Reloading: Picking a Recipe – Part 7
B.L.U.F.
First article about choosing powders. There is another article coming on the same topic, covering different parts.
(1500 words)
I had been “gifted” a box of reloading supplies. This was a bunch of 30-30 bullets, some miscellaneous things, and 200+ .45 ACP cases. This sat on a shelf for years before my friend mentioned that one of her co-workers was selling his reloading press. I offered to buy it.
Today I know that I over paid. What got was a Lee Single stage press. Not enough for me to reload, but enough for me to at least get started. Along with all of those .45ACP cases was a set of dies for .45ACP. Maybe two sets. I know I have two sets of .45ACP dies now.
I decided that I was going to learn how to reload to make some range candy.
My history with guns started very late in life. I managed to sell a domain name for a boat load of money. That money went to numerous things. That included a 7.62×39, 7.62×51, 5.56×45, 9×19, and a .45ACP. Along with each of those, I purchased 2000 rounds of each caliber.
I was down to around 500 rounds of .45ACP and made the reloading plunge.
So there I am, with numerous tools and no idea how to use them. Since my press said “Lee” on it, I purchased the Lee reloading manual. I still have that book.
I read the section on how to reload twice and then went shopping for what I needed to complete my first round of reloading.
According to that book, I needed:
- Bullets
- Primer
- Powder
- Calibers
- Powder measuring device
Do NOT use this list. It is incomplete, in my opinion.
The measuring device they recommended was a volumetric device. Little calibrated scoops. Each scope would measure out a fixed amount of powder, by volume.
The Lee people had taken many samples of different powders to find their density. Once they knew the density of a powder, they could translate a load given in grains into a volume in cubic centimeters. If a powder was consistent enough in density, and the safe charge could be made with one of their powder measure scoops, they would give that measure in their recipes.
They are so confident in this method that each(?) die set from Lee comes with a powder measure scoop that should work with some powders for that caliber. And they have that reloading information with their die.
As you can tell from this tale, I bought into this. The cost of the entire set of scoops was less than a scale.
Having decided I was going to reload this way, I had a set of powders that “worked” with this method. I went to my LGS and looked through all the powders they had until I found one that matched the list of powders I had recipes for. That happened to be Accurate #5.
I brought it home, primed 5 cases, put powder in 50 cases. Checked the powder level in all the cases, then seated the bullets in each case.
All the rounds worked. I had successfully reloaded 50 .45ACP cartridges!
Why did I choose that powder?
As Applied?
B.L.U.F.
What is the difference between an as applied challenge and a facial challenge to law?
(1550 words)
In Antonyuk v Hochul, the plaintiffs challenged parts of New York’s CCIA on facial grounds. This is to say, they claimed that the challenged legislation is always unconstitutional.
For example, it has been established that a ban on all handguns is unconstitutional. There is no case in which it would be considered constitutional. The state argues around the fringes, if a ban on all handguns is unconstitutional, how about a ban on some guns?
Consider a different civil right, a right protected by the constitution, the right to assemble for free speech.
In my town we have a commons. It has a pretty gazebo and during the summer months they will have open air concerts and art festivals and discussions and all sort of assemblies. If I want to show up and start playing my fiddle (badly) at the gazebo, there is no issue.
On the other hand, if I would like to have an ‘event’, I need a permit.
The first question asked is, “Does this touch fingers with a core civil right?” The answer to that is an unequivocal “YES”.
Since the proposed conduct, having an event on the public commons, implicates the plain text of the First Amendment, it meets the first prong of a facial challenge.
Permitting is well established, so only a lawyer interested in fleecing me would take the case, but assume it got into court.
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