Do you have a least favorite cartridge for reloading?

[Trey45]

Is there a particular cartridge that you dislike reloading? I understand that reloading and casting is our "thing" here, but there's got to be a few cartridges that you don't really like reloading for. Maybe one that's overly time consuming, or expensive, or ones that are just more trouble than they're worth.

Have you ever stopped loading a particular cartridge all together due to the complexities or difficulty in reloading it?

We all have a favorite, or maybe even several favorites, but what about the least favorites? I'd like to hear what you have to say!

[NuJudge]

.32 acp

Dinky cases, dinky bullets, microscopic powder charges.

Only .25 auto must be worse.

CDD

[Dframe]

I'm primarily a pistol cartridge loader, so I find anything without a carbide option, to be bothersome. Not that I dislike them, but I could do without the extra work and mess of case lube.

[dougader]

.32 acp

Dinky cases, dinky bullets, microscopic powder charges.

Only .25 auto must be worse.

CDD

25 auto is worse. I have small hands and I still pinch my fingers once in awhile trying to size those puny little cases.

[45nut]

I find the mere idea of loading a .44 particularly distasteful. :)

[casey]

.357 sig, great round but a pain to load with that bottle neck case.

[ETG]

Weird but the cartridge I hate to reload most is my favorite to shoot - guess I'm a masochist!!!! It's the 25-06. I have never bought a commercial case for it so making the cases from mil surp 3006 and then doing all the trimming and de-crimping is a real PITA - at least the first load.

[DanWalker]

.380
Biggest PITA I load. it's a shame too. My Bersa is a really accurate belly gun. just a pain to load for.

[Jim]

Onliest caliber I ever owned that I DISLIKED reloading was a :takinWiz:.32 S&W. When I realized I wasn't enjoying the pastime of refurbishing the rounds, I gave the revolver and all the stuff for it to a friend. "Here, take it in good health and mud in yer' eye!"
Good riddance![smilie=s:

[Rocky Raab]

None of mine involve cast bullets. I could never get a 219 Zipper to perform, either in accuracy or velocity. Sold it. The one I still have but dread loading for is a 17 Ackley Bee. Its favorite powder is 3031, and getting those little logs down that skinny neck is darn near a tweezers deal: absolute nightmare.

[technetium-99m]

I hate trimming large quantities of 223 brass. But I just ordered a possum hollow trimmer, so that may change.

[JW6108]

.32 acp

Dinky cases, dinky bullets, microscopic powder charges.

Only .25 auto must be worse.

CDD

+1 on the .32 ACP. It is especially awkward after handling a bunch of .30-06 or 8x57's, etc. Until I get the "feel" for the little cases I am dropping them, not getting them into the shellholder smoothly, etc., etc.

I can only imagine how bad .25's must be.

[wiljen]

the 38-40 shoulder crusher. It never fails that I lose at least one or two cases every time I start loading - even with an M die.

[chaos]

I played particular hell with the 50 beowulf. Come to find out I had some dies that were substandard right out of the box. Lee made it right as far as the dies were concerned. I had to eat my losses on that brass which wasnt particularly cheap. I do not like Lee dies from the get go. They were the only brand manufacturing them at the time.
The Beowulf has a Severly rebated head. The Sizing Die was WAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY too tight causing the case to effectively start to turn inside out over the head/ set back WAY TOO FAR. :groner: upon my first reloading, I found my cases had GREATLY shrank in length, to the point of being unusable

[big boar]

30-30 Win, ya I know it should be the bestest but for some reason I can't get consistent results no matter what. I've had great results (and easily obtainable) with 308, 30-06,35 Whelen, 450Marlin and even pretty good with 303 British but for me the 30-30 just won't do it. I even get fairly good accuracy from a 12ga Lyman (or Lee) slug, better at 50 yds than the 30-30 will do.

[biggome]

Least favorite?

40 S&W, Lee cast is too blunt for my Star M-40 to not beat up the noses.

Second it would be my .25's though I haven't given up on them.
My 25/06 with 120 grain RCBS cast has yet to thrill me.
My attempts to make a 25 ACP w/Lyman cast out perform an identical 22LR pocket pistol has yet to happen though I have yet to "push it" over book data.

The bottom line is that cast at best is a challenge to make work really well, if we really wanted textbook results we would shoot factory or at least jacketed reloads.

Play with what you have, if you get tired of it get rid of it or set it aside for a few years. To me, it is all about making something work rather than working something that would work for anyone else whom happened to try it.

Paul

[zxcvbob]

.30 Carbine. It's kind of like reloading a pistol cartridge and kind of like a rifle cartridge, and it inherited the worst attributes of each.

[turbo1889]

A lot of people I so far have mentioned the 25-ACP and 32-ACP as ones they don't like to load for -- you will gave to forgive me here but I like reloading for those.

Now the one I don't like to reload for? That would be in order of dislike the 32-Colt, 40 S&W, and 22-Hornet.

32-Colt: A healed base bullet round and a living nightmare to try to crimp and get the darn bullet straight !!!! When you crimp it using a very special crimpting die the bullet more then half the time will cock one way or the other instead of staying straight. [smilie=b:

I just hate the 40 S&W in general -- More kick, bang, and flash then either a 45-ACP or 9mm, less nock down then the 45-ACP and more rainbow trajectery then the 9mm. If your going shoot a 40-cal auto, be a real man get a 10mm; 400-Corbon isn't bad either just don't settle for that 40 S&W half-a$$ round.

I never could seem to get the hornet right. By the books it should be just perfect for a nice heavy for caliber round nosed cast bullet like the molds from NEI drop. Never could get it to shoot good for me though.

[leadman]

7.62 Nagant revolver cartridge using the original style cases. I've tried jacketed and cast. Trying to get the crimp in front of the nose of the bullet so the case will enter the barrel as designed is difficult. That and the factory bullets vary from about 7mm to 31 cal.
Then trying to shoot the revolver even in single action mode with the horrendous trigger.

[jdgabbard]

.22 LR

For some reason I just hate it when you seat them in the magazine and you have to deal with that little rim.:kidding:

On a real note, I have no cartridge that I hate reloading for. I must say I love them all.

[revolver junkie]

308 mil surp brass.

oh and 45acp :kidding: they just keep turning back into brass no matter how hard i try :Fire:

[shotman]

The 25acp is near the top. I hate the 17 rem. I did go to a ball powder but the brass is about 3 time load.
The 357 sig is not too bad if you dont make a mistake and use the Rem gold saber bullet. I loaded about 100 one time and thought I had a nice round. Put them in the plastic boxes and off to range. Opened the box and box was full of powder and all the bullets were inside the cases
Do know you cant get them out. They are in the bottom of a piling hole

[missionary5155]

Good morning
41 Colt.... It is time consuming... have to make everything... only black powder shoots well... cases cost more than for my 41 Supermag... and in the end if ya can keep 6 shots on a paper plate at 25 yards you win braging rights on most any web sight !
But ,,,, What a joy to play with !
Mike ...now in Illinois and unpacking to stay for 7 months.

[oldhickory]

No cartridge that leaves an empty shorter than my thumb is wide.

I gotta go along on the .30 Carbine with zxcvbob for stuff I do reload. It's o.k. in a single stage press, but a real nut buster in a progressive!...And what fun is it loading them in a single stage? I reserve that for .30/06 and .45/70!...Not a half and half like .30 Carbine. I love the gun, a 1942 Underwood, but that cartridge...

On the other hand, .45ACP and .44 Magnum are nothing short of pure pleasure to load.:mrgreen:

[NickSS]

my least favorite cartridge to load for is for my percussion sharps. The cartridges are made from treated paper and it is very time consuming to make them then they are gone in a flash when you pull the trigger with nothing but a hole (BIG HOLE) in the target. They are fun to shoot but each 50 rounds costs me about three hours of work.

[1Shirt]

25ACP!!!!!!! A guy I ran into years ago wanted me to load for him. I told him that if he would buy the dies and components, and give me the dies, I would load him the first 100 even. He did, and I did! I gave him back the whole thing including the dies with the statement that I didn't want to ever see a 25ACP again. I durn near hole punched a couple of fingers in the process. On top of that, the ctg. is in my opinion about a useless as a lot of people I have run into.
1Shirt!:coffee:

[sargenv]

.223 rem with flat based bullets.. I crush case necks and even chamfering the case mouths it is still difficult to make them work.. :(

[cardinarky]

I used to reload for a living back in the early 80's and there was a Liquor store owner in town who carried a 25ACP Raven for his only protection gun (I'm not sure where you would go for a back-up unless it was a 22 rimfire belt buckle gun). I'm not making this up.
Along with the gun ($39.95) He purchased one box of factory ammo from me and then he would come out to the range every month or so and run 50 rounds through that Raven, and I of course had to reload them.
He was upset when some of the brass split after the second or third reload.
That Raven fired at least 250 rounds that I know of. I lost track of him after that. He went out of business.

[bruce drake]

I personally have a love/hate relationship with two 6.5 Jap rifles. I love to shoot them because they are so accurate for their ages but I hate howthey abuse my handcrafted cases. To avoid paying the high price of Hornady or Norma brass, I use either 35 Rem cases that are necked down; 220 Swift cases that are necked up and then trimmed to length or my few painfullly reformed 308 Winchester cases that were swaged down with RiceOne's homemade swage dies that he made for me last fall (First time I used them, I broke my Lee Challenger Press- when Roy tells you to use a Strong Press and a good Lube - he means it!)

REgarding 223 cases with flat-based bullets. I use a M-die on them, just like I would with a gas-checked 55gr LEE Bator cast boolit.

Bruce

[chickenstripe]

Crushed cases and poor neck tension...... respectively of course.

[303Guy]

Now the one I don't like to reload for? That would be ..... and 22-Hornet.Heyyyy! I love loading the little hornet! If you saw how I do it you would laugh! :mrgreen:

http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo327/303Guy/MVC-133F_edited.jpg
http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo327/303Guy/MVC-168F_edited.jpg

Or if I want to load without the 'paper cup', I place a cardboard wad over the powder charge then compress the powder and size the neck with this tool.

http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo327/303Guy/MVC-289F_edited.jpg

:veryconfu[smilie=1:

[Trey45]

303 guy, that's actually pretty cool how you do that! I imagine those little pills are hard to roll, what you've got looks to be a real time saver!

[DLCTEX]

I disliked loading 22 Hornet until I got Lee collet neck sizer and a factory crimp die. I can size the neck just enough to slip the boolit in easily, and then crimp to hold it

[waco]

i have a TON of calibers i HATE reloading for!!!!
all the ones my non reloading buddies love to shoot up!:evil::bigsmyl2:

[mooman76]

7.62 x38 Nagant pistol. Difficult to load compared to other rounds plus I haven't got good results. Wonder why I bother some times.

[dromia]

My least favourite in rifle is the 7.62 NATO and the 9mm parabellum in pistol.

No particular reasons other than they the 2 rounds that I can't really get fired up about.

Its "Oh No got shoot 7.62/9mm again" and my heart sinks.

Just personal foibles.

The fiddly, time consuming stuff I love.

[jlchucker]

After a bad experience with a H&R 38-55 a couple of years ago, that caliber has left me cold! I finally sold the *** gun, loading dies, brass, and boolets. Unless you want to make/remake your own rifle, I figure this caliber to be best left alone these days.

[Mohillbilly]

Forming 357/44 AMP cases from mil.308 ....size,trim,ream, trim, size, and load......

[buffalorunner]

458 Win !!! Just the thought of all that lead and powder disappearing each time I pull the trigger. I can reload 7 or 8 25-20s for the components in one 458.

[inuhbad]

I hate the brass prep work on just about ANY bottle-necked case!

I LOVE loading for 45 ACP and 38 Special!

[.357]

22 hornet, i managed to always mash those cases.

[yondering]

Heyyyy! I love loading the little hornet! If you saw how I do it you would laugh! :mrgreen:

http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo327/303Guy/MVC-168F_edited.jpg

Or if I want to load without the 'paper cup', I place a cardboard wad over the powder charge then compress the powder and size the neck with this tool.

:veryconfu[smilie=1:

303Guy, what's the purpose of the paper with a jacketed bullet? Are you using .223" bullets in a .224" bore?

I love loading for my Hornet. I load them long for my #1, only about .2" of the 40gr bullet in the case, and use A1680 powder which completely fills the case at 14.5gr. I use a full length sizer die but only size the neck, about one caliber's length, the body isn't touched, and case lube is optional.

I disliked loading for my 7mm Mag, because it used so much powder; realized I could do the same things with my 30-06 with less powder, and sold the 7mm.

[Doc_Stihl]

Anything weatherby with those GD double radius shoulders. BUCKLE Double BUCKLE bs.

[Woody]

I had alot of trouble with .30 Herrett, should have went with a contender 30-30 barrel instead. I don't want to be sacreligious, but the 45-70 has been the worst. I lose more cases than with any other caliber, and have had bullets seat in case crooked. Not so bad after getting dies set perfect, but worse than any other rifle round I've loaded for. Just my twocents.
Woody

[Lead Fred]

Being I only reload two: 30-30 & 30-06

Nope, I like them both. the crimp is an extra step, but its countered by the fun factor in shooting the Marlin.

[lifeon2]

really dont mind any of them but I hate the lube,size,clean lube off stage for rifle cases oh and the 7.62x25

[wallenba]

.30 Herret, size down 30-30, cut neck to trim, check space on shoulder by "feel", load, and fire form the brass, clean, resize and reload. Reject rate about 20%. Bought a 7-30 Waters barrel for that Contender.

[claybird]

My dislove is the 9mm. Too short to handle easy and anything smaller is on the no-no list also. Favorite is the 38sp/357mag. along with the 45 colt.
I might add that I am no longer casting my own as I now have lung cancer and not allowed to sniff the smokie smell.

[Rockydog]

6mm TCU. Reforming .223 brass is easy just run it in the resize die and neck it up, being very careful not to set the shoulder back even a smidge, which will result in case head separation. The pain comes after fireforming. This case is nearly straight walled. It only tapers .007 from case head to shoulder. No matter how I lube I seem to lose about one in twenty to a stuck case when I resize fireformed cases. I really need a dedicated neck sizer as I'm now running these up into a FL die backed off a 3/4 turn. Love round. It's a death ray on PDogs with Hornady VMax. But a real pain to load for. Really looking forward to trying cast in it. RD

[wildwes]

.223 remington, don't much enjoy shooting it, and I don't particularly like loading for it. Don't dislike it either, I just really don't have much use for it. I'd rather have a 22 hornet

[nascarkent]

Hey claybird Hate to hear the bad news!!!!!!!:(

[Heavy lead]

The .204 Ruger, it would shoot, I hated reloading for it so much it's gone. Honestly (no offense to all of you 20 lovers) just can't see what I can do with that I can't with anything with a second digit 2.

[jim4065]

Mouse gun calibers - anything .45 and under.

(But I reload 'em anyway.)

[hobbylink1]

50 AE only because of the cost.

[32-20]

9mm Makarov, only because I had to make cases from the 9mm Para for a while until brass came on the market

[1Shirt]

25ACP, What a waste and PIA!
1Shirt!

[white eagle]

my least favorite is the 475 Linebaugh or the 500 Linebaugh
they are my least favorite because I don't have one yet :bigsmyl2:
but in all honesty it would have been the 19-223 sheesh

[frankenfab]

9mm and 22 Hornet. The cases are too little for my level of finger dexterity. I don't load either cartridge anymore.

[sargenv]

eh, of the calibers I dislike, the 223 rem with plain based j-words is likely the most diffcult.. boat tails are way easier..

[bearcove]

357 herrett case forming was a pain, but I still liked it. That 's as bad as it gets. Most of the frustrating stuff is me fouling it up.

[BCall]

I dunno about a least favorite cartridge, but I do know that I have a 4 cavity 462560 Lyman and a 6 cavity 460-425-RF Ranchdog mold, and every time I fill them once - I always think, my gosh, I could have darn near loaded a full box of 218 Bee ammo in that one pour.

Almost hurts me to fill it again.

[HighHook]

It just kills me to load 500gr lead boolits anymore wondering when my lead supply will run dry.

Shoot and enjoy!!!

[Moonie]

You know after I recently started casting 22 boolits I have to agree, even the 200gr+ boolits are a little painful...

[krag35]

17 Remington, and 380 auto.

[cabezaverde]

I hate trimming large quantities of 223 brass. But I just ordered a possum hollow trimmer, so that may change.

Would you let me know how you like it?

[Olevern]

Onliest caliber I ever owned that I DISLIKED reloading was a :takinWiz:.32 S&W. When I realized I wasn't enjoying the pastime of refurbishing the rounds, I gave the revolver and all the stuff for it to a friend. "Here, take it in good health and mud in yer' eye!"
Good riddance![smilie=s:

Jim,
hope that dislike doesn't extend to the 32 H&R magnum.
Your solution was a boon to a friend ;-)
Olevern

[Jim]

No, the .32 S&W is a little ol' short thing that's more trouble than it's worth. Onliest thing I can think of that might be worse is the .25 ACP. At least the magnum version is long enough to hold onto.

[robertbank]

My Grand-dads .41Long Colt drives me nuts. First I have to make the cases out of .38SPL brass. Takes time and I get a lot of squashed cases. Once I get at hundred prepped, loading them takes time and patience given you still run the risk of collapsed cases when seating the bullet. Now after they fire form on the first firing things get a lot easier 2nd time around.

If all that isn't enough, accuracy using the old gun with heel base boolits from my two Lyman moulds runs from minute of man to minut of moose at 15 yards. My hollow base boolits are somewhat more accurate remaining minute of man out to 25 yards.

Colt would have done us a favour by either deciding on the bore diameter and trying to match it with the cartridges they made. They didn't so we have what we have.

Nice though to take the old gun out and go boom with it once a year just to remember grand-dad.

Take care

Bob

[Marine Sgt 2111]

forming .17 fireball cases from .222 remingtons... just shoot me!!!!

[HARRYMPOPE]

any wildcat i have to do extensive case forming for.I now find it better to have a custom tight dimensioned reamer made for a standard cartridge(based on available brass dimensions) and all i have to do is neck turn.


HMP

[Tracy]

"Least favorite" is a little strong, because I really love my DWM '08 7x57 and enjoy loading for it. I have never fired a factory load down its bore, and in fact I formed most of my 7x57 cases from .270 brass. But it is primarily a hunting utensil. Cut-down (24") barrel, cut down and free floated military stock, a cheap 4 power Tasco scope (soon to be upgraded) and a 15 oz Timney trigger; it is my most-trusted hunting rifle. But I don't shoot boolits in it (my rifle boolit shooting is mostly in .22 Hornet, .223, .22-250, and .30-up), so my reloading for it is usually the same old load of a 154 Hornady over some 4064.

[Idaho Sharpshooter]

My 22 Eargesplitten-Loudenboomer...

Rich

22-378 Wbee AI

[catboat]

Haven't reloaded for it, but I saw the cartridge: 14 caliber-22 jet. (22 jet necked down to .14 caliber bullet.).


The bullet looked like a copper grain of rice. THAT must be a pain to reload.

[dnepr]

well just purchased a .303 savage , I have about 150 22 swift cases , if the reforming doesn't go so well it will probably be at the top of my list:smile:

[geargnasher]

.30 Carbine. It's kind of like reloading a pistol cartridge and kind of like a rifle cartridge, and it inherited the worst attributes of each.

+1. Always wanted a .30 carbine when I was growing up, then I actually got to shoot one and reload cast for it using a friend's stuff. Never again.

Gear

[roosterf106]

For cast bullets, that's easy. The danged .380 ACP. Poor results (keyholes at 25 yards) and miserable, finger-bunching, hard-to-align bullets into teeny-weenie cases.

Best wishes,

rooster

[375supermag]

I don't like reloading rifle ammunition , just because of the need to lube cases.
So, I mostly shoot factory loads in my rifles...that is about to change, as my teenage son goes through way too much rifle ammunition for that to continue. I need to buy dies and components for 7x57mm, .25-06, 7mm Magnum, .30-06 and .303 British Enfield. That boy is going to need to get a job, just to help pay for the amount of shooting he does.

I also don't particularly enjoy reloading .45ACP, only because of the need to run each loaded round through a Profile Crimp die after seating. One extra step, but it does ensure that every round chambers in my .45ACP pistols. No other seating die has ever given me the confidence of chambering every round that this die does, so I guess it is worth the extra effort. It is just that at the rate we go through .45ACP around here, that extra step is somewhat time-consuming. And time is something that is in short supply around here...

[btroj]

30 carbine is a pain. Just a pain in the neck to me.not really a rifle or a pistol cartridge.
I do like the 30 carbine Blackhawk though. Very accurate, and no recoil. But very loud. It makes. Ore noise for the recoil than anything I have shot, except maybe my 10 K hornet Contender.

[CWME]

Don't kick me out but 44 Mag. My Marlin 1894CB has liked absolutely NOTHING I have fed it. Three different 240 gr boolits, one 200 grain boolit, Hornady XTP, etc etc. Different powders primers, nothing will group inside of 4" at 50 yards. I gave up on it. I can shoot my colt 1911 better at 50 yards than that pile O junk. Only reason I haven't traded it off is my Dad likes to shoot it at 25 yards when I am shooting pistols. He is disabled and it is light enough for him to handle.

[thehouseproduct]

Maybe not so much one caliber, but I hate mil surplus brass. I hate having to swage primer pockets even if it is only once. Add that to the fact that more often than not, they end up as a 223 based wildcat. Seems like I have to work really hard for not much results.

[George369]

9mm Luger can be a pest at times.The bore diameters seem to vary quite a bit,which can lead to leading and so-so accuracy.The tapered cases can also be a problem which leads to the case resizing the bullet.Case length also variesa bit.All these problems can be fixed but it takes a little time.

[George369]

THe 9mm Luger can be a real PITA to reload at times.The bore diameters seem to vary a great deal which can lead to leading and so-so accuracy.The tapered case can also be a problem since sometimes the case seems to size the bullet down.The case lengths seem to vary more than other pistol cases.All of these can be fixed but can be annoying sometimes.