Originally Posted at Free Market Shooter; Authored by Joe Humphries
Whether you are an avid gun collector, or simply like to know how things are made, reloading bullet casings is a true skill and a sustainable practice. This article goes into detail about why reloading your spent bullet casings is an intelligent venture for every marksman. See how the process is done, and discover the common cartridges that are easy to reload.
Why Reloading Casings is a Good Idea
It’s efficient to reload bullet casings. Save some money by reloading. If collecting the casings is going to save money, then take a box with you to load up on brass.
Think about the environment. Metal used to make bullet casings comes from somewhere, right? Reusing spent bullet casings lowers your negative impact on the ecosystem. Spent casings would otherwise end up in a landfill or buried in the ground when you step on them.
Reloading bullet casings comes with a cautionary incentive. Laws are changing, and gun production and bullet production might stop one day. If that happens, bullets will be incredible rare. If you know how to reload bullet casings, you might end up stepping ahead of the rest of society who is left without a clue.
Types of Bullets to Reload
Some of the easiest types of bullet casings to reload are the 9mm, the .38, and the .40 casings.
Start with some of the more common bullet casings you will find as they are easy to collect. The 9mm is an economical choice. Shooting Times suggests that a pound of gunpowder can yield 1,700 of these bullets. Shooting Times says that it is even easier to reload the .38 on your own. They also suggest that .40 casings are easy to find around gun ranges. They mention picking up spent casings of these popular bullets online.
Some harder to find casings and components are the .223 and .308. As with many other rifle casings and components, the increased gun control laws mean that rifle components are becoming scarce.
How Reloading Works
Gather a reloading press, spent casings, primers, gunpowder, and bullets that fit the shells. Follow these steps along with your reloading press owner’s manual:
Step 1: Clean the spent casing. Look for defects. Get rid of casings with cracks or dents. Use brushes and cloths to remove dirt and debris. Apply lubricant to keep casings from getting stuck when seating them.
Step 2: Remove the spent primer from the casing using the reloading press. This procedure changes depending upon the press you use. Insert the spent casing, pull the handle down, and raise it up to get the spent primer out of the casing.
Step 3: Place the primer in the cup on the bullet press. Put the shell in, and lower the spent shell into the new primer. The primer should appear level or a little lower than the base for the casing.
Step 4: Measure out the gunpowder (after examining a credible resource for weight and type of powder to use). Use a funnel for accuracy.
Step 5: Put the bullet in the casing. You will need to lower the bullet onto the case and crimp it using the levers and seaters designed by the bullet press manufacturer.
Congratulations
Reloading spent cases will not make you a marksmen, that only comes with practice, but it will make it easier to shoot more. It is more economical, environmentally friendly, and interesting to know. It’s one thing to be able to shoot a target, but this knowledge and skill separates the experts from the rest of the crowd.
Joe Humphries is a contributing writer and media specialist for Diamond K Brass. He regularly writes for gun blogs with an emphasis on guns for survival situations.
Good article for those who have never before thought about reloading.
My rule of reloading for beginners.
Learn what you are doing before doing it, not while or after you do it.
Get someone with long term experience to teach you, books work if nothing else is around but personal instruction is far better.
Whoa! Joe’s a self-anointed gun guy? Proper nomenclature in technical articles is absolutely imperative. Anything else is just plain laziness or sloppiness. I stopped reading when Joe used the word bullet over & over where the word ammunition, cartridge, or cartridge case should be. Bullet is the projectile… the thing that comes out of the barrel & flies toward the target. Bullets can not be reused. Cartridge cases (aka brass) can. Ammunition is the finished, ready to fire, product. The practice of reloading ammunition isn’t difficult, but without proper caution & proper tools can be devastatingly dangerous. It’s not a good idea for everyone. Eyes, ears, fingers, hands, & faces dont have available replacement parts. Laziness or sloppiness can be deadly.
I have been reloading, experimenting, & happily shooting the results for decades. Since burning powder expands at a controlled rate to propel the the projectile, yes folks, this really is rocket science.
Sometimes you need to use common language in place of technical language when talking to the uninitiated in order to help them to understand what you are talking about.
Yes.
Those too lazy or stupid to actually learn technical terms and nomenclature will have an awesome time ordering components, press and dies, will fuck up measuring powder with a scale, double-charge or use magnum primers instead of standard because it sounds cool, and ruin a perfectly good bang-stick.
Hopefully they’d kill themself in the process, but projectile-vomitters are worth some coin.
Those to stupid obviously shouldn’t have articles like this written to encourage them to look into the subject then.
Right?
So tell me your approach to getting a new and casual gun owner interested in reloading then, maybe completely baffling them with the brilliance of your technical terminology that they don’t understand because they haven’t been exposed to it and leaving them entirely uninterested in the subject as a result?
The guy uses “bullet” instead of “cartridge” or “round” and that makes the whole article worthless? Get the fuck out of here with your vocabulary nit-picky bullshit. If he provided inaccurate and/or dangerous instructions on reloading, that’s a different story.
He submitted a guest post and was very polite and courteous about it. It seems like a decent guide for a beginner to read so he has an idea of what reloading is, and whether or not he wants to do it. Any idiot who trust a 500-600 word guide on reloading and starts playing around with rounds, primers and gunpowder without having a friend or professional show him what to do is asking for whatever fate bestows them.
Hey Duane, was I talking to you? I was as diplomatic & pleasant above as I could be under the circumstances. There are no participation trophies. There can be learning experiences if one is willing.
Get the fuck out of here? That calls for the standard TBP “Blow me asshole” reply. Here’s to you Duane.
Words have meaning. Correct words have more meaning. Say what you mean. Mean what you say. Not… “Well you know what I meant.” If the author cant get the terminology right, how can he be trusted to get other things right? I stopped reading because there was no reason to go further. You know… the old thing about I may have forgotten more than you know? If you want to talk technically use the right words or shut the fuck up until you know the right words. Maybe the words Bullseye could be switched with Varget, or Reloader 7 with Reloader 22. That shouldn’t matter, huh? It’s all smokeless powder. Right? One way wouldn’t hurt much except your pride if someone is watching, but the other way may take your 1/2-assed pud-pulling hand off. So yeah. Words have meaning & the correct terms are important. I wonder what an .020″ neck thickness would do in a rifle chambered with a reamer for .010″ neck thickness? See what I mean?
It’s a great & very enjoyable hobby, but precision in actions as well as words is a must. Again, it’s not for everybody. Short attention spans, drunks, & people without common sense could end up with the shitty end of the stick.
Do what you like, just dont shoot anywhere near me at the range. Collateral damage sucks.
The article was submitted to TBP by me, as it was posted on my site originally:
http://fmshooter.com/reload-guide-reloading-spent-casings/
I responded to your comment calling the guy out for his nomenclature. So yes, the second you commented on the article, you were talking to me, as I’m responsible for the article being on the internet in the first place. So he used terminology that wasn’t to your liking? If you want to make it a learning experience, send me or him an email, and feel free to submit your own article correcting his verbiage – I’ll be happy to post it. If something is wrong, I’m in the business of making it right, so I’m all ears.
>Do what you like, just dont shoot anywhere near me at the range. Collateral damage sucks.
I don’t reload spent rounds so I’m the last person to comment on the practice, but what the fuck do you know about my range safety skills? Are you sure I’m not an NRA certified instructor?
How’s this for a TBP reply – fuck you, you know-it-all jackass boomer, go eat a bag of dicks. Anytime you wanna bet a box of ammo on who shoots the tighter group with YOUR weapon, give me a holler. If you’re half as good as you say you are, it should be like taking candy from a baby – or in this case, someone who is probably about half your age.
You dont reload… so that means you have absolutely no real 1st-hand knowledge of the subject. See above & shut the fuck up until you do. What’s the old saying? Something about, “Them that can do & them that cant write about it.” It’s a poorly written article by a supposed “gun guy” published by some needle-dicked site owner with a fragile, but grossly inflated ego. The WAAAAAmbulance is on the way Duane, hang on. Apparently you haven’t been coming here long enough to experience the shit throwing that accompanies poorly written articles. No matter what yer mum told you, you aren’t unique.
Oh, & yes, I was an NRA instructor until I stopped paying the Fairfax putzes their ever increasing dues & licensing fees a few years ago while they bargained away my rights & kept asking for more money. My credentials have lapsed. For what it’s worth (not much) I aced all the NRA tests taken with perfect scores. Not much of a challenge, & no real loss. Real true knowledge requires no credentials. My life goes on & GOA will be getting my $$ in the future.
I have no idea where you live & dont care, so allowing you to ever touch any of my weapons is likely out of the question. It matters little because as I grow older, I could give a flying fuck what others care or think. We could do a postal match, but I’m in the midst of moving & everything is & will be in disarray for the next few months to a year depending on how much other work needs to happen before the hobby room gets built.
You’ve been triggered, but still haven’t refuted my statements about using correct terminology because you cant. Read that last sentence again, Duane. Words really do matter. I was civil at first, but your pitiful whining of “Get the fuck out” started the personal shit. Maybe you could suck the snotty end of Bill Clinton’s syphillitic dick… but then you’d never go back to small dogs. Care to ramp up the insults again fuckstick? We could maybe start insulting each other’s family members next, but you’ll be jerking off in the wind. I’m not playing anymore. My job is done.
As a famous man once said… I’m right, you’re wrong. Deal with it. 8-D
Boomer cuck status – confirmed
If you reload your bullets then you will be able to always have full clips in your revolvers.
ROTFLMAO!!
I suppose you’ve never heard of moon clips?
Some revolvers even need them.
A reloading alternative: Get a job that pays enough so you don’t have to reload spent cartridges.
I do and still roll my own. It might actually be more fun than sending them down range! Besides, I can build stuff you can’t buy, and save money to buy more guns.
Saving money is the reason people usually get into reloading -or it used to be in the days when I got started- but it usually ends up being making special ammo (i.e. dedicated target rounds) or high precision ammo tailored to your individual firearm.
It greatly enhances the shooting sport by making it highly individualized and broader in scope.
FWIW, I have several custom rifles I built myself that have never had a single round of factory ammo in them.
Try it sometime, most people who do end up enjoying it whether they save money or not. You can get started in basic reloading for a hundred bucks or less (plus components).
Dutch
Carefully prepared reloads can produce more consistent and accurate groups due to improved uniformity. Some folks are into that.
One word – Accuracy.
Another word:
.30-caliber-sabot-with-5.5mm-tungsten-carbide-projectile
I think it’s German…
Sabot rounds usually don’t capture much of a following for cf rifles because they almost always are used in a rifle with a twist rate for a different weight projectile (actually a different length, but usually figured as weight for most purposes).
Tungsten carbide projectiles are not used in the US, particularly on the civilian market, and would be prohibitively expensive anyway if someone somehow imported them.
It’s not rocket science. Get a reloading book and also follow instructions that come with the press. Brass is getting more expensive all the time, but if you don’t over-load and stretch the casings they can be sized and reused many times. Straight wall pistol cases are easy like Duane says. Invest in carbide dies and you don’t even have to lubricate cases. Say you are reloading for Yo’s 6.5 distance shooter. (Carbide dies are not used on shouldered cases) You’ll want to build a load that matches you, the rifle and the distances you shoot. The game becomes building a load that shoots perfectly in your gun. Each caliber needs a specific set of dies and they run $20 t0 $35, depending on caliber and such. If you punch lots of paper it’s worth it. If you are shooting an AR and cycling cheap foreign para stuff through, your reloads will make it shoot like a different and better rifle. Cost to get started I’d guess at $250. Two additional suggestions. If you purchase a new accuracy rifle, clean the barrel until you are sick of cleaning, then repeat the process again. Second, have an expert improve your trigger. When he asks what you want, you tell him you want a “good trigger,” he’ll do the rest.
Save the environment by reloading yourself, really?
It is almost all about cost.
The author never said “save the environment”. The author merely pointed out that reloading reduces one’s impact on the environment by re-using cartridge cases. Which is true.
My friend JD, a dedicated reloader, and I have a running friendly ball-busting dialogue about reloading.
I watched him recently this duck season doing his reloading. I inquired about his costs. If you impute some reasonable opportunity cost for his time, I am able to demonstrate to him that he is losing money reloading. And he buys shells with primer already included!
So there’s no way this is an economic proposition. If you want to reload, by all means do it. It’s fun and you can roll your own and compare velocities with factory ammo. Obviously it’s a dubious survivalist proposition, as raw materials would be difficult to obtain.
And for Godsakes buy a very sophisticated digital scale. It’s so easy to get bored and put too much gunpowder into a load. Weigh and reweigh!
Captain Willard- “So there’s no way this is an economic proposition”
This is just plain false or lies. I can reload plinkers in 9 or 45 for between 3 and 5 cents a shot, 10 cents max,mostly discount components from here:
https://americanreloading.com/en/4-projectiles
sometimes the discounts are steep on demilitarized components. So at 5 cents a shot, 1000 rounds of .45 costs me around 50, even if your costs are 8 or 10 cents its 100 bucks max, what can you get a case of 45 for?
Time is a much bigger factor, takes a minute to do it right.
Mad Dog Meathead ,You probably know as much about reloading as I do which is nothing.You make me smile.?
Incorrect: I have done plenty of reloading.
Correct: You know nothing.
Ammo could be a real chokepoint for the gun control crowd. A couple of years ago finding .22LR was like finding gold. I never really knew why. Being able to reload your own could be very valuable one day.
You can even reload rimfires:
http://22lrreloader.com/design-details/
Yeah you can, but making and loading the primer compound should make anyone with common sense shudder. You could used to buy primed 22 cases to load your own but I haven’t seem them in years.
OTOH, improvising a crimped for a 17 RF allows you to pull those soft expansive ones and insert fmj’s in their place to maximize certain potential capabilities of the round. DAMHIKT.
as with most hobbies, this one can consume a lot of time. So if your time is mega valuable, cost savings are debatable. That said, you may learn more about ballistics doing this than you would otherwise. This hobby rewards OCD people like me with precision ammo I could not get otherwise. If you try to take shortcuts, or just plain fuck it up, you could end up destroying a gun or worse. I’ve been reloading about ten years now, no problems yet. Learn to do it right, it is rewarding in many ways. Gun control can be ammo costing more than you can afford as well as many other things.
I have nothing but respect and admiration for those who reload…it is on my Prepping wish list…but at the bottom. I have a friend with the inclination and experience and we have discussed sharing the expense with the set up being in his shop. I’m a decent farmer and he is an engineer…we may barter.
To make up for it I have bought and carefully stored enough ammo to take over a small central American country!
I wish I could go into more detail…..I am gubmint cheese…
Been reloading for myself for 30 it’s as well
I’ve developed specialty rounds for anything from 5.56 to 3” cannons …. all for Mordor.
Underwater special forces to discarding sabot rounds for big Army, AF or Navy
The primer is the biggest constraint on civilian reloading
Choke that supply and you kill it.
Why not powder too?
Brass can be re-used; to an extent anyway. Bullets can conceivably be cast from scratch, although you won’t be getting much in the way of accuracy.
Powder and primers are therefore the two consumables in the recipe that would be critical.
Yes, please buy a reloading book if this has fired up some interest in your head. There are some missing details though (resizing wasn’t mentioned, case mouth expansion was missing, bullet seating depth matters, and there are different types of primers). Also find some load data (this lists the primer, powder type and weight, and bullet seating depth). Much is on the internet free at the power manufacturer sites, and there are books for sale by the bullet manufacturers and general ones that give you the details and quite a few suggested powder choices.