Recently my Dad and I got into reloading. As an enthusiast, it’s been a goal of mine for a decade or so and I just never had the time. A reloading press is similar in use to the rosary beads my Grandma used to count her prayers. It is like the chanting of buddhist monks. 

The mind for some reason or another enjoys and benefits from repetition and entrainment. The background noise of the mind ebbs away like a retreating tide while the mind coalesces around a pool of knowledge related to the process at hand. While I do pray, I do not count them or repeat them, so I must get my chanting in another way.

A reloading press spins around and around and around, each pull of the lever does multiple steps at once to complete the reloading cycle. Each pull results in one round being expelled while all other rounds in the shell plate advance one step further, little pilgrims on the march. It is not inherently dangerous although caution must be exercised since the average reloader will have pounds of gun powder and primers, which are explosive, lying around. This seriousness is an important factor in the enjoyment of the process.

Reloading is a time consuming labor. It’s religious. There is a ritual to follow. First, The brass is washed in a dry bath of crushed walnut shell which removes lead and gun powder residue. Then the spent primer is removed. The next step in purification of the brass is a water bath in a sacred mixture which has been passed down from the elder brethren of long before. It is made with hot water, vinegar, car soap, turtle wax, steel chips (never the pins) and lemi shine dishwasher booster. The clanging of the cases in the drum is reminiscent of the clapping of hands in the singing of hymnals.

Then the brass is sent to the drying rack, for many this is a Ronco food dehydrator, for new adherents, another cheap brand available on amazon may suffice. It should be the cheapest one you can find, for some, no dehydrator is used. Instead, the oven is used to bake oven fries and chicken nuggets and after the oven is turned off, the residual heat dries the cases.

After the cases have been washed and dried they may be filled with the holy powder that makes them go “BOOM”.

The process begins with one empty case, and as that case takes its pilgrimage through the die stations, a new case is added in succession. The primer is seated, a precise amount of powder is added, it is measured, then a bullet is seated and crimped, each pull of the handle results in one shell being completed as long as you can keep the rhythm and operate the press without error. Each completed cartridge drops into a collection tray, it is held up to the light, inspected for flaws, and placed in a tray.

Once the ammunition is made, it can be launched from any boomstick, smoke wagon, blaster, heater, or hand cannon of your choice. The trigger will be pulled, the primer will ignite the powder, and with the thunder of the explosion, ripples of energy will be sent through the tendons and muscles of the arm that set it off. A small projectile will leave the barrel of the gun faster than the speed of sound. A sonic boom will crack the sky, and a brass shell will land at your feet ready to be picked up and sent again on it’s sacred journey.