Many beginning shooters use nothing but factory rounds. At least until better precision and lower costs become a concern. That can be years down the road or in a mere few months. Eventually, these beginners make friends and acquaintances with guys having many more years of experience and know the ins and outs of reloading supplies and ammo. That’s a good thing about our hobby and Titan Reloading also wants to help you shorten the learning curve.

Be as Precise About Reloading as You are with Your Shooting

At Titan Reloading, we highly encourage everyone to practice precision reloading. Just like it takes time on the practice range, it takes time to learn about reloading supplies and the process. Life is not without risks and mistakes can happen when loading ammunition whether the mistake happens at a factory or in your garage.

Inspect your casings.

The two things you are most likely to come across are dents and micro-cracking. Neither should be reused. Dents can happen during the reloading process if too much compression is applied which sometimes leads to outer casing dents. Look for cracking everywhere but particularly around the base of the rim where they might appear as a bright ring. Dents and cracking don’t often occur unless a case has previously been improperly reloaded.

Primers not properly seated.

The primer is properly seated when it sits down inside the primer pocket of the casing. Inspect the bottom of the rim or case to verify the primer is not protruding. If the seating is not correct, remove it and reseat it or use a small flat tool to gently nudge it into the pocket.

Be precise with your powder loads.

With a single stage press, load powder into all the cases in the tray before moving on to seating bullets. Before pressing the bullets, examine the powder loads in the case with a flashlight. What you are primarily looking for is that you did not mistakenly double load any of the casings. With a progressive press, you can use a powder level check system to prevent over or excessive powder loading.

Press the bullets to the right depth.

Before crimping, examine your work to be sure all bullets have been pressed to the correct depth. If the bullet is too deep, it might be that you don’t have enough powder in the case. Too shallow indicates too much powder. Neither is desirable and neither matches the manual specs.

Here are a few testimonials from experienced shooters:

• Dave H. I count myself among the many shooters I know that reload for cost savings. I keep a healthy amount of reloading supplies on hand for both hunting rifles and handgun target practice. I have a couple of expert reloader friends that taught me how to do it right when I was getting started. After 12 years, I have no complaints and have only experienced the rarest of dud rounds. While other buddies are having a tough time finding the factory ammo they need, the reloading supplies that I have on hand continue to fill the bill with big savings.
• Duke T. For economic reasons, I first started using reloaded rounds that I bought from a couple of different small businesses. I got decent results but couldn’t always get exactly what I wanted or had to wait a long time for custom loads. About six years ago, I bit the bullet (so to speak) by investing in the reloading supplies and equipment I need to do it myself and have never looked back. Not only do I get the cost savings, but it enables me to tailor my loads to my specific needs. I’m a bit fussy. Not only do I customize rounds for specific purposes, but I also fine-tune for things like the time of the year and how weather affects performance. Self-loading is the only way I’ve found to account for all the variables.
• Bill W. I have hand loaded at least 12,000 rounds of 9mm and 380 – NEVER HAD A PROBLEM.
• Frank B. In almost 43 years of loading my own, I’ve only had one fail to fire during a match. I set that round aside to look at closely later. I found the primer had gotten into the pocket upside down. I redoubled my diligence when installing primers and never expect to have it happen again.

Put Trust in Yourself

If you can use power tools, you can reload your own ammo. With reloading supplies, you need to educate yourself, exercise caution, and check your work as you go. By doing your research before getting started, reloading ammo becomes a fun and safe hobby.

Titan Reloading is dedicated to helping novice and veteran shooting enthusiasts safely and properly reload their own ammunition.