How serious are your reloads ?

[Buckrub]

I know alot of you "westerners" shoot coyotes, rock squirrels and the like. How precise are your reloads ? Do you weight-out, by scale, each load or just "drop" from your powder measure ? I get kinda anal about reloading. I weigh ea. load to within 1/20 of a grain. I also take a box of bullets and weigh them individually, and separate them into sub-lots. Same with brass, never mix lots. Clean primer pockets and necks each time, trim and deburr if needed. At the range I shoot a "foul'in shoot", then run a patch or two after every 5 shots. When it's time to line-up on that "Nov. Buck", the gun and load is RIGHT!!! The rest is up to me.

 

[shashzhiin]

I also weigh out all of my charges, and never mix lots of brass, or bullets. It gives good accuracy, and an excuse for me to use up the last bit of a lot of reloads for target when there are not enough for a season. Plus I find it to be relaxing reloading, so I don't try to speed it up any by using a digital scale or a volume charger.

 

[Bambistew]

I try to keep everything pretty consistant, not as anal as some people, but more than others. The biggest thing that I have found to make my loads the most consitant is to turn the necks to make the walls thickness even. I usually don't worry much about the weight of the bullets, they are for the most part much less than a grain diffrent, I have never noticed any noticible diffrence between weighed lots and non weighed lots.

I always make sure that I take care of my cases when I get new ones, debur the flash hole, and square the primer pocket, then turn the necks, and trim all to a uniform length. I weigh about 1 of every 5 to make sure they are all with in less a grain, (which for the most part they are).

I have some pet loads that I really like and have stuck with them for years. I got a new gun (well rebuilt/semi custom) last winter (260 rem) and am dieing to load some rounds for it, but just havn't had the time.

When I work up a load, if I can't get it to less than an inch with minimal tweaking, I look for a new load and start over.

So all in all, I would say that I am pretty serious about it, I figure if you're going to put the time in why not get the best out of it.

Good luck
Ivan

 

[Bluehair]

Depends. For prairie dogs (mass produced loads), I like to use ball powders and just throw loads. I check every twentieth or so, and they're usually within a tenth of a grain. Probably shoot 500 or so rounds (total) of 223, 222, 22-250, and 220 swift a season at prairie dogs, and havent had a problem with accuracy. For extruded powders in hunting loads, I trickle 'em all.

I don't buy mixed lots of brass, but I don't buy the good stuff either (norma), so I should probably do more to cull the bad brass. :-( I also full length size all my hunting stuff, so apparently I'm not that concerned with that last little bit of accuracy. I haven't got to the point that I worry about turning case necks, or reaming flash holes, but I'm getting closer. Maybe I'll turn into a paper puncher in my old age.

I DO work up at least one good load for each gun. I don't like factory ammo, and find that my handloads produce far more accurate results. I can only recall shooting one big game animal with factory ammo, and that was in a new gun that I hadn't had time to develop a load for.

I guess I'm more anal than most.

 

[RLH]

i weigh every charge for my .223 and .22/250. .270, '06 and .300, i weigh about every 5 or so. they hold so much powder that part of grain here or there doesn't make much difference. i just hunt with the bigger calibers and i'm sorta shakey anyway. i use whatever brass i have, except i've quit using military brass for the '06 and .270. the loads i use are a little close to the edge and the extra case thickness drives the pressures past reasonable. i flatten primers regularly. don't blow em out, just make em nice and pancakey. trim the necks when they need it. polish the brass when it gets nasty. play with overall length a lot. ya really need to find out exactly how far away from the rifling your rifle likes the bullets too be. i like them to barely touch. this brings pressure up too. but to it's the most critical part of accuracy and i really like them extra fps's you get from those flat primers.

 

[Mammoth]

I weigh all rifle rounds and use Redding Competition Seating dies on most of my rifle rounds. I never mix brass. I trim to spec?s every time, de-burr flash holes, and polish my cases. I use to weigh cases and neck turn but my experience suggested to me that any improvements from trimming and weighing were unnoticeable for the effort. Right now I just want MOA groups or better from my factory guns and call it good. One day I will have a gun built (leaning toward a 6.5/284) that is capable of bench rest accuracy then I'll get really anal.;-)

 

[Hankenstein]

When I started reloading for my first varmint rifle 10 or so years ago, I'd load 50-60 rounds in groups of 5 with different powder charges, seating depths, etc. I found that it was extremely difficult to maintain enough concentration to shoot them all in the same manner. Basically I was trying too many variables. Now days, I take my reloading gear to the range with me. Use an RCBS partner press for partial full-length resizing, and Wilson hand dies and an arbor press for bullet seating. I use a Harrell powder measure and just dump the powder from the measure; don't weigh them at all except for a starting load. I'll prep five pieces (that are within 1% of each other in weight) of good brass that have been neck turned (not all the way, usually about 75% around the neck), primer pockets uniformed, plus all the normal other stuff. I've found that the seating depth is pretty critical, much more than powder charge. Another consideration is neck tension, would highly recommend a Redding full-length bushing style die so that neck tension can be adjusted. Guess I take it seriously, a ragged one-hole group is a beautiful thing...


Hank

 

[RLH]

anymore i shoot center with the first shot and then miss with the next 2 and tell em i got em all in one hole. you guys work too hard for me. that ain't a bad thing, i'm just lazy. if i can hit a chest cavity on a reg'lar basis i'm happy. i know what you mean about forgetting where you're at with a buncha different loads. i have some pets and stick with them. hope i never lose my little book with my notes in it. have fun dudes.

 

[TheKnack]

I am a hopeless accuracy nut.
Stick with the same cases in a lot.
Weigh the cases and bullets and sort them out.
Check cases for centered primer pockets and throw
out all that are not true. I also check to make sure the
primer pocket flash hole is centered and has no intermnal burrs.
I then check the cases for length and trim any that do not meet my crazy OAL.
Then I trim and champer the case mouths to the same thickness.
On fired cases I clean the primer pockets and tap the case to remove any burnt powder. If I cannot clean the case by hand I
throw it out.
All bullets are inspected to see if any knicks or dings exist.
If they do then they are thrown into my coyote load bin.
Dented lead tips are likewise reserved for coyotes.
I check the live primers for overall uniform look.
Cases are all ran through the single press the same.
Primers are all seated by feel till the are firmly seated.
All powder is loaded to exactly the same weight by RCBS powder scale for each case. All powder used fills the case volume the
most with safety in mind. Using different powders you will see what I mean. Usually the most accurate loads use a powder that fills a case but leaves enough for the bullet to be seated. Consistent ingition is key.
The bullet die is adjusted so that the bullet is ALMOST touching the lands in the rifle.
When seating the bullet I seat it half way then turn the case a half turn and fully seat the bullet the rest of the way.
I then run each round slowly through my rifle to insure they all chamber in a safe area.
Ya I guess I am insane.
Then again not many want to bet me at the rifle range.
I am not the best but very good.
Best of luck on a less stressful reloading.
TheKnack-Jerry

 

[shotgunjim]

An old wise man once told me, "If you're serious about it you refer to it as Handloading, If you're just throwing bullets together to put lead down range, it's reloading."