Ammo reloading

[Ed Pawlowski]

I know some here do it. This guy is going to give some advice on the best methods.

[Ralph Mowery]

I don't know what he was reloading or what he was using,but it was not smokless powder or if it was, he was not reloading small arms. That stuff if is not contained but in its origional can will just burn. It has to be confined where it can build up pressure.

He may have been trying to build a pipe bomb out of powder, maybe even black powder.

YOu can put a table spoon of smokeless powder and hold a match to it and it will finally start to act like those sparklers. Don't try that with black powder as it will all seem to go off at once.

[invalid unparseable]

I reload and would be suspicious too for the same reasons.

[Snag]

I'm with you two . The powder cans do not provide enough confinement to cause this . I've been reloading for over 50 years and I follow the rules - this guy obviously didn't .

[rbowman]

I think there's more to that story. Smokeless is relatively hard to ignite and burns slow. Most of it is in plastic jugs theses days and they aren't exactly going to build much pressure.

Now if he was doing something with black powder and iron pipe...

[rbowman]

I've got a couple of real cans of powder that I don't use often but everything else has been plastics for maybe the last 10 years.

Sometimes I want to cry when I look at the old price stickers...

[gfretwell]

I turned up a can of Bullseye, a can of Red Dot and a can of Unique, 1 pound each at $4.99. I also have a can of 4224 without a price on it.

I am not sure I would trust them much.

[Snag]

No shit , I've got part of a pound of 4198 that I bought in the late

60's ... for less than 5 bucks .

[Snag]

I'm still using some 4198 that I bought in the 1960's . I'm using it in 30-06 loads with lead alloy bullets with gas checks . I'll be chronographing the test loads while monitoring barrel leading . The current gas checks are made from aluminum flashing , if I can find some copper sheet in the proper thickness I'll try that too . Might give better velocity/leading ratios .

[gfretwell]

I never got that serious about it. I knew a guy at work who cast bullets as a hobby and he would sell me .38 wad cutters for a penny each if I gave him the lead. I had a source for wheel weights and old telco cable sleeves so it worked out great. He always had plenty left over. I was loading .38 target loads for about I would pay for .22rf. That was when I had a range in the basement. My ex still has it ... and my home made chronograph (IBM SMS cards).

I loaded ~2 gr of bullseye and could poop a 148gr wc out at 600 or so. I have a 40 oz pistol so it is real soft shooting. At the ranges I had to work with (out to ~21 yards) that was plenty.

I did buy some performance bullets, such as they were and hot loading them with Unique. I could use the 4224 with heavy bullets. That was really just playing with what you can do. I did think about taking a deer with a handgun but deer hunting sucked in Maryland in the 60-70s. Probably still does. It brought out yahoos who had no respect for property, the law or safety and too damned many per acre to even be shooting slugs and in the rural counties you could use a rifle. You would hear shooting all day and almost nobody checked in a deer. Birds was a little better but after you learn how to hit them it is not rewarding. I killed a bird for an ounce of meat. Good thing to know how to do but I didn't need it then.

I just shot a lot of skeet and shot handguns in my range.

[Wade Garrett]

One rule of thumb for smokeless powder-- assuming it wasn't stored in poor conditions-- is if there's no rusty--looking dust and it smells OK, it's probably OK. A strong acidic odor is a sign of deterioration.

[invalid unparseable]

I haven't been able to find small pistol primers but expect when I do they will cost over $40/thousand.

[Snag]

I bet it's closer to $65/thousand ...

[invalid unparseable]

A quick look at Cabela's on line shows you are correct. Of course they are out of stock. A few years ago I needed large pistol and bought the commie stuff on line and even with Hazmat shipping it was cheaper but now even that is not available.

[rbowman]

Back in the '80s I made .357 practice loads by priming cases and then using them like cookie cutters in a pan with about 3/8" of a canning wax and beeswax mixture. At the distances where instinct shooting is used the impact point of the wax loads and full on 158 gr loads isn't going to be enough different to worry about.

Then came Clinton... Unlike the old saying with prices what goes up seldom comes down.

[invalid unparseable]

I have done the same thing. Part of the fun of reloading.

Might mention in a previous crisis when powder was in short supply I found Titegroup and find it great for target loads as only maybe half as much powder is needed.

[rbowman]

You don't see them anymore but in the '80s there were 9mm recipes using Herco. It's a little dirty but it worked. During the Obama circus

231/HP38 was unobtainium but nobody was reloading shotshells so Herco was available. Dug out my old notes and I was good to go.

That was full circle for me. My first reloading experience was 12 gauge with a Lee loader. All you needed was a hammer and a scale. The powder was done with a dipper; the scale was for seating the over powder wad. My mother wondered why the bathroom scales kept migrating to the cellar. I used Alcan AL-7. I don't know how long Alcan has been gone. 50 years?

It was primitive but that and a Mossberg bolt action shotgun kept the squirrel population under control.

[Ralph Mowery]

The older loading manuals I have list lots of the different powders that shotguns usually use for the handguns. At one time my favorite just shooting load was about 6 grains of Greendot and hard cast 158 SWC in a

357 mag. Worked well for me out to about 50 yards.

[Snag]

I like Unique in 45 ACP's and .38 Spl . Many of those pistol/shotgun powders work well as reduced loads in rifles using lead bullets with or without gas checks .

[Ralph Mowery]

I switched to Unique for most of the handguns. Seems to work well enough and often gives the best velocity or near it in most of the non magnum guns of seeral powders I have tried over the years. Never fooled with any reduced loading in the rifles, just near maximum book load or a load that gives the best accurecy at the velocity I want to shoot at.

Was down in the shop a little while ago. Few boxes of primers for about $ 13 and some about $ 25. I picked up different things at the gun shows over the years if I find a good price or really need something. Just bought up a lot of stuff on sale just before the panic buying abut 2 years ago. Have not been to one in a few years and have not taken time to do much shooting. Pop off a few rounds evey month or so as I do have a safe place to shoot up to about 25 yards away. Could back up more, but do not feel like I could keep all rounds in a short berm but there is over 100 feet of woods behind that if something does go stray.