First Shot at Reloading!

Finch

Finch

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Location
On a Dirt Road, Eastern Ontario
So my wife bought me an RCBS kit for Christmas and I finally got everything together and tried my hand at reloading. I gotta say, I can certainly see how this is addictive. I cleaned all the cases, then went through the steps until I had 20 rounds of 45/70 staring back at me!

Of course reloading them wasn't enough so I promptly went to the gun cabinet, grabbed my XLR and then a few of my homegrown rounds as well as a few factory rounds for comparison sake!

I walked the 100 feet from the house over to my shooting spot and then just fired off a few from around the 50 yard mark. I had my safety glasses, a pair of gloves and ear savers in, and to my delight all my rounds went off and performed just as I'd wanted them to!

I loaded 350gr Hornady in front of 32gr of H4198, running at about 1500 fps out of the 24" XLR. Before firing talk about nervous though! I'm just happy I didn't have any issues that would dissuade me from reloading in the future.

As it stands, I wanna go fire those all off so I can load them up again. Very happy with my wife right about now, too bad she's opened up Pandora's box I'm afraid!
 
Don`t know how you do it? When I bought my reloading equipment, I couldn`t get home fast enough to set it all up! Welcome to the vast world of reloading! I`m relatively new to it as well. I`ve reloaded maybe a couple hundred rounds so far. Hardest part is: Waiting till I have enough spent rounds to reload again.
 
ya those first few always feel good then the first thousand then 10 thousand and it starts to get a little boring for pistol ammo anyway i enjoy load development alot though
 
Welcome to the fraternity and Congratualtions!! My first foray into the reloading was NOT so well received. No money and certainly no wife to buy me a reloading kit. I bought a used Lee Loader, for $8 at a flea market. Guy explained how it worked. Rushed out, bought powder, primers, bullets from the local gun shop. Went home, dug out all of my old brass, and started reloading for my rifle.
Now factory loads in that rifle grouped withini 3" at 100yds. These new loads grouped somewhere around 2 FEET! I just knew that I had been suckered, not only the die, but powder, bullets, primers...all money I did not have to waste.
I threw everything in a box, stuffed it on a shelf, and continued to use factory ammo for another 2 years.
One day, I met the guy who sold me tha Loader. He asked how it was going, fully expecting me to be a addicted reloader with presses and all the gear. I told him what I thought of the voodoo practices of "reloading". He couldn't figure it out, so he invited me over to his house...complete with 100yd range in those days. I brought all of my components, loaded rounds, spent brass, everything including rifle. He fired my factory rounds . 3" group or so. He looked at my loads, fired them in my rifle...same result, 2' group. He then made up loads using my gear...no change. Then using my cases, he loaded some rounds using his press, scale, etc. No change. Then he fired some of HIS loads and shrunk the group to 2.5". Then he fired some more of his loads he took from his shirt pocket...2" groups!!!
Now, remember, I know NOTHING about reloading. Here's the story. Rifle is a 1898 Lee Enfield Calvary Carbine (I didn't know) designed to shoot 215gn bullets (more I didn't know). Shot cordite and corrosive primers (what's that?). Worn but not shot out (huh?). Won't stabilize 150gn bullets at all, shoots factory 180's okay, likes 180gn handloads, LOVES 215gn bullets. I didn't know anything about bullet weight, varying powder charges, load development, twist rates...all voodoo to me.
Now, when I help someone start reloading, I try to cover a range of possibilities for them and find out what they are shooting.
That rifle shoots 200gn .3135" handloads under 2" all day now. But I never would have known that if I had bumped into the guy 2 years later.
 
Your in trouble now, reloading can be addictive and all the shinnnnnny tools. Makes me want to go buy something i don`t have, or somethings you need two of.:D Congrats on the first reloads.
 
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