Tag: lee reloading equipment

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4 Tips for Reloading Beginners

Tips for Reloading beginners
If you are a shooter who has ever dreamed of producing your own ammunition then you’re not alone. Reloading is a fun and highly rewarding activity that also makes you more self-sufficient, but the large quantity of information out there can be overwhelming for beginners. Arm yourself with the following tips and you will be well-prepared for your new hobby.

  1. Remove distractions
    Reloading is enjoyable but it can also be dangerous if you aren’t paying attention. Work in a space where you are alone and away from any distractions such as the TV or radio. To state the obvious, you should never drink alcohol or smoke while reloading. This is an activity that requires your full and focused concentration.

  2. Protect yourself
    Wearing eye and hearing protection is essential. Reloading is an exciting hobby but it does carry certain risks with it. Human error can lead to dangerous scenarios, including explosions, so take all the necessary precautions to protect yourself.

  3. Start out with a single stage or turret press
    The most important item among reloading supplies is the press. This is the foundation of your setup. Single stage and turret presses can only perform a single function with each pull of the handle, meaning that production is slower. However, the upside is that they are easier to master, require little maintenance and are more cost effective; especially for a beginner. The best thing to do is to master the single stage or turret press first, from which you can always diversify later. If you are mechanically inclined you could start out with a progressive press but there is more of a learning curve with this type of press.

  4. Read the Safety Instructions. Then Read them Again.
    The reloading bench is not a place where you want to be in a rush. Safety warnings are included with reloading supplies for good reason – it’s easy to hurt yourself when you don’t know what you are doing. Read the safety instructions and read them again. Then make sure you follow them!

Need some more guidance on where to begin with reloading? Contact Titan Reloading at 262-244-7023 or visit www.TitanReloading.com.

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Get Ready for Summer Heat (and Humidity)

Reloading Supplies

Proper storage of your reloading supplies is critical in protecting their performance, ensuring they operate the way they’re supposed to operate, and preventing them from rusting or degrading. We’ve talked previously on the blog about safely storing powders and other supplies along with keeping your workstation clean, but as the seasons shift it’s important to take a moment to focus on another potential reloading danger: humidity.

About Humidity and Reloading

When reloading, you want a little bit of humidity. In a perfectly dry room, you’re encouraging the occurrence of static electric sparks; it’s best to have some humidity to prevent this from happening. However, too much humidity can be a bad thing. According to SAAMI (Sporting Arms and Ammunitions Manufacturers Institute), high humidity paired with large swings in temperature can degrade the performance of your primers. Large temperature changes and high humidity can also degrade your cartridges.

Experienced reloaders have plenty of stories about humidity impacting their work. High humidity has been seen to cause powder clumping, changes in burn rates, and more. Some reloaders have gone so far as to claim different humidity in the loading process can impact the velocity of reloaded ammunition. If you live in an area that is prone to high humidity, it’s best to work indoors when you can and to use a dehumidifier to protect your process. You should also use proper storage containers for all of your reloading supplies to prevent the humidity from hurting them.

You don’t need a completely dry environment — 40-50% humidity is totally fine and actually matches up to recommended storage conditions for some smokeless powders. Just remember that humidity shifts will affect the performance of your ammunition, so you should make an effort to reload at a consistent humidity for consistent performance.

For further information or questions please contact us at 262-244-7023 or visit www.TitanReloading.com.

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Gift Ideas for Reloaders

Titan Press Covers

The holiday season is fast approaching, which means it’s time to start making your shopping list (and checking it twice). The easiest people to buy for are always those with hobbies; if you have a reloader in your family or circle of friends- you can’t go wrong with reloading supplies. We at Titan Reloading know that the reloading hobby can seem confusing from the outside, so we’ve cooked up this short list of easy gift options that any reloader will love.

Press Covers

Titan Reloading’s press covers are made from heavy cloth and are designed to fit neatly over a reloading press to prevent dust buildup and exposure to the elements. We have press covers for a wide range of presses; covers are designed to fit a press with mounted accessories just to ensure they’re as convenient as possible.

Shooting Accessories

Most reloaders are also avid shooters. Thus, shooting accessories make incredible gifts. Try the Sonic Boom exploding target for a bit of destructive fun, or a Jammit target stand to make shooting practice even easier. For the precision shooters in your life, the MTM K-Zone shooting rest is a powerful tool in sighting rifles and improving accuracy and Competition Electronics’ Pro Chrono Digital helps analyze individual shots for differences in velocity, standard deviation, and spread.

Bullet Molds

If you’re a bit more familiar with the type of reloading your loved one traditionally does, bullet molds can make an excellent gift. Titan Reloading stocks bullet molds for all sorts of ammunition types including buckshot, slugs, bullets, black powder, and more. If you need help picking the right mold, contact our friendly support staff or stop by the store.

Books

Titan Reloading is a big fan of the Lee Modern Reloading Manual, something many would consider the prime book on reloading and reloading supplies. If the reloader in your family doesn’t already have a copy of this book they will certainly be delighted to find it in their stocking Christmas morning.

For more information about our reloading supplies please visit www.titanreloading.com or contact us at 262-244-7023.

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More Safety Rules for Reloaders

Reloaders

At Titan Reloading, we’re big fans (obviously) of reloading as a hobby. We love helping new reloaders find their way around reloading supplies and reloading equipment, and we work hard to make the reloading community a welcoming place through our dedicated staff and our monthly reloading workshops. It’s important to us that reloading grow and thrive.

Safety is a major concern in reloading, for new and experienced reloaders alike. We’ve touched on safety before, but it’s always worth revisiting. Here are a few safety tips that can help you keep your reloading process safe and consistent:

Find Focus

Do not split your attention between reloading and another task. Wait for the kids to go to bed, leave the television in another room, and don’t converse with visitors in the middle of a reload. Reloading ammunition improperly has serious repercussions; treat the process seriously. If you can’t find a quiet moment, try again the next day.

Don’t Guess or Estimate

Reloading supplies have specific ways they’re meant to be used. At no point in the reloading process should you be guessing or making estimations. Follow a safe, proven workflow and do not deviate from this workflow until you’re certain you understand every element of reloading. If you get stuck, contact the product manufacturer or your fellow reloaders for help.

Use Proper Storage

Keep your powder and primers away from children and away from sources of heat. Store each of your reloading components in a designated, labeled space so that you always know where things are and how to find them. Keep reloading supplies secured when not in use and clean your workspace thoroughly after every reloading session.

Hygiene

It sounds strange, but hygiene matters in reloading. Lead is a potentially dangerous chemical. You should never eat or drink at your reloading bench and should always wash your hands after each session. Do your best to keep your hands in the work area while working to prevent lead from ending up on your face, neck, or anywhere else.

For more information about reloading safety or which reloading supplies will work best for your needs please visit www.TitanReloading.com or contact us at 262.244.7023.  Our workshops are free to attend and occur on the second Thursday of every month at 7:00 p.m. – look forward to meeting you!

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Tips on Brass

Pistol Brass

There is no question that the brass you select is among the most important items in your reloading supplies. For those of you who are new to the world of reloading, “brass” refers to the cartridge case in which you load your primer, powder, and projectile. Choosing the perfect brass is one of the more challenging steps when getting started in reloading, as finding a brass you really like often comes down to trial and error.

If you are reloading just for “plinking”, the brass you select only needs to be carefully inspected for cracks, bulges or any other signs of pressure damage that has weakened the case. If you are a bench rest shooter desiring the most consistently accurate ammo possible you need to adhere to a few more considerations in your brass selection. Here are a few quick tips that will help you find the best brass for your intended use:

Staying Safe

Brass cartridges are not designed for infinite firings and will eventually fail, so it’s best to only work with those cartridges for which you have a known firing history. Brass rarely suffers catastrophic failure but even small problems can cause complications in your firearm. Thus, it is highly recommended that you only reload new brass you have fired yourself or brass that is reputably known to be “once fired”.

Choosing Brass

Reloaders all have different opinions when it comes to the “perfect” brass. Finding the one you like most will require that you test different manufacturers and setups. However, matching your brass by production run will help to ensure consistency across cartridges, and sticking with familiar manufacturers such as Remington, MagTech and Winchester is always a good bet when quality is a concern. Verify manufacturers by checking the headstamp at the bottom of the cartridge.

Brass Production

While manufacturers strive to build consistency into their brass, changes do occur in the production line. It is important to remember that two same-caliber Remington cartridges are not guaranteed to have the same case capacity, because they may have been manufactured in different runs or at different times. Weighing each of your cartridges to ensure they are within 2 to 3 tenths of a grain is a recommended practice for highly accurate rounds.

There’s much more to be learned about brass and other reloading supplies. If you’re interested in getting started, we’d love to have you at one of our free monthly reloading workshops. And for more information or inquiries please visit www.TitanReloading.com or contact us at 262.244.7023.

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Is Reloading Safe?

Reloading Safety Basics

At Titan Reloading, we’re big proponents of investing in your own reloading supplies and manually reloading your ammunition. It’s more efficient, gives you a better understanding of your firearms and the ammunition they use, and saves you an enormous amount of money over the long-term. That’s why we host free reloading seminars every month — we want people to explore this rewarding hobby and to see how fun it can be.

One of the most common concerns new reloaders have is the safety of the reloading process and the reliability of reloaded ammunition. Because we receive so many inquiries related to safety, we thought we’d cook up a quick overview of safe reloading practices.

Safety Basics

Reloading safety follows some common sense safety rules. Always wear eye protection when reloading, don’t eat or drink while you’re working, and store all of your components and chemicals in their proper containers. A sloppy workspace and sloppy work habits are the most common causes of faulty ammunition or reloading accidents. If you approach reloading with safety in mind, you can prevent these accidents from happening.

Additionally, never mix components from different ammunition types or manufacturers, and don’t attempt to substitute when you’re short a necessary element. Every manufacturer approaches reloading differently and messing with components from different systems could have dangerous consequences. Similar powders and brass are not interchangeable and should be kept and worked with separately.

Finally, keep your substances away from pets and children and be certain to keep solid records of your loads. Reloading supplies demand that you pay close attention to what you use, when you used it, and how you used it, so keep a written journal so you can identify problems or reproduce results. If you notice anything weird about your loads while shooting, stop shooting immediately and check the ammunition for irregularity.

Titan Reloading is here to help with both reloading supplies and the knowledge you need to use them. For more information or any inquiries please contact us at 262.244.7023 or visit www.titanreloading.com.