Today I begin the worst job in reloading. The "Dreaded Cleanup"!

When the Covid lock down began last spring, I was at home alone with the wife for 7 weeks. Her sewing room, is second floor front of the condo. My loading room, is in the rear of the basement. I think of them as neutral corners. This allowed us to escape each other long enough to want to see each other again in a few hours.

So I had a very organized loading bench, and started ordering bullets back when delivery times were only 2 or 3 weeks. As they arrived, they piled up in front of the shelves. I thought I was going load up every empty case I own, so why spend time rearranging the shelves, the bullets will be used up in no time!

Then there was the problem of not being able to get parts for damaged dies, a Berdan primed case got in my 308's and made a pretzel out of my decapping stem, so I ended up cannibalizing a 22-250 set I don't use any longer, and go that project finished. But that is a small example of the things I had go wrong! As we all know the Governor's daily briefings kept everything in a state of induced panic, so I wanted to load, not organize!

Now the Piper needs to be paid! The water company comes tomorrow to service the meter and I have made a mess. I cannot see the surface of the loading bench and 2 auxiliary tables are covered with "Stuff"!

I think the beginning is where I empty the trash to make room for more trash. Then put assorted tools where they belong. Then the several die sets, some of which are new acquisitions and don't already have a storage spot. There are containers of newly loaded ammo and components, that need a place to stay until called upon.

That leaves the worst kind of stuff: The mistakes! Do I just pitch them or do I try to salvage to components? I think I'll have to see how big that pile is verses how much time I have left.

I've put it off as long as I can, time to dive in!

Ivan

Be glad you have a dedicated reloading room . . .

Sounds like you have a tedious job planned for today. But it also sounds like you have a plan so work the plan. And save the rejects, as long as you know what components they are loaded with. At least salvage the primers, since they seen to be the hardest components to get a hold of nowadays.

I don't consider it the worst job in reloading, I consider it a neglected job of reloading.
My reloading area is also in the basement. I only reload during the cold weather months of Dec., Jan., & Feb., so the other months the bench gets filled with non-reloading projects that have to be organized and cleared before reloading starts. My reloading bench is 8 ft long, plenty of room for other projects that have to be cleared.

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And depending on where you look, primers are worth 40 cent a piece. Crazy.

Thanks for sharing your plight! I sympathize. I'm a cyclical cleaner-upper. Left to my own devices, I tend to let things accumulate. There comes a time when I say "ENOUGH" and put everything back in order. Then it starts again. Of course I always tell myself to just keep up with it, but I don't. Not in my genes, I suppose. Mom was always saying "a place for everything and everything in its place" but it didn't rub off on me! I have made some colossal messes only to have to deal with it later. Best of luck with your, shall we say... treasure hunt.

You DO have only the components you're actually going to use out on your bench, right?

Sometimes folks differ over the worst jobs in reloading. IMHO resizing, swaging the primer pockets, and trimming bottleneck rifle cartridges are at the top of my list; more specifically .556 and 7.62 Nato. Straight wall pistol cartridge cases are a picnic compared.

ivan - last March when all this craziness began, I was finally forced to "hang up my hardhat" for good. 43 years in the oilpatch is (was?) a pretty respectable run, but everything comes to an end!
For the past 5-8 years, in anticipation of my "retirement someday", I'd been stocking up on reloading "essentials" - if you catch my meaning. The stocking up part is great - the sorting and storage was kind'a neglected!
It took me the better part of a week to sort, inventory, label, and store my "new" essentials. The problem was compounded by the fact that I had to "clear the clutter" before I could even start!
But guess what! It was like Christmas times 3! I found bullets (and other things) I had forgotten I had!
I'd say to take your time and enjoy the moment to "organize your treasures". When you're all done, you can enjoy the organization of your treasures and vow to "never get that disorganized" AGAIN! LOL!
I know I do, every time I get my loading shack "re-organized"! LOL!!

WYT-P
Skyhunter

You could be going to the dentist for a root canal In everything give thanks!

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What could possibly go wrong?

Just be glad of many discoveries of tools/items you thought were "lost";
at least that what happens to me on my cleanup cycles

I have a 5 gallon bucket filled to about the 4 gallon mark that I inherited from a late friend that was a gunsmith. It is filled with all sorts of mistakes, duds and who knows what of a multitude of calibers. I tossed a handful into my burning brush pile and ran away, not sure what I should do with rest.......the same?

KO

Clean up in my reloading/Gun Room is an on-going/never-ending process.

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USMC 69-93 Combat Pistol Inst.

Elaborate on “mistakes” please!

Perhaps I'm different, but I like reloading, all aspects of reloading. I enjoy checking/researching manuals for determining loads. I don't mind inspecting brass, or bullets. I don't mind cleaning brass, processing brass, setting up my press, powder measure/scales, weighing a lot of charges, double checking dimensions, making labels and boxing. I think the only part I don't like is picking up brass at the range...

At the moment it’s a toss up between bending(straightening back up) to pick up brass and finding components.

Opening crimped primer pockets rates right up there though.

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GOA
USA Shooting Supporter

Geeeeeze;

you have a problem with too much stuff.

I wish I had that problem.

Suck it up, and dive in !!

My ongoing/neverending project of trying to keep it straight. And this is only about 1/3 of the room.

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USMC 69-93 Combat Pistol Inst.

Looks straight to me.

Maybe your wife will help you move some of your stuff to the sewing room?
What ya think?

Thanks for the laugh!

I'm into it about 6 hours of work and about half way.

Navada Ed; there is no such thing as too much stuff! especially in reloading! However there is the problem of too little space!

Someone said I should be glad I had a dedicated reloading room. I was glad until we moved to the condo 5 years ago. I went from 14 running feet of loading bench to 5 foot. From a 12x15 foot room to part of the laundry room! From walking outside anytime day or night and testing a load, to neighbors and in city limits! HOWEVER: This is what I have, it is mine and I am grateful. I can walk to 10 restaurants in 5 minutes, I don't spend time mowing or landscaping. The couple on my south are pleasant to speak with, the 25 year old blond to the north of me is very entertaining! She and her friends like to sunbathe sans tops in hot weather. Her all night parties are the quietest parties on earth! So, LIFE IS GOOD! I just like to grumble about cleaning.

Ivan

My family and I moved to our current home last September.

I went from loading in my garage to a dedicated room in my basement.

I have filled a full wall of built in shelving, my storage locker for dies, loading trays, priming tools, and miscellaneous other items that came from garage is packed and I still have some stuff in the floor on one side of the room that I don't know what to do with.

The only significant change is my larger powder stores are now with the rest instead of inside a closet at my previous home. I don't know where I kept it all before.

A person accumulates a lot of "Stuff" over 35 years of handloading.

Some of it I may not use again, but it's still good stuff.

I think many handloaders are in some way related. We all carry a common gene. Maybe a scrounger gene?

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GOA
USA Shooting Supporter

No, there are those of us that love the pursuit of excellence.

I love the sound of two or three tumblers running while I'm reading the history of a cartridge.

It's an escape for me and a personal challenge to load the best ammo I can.

If I ever get to thinking, let's see how many cookie cutter loads I can churn out I'll likely give it up.

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GOA
USA Shooting Supporter

My reloading area was in the basement when we lived on the NH/MA border. During the winter I dressed warm--a thermometer down there once told me once it was 42 degrees. Then we moved to NM, houses are all on slabs down here, and I had a spare bedroom that was great. Now in AZ, I'm in the garage, but that's OK. Today I was out there tumbling brass and cleaning a couple of guns and it was 68 degrees. Couldn't do that back in MA in February.

I got disgusted with too many gun and reloading parts jumbled in the same boxes and plastic bags of bullets and brass piled on the bottom of my reloading cabinet. Turns out you can get a variety of sized clear plastic storage containers at Dollar Tree from one to 4 containers depending on size for a dollar! I now have stacks of containers holding brass by caliber depending on state of preparation. I now also have gun parts separated my gun type and labeled containers of various small reloading tools all for about $12

I have no dedicated reloading bench. On the workbench, my press is mounted by through-bolts with wingnuts. If I need more bench space for some other kind of work, I unscrew the bolts and remove the press.

My other tools (powder dumper, bench primer, primer pocket swager) are mounted on hardwood boards. These are easily clamped to the bench with a large c-clamp.

The whole thing takes seconds to set up and tear down. There's no question of the reloading bench becoming disorganized, as it has to be re-organized every time loading is to occur.


I keep cleaned empty cases in plastic ammo cans. I keep bullets in four pound peanut butter jars. These are strongly built and hold lots of bullets. They are clearly labeled by caliber and weight. I nailed pieces of 2x4 between the garage's studs to serve as shelves to hold these jars, and also boxes of bullets not yet opened.

What does reading your water meter have to do with anything? Everywhere around here they are all outside. Even the really old homes.

A very good question, and one I ask 4 times and got a run around answer of "They need to perform routine maintenance." If I don't get a real answer, they don't get in! However the meter is in the basement, and they are wireless remote read. I assume the remote is not sending.

Ivan

After a great deal of frustration My loading area is "presentable", and vacuumed. As soon as they are gone I have several projects I want to start on, and will begin to mess the whole thing up!

Right now it is "A Model Reloading Area", everyone knows what a model is right? A non-functioning replica!

And as soon as I can there are 1000 FN plated 357 Sig rounds that need put together! (the bullets arrived via Unimpressive Parcel Service back in April 2020 after only bouncing around for 3 weeks!)

Ivan

I'm going to take a photo and text it to my reloading friend that always laughs at my loading area. His solution when his loading area gets to be a mess is to MOVE! Since I hate to move, I have to clean. ITB

My least favorite reloading related job is breaking down mis-loaded rounds in hopes of salvaging some of the components (or in some cases just one valuable component.) I recently accumulated nearly a dozen such rounds in one session with a dirty, out of adjustment Dillon 550. I kept bulling forward in hopes of getting a box of usable 38 wadcutters loaded... I should have admitted defeat and stopped to service the machine. Did I mention I can sometimes do illogical things?

I was once given a couple of hundred 357 rounds loaded “wrong” by the husband of a colleague. My Father was recently retired at the time and looking for something to do, so he broke down all of them with a Whack-a-Mole inertial bullet puller to save primed brass and semijacketed hollow points. Glad I didn’t have to do all of those!

Froggie

I gave up trying to keep my reloading bench "straight". It isn't dirty, but could be considered by some as cluttered, but I know where everything is (and when reloading I have the area neat with one powder, one bullet, one primer out). I took a pic for a "show us your bench" thread on a forum, but on a 2 D pic the area is too "busy" and difficult to look at...

I actually like cleaning and reorganizing, as it gives me a chance to inventory what I have.

My most un-favorite job in reloading: Case trimming!

I have been reorganizing too, and inventorying. Last night I discovered 12 boxes of .308 diameter bullets and 6 of 6.5mm I had forgotten I had. Frankly, I doubt I will live long enough to shoot all of them if I first have to take the time to load them. Stand by for a classified as soon as the loading cabinet and holster boxes are all sorted.

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I need ammo, not a ride.