Anyone enjoy reloading and shooting?

O

old medic

Senior Member
Location
Western NC
I started over 25 years reloading pistol ammo for a rare Russian imported Makarov. Great weapon, but ammo was expensive (well for that time) and hard to come by. Used the great lie of, Its cheaper and ill save money.... the wife fell for it....LOL....
The experimenting with different components for the best performance, of course shooting a lot more....
even got a set up and load shotgun.... and now wanting to start casing bullets too....
Cant wait to retire and have more time....
 

I handloaded for 44 years - mainly pistol calibers. It's the only way to afford enough practice to shoot competitively.
 

My husband does reloading. He has a little room in the basement with all of his stuff.

Extra-added grains of powder added to cartridges, dear husband refers to as "hot rounds".
 
Yes and yes. I haven't reloaded in a few years but the press is set up. If memory serves I can do .30 Carbine, .38/.357, .40 Smith, 7.62 x 39, .45 ACP, and .380. Never bothered with 9 because it was so inexpensive to purchase. I used to do some rifle but sold off all the stuff. Seems like I was loading .35 Remington, Thutty-Thutty, and .30-06. At one time I started loading shotgun but never really go into it.

I belong to a local sportsman's club, my son and I shoot once in a while.
 
I started reloading when I bought my first handgun. Right after the movie Dirty Harry I bought a .44 magnum revolver. I then started reloading .44 magnum rounds. After I got married my wife was not happy with my hobby and wanted me to stop, so eventually I sold my reloading stuff. Then 34 years later, wife is gone, the kids are grown and I started reloading again. That was 10 years ago. I reload about 12 different calibers. It is time consuming and they say it doesn't really save money for shooting, but I really like doing it and shooting the ammo. I have never loaded "hot" rounds. Was letting my daughter shoot some .38 specials I reloaded for awhile, but it is not a good idea to let other people shoot your reloads. I have never had a problem with my reloads, but if I make a mistake it should be on me and not someone else.
 
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I reloaded my .44 mag with 'hot loads'. after some trials with shooting I found that caliber just a might to big for most uses and downgraded to .357 mainly because you can also shoot .38specials...
 
cdestroyer said:
I reloaded my .44 mag with 'hot loads'. after some trials with shooting I found that caliber just a might to big for most uses and downgraded to .357 mainly because you can also shoot .38specials...
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If you want to make a .44 Mag seem tame, just try a 500 Magnum S&W. When I tried mine out, I thought, "Good thing I didn't have any loose fillings or crowns." 😊 After 40 rounds, my hands were numb.
 
cdestroyer said:
I reloaded my .44 mag with 'hot loads'. after some trials with shooting I found that caliber just a might to big for most uses and downgraded to .357 mainly because you can also shoot .38specials...
Click to expand...
I shoot .44 specials in my .44 magnum revolver and it shoots very nice that way. It is hard to find .44 specials so I reload them. I believe the brass is different, but I would have to look in the reloading book.
 
chrislind2 said:
I shoot .44 specials in my .44 magnum revolver and it shoots very nice that way. It is hard to find .44 specials so I reload them. I believe the brass is different, but I would have to look in the reloading book.
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As with 38 Spl/357 Magnum, the 44 Magnum brass is a bit longer to prevent it from being chambered in a 44 Special, which would be dangerous. But It's great to load light & use the 44 Magnum brass. It's thicker & will last almost forever. Plus, it's more accurate because the bullet will have less free travel before it hits the rifling.
 
win231 said:
If you want to make a .44 Mag seem tame, just try a 500 Magnum S&W. When I tried mine out, I thought, "Good thing I didn't have any loose fillings or crowns." 😊 After 40 rounds, my hands were numb.
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I used to have a Ruger .44 Redhawk with a 9.5 inch barrel. I ordered a 6.5 inch but they sent the long one and told me the price was the same. I could only fire about 20 rounds out of that and it stopped being fun. I sold that gun to a friend who is much younger and he loves it. I now have a Taurus .44 magnum with a 5 inch barrel and I shoot .44 specials in it and it is really fun to shoot.
 
win231 said:
As with 38 Spl/357 Magnum, the 44 Magnum brass is a bit longer to prevent it from being chambered in a 44 Special, which would be dangerous. But It's great to load light & use the 44 Magnum brass. It's thicker & will last almost forever. Plus, it's more accurate because the bullet will have less free travel before it hits the rifling.
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My best light loads were .45 acp for my Colt New Agent. It's a small 1911 for carry. But with factory ammo that gun was as bad as the .44 magnum. I experimented with different bullet weight and powder and now have the perfect formula that makes that gun fun to shoot. Really makes reloading worth the trouble.
 
no it might not be 'fair' but you said " "Good thing I didn't have any loose fillings or crowns."" and I garuantee you wouldnt have any after firing this big baby.....and on that subject is 'recoil' rather difficult to keep on target with this big gun because of the rise during rapid fire! also on subject I quite shooting because of too much hearing loss from weapons!!
 
win231 said:
I handloaded for 44 years - mainly pistol calibers. It's the only way to afford enough practice to shoot competitively.
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Very true. The course of fire requires 30 rounds, not counting practice. I used to shoot once a week, so it really added up.
 
and this is target practice with a 20mm
Shawver15.jpg
water buffaloes litterly explode. this gun "called an oerlikon cannon accounted for 1/3 of all japanese planes shot down during wwii in the pacific....as a navy radioman it was not my job to use this gun but I am not gonna be in a war zone and have weapons I don't know how to fire
 
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I bought a cheap 9mm 4 years ago and have yet to fire it. One of these days I'll make it out to the range, but it's not high on my list of things I want to do — mainly because of the noise. I kind of like peace and quiet in my old age.

I've been thinking about getting a bow for target practice out in the side yard. That seems a like more peaceful hobby and one where I wouldn't need to leave the house.
 
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