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.

 

[griff383]

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.

This is some of the best advice I offer to new reloaders. Not only for this reason but also dumping powder A into powder B container. Its easy to grab the wrong container and dump your measure into it, now you've got a mix of who knows what.

I did it once and got lucky the other container was less than half full so I only had to fertilize with a half pound of relatively cheap and easy to obtain pistol powder.

You'll get lots of advice but at the end of the day don't be afraid to ask questions, be safe, and pay attention. Your LGS should be able to help too, always seems that some old coot wandering around looking to help out a young enthusiast.

 

[Pinchecharlie]

Are the larger bulk ammunition buys worth re loading? Or are they worth buying? There’s an ammo reloader near by that sells larger quantities and I was considering it just because of price? It is in no way iam sure considered good but “range” ammo. Just seemed like a good idea since iam going to be using a lot of it if I commit.
After a deep rabbit hole on progressive presses and 223 iam not sure I’d like to do that all the time but it looks fun to me. My brain is a kinda odd brain like that. I actually enjoy watching the process. lol.
I will take care to avoid the double charge best i can . Just because I should know, what happens on the worst case with a double charge? Can the gun actually explode or is it more a terrible gas and fire thing? I did notice in the progressive world redundant set ups for that.
Before I leave the brass topic , would the star line brass be better to load than the “range” brass. It’s affordable enough. When this all started I thought it was a waste to not buy buy the larger quantities?
You guys do think it’s a waste of time and money to do the “load development “ style loading for a .223 training rifle? I have a custom-ish rifle iam building up for the summer/fall that I had planned to do that for.
I had set a goal of firing a hundred rounds a week and learning to shoot my pistols a little to . That may be to ambitious with the rifles but the hand guns go fast lol. As with anything new the money adds up fast and all the gear together in sport shooting is shockingly high lol! So i should try my best to try not to buy premium ammo I think.

 

[Castle Rock]

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

Absolutely

 

[griff383]

For someone looking to start reloading, my best advice to you is dont overthink it and just do it. You will learn what you need as you go so start simple (i.e. single stage, simple hand tools, etc.). Get the basics and then get a feel for how everything works. Eventually it will all come together for you and you'll know where to go next as you grow with it. Just remember that paying attention to all your steps is key to being safe and producing quality reloads.

Double charges react differently and without rattling off a whole spiel about how type of power, cartridge, bullet, firearm, etc. all effect how 'bad' a double charge could be, please know its not good in any situation. It could range from a little extra snap when pulling the trigger to a whole catastrophic failure and serious injury (or worse).

Regarding brass, with you being new to all this I would suggest you reload your own brass and not someone elses already fired stuff. Either buy new brass (any brand will serve you well in the beginning) or buy new ammo and shoot it through your firearm(s). Again, I can offer a multitude of reasons for this but simply put its an easy quality control method. You're not dealing with brass that someone else swears is 1x fired or prepped and ready to load only to find out the hard way it wasn't. After some experience you'll figure out whats best for you.

Get you hands dirty and ask questions, you'll get to where you want to be soon enough

 

[43.6N]

had set a goal of firing a hundred rounds a week and learning to shoot my pistols a little to

Great goal, and not too ambitious at all.
Your post is a little all over the place making it a little hard to follow what you are asking. But that’s fine. Ill try to answer what I can…

Reloading is a process dependent skill. Meaning your ammo consistency depends on you building consistent habits. The 223 is a great cartridge to learn those habits. Then those habits lead to consistency when you start loading larger cartridges.

Starline brass is great, cheap, and available.
Buy 100 to start, and keep using those same cases until you know enough to know what you’re looking for.

I wouldn’t worry about range pickup brass. Part of the consistency is using brass that has been fireformed in your chamber. You have no clue what that range brass experienced prior to you getting it.

Keep it simple, use your own brass. 100pieces of Starline is a drop in the bucket compared to everything else.

As for 9mm. Until you get past the 223 learning curve, trying to learn a 2nd cartridge reloading process seems excessive. I’d focus on just reloading the 223, and buying bulk 9mm for the range. Once you’re happy with your 223 reloads, getting into pistol reloads is fine. But you’ll know so much more at that point. Just keep it simple and focus on one thing at a time.

 

[Pinchecharlie]

Great thanks everyone. I’ll just do an easy in the middle . I’ll buy some ammo so I can shoot with out being to worried about it and I’ll start from scratch with new brass and have that as my learning loads. I was in the garage this morning and unfortunately with all my hobbies and gear and tools and junk , next week will be a clean up and an organization week lol! I may build a table too because my work top isn’t that great it’s just hard topped tool boxes and you can’t put your knees under. Not gonna worry to much just get started so I don’t procrastinate like allways. It is a bit intimidating and every ten guys has 20 answers . Pretty easy to get confused. Add to that all of the other information and my life of ocd adhd (right now in my head iam tunning up my snowmobiles and planning a back country ski trip) so I have my work cut out for me!

Last questions- what vendors do you guys like for supplies?
What vendors for stuff like cartridge trays and storage boxes and accessories? Thanks again I appreciate your time and patience!

 

[43.6N]

I like to buy local so I don’t have to pay hazmat on powder and primers.

 

[griff383]

Ditto, theres usually a sale or something that can help save some money.

 

[griff383]

And to quantify that, I just paid less than $50/k OTD for some win spp on sale