The Basic Steps in Reloading Ammunition

Reloading ammunition is a fun, cost saving hobby. Reloaders are able to tailor their ammunition to their specific purpose and firearm, often for half the price of manufactured ammnunition. What follows are some cost effective ways to get started in reloading.

Reloading ammunition requires a few simple steps. It also requires some attention to detail and sould not be approached carelessly.

The process begins with a brass casing, most often from fired ammunition. A fired casing will have stretched to fill the available space in a specific weapon' s chamber. For this reason, the first step in the reloading process is to resize the casing. In effect, the brass casing if forced into a steel tube (die) that approximates the diameter of the original round.

Once a casing is resized, the old primer must be removed. Boxer primed (American style) cases are "deprimed" by forcing a piece of metal through the "flash hole" located in the center of the base at the inside of the casing. Berdan primed casings will have two off-set holes and are not normally reloaded.

Once the case is resized and deprimed, a new primer is inserted using a special tool. Primers are held in place by friction. They are forced into the "primer cup." There are several sizes of primers. These include Large Rifle, Small Rifle, Large Pistol, Small Pistol, as well as magnum primers for each size and shotgun primers. You will need to check the specifications of your ammuntion to determine what size you need. (IE: 9mm requires small pistol, .45 ACP requires large pistol, .308 requires large rifle, while .223 requires small rifle, etc.)

Once a new primer is inserted, you will need to measure the appropriate charge of powder. Most reloading dies come with charts that contain recommended minimum and maximum powder charges for that caliber. The number and styles of gun powder are also mind boggling. Most rifle powders won't work for pistols, and vice versa. Once again it is advisable to look in a reloading manual to determine what powder would be best for the calibers you are loading. I use IMR 4350 for my rifles (mostly .30 bolt actions) and Unique for my pistols (9mm and .357 mag). I settled on these powders after consulting experienced reloaders on gunboards.com.

Once the case is charged, you will seat the appropriately sized bullet into your casing. This is done with another die. Care must be taken to seat the bullet the proper depth in the die to ensure your new round chambers and fires correctly.

Additional steps may be necessary for different calibers. For instance, some require a crimp be applied to help hold the bullet in place.

There are also additional steps that may be taken when getting brass ready to reload. These include trimming a case that has stretched out of specification from repeated firing. The maximum case length is listed in reloading materials included with most dies. Many reloaders clean there casings to prevent the dirty cases from damaging the reloading dies over many years of use. Primer pockets are cleaned with a special tool, case mouths camfered to remove burrs and make insertion of the bullet easier.

Please check out my other articles for ideas on how to save money when starting out in reloading.