Reloaders, guard your treasure!!!!

[labdwakin]

I'm sharing this with you guys because I hope that what happened to me Sunday night may be averted for someone else. When I moved back to Arkansas from Florida, my dad let me appropriate an old storage room in one of his barns for my reloading addiction. The few "before" pics I have aren't recent and don't show half of what I had in there when disaster struck.

Monday morning I went to my parents' farm to oversee the work on the house I'm rehabbing so I can live there. On the way to the house you have to go past the barn where I had been doing my reloading until I could get them to finish my house. I stopped... looked... and my heart fell through my shoes... I screamed an animal cry of rage, pain, and loss all at once.

Sunday night a large system of thunderstorms moved through our area. Lightning hit my dad's barn and burned it to the ground with ALL of my reloading gear and components in it. I had slowly built up a very nice selection of rifle bullets, pistol moulds, powder, primers, tooling of all kinds, and some shooting accessories. I don't even want to THINK about what it would cost to just go out and buy it all.














The next post in this thread will show what my little kingdom turned into because I wasn't dilligent about making sure all my eggs weren't in one basket.

[labdwakin]

Since a lot of people keep asking me for my address in PMs and don't seem to find where I posted it here I edited this post to show the info.


Okay, have a small storage space....
Okay guys, as far as dies go, I don't have any idea what I need yet but appreciate the offers. I think I've managed to recover most of my dies and will know more about what's needed there after I get my new shop put together and can clean them up to find out what can be saved. However, if you guys have sets of dies that aren't being used AT ALL, I can use any of the listed calibers but need dies for the calibers I load the most of: 223, 30-06 (sent a set by tward), 45 ACP, 45 LC (MK24gunner sent me some), 7mm Rem Mag(Woody sent these to me.) The other calibers I don't shoot as much and can replace over time.


As for equipment, I need a new pot (which Celt has already graciously sent me along with a FRB of other goodies). I have plenty of lead, moulds, sizer dies, and nose punches. I also have a couple of sizers (although, I would like to get an air-feed Star).

Here's what I need that hasn't been offered:
Loading Manuals... I lost over ten volumes in the fire.
pistol boolit lube
rifle boolit lube
Walnut hull media to blast all the crud off of my gear with.
A set of Lee 6 cavity handles- OBII was very kind and sent me a set.

Equipment that I need to BUY because I don't expect anyone here to just give it to me but really want to get:
RCBS Trim Pro ( I managed to save a lot of my attachments for this trimmer and want to go back with the same.)
Electronic Powder Measure/Scale combo.
Chronograph (ugh... chronometer is a WATCH idiot!!! LOL) (Sensai has sent me one in mint condition!)
Manual Powder Trickler
Lee Manual Powder measure (DCM sent me one)
That's all I can think of for now but will update it as I think of things.



I lost more than most can imagine in the way of equipment and components in this fire and don't want you guys to try to restore me to my earlier splendor. I can do that over time and really appreciate all the offers of equipment but I would honestly feel like I was being dishonest if I lest you send me stuff that I probably won't use.

I already have/had a tumbler and a scale so I'm okay for those two things.

Any jacketed rifle bullet odds and ends you have laying around for the listed calibers would also be appreciated very much along with brass. It's going to take me years to rebuild my empire but I fully expect to get there with time. Below I'm reposting my list of calibers and mailing address and my Paypal email address as suggested by Lloyd. I now have a small storage space to put things in and you guys can send a few things. I really appreciate all the help!!! Someday I will pass it on.

Calibers I loaded for and need some projectiles/brass for were:
223 Remington(vern sent me some j-words,boerrrancher sent me some brass)
220 Swift (Vern sent me dies and brass and DeanD sent me some brass so I'm good on brass for this caliber)
243 Winchester(Vern sent me some j-words)
7mm Mauser
280 Remington(Vern sent me dies)
7mm Rem Mag (Dies and some brass sent by Woody)(J-words from Lloyd)
30-30 Winchester (Have PLENTY of 30-30 brass now. Vern sent me some 170 grn j-words, Gilbert sent me some 150 RN)
303 British
300 Savage (got 203 pieces of brand new primed Winchester brass today at the gun show)
308 Winchester (Dies offered by PRSMAN) (165 grn J-words from Lloyd, got 500 168grn HPBT Nosler Custom comps from Shooters Supply)
30-06 Springfield (dies and some LC Match ammo sent by Tward)
300 Winchester Short Mag
300 Win Mag (Brass from Boerrarncher)
8mm Mauser (got 167 pieces of brand new primed Winchester brass at the gun show today)

Pistol calibers, I don't need any projectiles, but a little brass would be GREATLY appreciated:

9mm Luger (dbosman sent me a sfrb full of brass)
38 Special (Brass offered by sent... have plenty)
357 Magnum
45 ACP (had a few hundred brass show up in various boxes.)
45 Colt (Dies sent by Mk42Gunner)(Bo1 sent me a small bag of brass)

Paypal: louisherbert @ hotmail (dot) com

Mailing Address:
Louis Herbert
1326 East 9th St
Lot 34
Mountain Home, AR 72653

Once again, thank you guys sooooo much for all the help and support!! I am humbled to be a part of such an amazing group of poeple!!!

[Dean D.]

Sorry to hear of your loss Louis. A definite wake up call for all of us. Let us know if we can do anything to help you get back to loading and casting again.

[sthwestvictoria]

Heartbreaking. I regularly photograph or video my tools and equipment for the insurers - this is a kick up the pants to update things!
Hears to hoping it doesn't take you too long to get back on your feet.

[Lloyd Smale]

i dont have much spare gear but post a paypal address and ill gladly send a few bucks to help you get restarted. Dont be bashfull about posting it. You wouldnt beleive the stuff that was sent to me when i lost all my gear in the fire. Id gladly like to pay some of that back and theres many on here that would gladly help too.

[torker]

Sorry to hear about your fire, I have some extra casting equipment that I could send your way. Please post an address. I'm sure others would like to help.

[Teddy (punchie)]

O my God would but my first words. Then I would well ???? . Just sad ....

Looks like she got very hot, burn her self out. To bad the fire dept. , if they would have got there sooner, you may have saved hard items like molds maybe dies. Look and see if there are any places in this that didn't get baked at 1200++ Degs. some corner or maybe things were covered and did burn, items under that may still be useable. Anything that was AL and plastic all will be lost.

Help a Aunt one time after a fire we spent hours looking at silver coins and breaking them away from plastic holders. Most were Okay. But there fire dept was there soon, in about 15-20 min. it was under control.

Just Sad.

[kbstenberg]

Can you post what calibers you load for? Aren't your presses covered under the manufacturers lifetime warranty?

[10x]

If this was an outbuilding on your dad's property he may well be able to claim the loss on his insurance policy.
And if you have household insurance a portion may well be covered under your policy.

[Boerrancher]

Sorry to hear about your loss. Many years ago I lost all of my stuff in a fire and it took me years to recover from it. In this day and age I would hate to think about having such a loss. Not just because I have acquired more than what I had before but also because of the supply and demand issues we are having. Please post the cals you shoot and I will see what I have that I can help you out with. I have a couple of molds I don't use anymore and I have some extra J words that I can probably spare, as well as possibly some extra dies. We can't help if we don't know what you need.

Best wishes,

Joe

[Jim]

I can't even imagine how sick I would be had that happened to me.

By all means, as has been mentioned, let us know what calibers you load for. There's no guarantee it can/will all be replaced, but at least we can help.

[Jbiker]

call dillon !!!THEIR NO BULL **** WARRANTY say's the presses are covered !

[DCP]

No way to see this coming

call dillon !!!THEIR NO BULL **** WARRANTY say's the presses are covered ! Plus 1

[jmort]

Insurance and Dillion "warranty" are your best hopes, short of help from other members and slowly building back up. Once its gone there is no use in dwelling on it. Move forward.

[BRobertson]

I have some extras also, let us know what you load for

Bob

[labdwakin]

The barn was not insured and when I called Dillon, the person in the warranty department that I spoke to told me that "You took a chance and lost." The barn was in a very rural area (1/2 a mile to the county maintained road) and didn't have a prayer.

It will be a few weeks before I'm ready to start rebuilding. The attached shop at the house I'm rehabbing is almost to the point that I will have a place to put things. I really appreciate all the kind offers of help from the members here but I don't really know for sure yet what I need. Most of my dies should be salvageable and so should my Lyman T-Mag. I had a balance beam scale at home so I'm okay in that respect. I did lose all my loading manuals except Hornady and The ABCs of Reloading.

Calibers I loaded for were:
223 Remington
220 Swift
243 Winchester
7mm Mauser
280 Remington
7mm Rem Mag
30-30 Winchester
308 Winchester
30-06 Springfield
300 Winchester Short Mag
300 Win Mag
8mm Mauser

9mm Luger
38 Special
357 Magnum
45 ACP
45 Colt

Lloyd, my email addy is louisherbert (at) hotmail (dot) com.

Thank you all so much for the kind words and offers of support but please just set anything you're thinking of sending aside until I know what I need and have a place to put it!

[Love Life]

Dang. I'm sorry to hear about and see your loss.

Would you happen to have a valuable goods policy? That would cover it.

[HATCH]

that sucks..
My gear is in a 20x20 building that is 20 feet from my house.
I only keep 10 lbs of powder and maybe 2K of each type out there.
It would totally suck if it burnt down. it is insured for $20K though. building with concrete cost me $6K
I could replace my stuff eventually.

I am sorry for your loss.
I can not help you money wise but if you need some boolits just let me know.
I cast for all the pistols you have listed.

[labdwakin]

Would you happen to have a valuable goods policy? That would cover it.

None of it was insured in any way.

[Love Life]

Dang. I'd be sick to my stomach.