Hi there,
I have a few handguns and have always thought about loading myself. I've done quite a bit of reading but would like your guys input on some questions.
1. There's a huge amount of equipment and recommendations out there for purchase, anything you would suggest for getting started? Something that will last but isn't too outrageous.
if you have any sporting goods shops in your area, do some price shopping. Any gun shows in your area can give you and idea too and you can do it online.
IMO, all of the brands will work. Its no different if you are a chevy/ford/toy/honda fan boy. You will find everyone has their own favs.
I say to go out and do the touchy-feely. You can get an idea on what you want.
You can also look at the various "starter" kits out there. Depending on if you get serious or want to crank out more rounds, you may find that you will outgrow your starter kit. But the good part is that chances are you can use the equipment even if you upgrade.
A warning. Depending on what brand you buy, you may have to stick to that brand for most things. An example i found out the hard way, was that i bought LEE presses and shell holders. I also bough a Hornady trimmer. The Lee shell holders would work partially. So, just be aware.
2. Some people look at loading as a hobby, but approximately what sort of money (%) can you expect to save per round?
How much money you can save will depend on what you reload and the cost of your components. Since you will start out (NOW) and you will be buying things at todays cost, you may not have alot of savings, but you need to do the math yourself and to find the prices out, yourself, where you live or where you will buy your components.
Also, i have no idea on what you want to reload. So you can do the math if you want. You may want to use a spreadsheet since this will help.
Note that for 1 POUND of powder there is 7000 GRAINS. If you find a reloading book you will note that the poweder charge are in GRAINS.
But you can go online or go to your fav store and jot down prices for....
> BULLETS. Then calculate the per each price
> PRIMERS. same for above.
> POWDER. Again, 7000 grains / lb. So you can figure out the cost/7000 grains.
I will assume you will reuse your on cases, but the concept of calculating is the same.
But once you know WHAT you want to reload, you can then calculate the cost and any savings.
3. Is there a number of times you can generally reuse brass casings?
Depending on the brass/ammo and what you reload. Some people will reload brass until it fails. You may want to consider what will happen in a gun if the case ruptures.
what i do is to "batch" reload. I will load up a bunch of rounds, shoot them all, the start over. Others will do it differently but there is no 1 way to do it. So when im reloading or prepping the cases, im visually inspecting each case in that batch. If i get about 10% failures in that batch, then i toss (recycle) the batch.
4. Any general recommendations for getting started? Things that are necessary or not important in your opinion?
If you have any shooting friends, ask if they reload. And if they do, then ask to watch/oberseve them and to pick their brains.
another warning...Reloading isnt a hobby where you can do it with half attention. You need to pay attention to what you are doing, or you will make some reloads that maybe questionable and could do you some harm or the others on each side of you.
If you havent bought or read a reloading book do so. Most of them will have sections on "how to reload" and then you can use the "data" part to do your reloads. Also, eventually you will buy every reloading book out there for the info in them. I havent found any 1 book that covers it all. If you have any used bookstores were you live, you can look there for used/older reloading books.
some personal comments...
> ive been reloading since the 1980s. And many of the components i purchased was for those prices back then. Hopefully you will do some component price shopping (NOW) and see how much it will cost you in todays prices.
> something to consider. Ammo usually doesn't have a 'shelf life" and the "components" are the same. So if you buy and stockup (NOW) the future prices for components maybe alot more in the future where the savings will be more.
> so about my 1980s purchases.... here are some of my costs of components.....Mind you everyone will have a different price for where they live and when they bought and how long they kept it. Many people get $$$ in their eyes and their brain turns off. Remember, i bought the components years ago, so my savings will be way more than what you can do.
Powder - 8 lbs of Unique @ 92.00 USD
Bullets - 9mm ,115 fmg, 500 each @ 28.00 USD
Primers - 5000 @ 55.00 USD (for the most part i dont consider the primer in my per round cost) but they do cost $$ to buy.
If i use 5 grains for a 9mm reload, my cost - not including the cost of brass - will be 0.08/round
> last comments TIME. Many people now adays dont have the patience or time to do anything like this. But i always say, if you want it bad enough, you will make it happen.
> Reloading isnt just banging about finished rounds, but there is also the prep. Such as sorting, and maybe cleaning/washing any brass that fell in who knows whats on the ground. Then you may want to visually inspect each case.
> I think CCI (Blazer Brass) now has 45acp brass where they use SMALL Primers. This can screw up your works if you mix in SMALL and LARGE primers. So haveing them out there just adds 1 more step to make sure you dont put some unwanted brass through your process.
> you may run across burden primed cases. Those will need to be segregated. Or you can break depriming pins
> also , for the most parts, you wont be "saving" any money. All you will do is to redirect any savings to guns, or ammo components.
