“I’m not telling you to buy reloads.”
Did not say you did.
Just not going to buy someone else’s reloads.
Heck, i had a squib load from factory Sellier and Bellot ammo in .380 and left the slug stuck halfway down the bore. Luckily it did not sound right and I stopped my wife from more shooting.
Had a .308 Fiocchi round split the bottom of the case and blow out the primer.
Factory stuff, so no way I trust handloads from some guy on the side of the road.
I have a neighbor down the street that blew up a new Desert Eagle 45 auto pistol.
He survived (no injuries) but the pistol did not. It was not repairable.
He, some how, put more than a double charge of powder in it.
And insult to injury, he was a mechanical engineer in real life. (he is retired now.) My parents and his parents were best friends. We all hunted together when I was growing up.
My brother, when he was young, got heavy into 300 Win Mag shooting. He never had anything bad happen, but he would take the published reloading tables and load the Max Load for his starting point. There is no room for error there. Dad would not use his reloads, not because of danger, but because of accuracy. Dad was an armorer during WWII, serviced Quad 50’s and Bofors.
And over time I found the most accurate loads were close to mid way between recommended starting charge and the Max Charge. That is difficult when using some powders. H-4350 is very popular but the window of charge range is narrow, you need to measure charge very carefully, but it is a great performing powder.
Bolt action military surplus rifles are normally way over engineered (some imports are not). They are safer than some we use for hunting, but they are HEAVY to pack around. Same with pistols. NATO ammo is not that much different to civilian loads, but they are designed to make ammo interchangeable between individual NATO country’s specs. They would rather civilians not shoot them, even though some civilians loads are higher pressures.
Today, the range of powders is incredible. Some are very forgiving, others will bite you if you are careless. And they have all become expensive. Now $50-$60 per pound on most of them.
I’ve seen video’s of guys shooting 50 BMG rifles with surplus military rounds. One I saw was extremely lucky to survive.
I have a bear gun, but it is not 50 caliber.
About a week ago, I stumbled into a website that was giving advice about ammo for newbies. I was amazed how bad some of its was. It is not that way with the old reliable reloading supply companies. Most dodge giving advice because of potential liability, but refer customers to factory source data.
I have some family heirloom weapons, that are sill capable of being fired with the right charge. Have a John Buckingham hammerless 12 ga shotgun (was my dad’s grandfather’s). It has a Damascus barrel, made in Germany. It is in good shape except for a couple of action issues. With the right charge, it will be safe to fire and I expect to do that. Yes, I know that the typical gunsmith would recommend putting it over the fireplace mantel.