The Firearms, Shotguns and Shooting Thread

neodude said:
Not got into reloading yet, but it's on the radar. Is it significantly cheaper than factory ammo? or is it more than you have more control?
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It's not significantly cheaper.

It's hard to give accurate figures because it vastly depends how many time you reuse each brass case.

Obviously the more times you reuse a brass case, the cheaper it is overall.

It also depends on calibre.
 
I started clay shooting in 1984 - Had to give it up because of right eye giving up the ghost in 2019 -Everything has gone now except my bank balance is looking magic.
I did see licences were rocketing up in price.
good luck to you all and enjoy a great hobby.
 
@neodude

Was making some more today and thought about this thread.

If you do get into reloading I'd start with a pistol calibre if possible, so .357 in your case.

It's a lot more straightforward.
 
BUDFORCE said:
@neodude

Was making some more today and thought about this thread.

If you do get into reloading I'd start with a pistol calibre if possible, so .357 in your case.

It's a lot more straightforward.
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Cool, thanks for the advice. How many times can you generally reuse the casings? 2 or 3? Is it obvious when they can no longer be reused?
 
a lot more than 2 or 3 in my experience, but it depends on the brass and /or your loads. i've had 308s that were soft and kept jamming my rifle, and i've had 357 Mags that were stoked up for my Desert Eagle and didn't have a problem after multiple reloads.
 
neodude said:
Cool, thanks for the advice. How many times can you generally reuse the casings? 2 or 3? Is it obvious when they can no longer be reused?
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On something like a .357 as long as you are not loading them crazy hot and buy decent reloading brass, 10+ easy.

I reload .44 and 8mm mauser, some of my .44 have used more than 10 times, I have only had a couple split which is obvious.

The only other thing you need to watch is where your sizing die goes down to, it can leave a little ridge and apparently, after a while can create a weak spot, it wont do anything major, but might break and then extract the back of the brass out and leave the rest in the barrel which might be anoying to try to get out, I've never had that happen though and I cannot feel any obvious ridge in the cartridge, allthough you can see it thats normal.

Rifle rounds are more involved because you need to lubricate them, for straigh wall pistol cartridges you get carbide dies which dont need lubrication. The other thing is unlike pistol rounds, which I have never really needed to length size, rifle brass does expand and you need to length size each time, so there are a couple of extra stages, hence starting with pistol, its also just generally more forgiving.
 
I sold up and turned my FAC in last year, had my competition gun deactivated and it’s all I’ve got left.

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It wasn't just one thing, it was a combination of stuff. I'd tried to re-join a club I used to be a member of but despite having been a full member previously, being a current FAC holder and being able to demonstrate that I was a qualified range officer, they still wanted me to jump through stupid hoops, take a two day safety course and then be a probationer for six months. That annoyed me more than it should have and as it was only a few months before I was due to renew, it was still very much fresh in my head.

I used to shoot competitively and I was good but there aren't any matches for my class of firearm any more in the country so I hadn't done anything really for a few years, some of my guns hadn't been touched since my previous renewal. The nearest club to me is a bit of a joke, on their web site they say that they are for static target shooting only and if you want to do anything else, don't even ask to join. I used to shoot practical which is about as far from static target shooting as you can get so that club was out.

When it came to renewal time, I simply decided not to go through the renewal process. I have since been given a name of someone locally who runs a club which might be worth a look so I may do that in the summer. Re-applying for the ticket won't be an issue as I still have the cabinet and everything else here so I can go back down the same path again if I want.

Ideally, I'd like somewhere I can just rock up with whatever I fancy, either a black powder pistol, an underlever rifle, a .22 LR rifle or whatever, but where I can just hammer a few rounds into a backstop whenever I feel like it and then sit in the clubhouse for an hour nattering. But that sort of place isn't easy to find.
 
I've not seen this thread until now. I've had my FAC since 2017 and been reloading since 2019. Currently have a Tikka CTR .308 in a KRG bravo chassis and Wildcat Predator 8 mod, S&W M&P 15-22 Performance Centre, Henry Big boy in .357, Tikka T1X .22lr with a Wildcat Panther mod and a GSG 1911 .22lr. Everything other than the LBP has some variation of Vortex optic.
 
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BUDFORCE said:
On something like a .357 as long as you are not loading them crazy hot and buy decent reloading brass, 10+ easy.

I reload .44 and 8mm mauser, some of my .44 have used more than 10 times, I have only had a couple split which is obvious.

The only other thing you need to watch is where your sizing die goes down to, it can leave a little ridge and apparently, after a while can create a weak spot, it wont do anything major, but might break and then extract the back of the brass out and leave the rest in the barrel which might be anoying to try to get out, I've never had that happen though and I cannot feel any obvious ridge in the cartridge, allthough you can see it thats normal.

Rifle rounds are more involved because you need to lubricate them, for straigh wall pistol cartridges you get carbide dies which dont need lubrication. The other thing is unlike pistol rounds, which I have never really needed to length size, rifle brass does expand and you need to length size each time, so there are a couple of extra stages, hence starting with pistol, its also just generally more forgiving.
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Just to add to this as @neodude was asking about how many firings, I typically only get 3-5 reloads out of my rifle brass as opposed to way more with pistol. But you can anneal the rifle brass to soften it up and get a few more firings out of it but a proper annealing system is quite expensive unless you want to do it the old fashion way with a blow torch and tempilaq, there's also people that you can pay and they'll anneal it properly.
 
Tackle_Berry said:
Just to add to this as @neodude was asking about how many firings, I typically only get 3-5 reloads out of my rifle brass as opposed to way more with pistol. But you can anneal the rifle brass to soften it up and get a few more firings out of it but a proper annealing system is quite expensive unless you want to do it the old fashion way with a blow torch and tempilaq, there's also people that you can pay and they'll anneal it properly.
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Sorry yes, when I said 10+ I was talking specifically about pistol rounds, in my case .44 mag.
 
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This was my target from this morning, that's 10 rounds at 100 yards with a .308.

I'm still getting used to that rifle as well, only put 60 down it in total, but pleased with that so far.
 
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Tackle_Berry said:
Nice group especially for 10 shots, what load are you using?
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I was using factory ADI 168grn match king, good stuff.

Significantly better than whatever Aguila junk I was using last weekend.

I will start making my own soon, I bought a bunch of 145grn FMJ boat tail heads so we will see.

I did adjust the scope a bit after that but it still needs a bit of tweaking next time.
 
Yeah my favourite load is also using 168grn SMK, It's a good medium ground. I've tried 155grn Lapua HPBT, 175grm and 190 SMK.

My lowest ES / SD was 168grn SMK and 43.6grn N140, gives me 2529fps.
 
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Tackle_Berry said:
Yeah my favourite load is also using 168grn SMK, It's a good medium ground. I've tried 155grn Lapua HPBT, 175grm and 190 SMK.

My lowest ES / SD was 168grn SMK and 43.6grn N140, gives me 2529fps.
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Nice, yeah I use N140 for my 8mm Mauser so I will use it as well.

I need to test out some loads I made up for a Ruger 77 in .44mag next time.

I have been using GM hardcast RNFP 240 grn, but I cannot get it to group well, and I have tried, basically every load from something like 12.4grn down to something like 6 and a half (tried N340/350), in 0.1 increments, and whilst some where better than others, its not where it should be, I was getting like maybe 2-3 inch group at 25 yards, or was struggling to hit an 8" target at 100 yards.

I don't normally run jacketed rounds through it, because of a stupid rule at one of the ranges I use, but I have loaded some using good quality JHP Sierra heads, so will see. Otherwise I dunno, but I have read lots of stuff and apparently I am not the only one who is struggling to get that rifle to group well.
 
Looks like they are changing the law so you don't need to add sound moderators on your licence. But you do need to have an FAC to own them.

Just needs to go through parliament however long that takes.
 
Just got back from shooting at a 300 yard range, first time I've taken my .308 that far, crazy how easy it is with a good rifle and scope.

Was easily hitting a 12 inch steel plate at 300 yards.

That was with reasonably cheap 145 grain PPU FMJ and just using my power measure thing (rather than trickle weighing) was getting about 2700 FPS.

Also took my KAR98 and was shooting targets at 200 yards with that but man, every time you fire that it's like getting punched in the face lol.
 
BUDFORCE said:
Just got back from shooting at a 300 yard range, first time I've taken my .308 that far, crazy how easy it is with a good rifle and scope.

Was easily hitting a 12 inch steel plate at 300 yards.

That was with reasonably cheap 145 grain PPU FMJ and just using my power measure thing (rather than trickle weighing) was getting about 2700 FPS.

Also took my KAR98 and was shooting targets at 200 yards with that but man, every time you fire that it's like getting punched in the face lol.
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Nice, was that at Bisley?
 
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