The best gunsmithing effort won’t return a completed project to shooting status until ammunition is arranged. Here’s an approach to loading unusual or unavailable cartridges.

by Ray Ordorica

I well recall the drive that made me become a reloader. I had a .45 Webley Mk VI, a fine revolver that had cost me all of $13 and was modified to accept .45 ACP rounds in clips. The gun was fun to shoot but ammo was costly. Reloading was the obvious answer, so that’s where I began my reloading career. Reloading for that old beast was simple. I bought a Lee Loader for .45 ACP and used it to reload for the Webley and for one or two other of my early .45s. One day it was time to upgrade, so I bought a Lyman Spar-T, a turret press, that served me well enough until I got my RCBS Rock Chucker. By then I had branched out into many other reloading needs, and the ‘Chucker reloaded almost every round I’ve put together since the day I got it, back in about 1974. I say almost because some rounds just can’t be loaded on a normal press. This is where pure gunsmithing comes into play.

Today you can buy almost any size…

Read more in the April 2018 issue.

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