know that reloading should appeal to a lot more women than we ever know simply because of the sense of independence it gives along with the more complete knowledge of how this firearms related hobby thing really works?

Yorec, you said it, and you said it well! I love knowing/learning how to do things myself, and b'sides, since hubby and I both know how to reload, we can work together as a team.

And saving money is cool, too - the other day when I tried out my loads, I shot all 100 rounds - used to be, when I had, say 50 rounds of factory ammo in .357, I'd try to stagger it out into two range trips while doing the majority of my target practice w/.22. And increased practice w/the bigger caliber will, of course, make me more proficient w/same.

Here's another nifty thing about reloading in general - I have a Winchester '94 Trails End in .45 Colt, and I am crazy about that little rifle - and with reloading, I don't have to be concerned with the fact that .45 Colt ammo tends to be relatively scarce and fairly expensive - rollin' one's own makes such concerns but a distant memory.

[braindead0]

You can also load the .45colt ammo using powders/loads designed for the rifle, as opposed to shooting pistol loads which probably wouldn't take advantage of the longer barell (and likely stronger chamber).