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. It just stays set up for .45 Colt.

[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.

[fordwannabe]

I load 28 calibers(cartridges?) my favorites to reload(not necessarily shoot, but probably) 45 colt, 44 special, and 45-70. 50-110 and 32 Colt are right on their heels.

[veeman]

Today would be 44-40, 45-60 and 38-55.

[jeepnik]

Well, I'll pick one from each "category". .45 acp, .308 win, and 20 ga. I could easily give three from each category.
Handgun .45 acp, .45 colt, & .357 s&w
Rifle .308 win, 45-70, & 30-06
Shotgun 20 ga, .410, & 12 ga.

[AJMD429]

.
My favorite of all time would be either 44 Mag or 6 mm Remington - both started out with the Lee 'mallet' Kit. The 44 Mag because brass is sturdy and it is forgiving of loads. 6mm was even more forgiving - the Lee Kit I had was their now-discontinued 'target' model with inside neck reamer and micrometer seating die (still the 'mallet' resizing thing though). I weighed charges and could shoot ten shots in a dime at 100 yards (Ruger M77V) - but I found out that if I just dipped the cases in the powder and shook out 'enough to help the bullet seat without too much compression' (mid-neck), I'd STILL get ten-shot nickel-sized groups at 100 yards...!

JimT (and anyone else chime in too...)

What are your LEAST favorites to reload...???

I've heard 30 Carbine is a beast to resize, and 32-20 I've personally found 'fragile' and easy to kill the brass, but I dearly love shooting it. When I reloaded 7mm Mag I just felt like I was wasting powder.

[JimT]

My least favorite cartridges I think I already mentioned ... or a couple anyway ... .25 ACP ..... .380 ACP and the 9em em.

The cartridge that is the most work for me is the 480 Achilles. Making the brass is a pain in the ascend. Crimping is critical and not always easy. But I like it! How weird is that?

The Winchester dash cartridges are delicate, but I loaded lots of .44-40's and .32-20's over the years and did not lose too many. Slow and easy helped me. But then again, I have never worried about how many I can load in an hour. That never has been a goal of mine. That's one reason tried the progressive reloader and sold it after a short time. I prefer doing one thing at a time.

[AJMD429]

.
I can see 9mm being a pain for sure...

I'll bet I have 10,000 rounds of 9mm brass but haven't ever reloaded any. Too tiny and too dependent on seating depth precision. Plus factory loads are cheap.

[Bill in Oregon]

My first -- on an RCBS Junior about 1970 -- was the .30-30 and I am still fond of that old stalwart. I enjoy the .44s from the Russian to the Magnum, but confess I am partial to the Russian. I no longer have a handgun that takes this old gentleman.
I'll be loading .45-70 again soon, over black powder. Looking forward to it.

[samsi]

The short 45's are my favorite, ACP, Auto Rim and Cowboy Special. Between the 3 variations and the platforms of 1911, N frame S&W and convertible Blackhawk there's enough tinkering and experimenting opportunity that I sometimes have to make an effort to shoot something besides 45.

For #2 and 3 I'd say it's 44 Special and 45-70, although I haven't done much of either in recent years.

[ikocher]

By and large, .38 Special has been the cartridge I have reloaded the most with .357 Mag being paired up t then .45 Colt. Then again, the amount I have reloaded in ALL of my endeavors probably doesn't total the lowest of any 1 cartridge Jim's loaded

I doubt I've hit 1000 rounds made yet of everything combined as I still have my original box of LPPs I did consume most of the Remington SPP and had to replace them with CCI so I might be close though to that 1000 round mark.