Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Reloading at the Range

I have been sitting up here in the great white north, waiting for the wind to go down and the temperature to go up. I have 20 work-up, 243 Win cartidges waiting for testing, and 150 more cases sized and ready to go. The seating die is screwed into my Rock Chucker, ready to seat for depth once I have shot the powder charges. I have a bunch of 338 and 7mm-08 that could be re-sized.

So, I ordered a RCBS Partner just for seating. It would free up the Chucker for sizing/de-priming. I really like the Rock Chucker, but wouldn’t mind if the Partner would increase the “feel” on seating as well.

I have heard of using the Partner to reload on the range at the shooting bench. How does that work? Do you size there or take sized cases? I think guys that do this usually use a powder measure at the range as well - do they use a scale? What do they mount the press to?

I’m thinking this would be fun/useful after your charge/pressure testing, to try various seating depths right at the range, but not sure how the process works.

I went the extra $$ and purchased Wilson S.S. seating dies for use with an arbor press. I also purchased the press. I then bought glass vials that would hold 100 gr’s of powder. I size & prime the brass at home on the Rockchucker. I drop all intended powder charges at home into the glass vials & write the charge weight/powder type on it with a Sharpie. They fit snugly into a 12 ga shotshell plastic box from MTM and are carried to the range for use with a powder funnel.

The arbor press seats the bullets with ease on the bench. Load two, shoot two, move on from there. Has worked extremely well for me. It solved ALL of my load development concerns.

Thanks for sharing your experience. Now I need to figure out what an arbor press is. 😉

https://lewilson.com/k-m-precision-arbor-press/

The press is totally portable like a Chihuahua with a carrying handle. It sits atop the bench.

I do have a couple of questions though. I have loaded three cartridges each of 40.5, 41.5, 42.5, 43.5, 44.0, and 4 cartridges of 44.5 gr (book max for Viht N560). I have them at something like .012 off the lands. The rounds I have loaded are primarily for pressure testing, but I will also watch group size.

My thought was to pick the one that shows the best accuracy (hopefully max) and then adjust seating depth by .002, for say .010 to .020. In a situation such as this, if you are pre-measuring the powder charges for your vials, what charges would you use?

I usually start by loading two of the max loads to assess the rifles tolerance. If it’s accurate I go from there. If it is too hot, I drop to the lowest and go up slowly. It’s been my experience the max book load is usually pretty close. I have one of 5 300 WSM’s that runs 1 gr over book max happily.

I normally load 5-10 on the lowest book charge in increments of 1/2 grain up to 1 gr over book max. And again, start at book max.

I don’t fuss with seating depth unless there are no other alternatives. That has only happened twice in hundreds of rounds downrange. I always start testing with bullet base seated to base of the neck. I have rarely had any trouble with that.

Glen Zediker recently had an article on Midsouth Shooters Blog regarding loading at the range. Talked me into buying a Harrell's powder measure....but I'm easy.

Midsouth Blog

What kind of glass vials do you use?

There was a lot of BS in many of the post article comments.

Our range has an indoor area for reloading with a bench drilled to mount a press and various holes for powder measures etc.. I resize and prep brass at home and take some old Lee powder scoops and a scale with me. I use a Lee hand held press to seat bullets. I believe initially adjusting seated depth in .002 increments is a waste of bullets. A lot of bullets shoot best .050 - .070 off the lands. I would adjust seating depth .005 - .010 until I saw which way groups were going.

most bench rest shooters that shoot 100-200 yard competition don`t use a normal volume powder measure that`s 1-10 ratio when volume loading,many use a 1-18 volume powder measure. Redding and Wilson are both good reloading equipment and yes there are even some better for many bucks more.

Thanks, guys. Lots of good information in here.

www.pilotvials.com
2 ST - 2 dram clear screw top vials with polyseal caps

I now have about 250 ct.

The biggest single issue to deal with is weighing powder with any kind of breeze at all present................obviously, pre-weighing powder before going to the range solve that problem.

Or having an enclosure of some type.

MM

Or don't weigh at all.