By Duane Thomas
All bullet types have their own specific requirements, things you have to pay attention to, when loading them. Bare lead bullets are no exception. One such area to monitor is seating dies getting clogged with bullet lube thus reducing loaded rounds’ overall length.
Bare lead bullets will feature one or more grooves…
By Duane Thomas
The term “misfire” means, when we pull the trigger on a firearm, the cartridge does not fire, we get a click instead of a bang. There are a whole host of reasons that might happen, but fortunately by far the most common is also the easiest to avoid.
(Misfires in rimfire ammunition…
By Duane Thomas
These days plated bullets are very popular for handloading, for a couple of reasons: They can be driven to higher velocities than soft bare lead bullets without leading the barrel, but they cost less than true jacketed bullets. Thus, many people see them as a nice middle ground between lead and jacketed.…
By Duane Thomas
For most serious handloaders, perfecting a particular handload, getting it EXACTLY the way we want it, can be a time-consuming, painstaking process of adjustment until everything is just-so. Okay, we’re not getting the velocity we want; we adjust the powder bar. The load is not feeding; we adjust the overall length to…
By John Kleespies
A handheld chamfer and deburring tool is a double-ended tool that looks like Flash Gordon’s rocket ship. Or… rather… Dr. Zarkov’s rocket ship, to which Flash availed himself. For simplicity’s sake, we’ll call it Flash’s ship from here on out…
The pointy end of the rocket ship is used to remove burrs from the…
By Duane Thomas
In the first three parts of this five-part series on the components of priming compounds, we discussed the initiator which is stored energy, the sensitizer which places the initiator in a more-excited state thus makes it more likely to detonate when exposed to impact energy, and the frictionator which creates little micro-hotspots…
By John Kleespies
Whether or not to clean the primer pocket is a point of contention for some reloaders. I do it... rarely. Here’s my criteria.
Revolvers are infamous for displaying a Failure to Fire (FTF) quirk where the primers are not seated 100% in the pocket, ostensibly due to fouling, and the hammer pushes…
By Duane Thomas
In the first four parts of this five-part series on the components of priming compounds, we discussed the initiator which is stored energy, the sensitizer which places the initiator in a more-excited state thus makes it more likely to detonate when exposed to impact energy, the frictionator which creates little micro-hotspots in…
By John Kleespies
A number of different bullet types exist, and so I thought it might be helpful to break down the standardized acronyms that we often find in load recipes. This may help a new reloader who is trying to decipher his first recipe book that’s telling him to load an FMJBT the same…
By John Kleespies
One of the never-ending “discussions” in load development is the distance at which groups should be tested. Here are some of my considerations…
The range at which a round should be tested depends upon the cartridge and intended use of the round. For instance, it would make sense to test a .248win…
By John Kleespies
An endless topic of debate amongst load developers and shooters is how many rounds should be fired in test groups. Here’s my $.02 on this topic:
“It depends.”
When it comes to accuracy testing, more often than not, I do 3-shot groups rather than 5-shot groups. Why? Because 3 shots more or…
By Duane Thomas
As you learn more about firearms, and measurements of bullet weight, and powder charge weights, you discover they're measured in grains. Also eventually, you will discover there are 437.5 grains in one ounce. WHY? How did we come up with the idea that 437.5 grains equals one ounce? Why, I'm glad you…