Buying ammunition from someone who home loads

Home loading is seen and portrayed by many as a dark art, and especially those who shoot competitively can go to extraordinary lengths to fine tune ammo for their rifles and getting them to shoot tiny little groups.

I reload, mainly because I use a cartridge, the 7x65r that is not readily available in the UK. I bought a 2nd hand reloading kit 12 years ago for well under £100, and other sets of dies haven’t added to it.

Saying that factory ammo just plain works in most rifles, and gives more than enough accuracy for killing deer. But then I am fortunate in having a well stocked gunshop reasonably close to me in Edinburgh.

And in terms of cost, it very much depends on how you value the capital cost of the equipment and your time.

I have fired off 51 rounds of the last few days. 1 from my 7x65r at a sika stag, the rest from 223 at paper. I am away looking after a friends place with ability to shoot from the back door. I have tubs of powder, bullets and primers that have sitting on my shelf for a good while - certainly from well before lockdown. So i loaded up 50 223rds and been testing my lockdown project. Now if I had factory ammo that would have cost me £52. But as far as I concerned it cost me a lot less in components:)
 
View attachment 226854Factory .308, have also had federal .308 dangerously over pressure in a guest’s rifle on a guest day at the club.

I’m sticking with home loads in future as then I’m in control!
Over pressure or slack primer pocket?

Just wondering because the primer still appears to have rounded shoulders. In either case it still shows that problems do occur even with factory ammunition and Remington had a bit of a variable reputation for quality in their ammunition.
 
That's splitting hairs.

As above. ~Muir
It is important to differentiate between someone making ammo commercially to be sold to the public, and someone offering a service to make ammo for someone's particular rifle, whether for money or not. The rules and legal obligations for one are not necessarily applicable to the other. Ammunition that is safe to use in that particular rifle is, of course, an obligation for both.
 
Look at it as you will, but if they are not a professional remanufacturer, it's a foolish practice and one that has long been condemned. ~Muir
 
Look at it as you will, but if they are not a professional remanufacturer, it's a foolish practice and one that has long been condemned. ~Muir
We have a few "professional remanufacturers" in this country, but in what sense are they "professional"? Did they have to pass any professional exams to demonstrate their competence? No. Do gunsmiths have to pass exams to demonstrate their competence before subjecting themselves on the shooting public? No. Not in the UK.
 
We have a few "professional remanufacturers" in this country, but in what sense are they "professional"? Did they have to pass any professional exams to demonstrate their competence? No. Do gunsmiths have to pass exams to demonstrate their competence before subjecting themselves on the shooting public? No. Not in the UK.
If they are not competent, they won't last long in business. Technically speaking, if you make ammo for anyone in the US you need to have a license and all the attending liability coverage. The latter tends to make you do your job right.

But we are going way into the weeds. The OP wrote:
"...is it legal to buy home-loaded ammo from someone who makes it for their own use?" He did not talk about commercial (re) manufacturers so I'm not going to argue for or against them. ~Muir
 
I would never buy homeloads from anyone . What works in their rifle might not work in yours and it could be very dangerous as you have no idea what they have done.

David
 
Back in the day, I managed to load some rounds for a .45 ACP Colt 1911 competition gun. The first round must have been powderless or a squib load as it pushed the 230g FMJ halfway up the barrel. In a national pistol competition, it was not unsafe but rather embarrassing.

A good friend of mine managed to blow up his Combat Magnum into several component parts. With the first round of his 100 reloaded .357 Mag cartridges. This was very embarrassing but also potentially lethal. Fortunately, no humans were harmed, unlike his Model 19.

We all have our own moments of inattention and/or incompetence. Why would you want to expose yourself to anyone else's?
 
Over pressure or slack primer pocket?

Just wondering because the primer still appears to have rounded shoulders. In either case it still shows that problems do occur even with factory ammunition and Remington had a bit of a variable reputation for quality in their ammunition.
High pressure, very stiff bolt lift to go with it.
 
Some years ago I bought a S/H .243. The seller gave me such cartridges as he had for it. I had no intention of shooting them, just curiosity as to their contents and an eye to recycling any bullets or brass that were fit for reuse.
The variation of headstamps, case lengths, charge weights, powder appearance and bullet type within any single 20-round box of that gentleman's home loads was jaw-dropping.
I'm glad to say my own loads are a great deal more consistent than that, but I still wouldn't make loads for anyone else.
I'd rather encourage my shooting friends to buy good factory ammo and thus benefit from a ready supply of premium once-fired brass.
 
Hmmm. I have been reloading my own in everything from small to large chamberings for many years. From the outset you have to realise and totally understand that if you get it wrong you can cause significant and life-changing injuries to the user of your little darlings, be that yourself, your pal or one of your/their kids. Being old school I carefully measure (and frequently remeasure) all aspects of my rifles and ensure that correct case/bullet dimensions for each are noted in my reloads notebook. All ammunition reloaded gets the same careful checks which includes powder weighing on two scales, examination by torch of filled cases and a further 10% check before bullet seating. I am thus very confident that what I am producing is to the highest quality and most importantly safety standards. Being a great believer in enough is plenty I do not “hot load“ either, nor will I; many, many foxes and quite a few roe, fallow and reds have fallen to my humble efforts and the analogy for me in terms of satisfaction is the catching of a good trout on one of my flies.
In short and on this basis I would be prepared to reload for a good pal - if asked! Paradoxically - I would not, and will not, accept ammunition other than perhaps RFD-purchased quality factory, which I have not reloaded myself! I have seen far too many genuinely friendly actions turning to disaster over my 50-odd years of shooting, the most impressive of which was a 44 magnum Colt being converted into an IKEA self-assembly kit and just like the real thing a number of parts were “missing” (and still are), fortunately, and I still don’t know how, this did not include the owner’s fingers or eyeballs!
Just my thruppence worth chaps.
🦊🦊
 
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