I'm really starting to get into doing this, is there anyone here who can share stories and info?

I reload a fair amount, have for several years for both rifle and pistol. What specific questions do you have, or should I ask, what answers are you looking for?

No specific questions, just hoping to get a discussion started.

I reload 9mm (and .223) on a Dillon 550B.

I reload for a .41 magnum. I used to think that it saved money but really reloading just allows you to shoot alot more for the same money.

I reload .45acp, .40S&W, .38spl, and .357mag.
I also cast my own bullets from scrapped wheel weights.

Costs me under $2.00 to reload a box of 50, probably closer to $1.50.
I don't add anything to my costs for my time, since reloading isn't taking me away from anything that would make me any money.

Once you get enough brass, all that's left to purchase (after the equipment) is powder, primers, and bullets. Purchasing bullets instead of casting them would increase my costs- not sure how much, since I don't know how much pre cast bullets go for.

I don't use hand loads for carrying, since my bullets are all LSWC.

Started out loading on a RCBS single stage, mostly for a .44 mag because I could not really find what I thought was a good load for hunting whitetails. The single stage press has, and still does serve me very well. I currently load for 28 different rifle and pistol calibers, some of them for thousands of rounds, and others for a very little round count.

I still use my RCBS single stage press for all of my bottle neck/rifle rounds except for the .223 and .221 Fireball. For high volume usage, like the 9mm, .45 acp and .223, I load on a Dillon RL 550 B. I have a few heads set up for the 550 with different dies and powder measures for quick and easy change over to different calibers. Something that may get a few comments is that I do have and use a Pact electronic scale, but truely believe it is not as near as accurate or fast as my old RCBS triple beam.

For the handgun calibers, I load mostly lead and some jacketed. A rule of thumb, if it is competition or fun, I load lead, for hunting I use quality jacketed bullets, mostly Hornady, and for self defense it is all factory loaded ammo.

All of my "stuff" is in it's own dedicated 8x11 ft. loading room that is in constant lockdown, with me carrying the keys.

I haven't been doing any loading the in last couple of months, kind of the end of the shooting season for me, hunting season, and the holiday doings keep me doing other things. But for me the months of Jan. to March is the loading season, it is just me, my stuff, and my police scanner in my little corner room making evil ammo.

I reload 10mm and 45 ACP. Over the past couple of months its been mostly 10mm. I use a Dillon Square Deal B, since I don't own a rifle I can reload (I do have a .22LR Marlin from 20 years ago).

I was actually surprised at how easy it is, if you pay close attention. I think reloading for 10mm is a big savings, but 45 ACP takes a long time to really pay back the cost of the equipment.

What do you guys do with your "bad" rounds that can't be recovered? I seem to end up with 1-2 per 500 with backwards primers and have several from when I first started with high primers due to some stiff .45 ACP +P nickel brass. From what I've read, pulling the bullets from these rounds is a bad idea.

I've dumped a couple in the trash after "encasing" them in polyurethane foam, but the rest I've kind of collected. Can you drop them off at the fire station? I don't think the Hennepin County Hazardous Waste people will take them. I figure that has to be a legitimate place that takes this stuff.

Try the local cop shop............some will accomodate you.

I got started a year ago with an RCBS turret press, a bunch of how-to books from the libarary, and several sets of dies from .380 up to .45 Colt. (No bottleneck ammo yet.)

Anyway, I got into it mainly as a do-something-with-my-hands hobby, and it's been great. I figure that with the initial cost, I should break even by about 2078.

Seriously, I only have one consistent problem, and that is getting the dies to stay set. I am leery of really honking down on that allen wrench, but maybe I shouldn't be.

What is the problem with using an inertial bullet puller? As far as removing the primers goes, I would do it -- carefully, carefully -- with a drift of the appropriate size, keeping in mind that if the primer detonates, the drift might become a missile.

I believe that certain solvents will safely destroy primers, making it completely safe to pull the bullets.

Maybe I've just been lucky, but I've used one of those mallet inertia pullers for my oopses without any problems. Those include mis-seated primers, rounds I wasn't sure got correctly charged, etc...

"Carefully" and "inertial" dont' mix well in my mind, and I'd rather not end up detonating a round. I could probably get away with it most of the time, but generally when I start falling into the "get away with it most of the time" mindset, I end up not getting away with it.

All in all, it's probably relatively OK to encase the oopses I'm unwilling to use the mallet on in polyurthane and then toss. They're not likely to be accidentally detonated encased in foam, and I think the garbage burner has sufficient shielding that should they cook off nobody gets hurt. From what I understand, open-air detonations of rounds is less hazardous than you might think without the pressure multiplier of a chamber and barrel.

That makes two of us.