Over the years, gun reloading has become a popular hobby among shooting enthusiasts. Whether it is to save money, produce wildcat cartridges, or just looking for a new hobby, reloading can be a great skill for shooters to have. If you are new to reloading and not sure what you might need to start producing your own ammunition, check out our previous article “Let’s Get Ready to Reload.” For new and veteran reloaders alike, we at Starline have put together a gun reloading guide to help make the reloading process even easier.
Safety is always the most important thing to consider. There are safety precautions reloaders should always follow, including following current gun reloading manuals. Our first tip, for an added level of safety, is to find a load that uses a bulky powder that fills the case more than half way. For new reloaders or when loading on a progressive press, using the bulky powder will overfill the case if it is double charged and make it impossible to load. This is not a substitute for safe loading practices, but is one safeguard that can help.
Our second tip has to do with loading on a progressive press. Sometimes the powder-thru expander can be hard to get back out of the case when dealing with new brass, especially on short cases. There are two possible causes of this. The first is the land on the expander being too long, wedging itself in the internal taper of the case. To fix this issue, the piece can be sent to Starline for free modification. We will then increase the radius on the end of the expander, thus shortening the land. The other possible cause is a burr on the mouth of the case. You can deburr the case mouth and resolve the issue.
New brass can be harder to size, prime and seat bullets in than fired brass at times because the brass may be lacking lubrication. This happens due to the brass being stripped clean and polished. Our third tip is to try tumbling your new cases in used media for half an hour before reloading. The powder residue in the tumbling media will add just enough lubrication to the brass to ease the gun loading process. The other option is using a spray lube.
Did you know that you can change your point of impact vertically by adjusting the load on pistols and revolvers with fixed sights? Our final reloading guide tip is to always know the load amount you are shooting. If your gun is shooting low, reduce the load slightly or go to a load that uses a heavier bullet to raise the point of impact. The longer dwell time of the bullet in the barrel will make the recoil raise the point of impact. If your gun is shooting high, try a lighter bullet or a heavier load. This will get the bullet out of the barrel faster, before the recoil can raise the point of impact, thus lowering the final shot.
Check us out on Facebook facebook.com/starlinebrass and Youtube youtube.com/user/starlinebrass and remember, A Great Shot Starts with Starline.
