tips to reloading?
 

Well i am only 16 but i am very instered in learing how to reload my dad is teaching me and i also have some friends and family also and i was wondering if there are any tips for a kid learing how to reload little tricks and whatnot ty

RE: tips to reloading?
 

Since you have live & in-person people to teach you, you are WAY ahead.:D The best thing you can do is be VERY attentive to what they show & tell you and ask questions about everything that isn't 110% clear to you.

Reloading is a GREAT hobby and way to further your shooting efforts - but like all things firearm-related........... there are some inherant dangers to be on the watch for. Take the safe route in all things (even if it seems silly to you) and you can be loading your own ammo for the next 60+ years. :)

AND if your help there can't/don't answer your questions to your satisfaction - then check in with us here and on other forums to see if you can find out what you want to know.........take advantage of ALL of the knowledge you can get your hands on.

RE: tips to reloading?
 

Here's a tip if you get frustrated walk away and come back to it later. Good luck.

RE: tips to reloading?
 

Safety Glasses!

RE: tips to reloading?
 

Read the manual and follow it to the tee with no substitutions or changes from the published data. Max loads are just that. There is no need to max out on a cartridge. The most accurate reloads are many times in the middle of the powder range. Any changes you make in brass, primers, seating depth and especially powders, can cause dramatic increase in pressures over the formula in the manual. Do not go by what a friend recommends unless it's by the book. And a big one, don't be distracted while your reloading. Follow the instructions step by step and you'll enjoy the hobby for many years to come. Take your time and have fun.:D

RE: tips to reloading?
 

Never Never reload when you are sleepy or tired.

Or never reload when other disstrations are around
like a tv set or other people talking to you.

You have to really pay attention to what you are doing.

And always go by the book.

It could save your life.
It only takes one mistake to kill you.

So be carefull.
And have fun

RE: tips to reloading?
 

Ok, now for a worthwhile tip. Gosh guys. Safety glass's?

Anyway, use a fabric softener sheet to clean out the dust and stuff i your funnel and powder thrower and wieght pan. Keeps those little flake powders from sticking up the mess.

Second. When seating a bullet, turn the case 3 or 4 more times when seating to get alignment right

Here's another. Square you dies before tightening down the setup. The threads on dies are so course, you can get bad alignment. To do this, use a very straight washer and raise the shell holder to the top against the die. use only the wieght of the handle and carefull tighten down the lock ring.

To make straight ammo, raise the expander ball as high as it will go. Deprime with a universal deprimer. That way, when pulling the brass out of a sizing die, it will immediately be caught on the ball and make "straighter" ammo.

The powder that produces the best velocity usually doesnt produce best accuracy. If a slow powder doesn't work, try a little faster one. It pays off sometimes.

Hottest primer isn't always the best route.

Thats all I can think of right now.

RE: tips to reloading?
 

Get all of the reloading manuals and read them from cover to cover. Many of the folks who do the write ups on each cartridge are experts and you will find a lot of info about the whole shooting industry. Never load to many shells at once. You can get burned out and careless. Its a great hobby and has given me much joy and passed many cold winter night In the Dakotas. Also there are some great vidios on reloading from Sierra and many other companies. I should have spent some of that reloading time learning how to write and spell.:D

RE: tips to reloading?
 

You bet, Safety first and foremost. After all we are talking to a 16yr old. Having a 14yr old son myself i thought it was a pretty good tip. Hard to be a reloader with no eyesight.

bigcountry....your comment was directed to me since no one else mentioned safety glasses so i'll address it. You've gained my respect on this forum with your knowledge of guns/reloading as well as other subjects and i always look forward to reading your imput when you respond to a post. However, i must admit that at times i don't understand your sarcasm. Even though i've been reloading for 16yrs there's no doubt i'm no reloading guru as you are but we can't all be. The kid ask for a tip and in my opinon i gave him what i consider to be a very (worthwhile) tip especially when it comes to reloading. After all, i would consider eyesight very worthwhile or at least i do. Your response to what i said is your opinion, and you know what they say about opinions. Hey, i can live with that. :D Mike

RE: tips to reloading?
 

Well, it would only take once I guess for me to change my mind. For instance when I worked a logging job whe I was a kid, I detested safety glass's. So I half ass'd them on my head. One day a chainsaw thru a chunk into my cornia. Well, after a in house operation, it healed but my right eye pretty well sucks. So when it comes to chain saws and weedeaters, I am the safety glass nazi. So yes, I have never really gave safety glass's a thought while loading until recently with a experience from mossy.

I didn't mean it to be real harsh. Just more sarcasitc humor. You got about 5 years more experience than me actually reloading.

So tell me do you wear them the whole time or priming? Reason I ask, is Mossey on here had something happend that freaked me out a little. He was using a kinetic hammer on a dummy load with no powder and the primer went off. I mean I have litterly took apart 100's of loaded rounds with the hammer. So it made me think a tad on how a person could be a dead man pretty quick. I just never thought it was possible. So when priming I am kinda wondering if anyone had the primer go off?

RE: tips to reloading?
 

hey bc here is the thing that happened to mossy, just goes to show you can never be to safe.


http://forum.hunting.net/asppg/fb.asp?m=806968&key=

i never have, knock on wood 20+ years of reloading, but don't get to lax in the saftey area

like a guy used to tell me

no saftey know pain
know safety no pain

RE: tips to reloading?
 

bc....i remember the post by mossy very well and it gave me chills when i read it. If you'll go back and look you'll see i responded to that post and the first thing i mentioned was safety glasses. The safety glasses have become a habit for me and i keep several pair on my reloading bench. I don't wear them the entire time i'm reloading but i always wear them when installing primers, seating bullets or pulling bullets with live primers. If i'm using a power case trimmer instead of a manual one i have them on as well because that brass tends to go in all directions. I haven't had an accident as of yet but i just don't think you can be to safe. I too use a kinetic hammer type puller and after reading mossy's post i must admit i get a little nervous everytime i use it now. The company i work for is nothing but a big machine shop and it is mandatory for us to wear safety glasses and i've seen lots of eye injuries from those who chose not to so maybe that contibutes to my awareness when it comes to eye safety.
I may have 5yrs on you when it comes to reloading but i'm always learning and i've learned a great deal from your imput on this forum in various areas of reloading and guns and i really appreciate the information you and others provide. Your knowledge & skill book of guns and reloading is no doubt bigger than mine no matter how long you've been involved in the sport so keep it coming:D, like i said you've helped me as well as others with your feedback and i for one appreciate it. Thanks! Mike

RE: tips to reloading?
 

Read lots of manuals, not the load tables, but the how to sections. :eek:

RE: tips to reloading?
 

Get a couple of videos and watch them. Reading is a must and super. NOthign like seeing it to top it all off. Plus your mentors. But make sure your mentors are safe also. Good luck. I started at 14 with a lee handloader. Hammer and all. Tough way to learn and I made some dumb mistakes along the way. Like not knowing that (never had read it) that you don't use data for lead bullets with jacketed ones. That one scared us but we survived. The rifle wasn't so super though. I"m a bit further down the road now having learned a lot and loaded quite a few rounds for IDPA and Highpower rifle matches(to the tune of almost 10K rounds a year or more at times) I'm lucky I read and learned correctly for the most part as I'm still here and so is my wife and all our guns some 26 years later.

Jeff

RE: tips to reloading?
 

Talk to old farts you see at the range about their reloading methds. A lot of them have been around long enough, have tried enough things, have made enough mistakes that they have already culled a lot of the BS from their methods. I've been reloading for about 10 years and I feel like I know very little about reloading as I learn something new every time I talk to people who have been doing this for 30 or 4o years.

RE: tips to reloading?
 

Thanks MyKey, I also learn more every day from new guys and old ones alike. Some things like neck turning, I wish I never learned.

I think Gargoyles makes some glass's that are pretty tuff stuff that can take a hit from a shotgun. My problem with safety glass's is they are cumbersome. I should invest in a decent set in my perscription.

RE: tips to reloading?
 

Bigcountry- I did what you are thinking about doing about 5 years ago. My insurance allows for me to get new lenses every year and new frames and lenses every other year. One year I bought the biggest set of frames I could find and had them fittted with polycarbonate lenses. My wife calls them my 'geek glasses' but I pretty much wear them only when I'm shooting my rifles or compound bows. The reason I got big frames is because most of the trendier glasses that are commonly worn have lenses that are fairly narrow in height which means you will end up looking over the top of them or at the very edge of the lenses where they are blurry or distorted when trying to shoot with them. These glasses saved my eyes once, when I had a casehead failure in a 9mm I was shooting and got a big stream of hot gasses, burning powder and bits of brass blown in my face. I always wear these for reloading also, but I might have to upgrade to bifocals soon because my closeup vision is starting to go bad too.:eek:

RE: tips to reloading?
 

Big country

On neck turning, I agree with ya. Just FYI-- shoot turned necks and non turned to see if there is any or enough difference to make a difference for you. I've found in some rifles it makes a considerable difference and in others it makes almost non.

Jeff

RE: tips to reloading?
 

Rost, I found that on calibers with little freebore like a 270win, 30-06 and 308win, that neck turning made miniscule difference. But on my 300RUM, it made alot of difference.

RE: tips to reloading?
 

It sure pays to test. I'd hate to turn necks I didn't need to. And though match chambers might repsond better, I've found its a barrel by barrel deal. Unless the brass is bad. Which may be an issue with 300RUM brass. Have not heard great things about it. Will see when I get my 338 Edge done. I hope its better by then.....

Of course turning 100 necks for hunting isn't a big deal. Turning 1000 for matches sucks.

Jeff

RE: tips to reloading?
 

You guys are scaring me off...lol. I have a bunch of stuff and am getting ready to set it up and give it a try...but...this may not be as easy as it looks. Got 3 manuals already/...plan on reading em all before I get to far involved.

RE: tips to reloading?
 

Take it from someone who lost an eye. Wear the darn glasses. In one split second I went from a perfect right eye to no right eye. No it was not reloading. It was simply driving a nail. A piece of the nail head came off and went right through the eye. Never saw another thing through it. Never thought it would happen to me. It does.

RE: tips to reloading?
 

Thanks James. Thanks for reminding us just how easy it is to lose something as valuable as an eye. I have three or four sets of safety glasses. After having to dig a metal sliver out of my eye once, I religiously use them grinding, weedeating, dremeling, just never thought about using them while driving a nail. Your story will serve as a reminder to me every time I think that I don't need them 'just this one time'.

RE: tips to reloading?
 

I keep all my powder, primers, and bullets on the shelf on the wall BEHIND me. The ONLY primer box on the bench is the same type as the primers that are in the loader. The ONLY powder can on the bench is the same powder that's in the machine. The ONLY bullets on the bench are the ones I'm loading for that particular round.

Do this religiously and you won't encounter "sudden rifle disassembly syndrome" at the range or woods.

RE: tips to reloading?
 

Primers are not particularly dangerous, but they can go off and damage stuff. Powders can burn pretty fast, but don't explode. Lee says only CCI and Winchester primers are safe in their priming tools, and I don't know why that is. My regular corrective lenses are safety glasses, you can't buy plain glass any more. Even so I wear a face shield. there are some other parts of my face I'd like to keep stock. [8D]

RE: tips to reloading?
 

Yeh! hunter_jere.........NO CIGARETTES.....NO WAKY WEED.......NO BOOZE......Plenty of sleep!

What's your most important question?


KEEPING ON ROOTING!!!

RE: tips to reloading?
 

Briman.....Is that old Farts just at the RANGE?.....How about this Forum? I don't know all the answers,but son I am pretty
sure my PRESS is older than you......COME BACK 10-4 ?

RE: tips to reloading?
 

Been reloading for around 30 years now, pay attention you can always learn something new. The only thing that has never changed is SAFETY FIRST!

RE: tips to reloading?
 

Right-on! Also if you are not sure what you did,DUMP it and start again. Remember guys we are adviseing a 16yr old boy here!

RE: tips to reloading?
 

Great Advise,Mark! I'm sure his father appreciates it!

RE: tips to reloading?
 

Great Hunting,Jere!! I have hunted ALBERTA before,but boy you got me beat!

RE: tips to reloading?
 

Brush, my press is older than!!

RE: tips to reloading?
 

I have only been reloading for 2 years now so please keep the info comming, I have already learned several new things. Good info, thanks for everyones input.

RE: tips to reloading?
 

10-4.......Good Buddy!!....Keep asking!

RE: tips to reloading?
 

Don't smoke while reloading.