Read why I take loading and reloading about as seriously as it is possible to imagine -

In 1983 I was standing in the neighbouring shooting bay when less than ten feet away from me, a young man was sitting on the ground, propped up agains the wall between us, bleeding to death from injuries he had suffered when his friend's revolver blew up as he stood beside him shooting another handgun.

Using borrowed and unfamiliar reloading gear, his pal had hand-loaded 158gr JHP bullets into .38 Special cases for his dad's old Military Police-issue WW2 Colt.

But with a load that was three times a good load for a .357Mag - 24.6gr of Unique...

The gun let go at the third shot, with a piece of the cylinder passing through the victim's neck and other fragments into his face and eyes - had he survived he would have been blind anyhow.

We kept him alive long enough for him to die as we unloaded him in my arms at the nearby ER unit - as most folks know, it's very hard to put a tourniquet on a person's neck.

tac