My Three Favorite Cartridges To Reload

[JimT]

Over the years I have loaded a lot of different calibers .. from .22 Long Rifles to the .475 Linebaugh. I enjoy reloading but some cartridges are more “pleasant” for me than others. Everyone has their own preferences and I am NOT saying these are better than all the others. I am saying that I prefer to reload these because FOR ME they are MY favorites. And I am not trying to convince anyone else that they should be their favorites. So please do not read this that way!

I do not prefer the smaller cartridges. I find .25 ACP .. .380 ACP .. 9mm to be tedious to reload. I have loaded thousands of rounds of .380 and 9mm but I do not prefer them. I sorta like messing with reloading the .22 Long Rifle simply because hardly anyone else does it. Those of us who do are a very small minority in the reloading world.

The cartridges I call my favorites are the .41 Magnum, the .44 Special and the .30-30 Winchester. Yes, I reload a lot of .45 Colt,
.38 Special and .357 Magnum. But they are not my favorite .. although the .38 Special would be one of my favorites if I were to list 4 favorites. But since I have limited myself to three it did not make it.

Why are those three my favorite? First because they have no bad habits as far as I am concerned. They don't pound my old body with heavy sharp recoil. I am getting close to 80 and just don't enjoy heavy recoiling firearms anymore. And I don't get split cases as often with them as I do with other calibers. The .30-30 is just a pleasure to reload. I have reloaded .243 ... .308 ... 7.62X54R ... .30 Carbine ... .44-40 ... .44 Magnum ... .45-70 and to me, the .30-30 is the one I prefer.

Again, these are my preference. No one should switch to any of these because I like them. Personal preferences are personal. Like menudo. Some people enjoy it. Others, not so much.

Use what you prefer .. what you enjoy ... what brings you satisfaction. And don't worry about what others prefer. Let them enjoy their choices. AND HAVE A GOOD TIME DOING IT!

[Scott Tschirhart]

My three favorites are.45 Colt, .45 Colt and.45 Colt!

[GunnyMack]

I load 17 Remington, hornet, bee, 223,22-250,25-20, 257AI, 7Mauser, 308,338 federal and Win Mag, 375 H&H,38/357, 40 s&w, 41mag, 44 special and magnum and 450 bushmaster. Then of course 410, 28,20 and 12 ga.
Do I have a favorite?
Like you Jim, the small cases are a real pain to load, especially the 17 Remington! Lots of crumpled necks. Hornet is another less than enjoyable regarding the ease of crushing cases.
A favorite to reload...hmm. The 450 Bushmaster is easy being straight walled. Though I dont have reason to load it often as I dont shoot it much. It is however one of these that shoots quite well no matter the powder/bullet combo.
41,the 44s and 38s are easy.
I've always been fond of the small cases, bee and 25-20 mostly, easy on powder, not ear splitting loud and just plain FUN!
BUT I'd say 12 ga on my Dillon 900SL is the favorite as I can churn out about 600 round per hour when I'm in the groove.

[Walt]

I'm with you, Scott. I shoot more .45 Colt than any others so I must enjoy loading them. But .44 Spl and .41 mag are close behind. I have a Smith 586 that I'm more and more happy with so .357 mag is slowly gaining on the pack.

[Griff]

My three favorites are.45 Colt, .45 Colt and.45 Colt!

I love it! It happens to be my favorite also. I load quite a variety of bullets in it. From a 160 grain RFN to a 255 Keith. In jacketed form I prefer a 200 grain "Flying Ashtray" and a 240 JHP. Probably my most used is a 200 grain RFN with smokeless and the RCBS 45-225-CAV with BP. I need to get busy loading some... I'm down to about 10 of the 200 grain RFN and no BP powered rounds!

I'm with Jim on the .30-30 for rifles. There my favorite bullet is cast from a Saeco #316 mold for a gas checked 150 grain, after that comes a 150 grain Sierra JFP and the Sierra 125 grain JHP. Although it's rare, I'll sometimes over lube and dimple the shoulder. I've got a bunch of empty brass that needs trimming, my least favorite reloading chore.

With that said, I'm really coming to love the .32-40 for my 1885. The 170 FN I cast from an Accurate mold running about 1400 fps is easy on the shoulder, and for competition, I can match that in a BP load. For ease of reloading, I don't think there's a more idiot proof round.

[Scott Tschirhart]

I just realized that I have not changed the tooling on my Dillon for probably two years.

[Bearskinner]

There’s something special about rolling out 45’s, 41‘s, 475’s. There easy to handle with large hands, the big cast bullets are easy to put gas checks on, and when you put that big nice crimp in place, they just look and feel so well made.
Then there’s that “Thunk” as they drop in the cylinder. They also load easy into a lever gun.