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[Random7Dude]

[RiskyBusiness]

H110 is your friend

[MrElectric03]

Some rounds just don't work in certain guns. I seem to remember Freedom being like Armscor ammo, on the weak side. If you have a bunch I'd sell it off, if you don't have too much just shoot it and sell (or reload)the brass.

[Romeo_alpha01]

Some rounds just don't work in certain guns. I seem to remember Freedom being like Armscor ammo, on the weak side. If you have a bunch I'd sell it off, if you don't have too much just shoot it and sell (or reload)the brass.

[jkuengineer]

i reload the 50AE for my desert eagle. all i can say is the h110 smells amazing

on a serious note i had to go above the manual's recommended max to get my desert eagle with new springs to cycle 2 full mags in a row without issues. i dont recommend anyone do this however unless you have a pretty good idea of what can happen. doing this, ive never had more fun shooting the 50AE. with the factory ammo, i actually had really good luck with the hornady but the armscore stuff never worked right in my DE. YMMV

also, the speer (magnum research box) ammo worked well too. some range's give you an issue since i it looks like aluminium cased ammo from the nickel coating i think it is.

never tried freedom munitions however there was a guy at angeles range in socal few weeks ago had a DE 50AE he was using it and was jamming every round. He asked where i bought my ammo from i told him i reload. i gave him 5 rounds to try all of them cycled with no issue. if not for the cost, just to get the pistol to cycle properly reloading is recommended.

[jkuengineer]

I ended up pulling the trigger (pun intended ). Bought a few reloading tools to get me started in reloading and 'recharge' the Freedom Munition rounds.

• Lee Hand Press Kit & extra quick change bushings
• RCBS 3-die set
• Lyman scale
• Hornady shellholder

I already have an inertia bullet remover and digital caliper. Figured [hopefully] this will do for now. Might get more reloading tools if this goes well.

Calculated that the muzzle velocity of a 325 grain bullet needs to be ~1417ft/sec to equal the muzzle energy of a Hornady round. That said, I was going for 32.2 grains of H110; recommended max is 32.5 grains.

nice! the 50AE round looks intimidating (for good reason) but its actually pretty easy to reload. the only thing is that no one makes a carbide die set so you dont have to use lube for the resizing and flaring but its not too bad just an extra two steps to lube and clean again before loading.

in no way am i suggesting you do this however my rounds are loaded hotter then the 33gr max i have in my book. start low, check for overpressure and back off a bit (im using 300 gr instead of 325 so id use more powder anyway). the DE is very well built and will take any load you feed it. H110 will also throw a 7 foot flame if you shoot it outdoors and if you shoot it indoors it will clear a few lanes next to you which i prefer anyway

i wouldnt take the hornady published velocity as a definite number. believe they used a non muzzle brake barrel where you get an extra 1" of barrel length to get the projectile to exit faster. ive had a hard time matching any published velocity from the box to what i was getting.

when i started, i started at 30 grains of h110 and went up in .2 increments loading 7 at a time to test. i wouldnt recommend starting so high because maybe your DE cycles fine on 31gr of h110 why over use the powder if less works fine. remember: slower velocity, less energy, less heat = less wear

[jkuengineer]

Lee lube works pretty well actually. good call on the lee kit

over-pressure signs is usually the back part of your primer flattening out. google flattening primers you will see a picture but at that load i can tell you it wont be a problem.

same as mine non muzzle brake, you get slightly higher ft/s out of the barrel

theres a zone that more pressure dont mean more speed and energy it becomes too chaotic and performance drops but you wont reach that. basically you dont want to push it that high because for an extra 30ft/s out of your barrel you need maybe a grain more of powder (not exact numbers) and the extra speed you will never notice but you wear out your pistol faster doing that.

welcome, if you need help/have questions let me know

[9mmrevolver]

Why would anyone buy ammo for that? IF I recall correctly that ammo is stupid expensive. When I bought my 50 beo and 338 lapua I had absolutely no intentions of buying ammo. I still haven’t bought ammo for them and it’s been like 5 years.

[jkuengineer]

its actually not that bad i bought hornady 50ae 500 rounds and have been using the brass since. i dont shoot as much i think im on the 3rd load each case still holding up great.

for the 338 lapua i did the same i bought hornady and S&B and honestly the hornady cases were junk they were soo soft and little extra lube on the neck would dent them when i was first starting out. i have about 4 reloads on the S&B's which i bought a pack of 10 for $28 and have been using them still. i purchased lapua brass and i take my time reloading them but my first 5-8 shots of the day are with the S&B brass to get everything up to temp works great.

[TKM]

In rifle cartridges this is sometimes called Mexican Match ammo.

If you can pull the slugs cleanly(not overcrimped the first time or otherwise damaged) you should be fine. Put a nice healthy (well researched) load of H110 in there, crimp and enjoy.

[Jibjib]

Just be sure all of the factory powder is out of there, especially any that gets stuck down in the primer. And be sure to load it to spec OAL, it’s a high energy round and easy to have overpressure problems when not loaded properly. And for a first time reloader starting at Max is a bad idea. Especially since you have no experience identifying signs of overpressure. You generally start lower and load a few rounds starting low and ending higher watching for pressure signs. Everybody starts somewhere and reloading is a valuable skill for any gun owner. But again, starting off pulling apart a factory load and putting a near max load in it has the potential to be a negative experience.

[jmpgnr24k]

H110 is your friend

This ^^^ and Speer TMJ boolits. Flame thrower and cycles without issues.

[jkuengineer]

This ^^^ and Speer TMJ boolits. Flame thrower and cycles without issues.

YES!!!! thats my favorite mix. and its actually VERY accurate too

[jkuengineer]

Sanity check....


Received the reloading stuff today. Practiced with a couple rounds where I pulled the bullets with an inertia hammer, removed the factory powder (which was ~26.7gr ea BTW), lightly put the cases in a vice, and set off the primers (didn't want to play with anything live).

Sizing Die

Basic steps I took.

• Removed the decapping pin (since I'm going to reload factory rounds, I'm not planning on doing anything to the primers)
• Raised the ram
• Turned the die until it met the shell holder with a little resistance
• Set the locking ring on the die

Expanding Die

Basic steps I took.

• Raised the ram
• Turned the die until it barely touched the shell holder
• Set the locking ring on the die
• Lowered the expander plug until it touched the case with some resistance
• Lowered the ram and turned the expander plug an additional 1/2 turn
• Locked the expander plug lock

Seater Die

Basic steps I took.

• Lowered the die until it touched a case (without a bullet)
• Backed the die 1 full turn
• Set the locking ring on the die
• Lowered the seat plug until the overall length was a 1.575" - 1.576"; matching the factory rounds
• Locked the seat plug

Final result

• Dropped it in the DE; seemed to go in and out without a problem

Before I put powder in it, am I missing anything?

few notes:

-usually you do this to fired rounds and remove primers ive never really seen anyone remove the bullets and powder before but if so, this seems ok i guess.

Sizing
-everything looks good remember to use some kind of lube on the cases even though you havent fired them they shouldnt have any resistance but a stuck case is a royal pain. it just occurred to me, you dont need to size if you havent fired the case thats to bring it back down to size.

Expanding
-die seating looks good however i had to adjust the flare on the mouth to where it was just enough to seat the bullet and no more. i followed what you did it flared it a lot which isnt a problem but your work hardening the brass. also, remember lube in this step as well.

** remember to clean off the lube after sizing and expanding. i sized my OAL to 1.572 but that may be my specific barrel but anything longer i had feed issues in my magazine.

also, your forgetting to crimp the brass to hold the bullet. the amount of force the 50 produces the bullets will move if not crimped. you need to crimp no exception.

[divingin]

Sizing die should be fairly firm against the shellholder *when sizing a fired case*. Your brass has not been fired, so will have less resistance going into the sizing die (in truth, you can probably skip sizing altogether since your brass is unfired, but that's a different matter.) The press will stretch a bit when sizing fired brass, so you need fairly firm contact when setting up the die without brass to compensate.

Once the sizing die is set, screw the decapper in until it bottoms out, then back it off a turn or two. If it bottoms out solidly, you'll bend the crap out of it.

Your expanding setup looks OK, but you may need to fine-tune the setup to get the flare you need to smoothly insert the bullet. Jacketed bullets require less flare than lead. Try to use as little flare as possible while still getting enough flare to seat bullets without scraping the sides or crushing the brass.

Odds are your seat die has two functions: seating the bullet into the case, and providing a roll crimp, though Lee may use a separate factory (taper) crimp die.

If roll crimping in the seating die, set that up before seating - you want the case mouth rolled in just a tad beyond the case diameter. Lock that down, then set your seating plug to whatever depth you want.

If taper crimping, set the seating die a bit high, set the seating plug. Set the taper crimp to remove the flare plus a half turn or so, which should give you the bullet retention you need. You can go more if needed.

My suggestion would be to load about 4 or 5 rounds from book minimum to book maximum, with whatever charge steps that works out to. Single load them, starting with the lowest charge, and see where your slide starts to lock back. That will be the minimum charge that will cycle your action (at the moment, anyway - it may go lower as the gun wears in.) Choose the next one or two step(s) up for reliability.

Heading toward max charge is a kind of perilous area that I would suggest staying away from until you get a bit more experience loading and reading pressure signs.

Good luck, and be safe.