Announcing! Johnny Paratrooper’s Reloading/Refit/Ready Room on Patreon! Every Other Saturday @ 8PM EST
Join us and work on reloading, organizing gear, discussing firearms, ballistics, shooting, and weapon’s maintenance.
Plus current events, humor, cigars, and banter.
I purchased a very nice high def web camera for crystal clear audio and video.
Zoom allows everyone to filter out errant background noise.
So you won’t have to listen to a bunch of mechanical noises over and over again.
We also have a book club.
Did you go shooting recently, to a training event, or buy a new gun?
Give us your range report, tell us what you learned during training, or show off your new gun(s) and hang out!
Don’t own any reloading gear? Not a problem. Hang out and have a chat.
Let’s talk about Cars, Trucks, Motorcycles, Whatever!
I saved hundreds and even thousands of dollars, talking to a friends of mine.
We can find these same answers.
While in the Reloading Room, participants can perform whatever task and purpose they see fit.
I will mostly be performing the various tasks of reloading, prepping gear, or cleaning my weapons.
I may even have three 80% lowers, a Stealth Jig, and A Drill Press.
Want to see some 80% lowers get cut up live in High Def?
Reloading Room, Ready Room, Refit and Reorganize, We do it all.
Hang out, stretch, do some pushups, sit-ups, and chin-ups.
This is also the chance to work on the 4 fundamentals of shooting, practice dry fire, camouflage a rifle/kit, or work on the improved rucksack or LBE project.
Hell, come on in a play us that new song you have been working on with you guitar.
Anything that drives the ball down the field, we do it.
Schedule is the Saturday after Green Dragon Academy.
Click Here to Join Johnny Paratrooper’s Reloading Ready Room
You will receive the invitation through Patreon’s messaging system the day of the class.
We spend 4 hours a month total during two 2 hour sessions every other Saturday performing our due diligence to maintain our equipment in the highest working order for maximum efficiency while hanging out.
First day of the Reloading Room starts on February 12th, 2022!
The Reloading Room is open at 8PM EST.
Reloading Room Schedule for 2022
- February 12th, 2022
- February 26th, 2022
- March 12th, 2022
- March 26th, 2022
- April 9th, 2022
- April 23nd, 2022
- May 7th, 2022
- May 21st, 2022
- June 4rd, 2022
- June 18th, 2022Â
- July 2nd, 2022 Independence Day Weekend (NO SESSION HELD)
- July 16th, 2022
- July 30th, 2022
- August 13th, 2022
- August 27th, 2022
- September 10th, 2022
- September 24rd, 2022
- October 8th, 2022
- October 22st, 2022
- November 5th, 2022
- November 19th, 2022
- December 3nd, 2022
- December 17th, 2022
- December 31st, 2022 New Years Eve (No Session Held)
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About the Author: Johnny Paratrooper
19 Comments
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GUNS N GEAR
How do i control this crap? Lotsof stupid ehit, all under the same umbrella…. Just stop piling on.
Que?
What the fuck are you talking about?
Getting two hours on a Saturday is incredibly tough for me, but reloading is something I have been interested in for a long time. I always try and police my brass and have bought dies in calibers that are my mainstays like .300, .556 and 9mm. Really it is a big hole in my game. I will do my best to try and attend.
Sounds Great Chef.
It’s every other Saturday at 8PM EST.
i dont reload but i stock components and hand them to a buddy that is a reloader. buy now at todays prices and at least you have all the kit to work it out when you attain the skillset later
Reloading is addictive, but it is now difficult to find primers and powders. It is very late to get into this game, and it is not cost effective, but it is good if you can load for a precision rifle. It is best to stick with .308 Winchester/7.62×51, because after .223, it is the most popular and components are plentiful.
Reloading precision rounds does not require expensive equipment. My first MOA loads were made use a hammer and a Lee Handloader kit. If I had to start to reload now for a precision rifle and had no components, I might buy inexpensive ball ammo, remove the bullet, weigh the powder, weigh the cases and reassemble the round using a modern bullet with a high BC bullet using same weight bullet, and work up the load using the original powder, and not exceed the original charge weight. Or we can weigh the original FMJ bullets sorting heavy from light, and reassemble them exactly to the same factory specifications, and perhaps play with COAL. Consistency in component weight will be the key to making accurate rounds without buying specific powders. It may or may not be the most accurate ammo for your rifle, but it is the least expensive way to improve the accuracy using your existing ammo, or cheap ball ammo.
Not that it matters, but my precision rifles are all over 100 years old, and are still tack drivers. The cost of these rifles are embarrassingly low, not for me, for those whom paid big bucks for the biggest and badest. And unlike modern bolt rifles, these rifles are designed specifically for the rigors of war. Run your modern rifle hot and dirty and see if it stays on target, and if rounds will continue to chamber or extract. Some modern bolt rifles will get warm and jam. My go to cartridge is 6.5×55 that was invented around 1892. It is just as accurate and long legged as is the 6.5CM. Load a modern 6.5×55 rifle to it’s full potential, and it will out class .270 and .260 Remington, and 6.5CM. But as it is, the barrels stays cooler and last longer as a lower pressure load. And the brass last forever. Find a lower pressure accuracy load using slow powders, and the highest BC bullets, and the performance will be plenty good enough, and the barrel will stay accurate much longer.
The unappreciated secret of .308, is that the barrel will last much longer than 6.5CM barrels. And .308, ammo will be everywhere. Even .30-06 and .300 Win Mag ammo can easily be broke down into components, the brass sized into .308 Win, and the rest of the components used if the bullet weight is 180 grains or less. Yes, this sort of reloading is not for beginners, but it can be done. Getting to know a hardcore reloader might be a good investment of your time and money, however, If you can afford Federal Gold Match, that is the least time consuming and perhaps most cost effective.
Reloading to make precision ammo is extremely time consuming, but having a rifle that can reach way out there could be priceless. The rock bottom minimum number of rounds I would have for a precision rifle would be two hundred on hand, but there will be lots of rounds needed for training. No time to get into this topic more, I’ve got thousands of rounds to load up myself while I sit by a wood stove. I ain’t blowed up yet. :O)
We aren’t just reloading.
This is a chance to set aside 4 hours a month to work on the little projects.
Such as, making one of Wwes’s Improved Chinese Fighting LBE’s.
Or to clean a weapon, Practice dry fire, and work on the 4 fundamentals.
It’s gonna be a good time, I am very excited for this.
BTW, do not use .308 Winchester in semi auto rifles. Semi auto rifles are designed to use 7.62 Nato and nothing else. Not only can .308 Winchester have a much higher pressure loading that beats up and wearing out the action, but the primers are typically softer and prone to slam fire, especially if the firing pin is the free floating type. 7.62 Nato spec ammunition uses much harder primers such as CCI No. 34’s. There is currently boxes of 5,000 of CCi No. 34 available on Ammoseek.com for only $599.00! Glad I do not need any. It is perfectly safe to use 7.62 Nato in actions designed for .308 Winchester, but not the other way around. This is one of the problems for those using 7.62 Nato semi auto battle rifles. Love AK’s , but once the ammo is gone, you’ll need to have an AR in .223. That is the other problem with 7.62 Nato rifles, ammo will be harder to find relative to .223. There is massive quantities of .223 out there. If possible, have rifles in all three flavors. That way you’ll be the least likely to go hungry.
This is partially true now, and was very true not long ago. Many of the major ammunition makers have worked to solve this problem since the early 2000’s.
Very interesting. Thanks for the head’s up. Technology marches forward, and I will look for confirmation of that info. Yet some rifles are more prone have problems than others and it would be hard to vet this new technology without lots of time to confirm. Afterall, it is a safety issue. Better safe than sorry. IHMO, if the time tested and correct primer and powder is available, it is better to spend the extra to be sure.
All the hunting ammo I have for my .308’s is safe to use in my M1a. A simple check on the manufacturers website confirmed for me. But you are correct none the less; One should always practice proper safety.
The ammo is probably safe for the op rod, because it is using a powder and bullet weight that is correct for the M1A, but does the ammo use a hard primer necessary for military applications, a primer such as the CCI No.34? If a standard primer is seated deep enough, it usually is not a problem, but an out of battery discharge is possible if the factory failed to seat the soft primer completely. At a minimum, check the primer seating depth on the thousands of rounds you might have just to be sure. The M1A, like the M1 Garand, has a floating firing pin.
@Tunnel+Rabbit This morning Brownells was stocked to the gills with CCI primers. You’re gonna pay…that’s the new normal.
No problem. I bot a life time supply a decade ago. It is a problem for those who are contemplating getting into reloading at this late date. Look before you leap, and consider these issues when considering your long range/ precision rifle and the now excellent commercial precision ammo available such as the Federal Gold Match line. Buy and try a box before you jump into reloading.
One might be able to justify reloading, especially if one does not have rifles in common caliber cartridges, yet the costs in terms of time and effort to acquire the knowledge, and learn the skill, and the current cost of components, make it now even more difficult to justify reloading. Finding specialty primers such as the hard to find CCI #34, and #41 for 5.56 Nato semi auto military rifles, make even more difficult to justify. The cost of good equipment will require thousands of rounds loaded to cover the initial investment. This is yet another reason to have that bolt rifle in .308 Winchester. Check out the Savage 110, or Mossberg clone in .308 as a inexpensive and good enough rife, and put the balance of the funds toward high quality commercial ammo that uses 165 or 168 grain projectiles. It’s kinda like putting a low quality radio on an excellent antenna. It’s the lowest cost option combination that produces useful performance for the least amount of money.
And just like with my other hobbies such as radio, or medicine, I do not claim to be an expert, but I have been doing these things for a very long time, yet never stop learning. Just today, I discovered an inexpensive way to make a super broad banded dipole that can easily be oriented for horizontal or vertical polarized propagation. I can only offer my opinion. The individual’s circumstance will be the deciding factor in your decision.
Here’s the link that works, JP.
https://www.patreon.com/ReloadingReadyRoom
Thanks. I am not sure what went wrong.
“We hack you long time”
I accidentally used the link to the old name.