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Reloading: Home Alone

Reloading: Home Alone

For the benefit of our valued new readers, we’ve returned to reloading ‘square one’ for a few editions. This month we’re taking the first steps towards building our first safe rounds of ammo. The focus is on making safe, functioning ammo rather than any form of tuning or tweaking. However, we’d better start with the ‘official’ stuff. Whilst it is not a legal requirement there are good reasons to make sure that your property and contents insurers are up to speed with your intentions. Remember, if they can escape a claim then they will.

A few years ago, a neighbour suffered a chimney fire in the flue from one of his wood burners. It split the unlined chimney and the mess from dousing the inferno was considerable. His insurers took a look at the disaster and asked for a copy of his latest invoice from the chimney sweep. It was a year out of date. The result was NO insurance cover! If you rent your property then there may be legal restrictions – check them out before investing in kit. If you’re proposing to use your reloaded creations at the club or other ‘public’ range, then make sure that you have either an Association membership or personal insurance that covers you for Public Liability.

A safe environment

Distractions, such as television, or interruptions like ‘help’ from ankle biters must be avoided at all costs. Getting it wrong when you’re building a flat pack wardrobe might be a pain but it is unlikely to cost you your eyesight or the odd finger. The downside of a reloading screw-up can be bloody serious. If you cannot allocate a dry, comfortable, distraction-free room or location for your ammo building, then you should reconsider taking it up. If bullet casting is on your to-do list, then a well-ventilated location, well away from food and the elements, is essential.

It may sound daft, but can you justify reloading? After all, the capital outlay will be north of £500 and then there’s the cost of the consumables. Your likely recovery of costs will be between 30% and 50% of factory ammo prices. In round numbers that’s between £1000 and £1500 worth of ammo to break even.

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So if you only blast £100 a year; well, you can see where this is going! Still keen? Let’s start with a few simple rules… always buy the best you can afford, and buy it new. Yes, there are second-hand bargains to be had but at this stage do you have the experience to tell the difference between a bargain and a piece of junk? Bad kit will ALWAYS make bad ammo. Keep your local FEO up to speed. If your FAC suddenly fails to show any records of ammo purchases, then they may conclude that you don’t shoot any more.

Pressing needs

The core reloading tool is the press. For most ‘ab initio’ reloaders the default should be the best O-frame model that you can afford. By this I mean one that has a structure shaped like the letter ‘O’, as illustrated herewith. Although an unlikely starter cartridge, if your first or only reloading subject is the .338 Lapua Magnum or .50 BMG, remember to make sure that the press will physically accommodate the height of the round and has the correctly threaded insert to accept the appropriate dies.

On the subject of dies, you will need at least one set. If the cartridge is a straight wall design then you must, wherever possible, buy a three die set with a tungsten carbide insert in the sizer. For bottle necked cartridges, the choice is between two and three die sets, with the latter generally offering more flexibility in use. Sizer dies, for use with heavily tapered or bottle necked cases, are generally made from plain engineering steel and require the use of a lubricant, so you must add lube together with an applicator pad to your shopping list. Shell holders are more or less universal in design and you’ll need at least one. Don’t buy a new shell holder as a reflex action with each new die set; many cartridges share the same head design and will therefore fit the same shell holder. By way of example, RCBS#3 fits .22-250, .243 Win, 6mm/.224 Rem, 6mm/.284, .240 Weather by Mag, .250-3000 Savage, .25-06, 6.5 x 57, .270 Win, .300 Savage , .308 Win and shed load of others.

Sizing and de-priming

We’ll start with the rework of parallel wall (mainly pistol) cases. Here we are going to restore dimensions of the whole case to as close to the original size as possible, a process known as ‘full length resizing’. Insert the shell holder into the tool post of the press (ram) and position it at the top of the cycle. Select the die marked ‘sizer’ and screw it in until it just touches the shell holder. Most brands of carbide sizer, such as Lee, include the de-priming (de-capping) tool within the body. If it is present, then this should be adjusted until the central pin protrudes between 5 – 7 mm into the shell holder, i.e., below the base of the die. Lock the parts in position, cycle the press to the bottom of the stroke and place a clean, fired case of the appropriate calibre into the shell holder.

Carefully cycle the press to the top of the stroke. If you feel high resistance before the completion of the cycle, check to ensure that the case has only one flash hole (for a Boxer primer), that there is no inclusion in the case (a stone or other debris) and that the collet that holds the decapping pin is not engaging with the inside of the case. In some rare instances, the flash hole may be of a smaller diameter than that of the de-capping pin, requiring the use of a smaller diameter pin or the binning of the cases! If the case is of military origin, or has an unknown history, then the high resistance may tell us that the brass has become too hard to safely rework, or that the primer has been crimped or staked in place. At this stage in your schooling these are both reasons to find another source of reloadable brass! If the completed cycle does not cause the old primer to drop through the shell holder, then the de-capping pin needs to be further adjusted. Do this in small cycling increments until the primer is removed and then lock the pin in the new position. You are now ready to resize the whole batch.

Next month we’ll resize our rifle brass, size the case necks, fit primers, add the powder charge and seat the bullets.

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