How I started Handloading

Started by peternap, December 29, 2011, 10:50:16 AM

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peternap

Since the Reloading thread seems popular, it might be nice to see how we got our start.

As usual, I'm a little odd. We didn't have much money early on. Dad didn't go to law school, he read law under another lawyer and it took a while before there was money for incidentals.

I had a Savage 22 the lawyer Dad was reading under had given me and built a 410 shotgun out of water pipe and odds and ends. 22's were around .35 cents a box so I could afford to shoot it. I could earn ten cents an hour working for the local farmers. The .410's were expensive though so I started picking up empty hulls whenever I found them.

There was a science teacher named Towers, who was a tinkerer that figured out how to separate the anvil from used primers, flatten the primer face and add a very small amount of Mercury Fulminate to make a working but sensitive primer. He was kind enough to pass on both the knowledge as well as the MF to me.

Black powder was easy to find and cheap.

So...I started reloading with a block of wood as a shellholder, a nail filed to fit the primer as a deprimer, a wooden dowel to seat the wad and another larger one to press the crimp down, different sized pipe to cut wads and size cases. and a mallet instead of a press.

I loaded hundreds of .410's with that rig...and had a few accidents loading primers :-\

After Dad passed the Bar, he took on a murder case where the fellow shot and killed his wife who was trying to part his hair with an ax.
He won the case and as part of his fee, he got the shotgun. An old Winchester single shot 16Ga. 

He gave it to me and I managed to buy a Lee Loader.



The real love affair started and 50 years later and a lot of equipment, it's still as enjoyable as ever.
These here is God's finest scupturings! And there ain't no laws for the brave ones! And there ain't no asylums for the crazy ones! And there ain't no churches, except for this right here!

peternap

Before anyone asks, I made my own shot too, using a cast iron strainer and a bucket of water. The old timers called it Swan shot because it was tear drop shaped and kinda looked like a swan. An old fellow named Frank Boyers showed me how to do that.
These here is God's finest scupturings! And there ain't no laws for the brave ones! And there ain't no asylums for the crazy ones! And there ain't no churches, except for this right here!


NM_Shooter

I got hooked on high power competitive shooting... service rifle across-the-course.  I couldn't afford the 6000 rounds of .223 ammo that I was wanting to use annually unless I started reloading.  Luckily our club bought bulk components and the cost was crazy low (8# of reclaimed 4895 for $60).  My daughter and I started shooting sporting clays, so that was another 4800 rounds of 12 ga. a year.   

I can build better than I can buy, and for less money.   
"Officium Vacuus Auctorita"

OlJarhead

I've always enjoyed shooting (being a Marine only made that worse or better depending on your point of view and being an instructor only cemented my love of shooting and teaching) and have wanted to reload forever and a day.  So much so that I saved all the brass I shot with the hope someday to reload it.

Then I met my wife and her family.  Her father (now deceased :( ) loved to reload and had done so for 40 or 50 years but when I met him he wasn't doing it much anymore.  So, with little encouragement he started loading for my wife and I and taught me how.  When he passed on I was given all of his reloading gear and have kept at it since.

He was a great man and taught me a lot and I'm grateful to be able to continue to reload for my family :) 

I love the challenge and am still learning!  But I enjoy the learning experience as much as I do shooting!

Windpower

I bought a 8X57 Mauser but the factory loads were very low power ( in case some uniformed person found an old .318 bore 8X57J and used the .323 bullets -- at least that is what I read)

the 8X57 could be really loaded up and it was a 1" group rifle at 100 yrds with good loads

I was hooked

years later I bought a Remington in 300 Weatherby Mag -- boy did reloading save me a ton of money -- but honestly I could not get quite the velocity of the factory ammo with my reloads -- close but not quite with IMR 7828

I finally was satisfied with 3100 FPS with the 180 Nosler Partition and very tight groups (at that time (mid 90's) the factory equivalent load sold for almost $4.00 a round  :o)

this load would shoot through the bottom web of a steel railroad rail  used for target uprights at the 200 yard shooting range and made a very satisfying sound  ;D (until the range guy told me stop doing that )

I came up with a very good 300 gr load for the Super Redhawk 44

I found the carbide dies really save time on the 44 Mag and 45 ACP

great fun but I don't seem to have the time or the space to set up the equipment since the move in 2000

Often, our ignorance is not as great as our reluctance to act on what we know.