I started reloading way back 50 years or so, because I could make loads that were not sold. Bullets such as the 117 grain Sierra BT in .257 caliber were not available in loaded rounds at the store. And bullets like this were every exotic in the early 1970’s. I later moved to cast bullets because, again, want to shoot hard cast bullets in your .357 or 44 magnum hunting revolvers, have to cast them yourself and load them your self.
As I moved on to IHMSA we used rounds that, guess again, were not even heard of in the lgs. And I began to experiment. Doing things like loading 80 grain Bergers in a .221 Fireball in a fast twist custom barreled XP100. It was wild but it worked. SR4759 became my friend and it loaded ok in a Dillon progressive. Shooting light loads in a 44 or heavy loads in a .45 Colt, all done only by handloading. But my hand could no longer handle a handgun. And the sport died. And we lost the lease on the range where we did our fun revovler shoots. Now the Dillions sit all but abandoned.
Now, I load because it costs $0.82 a round to shoot 6GT and if I want to shoot Berger Hybrids, the cost of loaded rounds is roughly $2.84 the last time I looked. Guess what, again I load because I can make loads that were not sold or were way too darned expensive. But the fun is lost. It’s too easy to put 40 - 50 rounds downrange with a pair of 6GT’s in a fairly short practice session. it’s not the money, but the time, the hours it takes. And, at my age, there’s no time to waste
I have to admit, the reloading, with all the steps involved these days to make good centerfire loads is daunting and a but boring.
And that’s were these two little addictive fellows come into the picture. All’s I have to do is make sure I stock up on SK Rifle Match and SK Standard + with a nice little stash of Lapua CenterX and I’m good to go.
However, I remember the days of dipping powder out of a soup bowl, using a Lee dipper, then putting it on the beam scale and using a kitchen spoon to drop kernels of IMR4350 or H4831 to bring it up to the proper weight, banging primers in using the Lee die, charging the case with powder and seating the bullets. All too often, BANG is the key word when seating primers using an original Lee reloading set. Took forever, but darned it all, I made some good loads.
