Hardest part of reloading?

[Charlie Two Tracks]

As we all know, there are many different things to learn when reloading and casting. I was wondering what you had most trouble with in learning this hobby. For myself it is pan lubing. I make quite a mess but sooner or later I'll get it down. I have no trouble at all tumble lubing but pan lubing............lube on the table, floor, wrong places on the boolit, on my hands. I've only lubed about 500 so far so I really don't have that much experience yet. I will get it.

[joatmon]

Mine would be cleaning the backer juice off the range brass! Wish the clubs where I scroung brass would outlaw dipping!!!
No really the hardest part would be handle pulling but the recent dillons removed a lot of it for me.
Aaron

[HeavyMetal]

Brass prep.

[KYCaster]

The hardest part??? Getting all those boolits to go into the same hole!!!

I've done it a couple of times with those copper covered things, but so far the lead isn't cooperating.

Jerry

[82nd airborne]

Finding the live primers I drop on the floor amid the sea of spent primers.

[LaPoint]

The hardest part of reloading for me is to stop trying to save money on shooting by buying more reloading stuff!

[btroj]

I find none of it hard.
I dislike trimming cases. I don't get excited about sizing bullets.

Some days I don't want to deal with any of it. I just need to be in the right mood and things all go pretty easy.

[Duckiller]

KYCaster make bigger holes then it will be easier to get everything in one big hole.

[stubshaft]

It's a tie between turning necks/trimming and pan lubing.

[Recluse]

I find none of it hard.
I dislike trimming cases. I don't get excited about sizing bullets.

Some days I don't want to deal with any of it. I just need to be in the right mood and things all go pretty easy.

Bubba? Is that you, Bubba? (my nickname for my little brother) :) Are we related?

I don't like trimming cases and sizing boolits doesn't exactly make my leg all tingling, either.

But for whatever reason, when the mood hits me or all the conditions are right, I can literally spend all day and then some out in my shop makin' ammo.

:coffee:

[Harter66]

So far I'd say decapping GI brass the 1st time. A close 2nd would be finding all of my auto brass especially my sks.

[Southern Son]

Trimming brass. I trimmed about 250 .44Mag back to .44Spl about 6 months ago and I had tiny littl cuts all over my fingers and my hands hurt for days.

Physically I find casting hard yakka, but I enjoy it, so it is more like playing a hard game of sport more than hard work.

[375supermag]

I dislike trimming brasss...a lot.
How much you ask...I paid my gunsmith to trim my .375 Win to .375SuperMag. That's how much I hate to trim brass.

I also dislike going to a gunshop to buy bullets, brass, primers and powder...it seems that every time I do that, some S&W, Colt or Ruger handgun catches my teenage son's eye and I start hearing "Dad, We should get that!" That's how I ended up with my last half dozen or so new guns...needless to say, my gunsmith loves to see my son walk in the shop. I'm the regular customer, but he always says "Hi!" to my son before he even acknowledges that I am there. Sometimes, he has handed a gun to him to examine before he even notices me.

[Charlie Two Tracks]

I was thinking more of .......... what was the hardest thing for you to learn how to do correctly. It used to be getting the mold to fill out correctly but now after learning about pan lubing............ well, you know.

[10x]

Finding the live primers I drop on the floor amid the sea of spent primers.

If you have live primers on the floor do not use a shop vac to pick them up. Static electricity can ignite a primer and the dust in the vac can explode....

[casterofboolits]

Nohing really. I was trained as a machinist and trained to work in plus.0002 Minus
.0000 increments for stamping die tooling. I applied this training to my reloading

I do dislike prepping once fired military brass. I have 1,600 rounds that are cleaned, sized, primer pockets swaged waiting to be trimmed and it's hard to get the gumption up to start.

[44man]

Everything is boring, like trimming, the brass in one container never seems to go down! :bigsmyl2:
But really, the hardest part is just thinking as you stare at rounds that did not do what you want. You have to educate yourself, recover fired boolits to study, cure leading, etc.
I excel at sitting and staring! [smilie=l:

[375supermag]

I was thinking more of .......... what was the hardest thing for you to learn how to do correctly. It used to be getting the mold to fill out correctly but now after learning about pan lubing............ well, you know.

I don't think any of it is particularly hard to learn...mostly it is just common sense and paying attention to detail. But then, I don't cast my own...yet. That looks to be a little more involved. When I can figure out how to get more than 24 hours in a day, I want to start casting my own bullets and maybe swaging them also.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

the hardest part is desiding which caliber to load next
Jon

[jameslovesjammie]

I was wondering what you had most trouble with in learning this hobby.

MAKING time to do it. I haven't shot/reloaded/hunted much since my first boy was born and have even cut that down since my second boy last year. My oldest is now 5 and enjoys .22's. I'm thinking a Single Six .32 is going to be on my watch list in the future.

[steg]

The hardest part for me was just getting started, their wasn't anyone around me that reloaded their own ammo, let alone cast their own bullets, all I had were the manuals and I got so tired of hearing "Youll blow yourself up", LOL, but after squeezing off that first shot, I knew then and there I was hooked for life...............................steg

[fishnbob]

Finding a block of cartridges in your loading block and wondering what in the h--- you put in them. Now I keep a reloading log book of every session 'cause I have CRS, and it seems I am always getting interupted.

[3006guns]

Trying to explain to the wife all those spots of waxy boolit lube in HER carpet directly in front of my bench.

Seriously, there's no portion of casting/loading that I don't enjoy. Some operations take longer than others, but so what? It's a productive hobby, not a paying job! Relax and enjoy life.;-)

[dmen]

The hardest part for me is keeping up with demand, I'm trying to supply six shooters with pistol , rifle, and shotguns. dmen

[drklynoon]

Well I have a really cruddy short term memory so my first hard lesson was to clearly write everything down. On the reloading side of it when I first started it seemed like I had to re learn how to setup my dies every time I loaded a box. Once I was doing it more frequently this problem went away. Another lesson that I have learned is that, while lee dies are very useful their reloading equipment can be quite daunting. The Lee safety scale was the first thing to go. Now I'm looking for a replacment for the powder measure. If I would have bought a Lyman kit from the start I would have been able to use that equipment forever. I already new the dangers of cheap tools but I had to learn it again.

[blasternank]

I used to almost exclusively reload for pistols and never had to worry about lubing cases. I hate the process of lubing them and then having to clean all that off when it's done. It's an extra step that for whatever reason inside of me just bugs me. Other than that reloading relaxes me.

[Jal5]

None of it is really hard to learn. Like some of the other guys there are things I don't like to do , prepping brass for example. Making enough time to do it is the hardest part. But it is a great feeling to go to the range and shoot a nice group with your own ammo-boolits cast by you and reloaded by you.

[Wayne Smith]

Cleaning up afterwards. But then, that's my problem in almost everything I do!

[cephas53]

Just finished sorting through two buckets of wheel weights and all the assorted junk they throw in with them. Has just topped deswaging on my list. Actually if I'm in the right mood it's all good.

[Armorer]

Sometimes the hardest part is stopping. I tend to load a lot in the late evening, and I'll get into a rythm and lose track of time. Next thing I know it's nearly midnight and 0500 comes early.

[10x]

Just finished sorting through two buckets of wheel weights and all the assorted junk they throw in with them. Has just topped deswaging on my list. Actually if I'm in the right mood it's all good.

Sorting wheel weights, now there is a private corner of hell that I don't like to visit.
Melting them into ingots - now that is fun.

[kyswede]

Trimming cases used to be my least favorite, since I converted 500 pcs. of 9x19 brass to 9x18 for my CZ-82. But now that I have tried pan lubing, case trimming is #2. lol
kyswede

[shooterchris]

Casting accurate rifle bullets was the hardest thing to learn to do. I can do it now, but it took a lot of trial and error. Consistency is the key. Sorting them by weight and casting session has helped more than anything. Also, careful inspection before shooting, if the bases and bands aren't right cull em.

[waltham41]

I like it all so far, of course I havent been doing it long enough to get tired of any of it yet :)

[lead-1]

The one thing that I still haven't been able to get right is annealing.
I have tried several different times in different ways and it just do't work for me, one time I did some .223 and it looked great but it wouldn't chamber so I resized it again and wrinkled most of it. I had it too soft I guess.

[Von Gruff]

For me the hardest part was not having enough of the many necessary comodities.
Time to do what I wanted to do.
Money to do what I wanted to do.
Guns to do what I wanted to do.


Von Gruff.

[azcruiser]

Stop just can't seem to stop .Have more loaded than I'll ever shoot .First of the month is coming and I can't wait to head out and get 2000rd of 545x39 and another 1000rd 762x39 .Then there's the 50gal drum of 9mm brass in the garage needs loading that at least 2x 8 pounders of unique
think I have enough bullets.think I'm an addict

[10x]

For me the hardest part was not having enough of the many necessary comodities.
Time to do what I wanted to do.
Money to do what I wanted to do.
Guns to do what I wanted to do.


Von Gruff.

One can never have enough money, time, components, gear, or guns.

Apparently this condition comes from never having had enough as a kid....

[cbunt1]

For me the hardest thing is knowing when to quit. When is a load/boolit/combination "good enough"?

Sometimes the old tried and true recipes are impossible to improve on, and other times they are merely a starting point. Which is which? Well, trigger time is the only way to tell...Professor Pistol teaches truth, but you've got to be ready to listen to her!

[GLL]

The hardest for me is trying to find WW in southern California ! :( :(

Jerry

[Sieveboy]

paper patching has gotta be the worst

[tryNto]

Hardest for me is gathering funds ($$$) to buy what I want... :groner:

[Smoke-um if you got-um]

I think one of the hardest things about handloading/reloading is maintaining an up to date and accurate "knowledge data base". Over the years this has proven to be very necessary for me as components and load data has changed, sometimes very dramatically. I've handloaded/reloaded for over 40 yrs and still am constantly searching for anything pertaining to the topic to continue my education. It was this wish to continue the learning process that lead me to this forum and others like it. The great part about these forums is that both novices and accomplished handloaders can learn so much in so little time. A lot of the knowledge us old timers got was from the tried and true ways of word of mouth and trial and error. Magazines and loading data manuals were also available at considerable cost. The information on the Internet is largely at no cost and available from worldwide sources. While this makes the info easier to obtain it still requires a critical eye for validity and carefully testing for actual usefulness. The vast amount of info now available, in my opinion, makes the quest for accurate data even more difficult to obtain than it was years ago.

Mike

[leowa]

Takeing apart other reloaders junk . Stuff that should have never been put together in the first place.

[10x]

Takeing apart other reloaders junk . Stuff that should have never been put together in the first place.

Ain't that the truth!
I have about 350 rounds of .455 colt that is loaded with three grains over maximum in a mix of old balloon head cartridges and newer "modern " brass.
I do not dare shoot these loads in any gun. The old boy was of the opinion that the .455 colt was loaded to the same pressures as the 44 Remington magnum.

[mtnman31]

Personally, the hardest part is making or finding the time to reload. There aren't really any aspects of reloading that I find "hard" either mentally or physically. I do find sorting brass to be tedious but I usually end up sorting when I have gotten a bunch of extra brass either through range pick-ups or from other shooters. It ends up being a trade off - I have to sort this stuff but it was free.

BTW - I enjoy reloading and cast as much as I do shooting. I'm a busy-body and my hands are always working something.

[Bulltipper]

+1 on the pulling other peoples junk... I love free stuff, especially free gun stuff, but it seems like a lot of guys think a proper powder charge is filling the case and smashing in a bullet...

[Tom W.]

I don't like trimming brass AT ALL, but the hardest thing for me is trying a new load. What powder to use with what boolit... just to see how it does.

[cavalrymedic]

For me, the most tedious is preping brass. I like pretty brass so I use stainless shot along with LemiShine. I decap first, of course, so I can get pretty primer pockets. Then triming to length (really important for my M1 carbine, less so for the 30-30). Takes for-ever. But, in the end, I have pretty cases to reload.

The hardest part to get right has been dropping good boolits. So very many things I have to get just right. The alloy, the temp, and the latest bug that messed up my boolit making, the amount of lead in the Lee Production Pot. It seems if I have too little, it just trickles out and doesn't fill the mold up quickly enough leading to Ughh Lee boolits. Every time I cast, I find something else I was doing wrong. Still, I do love this hobby/obsession/way of life/preperation for the Apocolypse.

[biker_trash_1340]

The hardest part for me was just getting started, their wasn't anyone around me that reloaded their own ammo, let alone cast their own bullets, all I had were the manuals and I got so tired of hearing "Youll blow yourself up", LOL, but after squeezing off that first shot, I knew then and there I was hooked for life...............................steg

I know were your coming from. I started reloading before the Internet, AND sites like this one. Nice to have people with the same mind set to ask questions.

The lack of information was the hardest the part of reloading. I haven't asked many questions on here, but I sure am learning a lot...

Thanks All, BT

:drinks:

[WILCO]

Personally, the hardest part is making or finding the time to reload.

Same here. It's always a pleasure when I do get going though.

[MT Gianni]

I dislike the decisions of sorting my boolits. What gets tossed to the remelt and what gets shot. Base flaws and drop marks get remelted as do other obvious flaws. I still end up culling some at pickup from the cast pile, at sizing and at loading. I will weight sort match ammo but many times slight marks are OK for pistol @ 25 yards. It is just the sorting rather than picking up a batch of J-words and running them through.

[mold maker]

At one time we had to inspect/weigh/cull even factory jacketed. Things have come a long way since then. I started in 1964 and knew no one with experience. There were no forums, and a question ask of the gun rag writers took at least 2 months if then. For many years there were no close reloading/casting dealers. One of the first lessons I learned was not to trust hearsay as far as data. There were just too many chest thumping macho types.
I can look back only a few years and laugh at what I had always assumed was gospel.
You younger folks have no idea how hard we had it in the day.
Thank you Ken, the forum, and the willingness of it's members for sharing their knowledge.

[unclebill]

It's a tie between turning necks/trimming and pan lubing.

yep.........

[Charlie Sometimes]

The hardest to learn?
That would be ladle pouring, and getting a complete fill in the mold cavity- the base portion in particular. Using a Lee style ladle is a little more difficult to do it, but once I switched to an RCBS style (pressure pouring method) it happens all the time. :bigsmyl2:

[keyhole]

Getting started in the reloading game was the most difficult part for me. My first reloading was in jr. high school back in the mid 60's. I had no mentors or knew anyone who reloaded. None of my friends did. I did have a Herter's reloading book and read that cover to cover. Herter's stuff was all I could afford or even knew much about. A lot of what I did was trial and error, just because I had no one to bounce ideas off of.

[BulletFactory]

Getting the bullet size right.

[-06]

Mil brass ticks me off when I bend rods or break them trying to staighten them. Just picked up a universal to do the 1200 rds in the box. Then there is the Berdans that sneak into the good brass--and bend more rods--grrrrr. Am a grease monkey at heart so lube does not bother me.

[Rangefinder]

Hardest part for me is making my cases "empty and available" again... I can always find a little time to sit at the bench--time is scarce for me usually, but the shop is right here. Finding time to go play with what I have loaded--now THAT is a different story right now. Popping a few test loads outside the shop doesn't count. Several hours of range time undisturbed just doesn't happen right now--the price of having a little one in the house again...

[geargnasher]

...
But really, the hardest part is just thinking as you stare at rounds that did not do what you want. You have to educate yourself, recover fired boolits to study, cure leading, etc.
I excel at sitting and staring! [smilie=l:


Sometimes the hardest part is stopping. I tend to load a lot in the late evening, and I'll get into a rythm and lose track of time. Next thing I know it's nearly midnight and 0500 comes early.


Casting accurate rifle bullets was the hardest thing to learn to do. I can do it now, but it took a lot of trial and error. Consistency is the key. Sorting them by weight and casting session has helped more than anything. Also, careful inspection before shooting, if the bases and bands aren't right cull em.


For me the hardest thing is knowing when to quit. When is a load/boolit/combination "good enough"?

Sometimes the old tried and true recipes are impossible to improve on, and other times they are merely a starting point. Which is which? Well, trigger time is the only way to tell...Professor Pistol teaches truth, but you've got to be ready to listen to her!


Amen to all the above. The most difficult part for me is learning what it takes to get the accuracy I think I should get, and figuring out how to tell what to change next. This leads to the second hardest thing, making myself stop the obsessive quest at at two in the morning and go to bed.

Gear

[Charlie Sometimes]

Wow, the original post title is "Hardest part of reloading?"
The actual question was "most trouble with in learning this hobby?"

Maybe we should include Reading Comprehension, Writing, and Spelling as an answer in relation to this forum! :kidding:

[songdog53]

Trimming brass and when the pile seems to be growing as you work on it ...me thinks the non trimmed are breeding and making more.

[kyswede]

After my 2nd session pan lubing, case trimming is back to the #1 spot. Everything has a learning curve, but case trimming is just not fun for me. I enjoy everything else about reloading.
kyswede

[40sandwfan]

I think the hardest part for me was actually getting my own equipment and not having to use my Dad's any longer, although I liked it.
Now the hardest part is actually shooting what I have loaded. I don't want to short myself any ammunition so I tend to load it, put it in it's box and sit and look at it.

[unclebill]

Wow, the original post title is "Hardest part of reloading?"
The actual question was "most trouble with in learning this hobby?"

Maybe we should include Reading Comprehension, Writing, and Spelling as an answer in relation to this forum! :kidding:

are you trying to alienate everybody!?!
:mrgreen:

[BulletFactory]

getting the money for the things that this hobby requires.

[warf73]

Trimming brass and when the pile seems to be growing as you work on it ...me thinks the non trimmed are breeding and making more.

+1 getting myself to do it.

[40sandwfan]

getting the money for the things that this hobby requires.

This has got to be the hardest part of the process. I love the rest of it and would do it all day if I could. The money is the hardest part.

[onondaga]

Determining LOA with a new bullet is hard for me. I have three calibers in single shot break open rifles and like to try new bullets. I don't have a Hornady LOA gauge and use a bizarre method that takes 4 hands after I drop a bullet in the chamber and measure with a depth gauge. Positioning the bullet and case outside the rifle and arranging and holding them to measure LOA is really hard on my concentration, my hand coordination and my temper. I should buy the stupid tool I need and not be so cheap!

Gary

[10x]

Determining LOA with a new bullet is hard for me. I have three calibers in single shot break open rifles and like to try new bullets. I don't have a Hornady LOA gauge and use a bizarre method that takes 4 hands after I drop a bullet in the chamber and measure with a depth gauge. Positioning the bullet and case outside the rifle and arranging and holding them to measure LOA is really hard on my concentration, my hand coordination and my temper. I should buy the stupid tool I need and not be so cheap!

Gary

Why don't you build a depth gauge from a fire formed cartridge?
Simply drill out the primer hole, thread the hole, and put a long threaded bolt in that rests against the base of the cartridge. Place the bullet in the cartridge and turn in the bolt until it pushes the bullet against the lands, remove the case and the bolt acts as a bullet stop to determine the length you need for the bullet to touch the lands.

[Iron Mike Golf]

As far as learning or getting proficient in a new skill, for me it is casting boolits of consistent weight. I have not been casting long, so I am still climbing the curve.

If I could wave a wand and have 1 step done for me, it would be sizing/decapping handgun brass.

[geargnasher]

Why don't you build a depth gauge from a fire formed cartridge?
Simply drill out the primer hole, thread the hole, and put a long threaded bolt in that rests against the base of the cartridge. Place the bullet in the cartridge and turn in the bolt until it pushes the bullet against the lands, remove the case and the bolt acts as a bullet stop to determine the length you need for the bullet to touch the lands.

What ever happened to seating boolits long in a fired or partially sized case and chambering them?

Gear

[40sandwfan]

I think the only other problem I have about reloading is to find the time in amongst everything else I have going on, to do it.
The only other part that I hate having to do is size my cast boolits. I love casting and reloading, but I don't have the confidence to load without sizing.

[GH1]

For me the hardest thing to lear and become comfortable with was setting the charge thrower and the seat/crimp die.
GH1

[peerlesscowboy]

case prep, specifically cleaning the carbon off the case necks of bottle neck rifle cases.

[garym1a2]

Scrubbing the lead out of my 1911. And trying figured out how to stop it even when my loads only run 820 fps.

Funny thing is in .357 with my 686 four inch and Rossi 1892 20 inch all my loads shoot with no lead problem. Even the 1600+fps rounds out of the rifle.

[XWrench3]

i guess pan lubing would be it for me also. i actually gave up on it. now, i just dip every boolit, set it on wax paper, and when i am done lubing all of them, i size them. then i get out the paper towels, and wipe off all the excess lube. one day, i will be able to afford a lube/sizer. until then, it will just take a lot of time, and paitence.

[Cranium]

Sizing and lubricating using my Lyman 4500.

One bullet placed in at a time and a little pressure applied to the lube crank to fill the lube rings. Remove the bullet, wipe off any lube from the bottom if necessary, set it aside then grab the next one.

I'm only casting for 9 mm at this point. I clean brass in lots of 500 or 1000. I load several hundred at a time. I cast six bullets at a time and do several hundred per session. But I have to lube and size one at a time. This is, for me, the most time intensive and boring part of the process.

I makes me wonder, why go through all this effort to save $0.05 per round?

[40sandwfan]

I just got done sizing brass for my wife's 7mm-08. It's not a hard part, but I don't like lubing brass to size them. I don't like getting the stuff all over my hands and all the other stuff. It's messy. Again, it's not hard but I don't like doing that part about it.

[gnoahhh]

You don't know "hard" until you've had to clean up 25 pounds of #9 shot spilled into the carpet when you get the bright idea to set up a shotshell loader on the coffee table. (Can you tell I'm not married?)

[40sandwfan]

Sounds like someone needs a hobby.