Vince Green

I bet that fox was thinking "I'm alright, he couldn't hit a flippin elephant at that dist..............."

Five or six times is about sensible but my mate loads his 6.5mm cases till the neck splits and some have been loaded 20+ times. You don't have to chuck your old cases, buy some cheap surplus bullets and load up some reduced loads for plinking.

Have they got Holland and Holland on them?

I didn't realise you can only buy hunting bullets in line with what your allowance is on your FAC. That certainly doesn't apply for ordinary FMJ bullets. I just bought 300 a while back. They never even ask to see your certificate.

With a .22-250 the barrel wear starts becoming noticable after about 1000 rounds and accuracy starts to gradually drop off but the wear is not visible to the eye and the barrel still looks mint. You need a bore scope to see it. Actually the term "wear" it a bit incorrect. Its "firecracking" which is the surface of the rifling starting to break up usually starting in the first 1cm. The heat and pressure from the charge causes carbon to be absorbed into the steel in the same way as if it were case hardened. This makes the steel brittle and subsequent shots cause thousands of microscopic cracks to appear in the surface. After that every time the rifle is fired microscpic bits of the surface of the rifling are broken off until the whole surface is destroyed and accuracy starts to suffer. The process happens on all rifles but on rifles like the .22-250 it happens more quickly and is more noticable. Top level match rifle shooters will replace their barrels after 1500 rounds routinely (cost of a new match barrel plus fitting about £1000).

.410 is probably the only cartridge thats cost effective to reload. That would be your cheapest option.

The scales are sold, thanks Vince

I have a set of Lee powder scales for sale. As new, still in the box with instructions. They are not being used because I inherited a set of Redding scales when my friend sold up and moved abroad Vince Green Greenvbg@aol.com

My mate John got into all this and thought he was being clever but the thing hasn't gone away. The banks treat it as a bad debt and they sell parcels of bad debts off to a third party eventually. A £2000 debt might be sold for £2 but your problems start up all over again when a letter arrives out of the blue from the new owner of the debt wanting payment. This could be anything up to seven years later but once they have made contact the debt is re-activated. Some of these debt collectors are little better than criminals and don't care how they get the money out of you.

I think the best job I have ever had is the job I'm doing now. Since being made redundant I have started a window cleaning business. I know people look down on window cleaning as not being a proper job but its great. I'm totally my own boss, I don't have to work with people I despise ( like I did before I was made redundant). I don't have to go to difficult meetings anymore and best of all I am out in the fresh air. I work the hours I want and I can please myself. The moneys good too, average house £14-15, two houses an hour, work it out for yourself

I don't think many of us can have missed the fact that the pound has fallen to an all time low against the Euro and is 33% down against the dollar and still falling. Virtually all ammunition and components are imported from either USA or the Euro zone and have to be paid for in dollars or Euros. Now its not going to happen straight away because these things take time to wash through but since the importers are going to have to pay 25-30% more for what they buy they cannot help but pass that on to us. More likely, because the banks aren't lending, the importers will hold off buying stock and just sit on the fence for a while to see whats happening. This will result in shortages. My advise to you all is to make sure you are stocked up. Even if you think prices are high now things can only get worse.

The fall in the pound will hurt ammo prices. Virtually all ammo and components come in from abroad and will be 25% to 30% dearer as a result. My advise to you is stock up now if you can.

Looks like you will end up having to send for it from Claygame. Years ago every little gunshop sold shot, powder, wads and primers but now it seems they don't want to encourage people to reload. They would rather sell you cartridges.

Why not try them in the rifle first and then decide if they need resizing. New cases should be ready to load straight out of the box.

Whats wrong with getting Claygame to post them?

Henry Kranks sell PP .22-250 for £50 per hundred. I have not tried their .22-250 but the 6.5mm stuff is good. If you are buying imported American ammo the prices will always be a lot more. I have found Park Street Guns to be dear in the past but I haven't been there in ages. I always go to Joe in Cat Hill. You could consider reloading but .22-250 is not a beginners cartridge. Where are you?

Cartridge prices have barely altered in twenty years. Even forty years ago they were £1.25 a box for Hull Three Crowns and Eley was dearer than that. Compare that to wages or the price of petrol. In his book Blackpowder Gunsmithing the author Ralph T Walker describes growing up in Montana USA in the 1920s. A mans wages were $1 a day and yet a box of 25 shotgun cartridges cost $1.50. A box of 50 .22 cartridges was 50 cents and a box of 20 rifle cartridges was over a dollar. Imagine how you would get on with those equivilent prices today!!

In France they have wild boar in the forests and they will attack a human. Many hunters load one barrel with buck and one with ordinary shot just in case. Thats also why a lot of French shotguns are double trigger.

You will find it hard to save money on reloading these days. Twenty years ago I could reload for 50% of the cost or bought cartridges. I'm not sure why things have changed so much.

Only ever bought one box of stingers. Very noisy and accuracy was appalling. They are a bit of a gimmick IMO.

Don't just base your judgement on cheapest because cheapest usually means 28g (1oz). Its worth paying more for 30g.

You have to have proper lubricant otherwise you will lead up the barrel. You will anyway but not anywhere near so bad. It is wrong really to call them lead bullets. Its lead alloy and the alloys needed for good results are high in tin and antimony and they are not easy to get hold of these days. People use to mix up brews of linotype metal, old .22 scrap and bar solder but its hard to get linotype now. You also need a gas check to stop the base melting. The prices some people talk about on here! Primers £3.50 a hundred? I buy rifle primers fron Bisley at £22 a thousand!

I wouldn't use a powder measure for reloading rifle loads. For top accuracy you have to weigh each charge.