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Hello all,

I'm thinking about getting into reloading. I understand you won't really save money, but you'll shoot more - I can't find 220gr 300BLK almost anywhere, and when I can, it's like $1.50 a round for low-end commercial stuff. Meanwhile, match grade bullets are like 35 cents apiece. I've been saving my brass in anticipation of doing this, someday... maybe. But I have some questions I bet you guys can answer.

How safe is it? Like, how easy is it to accidentally load more powder (or too little and make a squib) and explode your gun, your hand, and your face? I have decent attention to detail but I don't know if there is a step in the process to prevent this... I've never done it.

How safe are the supplies? Should I be worried about keeping a bunch of powder in my house?

Reloading is very very safe as long as you pay attention and don't get distracted (and if you do, work backwards until you are sure where you got to! )

Starting with a single-stage press to learn the basics may be best, then you tend to be doing one operation at a time on a batch.

I now use a Dillon progressive press, and love it...

I'll advise being careful, my brother almost blew his arm off with excessively high powered shotgun shells he made. Shotgun was a complete loss, stock even shattered in the explosion.

I use 'explosion' here deliberately, he forgot to add wadding and just filled the whole shell with powder and shot.

 Ouze wrote:
Hello all,

I'm thinking about getting into reloading. I understand you won't really save money, but you'll shoot more - I can't find 220gr 300BLK almost anywhere, and when I can, it's like $1.50 a round for low-end commercial stuff. Meanwhile, match grade bullets are like 35 cents apiece. I've been saving my brass in anticipation of doing this, someday... maybe. But I have some questions I bet you guys can answer.

How safe is it? Like, how easy is it to accidentally load more powder (or too little and make a squib) and explode your gun, your hand, and your face? I have decent attention to detail but I don't know if there is a step in the process to prevent this... I've never done it.

How safe are the supplies? Should I be worried about keeping a bunch of powder in my house?

For people that are familiar with the process and know what they're doing and are careful, it's as safe as anything else. Take your time, don't rush anything, and don't skip any steps. Check over your materials, clean your recycled brass and inspect it, always be careful with powder fill and you'll be fine.

Powder usually comes in pretty resilient plastic containers, unless you leave the container on an open flame, you're fine.

I took a class on it a few years back, don't have the space or tools at my place to do it, but the biggest thing seemed like the time investment, reloading can take a while

 Ouze wrote:
Hello all,

I'm thinking about getting into reloading. I understand you won't really save money, but you'll shoot more - I can't find 220gr 300BLK almost anywhere, and when I can, it's like $1.50 a round for low-end commercial stuff. Meanwhile, match grade bullets are like 35 cents apiece. I've been saving my brass in anticipation of doing this, someday... maybe. But I have some questions I bet you guys can answer.

How safe is it? Like, how easy is it to accidentally load more powder (or too little and make a squib) and explode your gun, your hand, and your face? I have decent attention to detail but I don't know if there is a step in the process to prevent this... I've never done it.

How safe are the supplies? Should I be worried about keeping a bunch of powder in my house?

First off, reloading can be a lot of fun and it can save you a lot of money over time because you can usually get 5-6 reloads out of the same casing if you maintain it properly.

second, get a reloading book. They will give you tips on, powder charges, bullet weights overall round length, and all you need to know about loading. I never use progressive loaders when loading the charge for my reloads, I'm too hands on and hand measure all my loads. I always double check every tenth shell to make sure my powder measurements are consistent. I have forgot to load powder into one of my loads, once... If you get distracted while loading like I did, just label those loads to remind you to be careful with them. When I shot the one with no powder it was very distinct and I knew what happened. The primer was enough to lodge the bullet in my barrel and left enough room for another round behind it, but I knew I squibbed and took care of it.

Lastly, supplies are very safe. Unless you have black powder, smokeless powder wont exploded. Just store it in a safe, dry place.

My "new" P53 3-band Enfield (1858) - I need to get set up for lead casting before I can fire it...

Oooh very cool. The markings are neat!

 Slinky wrote:
My "new" P53 3-band Enfield (1858) - I need to get set up for lead casting before I can fire it...

Yeah baby yeah!

Very nice wood too.

Thanks, all!

It's in wonderful shape, the metal still has a fair amount of original finish and the rifling is sharp.

Going to load some original-style Enfield paper cartridges, where the bullet is loaded with paper around it, making it essentially paper-patched.

Wish me luck

New to this thread, as I never wanted to get involved in what looked like a potential gak show based on the rest of the threads here.

My Father in Law recently passed and he left me all of his firearms. I have been shooting all my life, but only ever kept a shotgun in the house for defensive purposes, and haven't shot recreationally in over a decade.

The main rifle of interest to me was his AR-15 Carbine. It is the older style without the removable carrying handle so you can not mount an optic. To all the personnel in here that may have experience with the civilian version of this rifle, is there an effective way to mount an EO tech Halo site even with the carrying handle? Haven't found any examples from googling, so I come here humbly looking for advice.

Edit: Im partial to the EO tech since thats what I always used during my wanna be infantry days. Other recommendations are also welcome.

There are ways to have mounts attached to the handle, they work but have a *very* high bore offset, or, alternatively, have the optic rather far forward. They work, but are a bit awkward.

 Vaktathi wrote:
There are ways to have mounts attached to the handle, they work but have a *very* high bore offset, or, alternatively, have the optic rather far forward. They work, but are a bit awkward.

Yea, I was afraid of that. The first picture looks like it would need a custom stock so I could get a good cheek weld and still see through the optic, the second looks ok for a Halo sight but I would have to try it out. Would also probably have to remove the peep site.

thank you for the pictures.

You probably would not have to remove the peep sight. I have Eotech on my Range 15 rifle, which has Daniel Defense iron sights, and I can co-witness with the iron sights. Well I can as long as I have the 3x magnifier flipped over.


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Here is my daughter firing it.

Also, being in the US, the land of reasonable gun prices, you may find it's not that much to have a gunsmith swap it out for a flat-top upper (unless you want to keep it as your FIL had it).

You can get a stripped upper for about $70 for a good brand. So far as paying a gunsmith, I'd consider that you can buy an AR wrench for $15, a vise block for about $10, and you may already have, or can borrow, a torque wench. Assembling an upper is pretty damn easy and that's all you'd really need, tool wise.

 Ouze wrote:
You can get a stripped upper for about $70 for a good brand. So far as paying a gunsmith, I'd consider that you can buy an AR wrench for $15, a vise block for about $10, and you may already have, or can borrow, a torque wench. Assembling an upper is pretty damn easy and that's all you'd really need, tool wise.

I will look into this. If I can get the full rail system and keep the old upper for my wife's sake, since she is not big on selling or changing her father's stuff, then I think that is the best option. Time to start making my post Christmas wish list, lol.

I am looking to buy a .357 revolver. I know I want it stainless, and I know I don't want a stubby 2-inch barrel (may as well get a .38 special at that point).

My decision is, 4 inch barrel or 6 inch barrel? 6 seems almost too long, while 4 seems a tad short to use all the powder of a .357 to its fullest. I wish someone made a 5 inch barrel.

 cuda1179 wrote:
I am looking to buy a .357 revolver. I know I want it stainless, and I know I don't want a stubby 2-inch barrel (may as well get a .38 special at that point).

My decision is, 4 inch barrel or 6 inch barrel? 6 seems almost too long, while 4 seems a tad short to use all the powder of a .357 to its fullest. I wish someone made a 5 inch barrel.

Not too much up on the newer revolvers. I picked up a Ruger LCR in 357 and like it (but mostly shoot .38 through it), but a weird (albeit not cheap option) would be a Chiappa Rhino, they make 5" guns.

At least I want a Chiappa Rhino at some point

One of the black finished 6" ones.

That said, if you're actually planning on carrying the gun, get the 4", if you're mostly planning on range use, get the 6". That's how I'd see it.

I like the idea of a Chiappa Rhino, but I have a serious problem with paying the kind of money they want for one. It's cool, but not THAT cool.

That is my issue as well.

But we can dream can't we?

Ooh, not seen that before, does it fire from the bottom cylinder?

Oh, and Merry Christmas to all you gun nuts

Yeah, it has a really low bore relative to grip. Breotan has one I believe.

I'm not much of a revolver dude - I've found all of the big revolvers I've shot have had grips that were uncomfortable, too skinny almost. That being said I really do like the Rhinos, so ugly they're cool.

I am this close to getting a Desert Eagle as a Christmas present to myself. I've wanted one for a while. I keep trying to remind myself they are super overprice and not very good, but then I keep thinking about how cool they are...

There are a few advantages that revolvers have over semi-autos. For starters, there's not really a break-in period like some semiautos do. Also, I like that they aren't picky about ammo.

 redleger wrote:

Spoiler:

 Vaktathi wrote:
There are ways to have mounts attached to the handle, they work but have a *very* high bore offset, or, alternatively, have the optic rather far forward. They work, but are a bit awkward.

Yea, I was afraid of that. The first picture looks like it would need a custom stock so I could get a good cheek weld and still see through the optic, the second looks ok for a Halo sight but I would have to try it out. Would also probably have to remove the peep site.

thank you for the pictures.

I use a similar option to the top picture for my rifle.



I'm really not a fan. Sighting it is an absolute bitch. I'll be looking at swapping out the upper eventually, when I get around to saving up a few hundred that I don't "accidentally" spend on Warhammer stuff.

 cuda1179 wrote:
I am looking to buy a .357 revolver. I know I want it stainless, and I know I don't want a stubby 2-inch barrel (may as well get a .38 special at that point).

My decision is, 4 inch barrel or 6 inch barrel? 6 seems almost too long, while 4 seems a tad short to use all the powder of a .357 to its fullest. I wish someone made a 5 inch barrel.

If you can find one, Ruger made a special run of GP100s with a 5" barrel. Smith and Wesson also has a few 686 models with 5" barrels and a 627 with the heavier N frame with a 5" as well. Otherwise, the 4" versions of the above are all good guns and the barrel has plenty of room to burn the powder of most modern 357 magnum loads. If you don't mind used, see if you can find a Smith and Wesson model 66. That is my second favorite revolver, the Smith and Wesson 586 is my favorite but its blued, not stainless.

So I just bought a Springfield PX9105MLCA 1911. Really exited, been wanting a 1911 for a long time

Nice. I am tempted to get Springfield's 10mm 1911 just for the giggle factor.

 cuda1179 wrote:
Nice. I am tempted to get Springfield's 10mm 1911 just for the giggle factor.

Just get glockzilla - it's cheaper.


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Anyone own an m-14? I think I'd really like one. It's just "looked like a rifle should look" to me. It also gets a lot of praise by anyone who's ever used it. I've never shot one though. I have a Sig AR-10 so I'm not really sure it will be worth the money.

 Grey Templar wrote:
So I just bought a Springfield PX9105MLCA 1911. Really exited, been wanting a 1911 for a long time

You should be excited, because the 1911 is an amazing pistol.

I stopped using it as a carry gun because it's too bulky (I switched to a subcompact 9 instead), but it's still easily my favorite handgun in terms of looks and shooting.