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Glite Dictionary
🔫 A homemade bullet 🔫 To make bullets 📦 To load by hand
to handload

to handload

1 9.2
To make bullets by hand instead of buying factory-made ones
  • verb
  • /ˈhændloʊd/
  • Specialized
translation icon : cargar a mano
  • Many experienced shooters recommend that you handload your cartridges to achieve better performance.

Examples

  • Hornady handloads shot from a ransom rest?

    Blog text (25)

  • To improve my shooting skills, I decided to handload my own ammunition instead of buying factory-made rounds.

  • Once I learned how to handload, I was amazed at the level of customization I could achieve for my firearm.

Antonyms

to automate
52 4.0

Make a process or job run by machines such as computers instead of people

to mass-produce
8 3.5

To make large amounts of goods using machines and the same steps

How Skilled

to handcraft
17 3.7
to handload
  • Specialized
1 9.2
to assemble
169 2.9
to reload
47 3.2

Surface Forms

handload infinitive
handloaded past
handloaded past participle
handloading present participle
handloads third person singular

Morphology

handload = hand + load (semi-transparent) = hand + load

The form clearly combines 'hand' and 'load', but the ammunition-specific sense is a conventional technical specialization rather than a fully literal everyday compound.

Etymology

Handload comes from hand ('by hand') plus load ('to put in'), so as a verb it means to make or load your own ammunition by hand instead of using factory machines.