RELOADING

SAGE ADVICE FROM THE HANDLOADING GURUS

Cool Gear

You gotta love innovation, right? This installment of Cool Gear brings radical ammo design, clever electronic hearing protection, and bluetooth enabled range gear.

Got Gas Problems?

High pressures from maximum loadings and magnum cartridges can cause significant problems when coupled with cast lead bullets.

Lee Precision APP Is A Winner

My shrewd farmer family roots are obviously displayed by appreciating a bargain for what it’s worth.

Lee Precision Dies

It was definitely an “I coulda’ had a V-8!” moment complete with the required hand slap to the forehead.

The Spark to Handload Can...

Both my grandmothers were married to farmers, so you were expected to pitch-in doing the daily chores. Everyone pulled their weight, no matter how young or old.

56 Years Young

They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but you're never too old to learn something new—even reloading.

Are Your Bullets PC?

When it comes to cast bullets, we can find ourselves in a Catch-22. Many sixgun hunters prefer hollowpoint bullets for thin-skinned game, and therein lies...

Pet Loads With Cast Bullets

As a handloader, nothing is more satisfying than taking game, or punching the bullseye with your own handloads. It provides a feeling of accomplishment,...

In The Red: Handloading...

Want some cutting-edge bullets for your next reloading project? Federal is now offering Syntech Component bullets.

The Ultimate Powder for...

An extruded propellant part of the company’s “Extreme Series” of powders, Hodgdon’s H4350 is designed to work in just about any condition.

The Speedloader Comes of Age

When the Colt Paterson revolver burst onto the scene in 1836, the game changed forever. With five chambers of .36 caliber ball at the shooter’s disposal,

Winchester WinClean 244

Are you a serious handloader who wants to get the most performance out of your handgun reloads?

Non-Essential Essentials

All of my straight-walled sixgun cartridges are sized with carbide sizing dies. Those that are not are first sprayed with Hornady One Shot Case Lube. This...

Speedloading Handguns...

Thumbing (electronically) through the July/August 1982 issue of American Handgunner, the editor's note at the end of the "Speedloading Handguns Takes Skill"...

What I Carry: A...

I’ve almost always been the guy who carries a full-size handgun for CCW. I was willing to forego comfort for capability, wanting to make sure I had a gun...

.38 Special

The .38 Special arrived around 1900 in the S&W Military & Police. It soon became the number one cartridge for law enforcement use chambered in both S&W and...

Roy's Daily Carry Gear

“What do we carry?” feature in Handgunner. In looking back, I wasn’t surprised to note my daily carry stuff has changed a bit.

Slugfest

We frequently read we should “slug” our gun barrels so we know what we have to deal with to get the best accuracy. Jacketed bullets right at or .0005"...

The .44 Russian

Smith & Wesson introduced the first successful big-bore, centerfire sixgun, the Model #3 American, in 1869. This revolver was chambered in a .44 centerfire,...

When More Means Less

My objectives for reloading rifle cartridges are different than handgun cartridges. The objective for rifle rounds is to develop the ideal load for a...

Throat-Choke Is No Joke

I love Ruger revolvers, especially those chambered in .45 Colt. Built tough and able to withstand pressures most other guns can’t, doesn’t mean...

Trigger Time

How a pistol fits the hand is just as important as a rifle or shotgun stock fits the shoulder. Trigger length and grip fit are the same for pistol shooters.

Favored ‘Modest’ .44...

I started reloading in the late 1950s using the Lyman #310 Tool. This is a “Nutcracker” type of tool requiring each step in the reloading process to be...

Wonderful Workshop Wrecks

I’ll admit I’ve got a fetish of sorts. It involves workshops. It started when I was about five years old while exploring my Pap’s toolshed on the...

LEE Auto Breech Lock Pro

I’ll admit it; I’m partial to bargains. If it works and gives me the results I’m after, why not use it? I’ve never been a manufacturer-snob.

.44 Wadcutters

The .44 Russian was a very popular target shooting cartridge and around 1900 a man by the name of Himmelwright designed a better bullet for target shooting....

.45 Wadcutters Slow And...

The original .45 Colt bullet profile is known as a truncated cone or round nosed flat point (RNFP). It basically started in the early 1870s as a round-nosed...

Unique: 5 Grains Is A...

Complaints about Unique being dirty, whether it’s the “old” Unique or the “new” Unique abound, and I don’t understand what the problem is.

British Boomers:

I must admit I find myself fascinated by British revolvers; you know, those “ugly” Enfields and the Webleys. They are not pretty, but they do have a...

Loading Data Only New...

Where should we get reloading information? First, let’s look where we should not obtain data. The number one negative source is anonymous information on...

Handloading +P Brass

Some back-story first. Plus P (+P) brass is designed to be stronger than regular brass in order to withstand the additional pressure of +P rated cartridges....

AusKur’s Chambered...

When I first started handloading more than 60 years ago I was not far removed from the buffalo hunters of the 1870’s. I started with a single cavity Lyman...

A .30 Luger Barrel-Swap

Late last year I was trying to organize my reloading room a little better and as I was checking out my cabinet full of reloading dies I stumbled on both .30...

Loading the Super .38

Although we call it the .38 Super the correct name is Super .38. Early advertising, the box it came in, and the guns themselves were all marked: “Super...

Sensible Heavy-Bullet...

Standard bullet weights for the .38/357 are normally around 158 grains; for the .44 Special/.44 Magnum, 240–250 grains and in the .45 Colt regular weight...

Shell Shock Technologies

Bullets have gone through tremendous advancements, especially in the past 40 years, while cartridge cases have been virtually unchanged since the very...

Handloading Lead-Free...

Frangible bullets are unique. They’re lead-free and made of powdered metal such as copper, tin, tungsten, zinc, bismuth, iron, steel and polymer. The most...

Helps For Handloaders

The first after-market “consumer” cartridge boxes for reloaders I saw needed improvement right off the bat, however they worked much better than the...

Everyday Workin' Loads

Whether we travel the sagebrush, foothills, forests, or mountains these are the sort of loads which will handle any situation. The sixgun chosen will...

The .32-20

The .32-20 started life in the Winchester Model 1873 and then shortly after was chambered in the newer Model 1892 rifle. The two other members of the...

Cast Bullets Simplified

Yesterday, I cast just over 400 bullets from a favored Saeco 411 230-grain Keith mold. In just over an hour’s time, I cast, tumbled them in Powder Coat...

Favorite 45 Bullets

Today’s reloader has a nearly endless supply of jacketed and factory cast bullets available for reloading the .45 Colt.

Reloading The .389 S&W/.38...

When I mention “.38 cartridge” what’s the first thing coming to mind? For most shooters .38 means .38 Special, or maybe .38 Super or .38 Long Colt....

Trail Bossing The Frontier...

Approximately 10 years ago Hodgdon introduced Trail Boss powder, originally designed for use by Cowboy Action Shooters who were walking on the edge by...

Shooting Cap-N-Ball Sixguns

In the 1950’s there were no replica black powders available, so it was strictly real black powder only. When I first started an — original 1860 Army!...

Reloading The .38 S&W/.38

For most shooters .38 means .38 Special. There is another .38 though, a contemporary of the .38 Long Colt. In 1877 Colt brought forth their first...

Short Brass In Long Chambers?

One question that often arises from newer handloaders revolves around whether or not it’s okay to use short brass in long chambers; mostly .38 Special in...

The .32 S&W Long/.32 Colt...

The .32 Smith & Wesson cartridge was then lengthened in 1896 to become the .32 Smith & Wesson Long. The 1899 Military & Police (in .32 S&W Long) was Smith &...

Handguns Of WWII Part 13

My attitude is the major handgun cartridges which saw significant combat in World War II in the hands of infantrymen number seven. They are Soviet/7.62x25mm...

Bullet Sizing:

When it comes to factory ammunition or reloading with jacketed bullets we really have very little choice when it comes to bullet diameter.

Heavyweight Bullets In The...

One of the first manufacturers to offer suitable silhouetting sixguns was Dan Wesson, with their 8" and 10" heavy-barreled .357 Magnum.

Black Powder Basics

Elmer Keith in 1936 writing in his book Sixgun Cartridges and Loads, recommended the novice reloader start out with black powder; he basically said just...

Big Bullet Baloney

Some of the first heavyweight bullets for both the .44 Magnum and .45 Colt came from J.D. Jones and SSK Industries. He designed a 320-gr. flat...

Reloading The .45 ACP

Today’s crop of .45 ACP semiautos are exceptionally dependable, definitely accurate, and certainly make one of the best, if not the best, option for...

True Custom Bullets

Belt Mountain Punch bullets are turned from solid brass one at a time on a lathe. The base is then hollowed out resulting in a core filled with lead while...