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CJ's Blue Press Articles
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October, 2004
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Women Who Reload -- And The Dillons They Love
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By CJ Songer
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I’m an old-fashioned kind of girl -- I let my husband do the reloading in the family. I mean, he’s got the temperament for it, and it’s not really a girl thing, right? It’s all about math and science and stuff like that. Or what if I break a nail?
Which is why I couldn’t believe the wild, wicked women you see pictured here -- they do their own reloading! They like it! This was clearly something I needed to investigate.
Rhonda Skelton has been shooting competitively for many years, and is currently trying to conquer the American Handgunner World Championships. She and her husband both reload, and, between them, have two Dillon 550s and one of the Dillon 650 presses.
CJ: Isn't reloading HARD? How do you keep all the formulas straight??!
Rhonda: Reloading, itself, isn’t really hard, at least with Dillon presses. It can be a little time-consuming at first to get set up, cleaning the brass, etc. With our 550 and 650 presses, once you have them set up where you want, you can really crank out the loads pretty fast. We have several of the quick-change conversion kits, so if we want to switch, we just have to change the tool head, and we don’t have to mess with changing or resetting the dies. We chronograph and test our different loads, then we keep a book with our findings.
CJ: Do you find a formula you like and stick with it, or do you experiment a lot?
Rhonda: When we first start with a new caliber, or different bullet or weight of bullet, we’ll experiment a lot with different powders and grains to see what gives us the most accuracy, and, of course, we will also chronograph. Once we find it, we stick with it!
CJ: It looks boring. Is it?
Rhonda: I wouldn't look at it as boring. Being that both my husband and I shoot, most of the time we’re out there reloading together.
CJ: Do you enjoy getting away from everybody when you reload? Would you say it's kind of a Zen thing? (Trance-like states and all that? ;) Or do you have a party going on?
Rhonda: It’s best not to have many distractions. That squib load or double-charged load wouldn’t be a good thing, especially in a match. Our presses are set up in our garage, and we turn on some music, and have at it. (One thing I’d like to point out is that when Dillon says it's a lifetime warranty, they mean it! I gave my square deal to my nephew, and Dillon refurbished it for him!!)
Beate Sexton is a shooter from Australia. I met her at the International Revolver Championship match (IRC) up in Morro Bay, CA last June, and asked her the same set of questions:
Beate: I have two Dillon 550s -- fantastic machines and so tough! I do a lot of reloading. I load about 750 in an hour, all going well and the primers picked first. One press is set for .38-special for my revolver. The other press is .38-super for the STI bottom feeder. (Yes, I shoot IPSC as well.)
Reloading is not hard. Try to reload when fresh. Always write your load break-up down. This eliminates any question when reconfirming a load [by weighing and measuring one or more of your finished rounds.] It’s good to go to a competition knowing that the specs are just right. Things don’t change much on the blue press - thank you, Dillon!
Reloading is common sense and lots of repetition. You have already done the real work by finding a great load that makes power factor, and loves the center of the area you are aiming at. Now there’s only the repetition of making those little darlings. Concentration is required, things can still go amiss, but muscle memory is a wonderful thing, even programmable, you might say, with the Dillon 550s. As long as you play your part, the rest is a done thing. The powder measure is accurate. The primers keep on coming in line on request, and it all just lines up beautifully. It’s all good. (The guys who have the bigger machines find it difficult to believe that it is possible to load the amount I do. But that’s okay. Girls can think and do more than one thing at a time. This is just loading we are talking about!)
Yes, I love to get away from the household and have my own space. Okay, so it’s a garden shed. My husband constantly gripes that it used to be his shed. It is really mine and he knows it. I call it the doll house, because girls can play there too. Loading should be easy, not hard. Really, you want to refine the art of shooting, not reloading -- that part’s already been done by the Blue boys at Dillon!
Lisa Farrell is a hard-working, four-time IRC Ladies Ltd champion, so I asked her how she felt about reloading.
Lisa: I only started reloading about 2 years ago...up 'til then, I was absolutely terrified. So many horror stories - and I'm not mechanically inclined! A few years ago, though, I won a reloader as one of my prize packages at the IRC. After much encouragement from friends, I was on my way...slow as molasses, but on my way. At first, I refused to reload unless someone else was around me, in case something went wrong or didn't feel right. It's kind of like my car - I'm happy if there are no problems and I can just keep on driving. But when there's a funny noise, or my reloader isn't "staging" or running quite right, I stop and ask for help. I now have a Dillon 650XL -- I think I'm the only single lady on earth that has a date with her Dillon on Friday nights before matches!
I don't consider reloading difficult now - it's like anything else. It looked intimidating to me, but I asked a lot of questions and had a very patient teacher. (I earned my nickname, incidentally, because the first time I reloaded, I made a bunch of squib loads - no powder. Thankfully, we caught them before shooting any of them.)
Since I've been shooting predominantly .38-special, I pretty much stick with the same reloading formula except when I change over from practice ammo to match grade ammo. A confession? I don't really “enjoy” experimenting with different loads. I reload because I need to, I want to spend my time out at the range shooting - that's what I love to do!
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CJ: Hmmm. Well, I’ve watched my husband reload, and, truthfully, it doesn’t seem incredibly difficult. These gals do it. Maybe I could give it a try, ya think? (“Hi, honey -- I blew up the garage…?” ;)
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