When I first reloaded my ammo, one could realize some fantastic savings. I loaded my first rounds of any cartridge in the middle of 1954. Some old time gentlemen that were neighbors got me interested and I finally got parental approval to load my own ammo. Cartridges were the .38 Spl., 30-30 Win. and 30-06.
Currently, for the .38 Spl. I use W231 or for more powerful load Unique. Back then when I started I used Bullseye for the .38 Spl. and Unique as mentioned. Loading tool was the old Lyman 310 took knick named, "The Nutcracker." Slow, but it made good ammo within its limitations. About two years later I bought a Pacific reloading kit and used it in the early 1970 when I replaced it with the RCBS Rockchucker. I'm still using that Rockchicker for everything I shoot except the .375 H&H, .404 Jeffery and .416 Rigby I replace the Rockchucker with a Rockchucker Supreme as those cartridges were too large to load with the original press.
I do have a Dillon 550B set up for 9MM and a full die set up for .45 ACP. I haven't used it in years.
Last run of .38 Spl. I did was 1,800 rounds, all on the Rockchucker. Bullet was the cast Lyman #359495 wadcutter sized at .359" over 3.1 gr. W231. Brass was mixed brands that were separated according to make. Standard Winchester or CCI primers, whatever was handy. These loads were tested using a friend's Ransome rest agains some Winchester factory wadcutter target load at 25 and 50 yards. My loads were noticeably more accurate at 25 yards and totally beat the factory stuff at the 50 yards mark.
I cast my own bullets with an allow that run 11 one the BHN scale and is the one I use in most, if not all my cast bullet loads, rifle or pistol.
I load handgun ammo and some rifle ammo in what I call batch runs. For example for the last run of .38s, It was1,800 pounds. Charge was 3.1 gr. W231 for the 140 gr. WC bullet. I kept it rather simple. I resized 900 rounds on day one. I did the next 900 the next day. Next I deprimed and belled the next step the next two days, 900 each day. Then I primed them, 250 per day until all were primed. Powder was done the same way, 250 a day. Each charging was checked for weight every tenth round.
Seating bullets was done over 900 rounds after checking once more to insure all cases were properly charged. A good flashlight helps when doing that.
Note that while I ran all the brass, I did check all the Winchester target brass for length. They have two cannelures on the case, the second one to apparently stop the bullet from somehow receding into the case like a turtle pulling in its head. The have a habit of stretching badly when being resized.
Paul B.
