Roll’em Cheap, Stack’em Deep, Safely
The Range Squirrel
My goal over the winter was to load a thousand rounds or so each of 223 and 9mm and maybe add 7.62×39 to my stable so that when the weather is hot I won’t be sitting in the garage dripping sweat. Life changes, December 17, 2018 I started a new job and hit the ground running.
After 34 years in the automotive repair field I did an about face and am now assembling aircraft components and really enjoying the change. Aside from some evenings of brass prep and recovering the top of my bench I haven’t done much in the way of reloading.
Getting back into the swing of things I had to recall the habits I had developed for a safe reloading practice; under/no charge prevention, verifying powder charges, verifying cartridge overall length. I had moved some things around taking care not to disturb my dies or powder measure, but to be safe we should always ‘trust but verify’.
So, to a seasoned reloader or someone that did in fact stash away mucho munitions over the winter, the following video is old news; but perhaps it may be a reminder for a newer reloader (like myself) to stay safe, or someone whose garage has been more like the frozen tundra, but now thawing a bit not to jump back in haphazardly.
Now hopefully I can get some ammo stashed away before hot weather sets in.
I owned a Marlin 60 since 1987, but never really got ‘into’ guns until 2011 when I bought my first 9mm pistol. That was soon followed by a .380 and a 12 guage pump, and I was all in. I had done some 20 guage reloading growing up, and threw myself into 9mm and .223 reloading in 2017, .380 in 2019, 7.62×39 in 2020 and my first revolver in 45 Colt in 2022. It is so satisfying to go to the range and string together ever improving groups with ammo I loaded myself; it doesn’t hurt that I’m a little OCD about technical things, the tangible/visible rewards are really gratifying.
I have a nagging but as yet unattained ‘want’ for a .358 Yeti unloader, it just looks like a really cool caliber. My next learning curve, space permitting, is casting and coating.