Questions about the process

[Pinchecharlie]

Iam newer shooter and iam gearing up to load for the first few times. I have several goals and don’t allways no where to look for answers.
First questions I have are about store bought ammo and what kind of loaded ammunition should a guy look for to buy so that the brass is decent to reload the second time?
Iam going to start with .223 and then try to do a “load development “ style on another rifle after. Thought I’d get my feet wet with 9mm pistol and .223 ? Iam absolutely green about most all subjects firearms and reloading but I’ve done a ton of reading and I have the time money and equipment to start. I just thought id better make sure I could re load the ammunition I see advertised? I didn’t necessarily want to only fire hand loaded but to compliment it and learn on something that wasnt as demanding. A few years ago I bought a wildcat rifle and i bought a mec press and most all of what you need for simple hand loading. I owed a friend some money and he wanted the rifle as a trade lol and o never even opened the boxes. (Shame) Anyway I see ammunition for sale in bulk but I do not know what’s acceptable to reload and what may not or any standards therin lol. I do know about the specific of loads and buying lapua brass ect. Iam building a training rifle now and want to earn some of the shots. I also am having fun shooting a pistol and realized fast that you can fire off 60 bucks pretty fast lol. Hopefully there are simple answers and this isn’t to annoying for you. Iam recovering from a surgery and could have some fun in the shop loading. My rifle is a tikka t3x with 16 inch barrel 1:8 twist just plain old factory I’ll be running a nomad ti xc on it if that matters. Thanks a lot Charlie

 

[turbobrick]

Personally, I find pistol reloading to be a little tougher in some ways that bottle neck rifle. With pistol reloading, you absolutely have to be hyper attentive to prevent double charging powders. Rifle cartridges are tough to double charge, its shockingly easy in most pistol cartridges even with common powders. I think a bolt action .223 would be a great place to start.

One really good reloading habit I'd recommend is to focus on only one type of brass per cartridge, per rifle. Its best to get brass from all one lot, but that's obviously not possible if you want to buy loaded ammo, and save the brass for reloading, then add more brass later. Maybe buy 100 rounds of the ammo you like to shoot in your Tikka, shoot it over a chrono (a chrono is indispensable IMO) and record the data, process all that brass, and reload it using info from a trusted source that looks like it will provide similar performance to the loaded ammo.

Personally, I avoid Federal brass, but in some cartridges, I have no problem loading Hornady, Nosler, Remington, or other makes that are common as loaded ammo. Are the premium brass brands better, for sure. Will you see that difference as a beginner, probably not.

 

[ResearchinStuff]

I've been reloading for 25 years, but if all I shot was 223 and 9mm I wouldn't do it at all.

 

[5MilesBack]

Personally, I avoid Federal brass, but in some cartridges, I have no problem loading Hornady, Nosler, Remington, or other makes that are common as loaded ammo.

I've loaded a lot of Federal brass and prefer it to most of the factory stuff. I hate Hornady.

 

[Steve300xcw]

I'd figure stuff out with the rifle before loading pistol.

I'm also to the point where I would rather just start with a box of brass, rather than buying ammo for the brass

 

[TaperPin]

No better time to start than right now. If you shoot 2 boxes of ammo at the range, just reload those two boxes until the brass craps out. Stick with any of the major brands and you’ll be fine. Even resized military brass with crimp removed is fine and dirt cheap.

Pistol reloading dies are either steel, requiring lube on brass, or carbide which is much faster and can be run dry, but doesn’t reduce the brass down as evenly as full length dies, which some pistols don’t like. Pistol loads are quick and easy since each powder charge doesn’t need to be weighed, but inadvertent double charges of fast pistol powder can and does blow up guns every year. Get in the habit of charging all cases and inspect the powder level by eye before seating bullets, in both pistol and rifle, but especially pistol. Don’t let it intimidate you, just always double check - it’s like crossing a street which can easily kill someone on a daily basis, simply double check for traffic before crossing the road.



Reloading both rifle and pistol it’s also extra important to never have more than one powder can on the bench at a time. Inadvertently loading pistol powder in a rifle case will blow up something. It’s literally stepping in front of a bus.