Ohioans For Concealed Carry Discussion Forums

Welcome to the OFCC Reloader's forum.

Feel free to share any and all information related to handloading your own cartridges, be it for cheap plinking ammo or highly accurate target loads or anything in between.

I would like to remind all who post here that this forum will be viewed by many skill levels of reloaders; there will be experienced hands as well as new loaders who may read our posts.

For that reason, please, if you post load data, keep it within published maximums. If you have worked up a pet load that is outside of the maximums and wish to share it, please indicate in the post somewhere clearly legible that the load is outside published maximums.

Experienced loaders know what will or will not work- however a new loader may not, and seeing someone's post regarding a heavy shutzenboomer load for the Ruger Super Warhawk might make them think they can load that in whatever gun they have- after all it worked for YOU.

Reloading and shooting is much more fun with both eyes and ten fingers.

Thank you for following this guideline, and happy shooting!

Evan, I think it might be a good idea to include use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) while reloading. I don't remember seeing any post on this and we should probably have a sticky with a list of PPE and other safety related topics.

mbradst wrote:might be a good idea to include use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) while reloading.

I didn't used to... but read about a primer tube explosion on another forum. I now wear safety glasses when reloading.

I made a few mistakes in reloading my rifle rounds. my equipment is a Hornady single stage classic kit. It came with an anvil scale, hand primer tray, and powder measure. all of my first use mistakes came from reloading .308 rounds.

1. Decapping: I was using the "One Shot" spray that came with the kit. I sprayed each case and immediately started getting stuck cases in the die. After 5 stuck cases I finally read the directions. LET IT DRY FIRST, than decap and size.
2. Crimping: I used 165grn SST with canelure so I had to set up seating die for crimping into the canelure. The process is "feel pressure" during the adjustment and you have to move the seating die in very small increaments. What happens if you're not careful the die will compress the neck just enough to expand the cartridge body. Everything looks looks fine and the loaded round will chamber. When you get ready to shoot the round is stuck back just far enough so the pin will not hit the primer and you have a live round stuck in chamber and as hard as you work the bolt will not eject the cartridge. Always make 2 or 3 dummies then check the the cartridge body right at the neck.

I have a pretty good level of low humidity in my basement, abour 60%, which causes more static charge on plastic parts. It was driving me nut because I was getting inaccurate powder weights and powder jumping out of the powder measure as I neared the top of the plastic tube.

If you use a powder drop and most of the ones I've seen have the plastic tube. Wrap them with an anti-static dryer sheet BEFORE filling the tube. Otherwise the grains will be popping out like popcorn as you get to the top.
Change them when you see the grains start sticking to the sides.

For those us who measure there loads frequently, a problem is getting all the grains in the pan with nothing bouncing out or sticking to side of the drop tube. Get a small plastic paint cap and cut out the center so it slides over the drop tube. When you crank the handle just keep the pan flush with the cap. Your weights will be coming out more consistent. The same dryer sheet will keep the static off the paint cap also.

xd wrote:I have a pretty good level of low humidity in my basement, abour 60%, which causes more static charge on plastic parts. It was driving me nut because I was getting inaccurate powder weights and powder jumping out of the powder measure as I neared the top of the plastic tube.

If you use a powder drop and most of the ones I've seen have the plastic tube. Wrap them with an anti-static dryer sheet BEFORE filling the tube. Otherwise the grains will be popping out like popcorn as you get to the top.
Change them when you see the grains start sticking to the sides.

For those us who measure there loads frequently, a problem is getting all the grains in the pan with nothing bouncing out or sticking to side of the drop tube. Get a small plastic paint cap and cut out the center so it slides over the drop tube. When you crank the handle just keep the pan flush with the cap. Your weights will be coming out more consistent. The same dryer sheet will keep the static off the paint cap also.

I use powdered graphite inside the powder hopper and drop tube. Just puff a little in there and spread it around. It will eliminate the static build up and won't have the potential to contaminate your powder charge as the fabric softener on the dryer sheets could. I dump the first two powder charges just in case there is an excess of graphite in them. It lasts a long time.

xd wrote:
For those us who measure there loads frequently, a problem is getting all the grains in the pan with nothing bouncing out or sticking to side of the drop tube. Get a small plastic paint cap and cut out the center so it slides over the drop tube. When you crank the handle just keep the pan flush with the cap. Your weights will be coming out more consistent. The same dryer sheet will keep the static off the paint cap also.

Do you have pics?

308 cartridges do not require crimping.. may I suggest if you do want to crimp any ammo, trim the cases after sizing to minimum case length as listed in your loading data's first page of componets used, and case dimentions are listed there.. htower099

I am loading some 380 ACP. My first time ever re-loading a round. I am using some 20 year old powder shotgun/handgun powder that was my father in laws. He used to shoot trap so he has a bunch of powder around. This was the only powder I could find a book on with the reload data. It's been kept dry in a ammo box with descant, so I am hoping it will be okay I am going to load 12 take them to the range and shoot them and see if they work.

synack2 wrote:I am loading some 380 ACP. My first time ever re-loading a round. I am using some 20 year old powder shotgun/handgun powder that was my father in laws. He used to shoot trap so he has a bunch of powder around. This was the only powder I could find a book on with the reload data. It's been kept dry in a ammo box with descant, so I am hoping it will be okay I am going to load 12 take them to the range and shoot them and see if they work.

It should be fine if it was stored in a cool, dry place. If anything feels/sounds/looks/smells off when you fire them, be sure to stop and check the bore, etc.

I try to keep at least a 10 year supply of powder on hand. Some of it's probably 30 years. Never had a problem.

Ken

Horse's mouth...

https://shop.hodgdon.com/gunpowder-stability" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

weakhand luke wrote:Horse's mouth...

https://shop.hodgdon.com/gunpowder-stability" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Loaded ammo would react the same way.


Ken

Evan:

Congrats on the new forum. Looks pretty good from here. I've been largely out-of-service for about a year, and I'm generally getting it back together.

Reminded me of a story:

Back in 2015 it looked like I'd have problems getting ammunition. I don't shoot much, at the time, was on the range for 100-200 rounds about once a week. Figured it was time to learn how to reload. (A friend and I had bought a whole bunch of "Lee Loader" gear, including a furnace and a mold. I don't know what happened to that.)

On the theory that starting from the bottom might be a good idea, and having another buddy with a good Dillon press, I went that way, and spent a pile on the press (can't think of the model number right now). As zero's re-election got a little firmer, I bought the basics - manual cartridge case feed, but no furnace or lead. My source is an old friend who, when I asked what a good starter load (.45ACP) might be. He'd just handed me a bottle of powder (430, but I forget whose, or if that's the right number), and "use about 5gr." NOT the other way - 430 gr of powder and 5 gr or something like that. Nobody ever accused either of us of not being sane, so it was a good laugh.

The Dillon has been superb, although I haven't touched it for a while. However, the instruction manual and assembly instructions seem to have been written by somebody who'd put together enough of them to do it with his eyes closed. Fortunately, there are some half-decent pictures in the book, and just reading ahead (and behind) pretty much covered things,

I was able to find almost all the potential problems ....

The only good thing about the Dillon is that Lee and a couple others sell whole presses for about the same as one '"new" caliber. Other than space requirements, that may be something to think about.

I have to get back into it before my primer collection melts down, but it's fun, and rewarding.

Regards,