Making your own ammo

[arnofarrell]

I have been wanting to do this for a long time. I have looked all around the internet and found out there are just a few names that keep poping up. Lee, Hornady, something with an R I dont know. There is so much out there and would like to know what others think of loaders. I was looking at a hornady loader for pistol and ammo and a lee for my shotgun shells.

 

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[labradigger1]

I will probaly get hate mail for this but,
Lee is the cheapest, rcbs hornady,lyman,dillon ponsiess warren are all excellent tools.
Myself i use dillon rl 550, lyman t mag turrett press and mec shotshell loaders. Good luck finding stuff as everyone is buying it up. If you are a high volime shooter you may want to check into casting and sizing youre own bullets. Enjoy the hobby and read and get all the load manuals you can, old and new. I like lyman manuals the best due to havi g load data for cast bullets.

 

[Coureur de Bios]

A very interesting hobby. Something good about the time you pop that first reload you stuffed all by yourself. You can fashion your equipment based upon the volume of production you want to get into. Turret presses are more costly and allow you to crank out shells or cartridges by the hundreds or however much you have by way of components. I personally only have a couple single stage Lee presses and mostly do pistol cartridges. Do have a Hornady Lock & Load digital scale along with another small digital scale. I'm not into mass production, double check powder weights regularly and just use my reloading time to fill in snowy winter days.

Components, particularly primers, are getting scarce, at least around these parts. Oh yes, manuals are a must and there are always a few learning experiences. After jamming a .45 in my XD with one of my first reloads, I learned the importance of having a case length gage along with preferring a taper crimp or factory crimp die for cartridges in my semi-autos.

As stated, I don't get too involved with mass production and, perhaps, get anal about proper powder loading and cartridge quality. Safety is of primary importance. Have known of nice and expensive handguns being destroyed by someone's careless reloads.

Good luck and have fun.

 

[packerbacker]

I repeat what he said. "Safety" is the main concern. Getting components can be difficult right now but you can find them. Lots of videos out there to try and learn from. I say "try" because there is a LOT of prep work before you can start cranking out large quantities of rounds. The brass needs to be tumbled to clean it up. The old primers need to be removed and the primer pocket cleaned. The brass needs to be measured and possibly "shaved" to size; undersize are rejects. The finished product needs to meet specific lengths, primers need to be FULLY inserted. We never handle the primers with bare hands, use tweezers or gloves. Powder charge is constantly monitored. We never load to the "maximum" capacity. Once you get all of this down, along with some other nuances, it will become a fun hobby that will give you access to ammo when you want it.....or need it.

 

[arnofarrell]

Thanks for your guys help.