Reloading Part 4: Inspecting

After cleaning is a great time to inspect all(and I do mean every single one) cases to make sure they'll be safe to fire.

Inspecting brass is one of the most important steps that you will do while reloading.

Inspecting brass is one of the most important steps that you will do while reloading.

That was so important it needed to be said twice. Remember that you are first setting off an explosion and then burning a highly flammable substance in an enclosed space between both of your hands and in very close proximity to your face with the intent to send a a very hard metal object flying away from you at up to speeds of up to 4000 fps which is about Mach 3.5 EVERY time you pull the trigger.

If you question whether a case is good or not throw it out. Do you want to bet your life on case that is worth a few cents? Remember how close to your face you'll be setting this off in the near future?

Things to look for:
-Cracking of the case -- look at the top and bottom (Shoulder and Rim)
-Excessive bulging of the case -- If the case is bulged it probably means a weak case and has reached its limit.
-Bright rings near bottom -- Also a sign of a weak case, discard it.
-separation of the rim from the rest of the case
-Dings, nicks, cracks or major deformation

These are just a few things to watch out for, remember if there is a question it is always good to try to find an answer, but don't shoot anything unless you are confident of it.

This is one of the most important steps for safety(there are a couple more). You can always buy more brass, more ammo and more tools. I haven't found a store to get another hand or eye yet.

When in doubt, chuck it.

-Steven Kipp

Reloading Part 3: Cleaning Brass

Cleaning the brass is a rather simple procedure. It requires a brass cleaner(either a vibrating or rotary cleaner), media and, of course the spent brass.

I throw my spent brass in the cleaner with the spent primers still in the casing. I've also tried this with the spent primer removed and the only difference I noticed was that the media needed to be cleaned out of the priming pocket if the primer is not left in there.

I'm using a Hornady vibratory brass cleaner with Lyman Turbo Tumbler media. I put about 3.5 lbs of media in with 100 casings of .270 WIN brass and turn it on for 4-6 hours. One note of safety is that I tend not to leave it running while I'm out of the house...better safe than sorry.

I've heard that that you can leave the brass in the cleaner longer if you want to have more of a shine on it. Personally I don't see a benefit to it. There are also several different kinds of media you can put in with your brass, depending on how pretty you want to make it. I've only tried this Lyman stuff, but it does work so I've kept with it.

Hopefully when you're done the brass should come out clean and ready to go.


-Steven Kipp

Reloading, Part 2: How to do it

When I started reloading, my first question was: "How do I take these four parts (case, bullet, powder and primer) and turn them into a usable round?" This is very important question because I didn't want to wing this. Remember, in using a firearm you are creating an explosion in very close proximity to your hands, face and other stuff you don't want to hurt. More importantly the explosion in wrapped in metal from the barrel and action. The only thing worse than being next to an explosion is having shrapnel fly at from point-blank range. The point is anyone reloading needs to know what they are doing. Let me repeat that: anyone reloading NEEDS to know what they are doing.

The best way to learn is to have someone show you how to do it. There is no substitute for hands-on experience. There are some good videos and books out there, but I would refer someone to these as additional material once they have learned what to do and how to do it safely. I will not try to teach anyone how to reload here on my blog, for safety reasons. Personally, I had my father-in-law teach me how. It was an enjoyable afternoon of manly bonding and I even scored some brownie points with my wife for it. There are a lot of up sides to reloading, besides cheaper ammo.

So find mom, dad, a friend, a relative, a friend of a relative, or the little old lady next door that packs the .44 mag to the grocery store and learn what, and what not to do. You might even make some new friends doing it.

-Steven Kipp

Reloading, Part 1: Do I have to?

I'm going to do a string of posts about reloading, and this first one is about the necessity of it and is it worth it.

First, the big question is: "Do I need to load my own ammo to shoot accuratly at long range?" I would say it is a definite no. Factory ammo is very good if you are willing to buy the good stuff, and in most things gun related you get what you pay for. It's probably not going to be the $20 a box stuff that works just fine for hunting. Of course, some calibers are more expensive than others. You can't shoot a 50 BMG for the same price as a 270 WIN if you go shot for shot.

Before you jump off this page to go look for reloading stuff, let me warn you reloading is not cheap to set up. I'm sure we've all heard that reloading is cheaper than buying factory ammo. If you count only the round you make, yes. Remember you're going to spend $500-$1000 just to get started without making a single usable round. Then you still have to buy all the components. you need for making what ever individual round you want, including more equipment(dies).

So is it worth it? I figure with my 270 it'll cost about(using round numbers for ease) $2 per round for factory ammo that is close to what I'd make myself. I figure I can make it for 50-75 cents. Let's use 75 cents to be on the safe side. So for every round I make I save $1.25 and get exactly the load I want down to .01 grain of powder and .05 mm tolorance on the shell, bullet and overall length(the ability to have exactly what you want is something you will not find with factory ammo)

The second big question is how much am I going to shoot? If I'm just hunting once a year, I'll use maybe a box every year to sight in and take into the field. In that case it's going to be a savings of $1.25 x 20 rounds x 1 year which equals $25 a year. It's going to take at a minimum 20 years to pay off the investment I made into the equipment. If I want to shoot three boxes a month the math looks like this: $1.25 x 60 rounds x 12 months. The savings is $900 a year. In that case I've paid it all off in a year of shooting reloads vs factory ammo. So it really does depend on how much you want to shoot. The more you shoot the more savings you have. The dirty secret is most of us just shoot more because it is cheaper to do so, and end up not saving any of that money. Personally, I'm happy to do that.

One last thought is what else do you want to reload for? Remember the $500-$1000 is a one time deal until you want to upgrade your equipment. Each caliber after that is probably $50-$100 for new dies and any other little parts you need. So if want to reload because you want to do a lot of shooting with a 270 WIN, and you like hunting with a 303 British, you can get set up for it without needing to shoot it more than once a year, and still not sink more money in it than would be practical.

One the other hand if you have more money than you know what to do with, by all means get some reloading gear, even if you just go hunting once a year. You get exactly what you want out of your loads and it's generally an enjoyable activity.

-Steven Kipp