Dear Sir:
While looking through a magazine the other day, I came across an advertisement for the Sharp Shooter 22LR Reloader tool. According to the ad, this kit includes everything you need to reload spent 22 shells. Due to the unavailability of 22lr in my neck of the woods, I thought this might be a good option. (I have large amounts of empty shells that I have been saving for another project.) My question is: Have you, or any of the SurvivalBlog readers, had any experience with this tool and kit? Is it an easy process? How reliable are the reloads? Is there a high rate of duds? The price for the tool and kit seem reasonable. I don’t mind putting in the work to load a couple thousand rounds. (It beats watching TV.) Perhaps this would be a good topic for a product review. I would really hate to waste my money on something that doesn’t work or cranks out garbage ammo. The website for the product is www.22lrreloader.com. Any info, insight, or experience you have or know of would be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely, Iowa Farm Boy
HJL Replies: I purchased one of these almost a year ago. I picked up the basic kit and the die. What I found is that it does indeed produce usable ammo. The only misfire I had was due to the firing pin hitting the exact same spot that had hit originally (a pretty slim chance but possible). Given that it is 22lr, the concept of reliability for self defense didn’t really bother me.
Time is another thing entirely. I do reload most of my own ammo on a couple of Dillon presses. This was entirely manual, and I didn’t really care for it. It can be done, but when 22lr ammo is so inexpensive, I have to wonder about the current viability. If there wasn’t any supply, I would consider it, but for now it’s relegated to the bottom drawer as a nice tool to have in a pinch but not very practical right now. The kit did seem to be well made. I would not consider it junk at all.
I did not try to obtain chemicals independent of the kit to make the primer; I just used their kit.