Recently I had to develop a .45 Colt load for Cowboy Action Shooting. For many people the thrill of CAS is the sheer fun of dressing up in costume to fire the matches, and the camaraderie of their fellow CASers. Then you have the more competition-oriented shooters who, while they enjoy the other aspects of…
If I had to point to one reloading accessory inexperienced handloaders sneer at, and say, “I don’t see WHY I need one of those,” but experienced handloaders understand is absolutely invaluable, it would be the case gage. (Why it’s spelled “gage” instead of “gauge” is beyond me, it just is.)
When you look in a load manual for a particular cartridge, for a particular powder, for a particular bullet weight and shape, you’ll notice there’s a recommended starting load (powder charge weight) and a recommended maximum load. Even if you know you’ll be wanting, eventually, a maximum load for whatever reason, it’s always good to…
As you become a more experienced handloader, you’ll probably want to experiment with bullets from different companies, different bullet weights, bullet shapes, powders, powder charge weights, overall lengths, etc. If you compete in any sport requiring the ammunition be loaded to a particular power level, for instance USPSA or IDPA, where power factor is a…
If you’re a handloader, one of your most invaluable pieces of equipment will be your reloading manuals. These are books containing load “recipes,” combinations of bullet type, bullet weight, bullet shape, powder, powder charge weight, recommended overall length of the loaded round, trim-to length of the cartridge case should that be necessary (mostly a consideration…
Okay, you have seen the advantages of having clean cartridge cases to handload: It makes examining the cases for cracks and other defects much easier; it subtracts a whole bunch of friction-causing powder fouling from the exterior of the cases thus makes the machine work much more smoothly with less pressure required on the handle…
The primer feed tube on a Dillon reloading machine holds approximately 100 primers, with a bit of space left over. During long reloading sessions, this is a problem. You’re going along, cranking out rounds, having a fine ol’ time. Screech! You’re out of primers. The necessity to recharge the machine with primers every hundred rounds…
A Dillon reloading machine – any reloading machine, for that matter, though why you’d want to go anything less than top-of-the-line is beyond me – holds around a hundred primers, located in a steel primer feed tube. Therefore you’ll need to refill the primer tube every hundred rounds. This is the most tedious part of…
Once you’ve cleaned your brass, it’s sitting there inside the Dillon vibratory case cleaner, all nice and clean for loading, but still nestled in the case cleaning media. Obviously, removing cases by hand, and pouring media out of each and every one, would be entirely too time-consuming. Wouldn’t leave you with the cleanest hands in…
The classic dial caliper kind of looks like the love child of a slide rule and a clock, it has two parallel jaws, a dial with a rotating needle and a face that’s marked out in hundredths and thousandths of an inch, a long metal “slide” marked in inches and tenths of an inch along…
When the topic of “Why handload?” comes up, the most common answer is, “To save money.” And this is true. Let’s ask ourselves, on a basic level, how does that occur?
There are two basic types of cartridge ignition systems in use today: rimfire and centerfire. The two terms differentiate the method by which the…
The vibratory case cleaner is, in essence, a plastic bowl, suspended on springs, affixed to a plastic base, hooked up to an electric motor causing the bowl to shake. Fill the bowl with empty casings and case cleaning media, batten down the top cover, turn on the machine; vibratory action causes the casings to rub…