Reloading....handloading......so much fun can be had. Gratifying seeing the accuracy results, too.
15 yrs back I got into handloading for my bolt action hunting rifles. At the time I had gravitated from shooting just the normal .270Win, .308Win & 7mmRemMag onto shooting 7mmSTW, 7RUM, 300WSM and others.
Ammo for the RUM & STW rounds was not only scarce....but pricey. Even then it was hard to find it available with the specific bullets I wanted.
I bought an RCBS Rockchucker Supreme kit from Midway and mounted it to a mobile bench (rolling toolbox) and jumped into the fun.
It didn't take long to work up some loads that were 1/2 MOA or better in my guns.
What did take a long time...were the sessions where I wanted to load some .44RemMag or .357mag for my revolvers. Those loading sessions on that gear seemed to take hours to only produce small batches. Single stage....die adjustments needed in between steps....slow measuring of powder charges, etc.
Fatherhood, family life, work schedule all conspired to place great demands on my free time & hunting took a distant backseat. The closet space the rolling bench took up was needed for other stuff and a buddy made me a solid offer on all my gear.
5 years ago I began to slow down on overtime. Some injuries and surgeries ruled out golf and some of the other stuff.....gravitated back towards shooting again...but mainly handguns.
While 9mm was fairly cheap and easy to find.....45acp & 10mm wasn't so much.....and .44mag became insanely expensive. This was well prior to covid, ANTIFA-BLM activity, riots and market demand skyrocketing.
I made the decision to get back into reloading two+ years back.....predominately for handguns. I ordered an XL750 for the purpose...then decided a 550C would be nice to have for some of the hunting rifle stuff, too. 550C arrived. Full toolhead kits for multiple cartridges have been added.
Garage bench has been setup and used for brass prep. Large & medium media tumblers live there. Bought a LEE APP press for universal decapping and bullet sizing. It'll be mounted to that garage bench.
Spare bedroom is now being converted to my mancave where I have the main bench built but the upper shelving unit needs to be finished as well as some type of backboard. Believe I'll go with a metal or polymer pegboard (much cheaper than wood now, lol). I need to get the shelves built & installed so I'll know what dimensions to use for pegboard rear. I have two 42" supernova-bright shop lights to mount to the shelf unit once it's ready. Thinking I'll have one at the very top....near ceiling height....above the case feeder and a second one mounted lower...to best illuminate the scale work surface. I'll have pinpoint lighting used for hitting the powder charge stations of both presses.
I've also been buying components all along, too. The stuff that I know for certain will be heavy use Items have been stacked deep....example TiteGroup, large pistol primers & 200gr lswc.
Luckily I bought enough primers to hold me a little while because now things have ground to a halt with primer availability. It is my best guess that will improve now that Remington is cranking out ammunition. Once they have happy distributors sitting on decent inventories they will most likely cut a few primers loose to the market. I'm guessing Federal may well follow suit. How soon this occurs is an unknown, but clearly it'll take a while until the distributors have stable inventories of 9mm & .223/5.56.
Life intervened in a big way shortly after I started acquiring the various reloading gear. Cancer returned to my beautiful bride of 27 years. She'd just hit 50 years old...gorgeous as ever....and it came back with a vengeance. While caring for her and working my hours on the job there was not much time for anything other than the occasional range therapy. I continued to add some gear and simply stash it in the future mancave....hoping that we'd reach a point where cancer would be dormant or beaten and we could resume our lives together.
That wasn't in God's plan. She'd shown such great response to the meds and things had gone well for two years....but then all of that changed in just a very few months. She passed in April. It caught me flat-footed, even though I'd had years to prepare. Took a couple months off work and got my head & heart wrapped around the fact that my best friend is now one of God's Angels. Her presence is felt in our home and I pray that is always the case.
Our son wrapped up college and graduated. He & his girlfriend have moved back into our home. He's been accepted in grad school and will live here for the next two years as he completes his masters. So grateful to have the kids here with me and the dogs.
I have resumed my range sessions....somedays I even feel like a range rat...spending too much time there, lol.
In addition to burning through much of my meager ammo supply I've also added a couple long guns that are going to be hungry: AR15's, AR10 and longer range steel banger in 6.5CM.
The amped up range enthusiasm along with the my son & his friends taking over the den on occasion has placed an emphasis on getting busy with the mancave. I need to get my presses mounted, dialed in and some ammo rolling along ASAP. I have some time off work this coming week that I plan on doing that very thing.
Will go TV shopping this week, too. Going to put a large screen in there....already have the cableTV & internet wired in. May add a MacMini. Comfortable leather wing chair & ottoman and a new MyPillow dog bed is already in there.
It is going to be a race between the market catching up and the Biden-Harris gestapo clown show trying to shut down the firearms industry.
It's a tough time to start reloading.
Doesn't mean that it can't be a rewarding and fun hobby.....just more difficult to source the gear & consumables you'll need.
I've got a strong feeling that I'll be adding an additional bench or reconfiguring the space so I can slip in a Forster Co-Ax single stage, too. I have a sneaky suspicion the longer range steel-banging and desire for precision on such loads as well as those for my hunting rifles will have me desiring the Co-Ax. Time will tell. I'm interested in seeing what I can achieve with the 550C running rifle & 750XL running pistol rounds first.
Have dedicated toolheads for: 9mm, 38spcl, 38Super, 10mm, .44mag, .45acp, .45/70, 460S&W, .30'06, .308Win, .270Win and now 6.5CM.
I love the speed & ease of die change with the Forster. Your dies all remain set....you simply slip them in/out of the press. I can't begin to emphasize how much time this will save you. Huge factor. Also the design of the unit is very conducive to precise results as proven on runout gauges and the like.
Midway carries Forster gear.....but there is a MASSIVE shortage of Co-Ax presses nationwide right now. That would be my recommendation for you if you could find one.
