I shoot rifles. Full-bore battle rifles, the kind that were common in armies the world over until the mid-fifties. although i don’t shoot as much now, I once used to go through at least 60-80 rounds a match, two or three matches a month. I shot .30-06 and 7.62×51 mm NATO (civilian .308). And I used to hit the local range at least every other week for practice.
When you start shooting a high-powered rifle, you begin to realize the cost of ammunition is significant. Factory stuff runs at fifty cents a round. You can find surplus stuff for maybe fifteen or twenty cents a round, but you can get inconsistent accuracy and dubious quality. Some recent imported military surplus ammunition has resulted in blown-up guns. Some of it still has corrosive primers. You’d better know what you’re doing with it.
For the casual shooter, a bandolier of mil-surp is the makings of a fun afternoon of staving off hordes of charging milk jugs and such, but when you show up on the firing line, you want ammo that will reflect both your skill and the quality of your firearm. Precision-loaded match ammo for my guns runs around $20 for a box of twenty. Since an average match uses seventy rounds, you can see where bucks are involved.
Here’s where loading my own comes in. If I pay attention to a few details, I can replicate that one dollar round for less than a third of that: match bullet, carefully measured charge of powder, new primer, and a carefully prepared case, price is thirty cents. For my thirty cents, I get a full-velocity round that I KNOW will hold the ten-ring of a target a six hundred yards, so those nines and eights, well, they’re my fault.
But let’s back up a bit. Handloaders like me can shift gears. Same round: .30-06, the cartridge carried by American armed forces in WW I, WW II and Korea. But I’m shooting an old (sixty years old) bolt-action rifle. It’s only a 200-yard match. The load needs to be accurate, remember that ten ring? but it doesn’t have to burn up 47 grains of powder and leave the muzzle at 2700 feet per second. Nope, we can cut the velocity back to around 1400 feet per second and use less than half the powder. And instead of a match bullet costing twenty cents, I can make my own (cast) bullet for, oh, about two cents. Primer still costs a penny, but the powder cost is down to less than four cents, so I’m on the firing line with competitive ammunition for six cents a round. And I relish the looks when guys shooting full loads are going “BOOM!” and I’m going “pock!” and still getting ten’s. Further, on rapid-fire strings, the lower energy loads don’t shove me out of position as badly.
Although I tout cost as a big plus for handloading, you have to realize that there are up front costs in equipment, but suffice to say you can be a completely equipped handloader for the price of a new rifle and scope. Handloading has the potential to be a very big part of the hobby of shooting, and there is a great self-sufficiency aspect to it. And if you shoot old and exotic cartridges, handloading is the only way to go. Specialty manufacturers can provide you with brass and bullets (and bullet moulds to cast your own bullets) of long-obsolete and rare cartridges so you can keep shooting great-grandpa’s old single shot rifle.
Handloading isn’t for everyone. If attention to detail isn’t your thing, then take up golf or something. An improperly assembled handload can result in the high velocity disassembly of a firearm in close proximity to your face, a definite downer. Handloading takes time. Sure, if you want fairly high speed, high volume production, you can get it, and for some shooters, that’s what they’re looking for, but to produce match-grade ammo, expect to spend a lot of time working things out to get the best load for your rifle. Many handloaders manage to make mediocre ammunition, but with a bit of care, you can manufacture ammo that can’t be bought for any price.
When I was a kid, my father used to hand-load because of some wild-cats for which ammo could not be bought commercially.
For example, I have a .17 caliber bolt action custom rifle and stock for which we took the empty bullets from a Remington XP-100 .221 caliber silhouette bolt action pistol. The casings had to be necked down, then re-loaded.
Any idea where I can have those puppies made?? The liability is high when people deal with black powder and such. No one I know has been interested.
Thanks!
You mentioned using new primers when reloading. Is there any other kind that will work? ;) Reloading is fun, I learned under my dad’s tutelage many years ago and did my own for a time. But its not gonna be on my agenda for a while longer until school is through.
Rifle and pistol both, in many calibers can save a lot. I use gas-checked cast bullets for practice in both .30-30 and .308, and they work nicely. Cast also works well in a .45 and .38. Saves a bit and you get the fun of putting things together.
Your story reminds me of a day at the range with an amateur handloader; a 44 magnum; an underloaded round; an observant shooter and the recipe for a terrible mistake. Nope, he never had the the chance to clear the bullet that never left the barrell with another round, but it’s not because he wasn’t willing. The observant shooter saved me, my brother, and himself from certain injury by sticking his thumb between the hammer and the firing pin. I guess intelligence tests aren’t required for handloading. The learning curve, I’m sure, can be flat.
Brings back memories! My dad also used to handload, and he was always picking up wheel weights off the ground to throw in the pot for bullets. His hobbies were restoring antique clocks and antique guns; how he came by that combination I’ll never know. (and woodworking and writing textbooks and remodelling our houses – he didn’t sleep much.)
He used to tell the story of a guy who went shooting with him way back when, who just couldn’t hit anything. He told the guy, “you’re flinching.” “No I’m not,” said the guy. A couple outings this went on.
Dad loaded up an empty round – removed the stuffing from the primer and put in something else besides gunpowder, then slipped the thing into the guy’s ammo bag. When that round came up, his barrel jumped sharply – as the hammer gave a tiny ‘click’ and no more. “You’re flinching,” said my dad.
I handload for several reasons.
One, it’s more economical, so I can generally shoot twice as much for the same expense.
Two, I can load ammo that’s more accurate than commercial stuff for my guns. (For example, the load I shoot in my AR-15 costs more than military surplus 55 grain bulk ammo, but is MUCH more accurate, at about two-thirds to one-half the cost of commercial “premium” ammunition.)
Three, I can load ammo for difficult-to-find or exhorbitantly expensive calibers, like my 7mm Bench Rest Remington XP-100 or my .303 Lee Enfield Jungle Carbine.
Four, I can load ammo that no one makes, like my 180 grain spitzer .357 Magnum rounds for my Thompson/Center Contender. This load wouldn’t work in a revolver because it is so long it would protrude from the cylinder, but it works beautifully in my single-shot target pistol.
Five, it’s enjoyable. Building and testing new rounds is an interesting hobby unto itself.
But done improperly it CAN be dangerous, which is why I post pictures of “spontaneously disassembled” firearms from time to time.
Christina. No one will make that ammo for you. You have to make it yourself. Liability isues being what they are, I don’t shoot someone else’s reloads and I don’t let anyone shoot mine. My reloads are restricted to me and my family.
However, that sounds like a neat little .17 Fireball y’all have working there. I’m sure the family has the dies, so it would just be a matter of finding the load data and following the recipe. The first round you load is the hardest. The second one is much easier. The thrid is almost efforless.
Thanks, PawPaw!
Much appreciated. I can do recipes!
; )