.38 special prices

[Fishslayer]

+1 to green's question, I am also in the very early stages of embarking on reloading and would love to pick your brain a bit, especially regarding .38/.357

Loads of reloading info on the internet. Always check data from multiple sources, tho. Also the powder manufacturer's website, manuals, etc. Penalties for screwing up can be severe.

.38 & .357 brass isn't easy to come by it can be done. I recently cancelled a multi-month backorder from Cabela's because I scored 500 pieces from a seller on the intraweb..
Same with primers, but it's getting better lately.

I got into reloading because it is/was the ONLY way to have a reliable supply of ammo.

[Cowboy T]

Loads of reloading info on the internet. Always check data from multiple sources, tho. Also the powder manufacturer's website, manuals, etc. Penalties for screwing up can be severe.

And that leads to Rule #4, which I failed to mention. Get a couple of good reloading manuals. One of the better general-purpose ones is Lyman's 49th Edition. I love that book. I also use Lee's Modern Reloading, mostly for the cast boolit info, but the load data's also pretty good. Between those two books, there's no sane load I cannot come up with.

.38 & .357 brass isn't easy to come by it can be done. I recently cancelled a multi-month backorder from Cabela's because I scored 500 pieces from a seller on the intraweb..
Same with primers, but it's getting better lately.

Agreed on .357 Magnum brass, but .38 Special brass is actually rather plentiful. You can score decent prices on Gunbroker, which is where I got a lot of mine. I typically paid between $25 and $40 per 1000, plus shipping. Shipping's pretty low because most sellers use the $11 USPS flat-rate box. Usually you get between 1/8 and 1/4 of the cases being the "+P" variety. This can be very good for the following reason.

Because of the expense and scarcity of .357 Magnum brass, I started using .38 Special +P cases for my ".357 Magnum" type loads. I keep my +P and non-+P cases very segregated, obviously! If it's a +P case, I know it's one of my Magnum-power rounds for use only out of the .357 Magnum. If it's a normal case, it's my powder-puff load. The Magnum load uses a LRNFP boolit, and the powder-puff uses a LSWC. I also use different types of boxes for each.

I got into reloading because it is/was the ONLY way to have a reliable supply of ammo.

+1 to that, especially after Feb 2011. Remember, it's not that far away!