Hand Loader

Hand Loader is a perk in Fallout: New Vegas.

Effects
This perk allows you to craft six more types of ammunition at a reloading bench (plus one more with the Honest Hearts add-on, and another six with the Gun Runners' Arsenal add-on), each requiring slightly more supplies to create than the standard form. The perk also doubles the chance of recovering a shell/casing whenever firing off most rounds. This perk is favorable for players who prefer saving cartridges and casings and making their own at a reloading bench rather than spend the caps to get them from a vendor, and those who prefer the Guns skill over most other weapon skills. This saves money and when utilized to its full potential, can prove to be a very lethal proposition when choosing this perk.

Notes on ammunition terms

 * JHP - Jacketed Hollow Point; a lead-core bullet mostly enclosed by a copper jacket with a recessed nose, allowing the bullet to rapidly deform and fragment after striking tissue, essentially flattening out the bullet in the target, allowing it to efficiently expend more energy instead of going through the target cleanly.
 * JSP - Jacketed Soft Point; a lead-core bullet mostly enclosed by a copper jacket, but with the soft lead tip exposed. This allows the bullet to deform more readily after striking tissue, while retaining stronger penetration than a jacketed hollow point.
 * JFP - Jacketed Flat Point; a bullet with a flat tip instead of the usual rounded tip. A happy medium between penetration and tissue destruction. Due to the flattened point of the bullet, it creates a larger wound channel in tissue, but does not flatten out like a hollow point thus allowing it better penetration.
 * SWC - Semi-Wadcutter; an all-lead flat-nosed bullet, originally designed to punch clean holes in paper, making scoring easier in competition shooting.
 * Match hand load - match loads are rounds manufactured for accuracy and ballistic consistency, to ensure that multiple rounds fired from the same weapon will —all other things being equal—fly along the same path, at the same velocity, and strike the target in the same spot. Typically manufactured for applications such as competition shooting and long range shooting.
 * Super - .45 Super is an ammunition load designed for much higher pressures than the gun was originally intended to fire. Muzzle velocity is 20% greater than even +P resulting in much better armor penetration and damage, but potentially causing considerable weapon damage to guns not specially designed to operate these "Wildcat" rounds.

Bugs

 * Hand Loader is required for the efficient powder charge recipe added in Gun Runners' Arsenal, rather than the add-on's Mad Bomber perk.

Behind the scenes

 * The name of the perk refers to handloading, a process of loading firearm cartridges or shells by assembling the individual components (brass/shotshell, primer, powder, and bullet/shot), rather than obtaining completely assembled, factory-loaded cartridges.