NRA Reloading Class

[AxeHandle]

Been asked to assist a local group teaching the NRA reloading class. I'm thinking that to mess with the newbie's heads I'll set up an old Lyman turret press with my 256WM #1 and #2 case form dies, the standard die set, a few 357 cases, and show them the real magic of reloading

[bula]

Throwing them in, in the deep end ? Ha !

[kings6]

When you are done with that, come set up my Dillon SD for me Stan!

[markwell]

Are you going to tell the newbees how much fun reloading is?

I use the analogy of cutting firewood to heat your home, of which we've done a ton over the last 50+ years.

"If you enjoy reloading or cutting firewood, you have obviously not done enough of either."

[contender]

While it may be fun, and educational,, I'd not confuse the newbies too much with advanced stuff. Let them learn the basics & THEN in their next class,, show them a few more things. Don't want to scare them away!

"If you enjoy reloading or cutting firewood, you have obviously not done enough of either."

I obviously haven't done enough reloading. After only around 1/4 million rounds in over 45 years,, I still enjoy it.

[markwell]

Started down the volume reloading road in 1977 when we discovered practical pistol and found that loading 2K+ rounds a month on a Rock chucker wasn't gettin' it! Had a C&H Auto Champ for a while that was more trouble than it was worth. Eventually moved to a Dillon and never looked back; we now run 3 of 'em; two 550s and a 650. Have a Redding T7 for low volume mostly rifle stuff. Shot 24K+ per year from '77 thru the late 90's so I figure that's close to "enough" for me. Not as competitive as we used to be and only shoot about 8-10K rounds per year now. Our son now handles the wood cutting for us, thankfully.

[AxeHandle]

Started reloading in '75.. I remember early on when getting something loaded so I could go shoot was the priority. Didn't happen often since I was issued all the ammo I could ever shoot until I retired in '95. Sometime in the 80s I evolved and started enjoying reloading at least as much as shooting. Wildcats are king! Guess the 17 Mach IV may have been the first. The 6/25/6.5/7mm TCU were close behind. Of course the 30 and 357 Herrett were there. 6.5 STW, 224 TTH, and a plethora of Reeder wildcats...

[markwell]

We reloaders owe you experimenters a lot for your in-depth analysis of what makes accurate and efficient ammunition. The closest we've come to a wildcat is the .17 Fireball. The majority of our shooting has been with ammunition that is much less time intensive to produce. Other than occasionally changing bullets or powder when one I liked was discontinued, or otherwise became unavailable, we seldom change components once we find a load that fit our needs. Consolidating powder for handguns and buying primers in bulk when cheap and available has also had an upside every time we go thru shortages like those we are now experiencing. For example, we load the majority of our handgun range ammo using W231 powder. 231 may not be the best powder for some cartridges but for our needs it works in everything from .32 H&R up thru .44 spcl./Mag. W231 comes 4 8 pounders to the case! We have gotten thru this current sh!t show with little or no disruption in our shooting due to being deeply stocked with primers and powder. As in the past, bullets are the first components to come back as folks run out of primers and powder. Our story with rifles is much the same.

Wildcats may be king but, IOHO, Volume Ammo on hand is the Queen.

[AxeHandle]

FWIW... I fall in the "Reloader" category. I prefer middle of the road proven stuff. My "Wildcats" are never shoot from the hip loads. I rely in proven documented data from reliable sources.

My plan with the 357 to 256WM is to demonstrate the ease at which a SAAMI cartridge case can be formed using a standard proven process. Set the turret up with four dies. The Redding #1 case form die, the Redding #2 case form die, the full length size die, and lastly the trim die.

[AxeHandle]

... Reloading class got cancelled. We'll reschedule...