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Old October 6, 2012, 01:48 AM   #26
Pond, James Pond
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With that big sign on your back "SUCKER"
Come on, now: speak your mind!

In my defence, I personally prefer to nominally clean my brass: I'm not after mirror finish, but half an hour in the sonic cleaner will be more than enough.
Chrono? My Dad once said that once you've bought a tool, you'll be surprised how often you use it. He's been right very often... If I want to try my hand at long range .308, I think it will help rather than hinder.

Quote:
Please excuse my asking, I thought you mentioned something like a 200 round limit where u live. Hows that goint to work out now?
It was 100 rounds per gun for SD licence holders, but 1000 for sports shooters: I am one of the latter!!

Well, thanks for all the concilliatory remarks: luckily I think my only expenses from now on will, by and large, be bullets, powder and primers!!
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Last edited by Pond, James Pond; October 6, 2012 at 01:51 PM.
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Old October 6, 2012, 02:54 AM   #27
mohr308
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Every time I trim brass or size cases, my wife says in a loud voice "OCD". I can't help it, I love reloading!
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Old October 6, 2012, 05:34 AM   #28
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By whatever technology you have,cleaning the abrasive range grit off of your brass before you run it into the dies is a good idea.The grit will embed in the brass and you then have an abrasive cutting tool called a lap.

Shiny is unimportant.Clean is important.Sounds like you are doing well!

I do not know what your access to lead is,but if you are shooting .44 magnum,cast lead alloy bullets work great.In USA,we have been able to use the weights used to balance tires,Excellent bullet metal!!If you have pure lead,you may need to add some tin or scrounge such things as linotype,babbit,reclaimed lead hard shot has some antimony.In due time!!
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Old October 6, 2012, 08:39 AM   #29
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I certainly understand your predicament.

Granted I was started out as a youngster sittin on my pop's knee while he loaded rounds for his rifles. I got into the act at a somewhat VERY young age. Around the age of 8, I was, with strict supervision, loading both his and my rounds for hunting and practice. When I was 12 I got my first 12 gauge shotgun, and well it only took a month before he came in from work with a single stage Pacific loader for me. He said we could simply not afford to feed the shotgun and me too so something had to give.

Since those first rounds well over 40 years ago, I have dipped my toe into plenty of nick knacks to add to my "hobby", and I do save a LOT of money loading my own rounds. I learned years ago to purchase in bulk, and pick decent bullets per caliber and stick with them. Pick powder which will cover several calibers well and don't sweat getting one that only works great for only one caliber.

Like you I also load for a 44 mag, as well as several other revolvers and auto's. Some like the 357 and 44 I can find a decent price on ammo, considering some prices nowadays, but for my 41mag and my 10mm, or the 454 Casull, there aren't any specials going for sure. Toss in a few oddball calibers and wildcats in my rifles and just the savings on those alone, I can feel good about my stash of components and my cabinet full of dies.

Yep it can be whatever you want or feel it should be. The key is, stick with the basics and be happy with your end results. My pop loaded and shot for three rifle calibers for the most part of 40yrs and was not only successful with his loads, but happily content he could put some together the week before heading out to hunt and know that they would be right there with what he had been shooting all along. He was also one of the type that you didn't throw hard cash on the barrel and tell him he couldn't hit something, as he would quite easily take your change and even smile about doing it.
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Old October 6, 2012, 09:29 AM   #30
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Every time I trim brass or size cases, my wife says in a loud voice "OCD". I can't help it, I love reloading!
That made me laugh out loud!!!
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Old October 6, 2012, 09:33 AM   #31
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It was 100 rounds per gun for SD licence holders, but 1000 for sports shooters: I am no one of the latter!!
Man, I would be in violation by a lot. How do they go about enforcing such a silly law? And would they consider components to be assembled ammo?
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Old October 6, 2012, 12:50 PM   #32
Pond, James Pond
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How do they go about enforcing such a silly law? And would they consider components to be assembled ammo?
Well the law is what it is.

I am sure some flaunt it, but then if you only have a gun for SD, you don't need hundreds in stock and if you go to the range you can buy some especially. That is their logic.

The only components restricted in a similar fashion are primers and the powder. 1000 of the former and 4 kg of the latter. So even if you had all of that and hundreds of bullets and cases, you couldn't, in theory, make up and store more than 100!!

I'm sure some flaunt the law and I've never heard of the police doing home stock checks, but if it is the law, I'll stick to it. With a 1000 round sports licence limit, I don't feel it restricts my shooting at all.
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Old October 6, 2012, 01:22 PM   #33
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Hello Mr Pond and welcome to the joys of reloading.
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Old October 6, 2012, 08:23 PM   #34
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Mr. Pond, you will know you are addicted to reloading when you find yourself wanting to shoot so you can reload the ammo. Another sure sign is presses/measures dedicated to one specific load. Do NOT go into boolit casting, as that is another entirely separate addiction of it's own. Trust me on this.
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Old October 6, 2012, 08:27 PM   #35
p loader
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I feel your pain. I am just getting started and am quickly realizing that I am spending way more money than I thought in order to "save money" by reloading. I stopped keeping track of UPS notifications by email because there were simply too many.
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Old October 8, 2012, 09:08 AM   #36
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Mr. Pond,

If you are only loading for one caliber and only loading sporadically you'll have a problem recovering the seemingly never ending cost of buying stuff.

I started reloading 26 months ago, and am now reloading for 7 rifles and 5 hand guns.

I shoot at least once a week and put a lot of rounds down range.
The sickness comes when you measure all your groups and chronograph a large percentage of them in your search to find the 'perfect load' for each rifle.

Last week I reloaded my 13,800th round with the vast majority (12,000) of them rifle rounds.
I have kept all my expenses, even the factory rounds that I bought before I started hand loading. Since I am an "accuracy nut", I have been able to improve on factory ammo accuracy by hand loading for every rifle I have loaded for. In fact, several of them have their top 10 loads averaging well under 0.5 inches at 100 yards (.223, .22-250 and .308 - all with heavy barrels).

Overall, I have saved about 70 cents per rifle round that I have hand loaded.

The hand gun ammo doesn't save anywhere near as much.
That has more than paid for my investment in reloading equipment, but I still have spent thousands of dollars in powder, bullets and primers.

If your addiction is shooting, then reloading may cost an initial investment but it can eventually 'save' you money that you will spend in building even more ammo.
You don't actually "save" anything but it lets you shoot a whole lot more.
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Old October 8, 2012, 09:25 AM   #37
Don P
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OK. Now that really is "it". Not one thing more. Nada. Zip...

(except a bullet puller that I've ordered...
I have heard this more than once. There is always some new gadget that comes out that winds up being our next "must have" item. Human nature for one not to be satisfied with what one has and the need to have the next new thing.
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Old October 8, 2012, 10:52 AM   #38
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One thing about reloading though, is once you have the basic equipment, it will last a lifetime. So then the cost is just cartridge components.... As we have always said ... you don't save money ... but enables you to shoot more .

Since I started back in the early 80s, the only 'reloading' equipment I've bought since, is die sets as needed or an occasional shell holder for the most part. Haven't found a need to 'get the latest stuff'... Oh last year I did finally get a bullet puller as I needed one for the first time ever.... Of course there was the chronograph ... and a check weight set .... .
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Old October 9, 2012, 03:42 PM   #39
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RELOADING- The hobby for the OCD.

lol welcome to the club Mr. Pond. We have jackets but we had to finance them bc we put our money else where..

Sometimes you have to get creative. For instance I made my own wet tumbler for about 130$ that uses stainless steel (included in price) and it cleans EVERYTHING, primer pocket and inside the case super shiny like.

I went with a cheaper press... Lee turret which will allow me to do both pistol rounds and rifle round (.308 and smaller, which is what works for me).

My scale is a cheap digital Frankfort I think its called. Works great.
Cheapest trimming tools available etc.

Sometimes you have to lower your expectations and really evaluate whats necessary otherwise you'll go nuts eventually.All that being said, My rifle went from shooting just under 1MOA to a .5" grouper. On a good day with some luck I get into the .3" range. So the cheap stuff works too! You don't have to skip steps, in fact I encourage you not to, just find a more economical way to go about it. Think smarter not harder kind of deal?

Plus the less you can manage to spend on equipment the more powder, primers, bullets etc you can buy to actually assemble rounds.
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Old October 9, 2012, 03:59 PM   #40
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The oldest adage in reloading is:
"When you start reloading you really don't save any money, but you get to shoot a lot more".
Still true today!
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Old October 10, 2012, 06:06 AM   #41
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2nd what Brokenanew says. I still use a single stage press.My trimmer is a wilson hand crank.Still manual hand pocket uniformer. I'm not in a hurry to load so time means nothing. Sometimes, almost always it is funner loading than shooting. I kick back and load in 100 lots. Don't turn it into work or the fun stops. I don't really shoot to much during the winter other than hand gun,so i use all winter to get everything put together. By spring i will have 2000 to 4000 -- 223 rounds ready to go for the summer, Maybe 500 to 1000 - 308. Years ago when i got my 45 ACP,lord knows it was a obbsession.I think i could shoot 45 -5 days a week for 10 years and still not run out of rounds. I kinda got carried away with it real real bad. Now the 6MMBR, at $100,00 per 100 cases I have only purchased 300 cases so far,but that will work for the time being.

Have fun with it and good luck staying small time with it
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Old October 10, 2012, 10:44 AM   #42
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I've shot 1200 rounds of .308 since I started reloading in April... haven't saved a dime, but trigger time is up by a significant margin!
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Old October 10, 2012, 11:42 AM   #43
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I still reload a lot of cartridges with the Lee Wack-A-Mole kits. Investment is quickly recouped and quality is top notch! Of course it's a huge drag on the time budget but hey, it's part of the hobby and part of the fun. I am going to set the Lee press up for 9mm though.
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Old October 10, 2012, 12:30 PM   #44
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I must admit that i look like a crack head digging through the dirt looking for brass. But its mine!!!
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Old October 10, 2012, 12:44 PM   #45
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Quote:
The only components restricted in a similar fashion are primers and the powder. 1000 of the former and 4 kg of the latter. So even if you had all of that and hundreds of bullets and cases, you couldn't, in theory, make up and store more than 100!!
We have the same BS here, except not so bad. 200 rounds and / or 2000 primers (per firearm) if you're not a sportsman, unlimited if you are. 2.4 kilos of powder, no matter what.

I'm tempted to get a 50 BMG, so that I can store my powder in made-up rounds. Will just have to keep track of which cartridge is full of what kind of powder.
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Old October 10, 2012, 06:22 PM   #46
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Everyone said "Reload". So I did.

They also said "Beware! Don't think you'll save any money, even if that is why you're starting"
Ridiculous: I mean, what the heck do they know? I
<snicker> We Told You So.

Listen to the wisdom of your elders, sonny.

Quote:
OK. Now that really is "it". Not one thing more. Nada. Zip...
Nonsense.

I have found, past the basics, most of my reloading purchases (outside of supplies) have been die sets to cover new cartridges, and labor saving widgets. Anything that will help save time, I'll look at buying.
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Old October 10, 2012, 06:23 PM   #47
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Pond,
It may be a good thing financially for you to be limited by Draconian gun laws--at least it will keep the disease from getting too bad

My condition is 50 years in duration and is probably terminal-I have brass ratted cases I don't own a gun for which then gives me the excuse to get the gun.

Remember: You probably don't NEED another gun, press, powder measure,(insert the object of your choosing here) but who says you don't want it!!

Enjoy the obsession, it has given me great pleasure over the decades.

Gary
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Old October 10, 2012, 06:28 PM   #48
lee n. field
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The knowledge that I can just "make more" rounds has meant I haven't rationed myself the way I had when I had my box of 240gr S&B's with no idea where I would next get some.
Do you realise that I travelled 120miles for a single box (50) of .44Mag...?! Mostly I wanted the brass.
That is dedication...

It was 100 rounds per gun for SD licence holders, but 1000 for sports shooters: I am one of the latter!!
Yeah, it's a whole different perspective. It doesn't matter how ammo you have, it matters how much you have components for.

And, I bet you're scavenging other people's brass. Admit it. It's a good day when you come home with more brass then you went with.

Quote:
I wonder if there has ever been a reloader featured on that tv show called "Hoarders" ????
Ha! You stay out of my basement lair!
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Old October 10, 2012, 08:37 PM   #49
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You arent a true reloading addict until you aquire a few pieces of brass in a calibre you dont own and then go buy a gun so you can reload them. Dont ask me how I know this to be a true fact.

The first part of curing an addiction is to admit you have a problem. I dont have a problem YOU ALL have a problem
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Old October 10, 2012, 11:45 PM   #50
Pond, James Pond
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And, I bet you're scavenging other people's brass. Admit it.
It's true.... IT'S ALL TRUE!! (falls to floor sobbing pathetically!!)

The first time I was like some hen or pigeon following a trial of corn.
Somehow, someone had managed to leave a really neat trail of spent .308 casings on the way to the brass bin (over here the ranges, so far, are such that people sweep up their brass and tip it into a big communal bucket).
Once I reached the bucket, I found myself kneeling down and raking my hands, feverishly, through the brass looking for that familiar profile ("No-NO!! Not another 30-06!!)!
The more I think about it, the more I think it was some kind of candid camera set-up and I'll be on TV in no time.

More recently, I shameless picked up about 40 .38 cases. I didn't even have the decency to wait till their previous owner had left: I was picking them up almost before they'ed even cooled down!! Both the other shooter and his mate looked on, bemused.

But I didn't care because.... HECK THAT BRASS WAS FREE!!! YEEEEEEEHAAAA!

Quote:
You arent a true reloading addict until you aquire a few pieces of brass in a calibre you dont own
Back when I'd spotted the only locally "affordable" 1911 (a Norinco), I did go througha phase of looking at .45 ACP brass, and licking my lips... Luckily I held back... I'm not thta far gone yet!
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