Sunday, May 01, 2005

Time to get back into reloading

When I lived at home with my parents, I did some reloading so I could shoot more for the same amount of money. But since I moved out I haven't had a place to set up reloading equipment, so all I've been shooting has been factory ammo. That's about to change.

Tonight I placed an order with MidwayUSA for equipment to get me setup to reload .38 Special and .357 Magnum. I'm getting:
  • Lee Hand Press kit
  • Lee .38/.357 4 die set
  • Lee primer pocket cleaner
  • Frankford Arsenal (Midway) dial caliper
  • 500 Speer .358" 158 LSWCHP bullets
I'll pick up a toolbox at Lowe's to keep the tools in. I already have a ton of .38 brass and a few hundred .357 cases, so I'll be good to go once I pick up some powder and primers locally.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

About time, Dave! I had 2 loads I used in 357 cases for plinking that were fun and accurate. Both used a 148gr DEWC with either (not both!) a charge of 3.7gr 700X or 2.2gr Bullseye. No recoil, minimal noise and accurate.

Good luck and have fun!

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Anonymous said...

Kewl. Are you going for full-power .357 loads, or light loads? Those Speer swaged bullets are kind of soft, so you may want to resist the urge to try to push them really fast, unless you're talking about using them for hunting or serious social purposes.

Dave Markowitz said...

I'm planning on loading them up as standard velocity .38s, for the most part. The indoor range where I shoot handgun most frequently doesn't allow magnums due to noise.

I may eventually load some .38 +Ps to duplicate the FBI load, which is my defense load of choice, even in .357s.