Reloading for Handgunners. Patrick Sweeney

      

      RELOADING FOR HANDGUNNERS

       PATRICK SWEENEY

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      DEDICATION

      For years, and books now, you have seen dedications to Felicia. This book is no exception. Without her life would be different – less fun, less traveled, less productive, and for you the readers, less, period. However, there is an addition. Dan Shideler came on board as my editor for Gun Digest Book of the AR-15, Volume 2. With all due respect to those who labored with me before, Dan was easy to work with, fun to work with, and a veritable fountain of ideas and enthusiasm. For ten books we did our best to provide you, the reader, with information, entertainment, photos and something to look forward to on the bookshelves.

      Alas, no more.

      Dan left us in the Spring of 2011, too early.

      So, for Felicia, who is still here, and for Dan, who isn’t, safe reloading.

       Patrick Sweeney

       June 2011

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

       Title Page

       Special Offers

       Introduction

       SECTION ONE: Getting Started

       Chapter One: What you need

       Chapter Two: Brass

       Chapter Three: Bullets

       Chapter Four: Powder

       Chapter Five: Setting up and maintaining your dies

       Chapter Six: Statistics

       Chapter Seven: Load development & testing

       Chapter Eight: Primers

       SECTION TWO: Reloading Data By Caliber

       Chapter Nine: 9 mm Parabellum

       Chapter Ten: 10 mm

       Chapter Eleven: .32 Auto

       Chapter Twelve: .32 Revolvers - Short, Long, Magnum, .327 and .32-20

       Chapter Thirteen: .38 Special

       Chapter Fourteen: .38 Super

       Chapter Fifteen: .40 S&W

       Chapter Sixteen: .41 Magnum

       Chapter Seventeen: .44 Magnum

       Chapter Eighteen: .44 Special

       Chapter Nineteen .45 ACP

       Chapter Twenty: .45 Colt

       Chapter Twenty One: .357 Magnum

       Chapter Twenty Two: .357 Sig

       Chapter Twenty Three: .380 Auto

       Chapter Twenty Four: .38-40

      INTRODUCTION

      Why reload? One might as well ask some of us, “Why shoot? Why compete? Why climb a mountain?” Because it is there.

      But, existential questions aside, why reload is simple: control. If you wish to shoot and you depend on factory ammunition, you are dependent on: 1) what the ammo companies make; 2) what the store stocks; and 3) what your budget can afford. If any of those three do not fit your needs or desires, you will have a less pleasurable experience at the range. If two fail, you might well not be shooting at all.

      One thing we have to get clear right away: you are not going to save money by reloading. Oh, don’t get me wrong, you will recoup your capital investments (whatever they may be, over whatever period of time you spend) but you will not save money. You will not save any for the simple reason that, if you are like the rest of us, any potential savings will be plowed right into shooting more.

      That is, if your “ouch” limit on shooting fun for the weekend is $100 of ammo, you will spend up to the point it begins to hurt. With factory ammo, that could be 100 rounds. With reloads, it could be 1,000 rounds. I ran into this same phenomenon when I was learning photography. Buying film in bulk, loading film canisters and doing my own developing didn’t save money. It just meant a whole lot more practice, and practice is what makes you good. And that makes the expenditures worthwhile.

      In addition to shooting more, reloading also allows you to shoot some firearms at all. There are f rearms for which one cannot purchase ammunition, but for which ammunition can be loaded. Now, in many cases there is a good reason ammo isn’t available; for one, many handguns should not be fired. And that includes rarities as well as elderly specimens.

      This is not your typical reloading manual. What you have here is the collation of my personal experiences of decades of reloading. Some will be obvious, some will not.

      I do not try to show some sort of loading data for every handgun cartridge in existence. For one thing, I haven’t loaded them all. And another, I don’t have them all. (Even in my circles there are calibers one just doesn’t see.) What I cover are the ones I’ve done a whole passel of loading for, the ones I find interesting, and the ones that I hope you will find useful.

      And for each, I include my lessons learned, the hints, tips and tricks I’ve found that keep them running. You see, while reloading is reloading, each cartridge can (and of en does) have its own quirks, peculiarities and needs. Sort of like cars in that way.

      And I also give you the lowdown on the reloading process. There are things you can do that will work to keep you out of trouble, and things that will make the work (if we can even call it that) a lot easier.

      If you tend to your press – keep it clean, lube the working parts (and keep lubricant away from the primer feed system) – it will last a good, long time.

      In the course of practicing, having fun, competing, teaching and being taught, and testing firearms as a gunsmith, I’ve shot over a million rounds. A large percentage of those were reloads. Properly done, reloaded ammunition can be as reliable, accurate and safe as factory-produced ammunition.

      Take care of your press and take care in your reloading, and