Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Precision reloading guide

It seems the more I learn the less I know. Been reloading all my life thinking it was better than factory loads. At this point I'm overwhelmed with charge weight, powder, bullet, seating depth, case length, and other variables. Is there a resource that outlines the best steps to tweak first and gives a complete process? I've only used rcbs stuff. Think I've read here that the expander ball can cause issues with neck deformity when resizing and priming. At this point I don't know where to start or stop. I'd appreciate wisdom for reference materials. Thanks.

Find an old Sharpes manual.Old info,but still valuable

Precision is all about uniformity and alignment. First of all is the uniformity of your primers, powder charges, and bullets (in terms of weight, bearing surface, and diameter). If your cases are straight, and your bullets are seated straight, and your chamber is straight, and the leade is straight, and your barrel is uniformly bored and rifled, you should do well. The amount of variation in all of the above is what makes all of it a test-and-see endeavor.

An interesting example of precision when it comes to outputs of the system are the 6.5 CM and the 6.5 PRC. The reamer spec for both of these only allows for a throat only half a thousandth of an inch over nominal bullet diameter, and the leade on both is cut to a target rifle standard of 1.5 degrees. These two things probably have the most to do with precision in shooting, once everything else is relatively consistent, as they cause the bullet to enter the barrel pretty straight, thus allowing it to travel down the barrel pretty straight.

Rickshaw,

If you have been reloading for years, you know everything that's necessary. Any reloading manual has what you need inside, although I doubt you will learn anything new.

You are suffering from information overload. I suggest that you return to the roots. Much of what you read on this and other forums is unnecessary. If you were happy with your results, don't change a thing. Don't overthink things.

Don't worry about expander balls, specialty dies or some "magic technique". You said, QUOTE been reloading all my life thinking it was better than factory loads.UNQUOTE. You already nailed it. Don't overthink anything. Don't listen to the others. Don't spend money on things that won't help. You were happy once, before all the "experts" in these forums started dispensing their wisdom. No need to re-invent the wheel.

That said, it won't stop the know-it-alls from trying to fix something that isn't broken. Enjoy. Be happy. Reloading is not supposed to consume you or be difficult.

^^^^

What Steve said, if your handloads are doing what you want them to do.

Unless you're involved in some sort of target shooting, or long-range hunting, that requires the finest accuracy possible, then most of the precision stuff is irrelevant.

Unless, of course, you're one of the many "average" handloaders who like playing around with the precision stuff. In my experience, many average handloaders are, because handloading and shooting holes in paper can be done year-round--unlike hunting in many places these days.

About half of what people do in the name of extra precision is wasted effort.

Yep--especially weighing every powder charge.

I went through a fanatical "uniformity in everything" stage a couple decades ago. But eventually it taught me that I was overdoing it. I still try to be quite precise but not to such high standards as I once did.... For my uses it's unneeded. Perhaps if I had a benchrest gun or was competing on a national level I'd get back to those standards.

Thanks Gents! I'll try to chill and keep on keeping on. I think I got the wisdom for which I asked. I appreciate it.

Agree with most, but there's value in learning first-hand. Have a bunch of tools and dies that add nothing I can detect. But also found a few things that do add value, are now indispensable.

Also, goals differ. Benchrest guys go to alot of trouble but....... Asked some race team members "how much does it cost to do this stuff". Response: "speed costs money.....how fast do you want to go?"

I'm one of the guys who weighs every charge for rifle reloads. I "assumed" that most reloaders do the same. I use an RCBS Chargemaster which makes this a fairly quick and easy process.

What do you suggest, just dumping from the powder dispenser? Doesn't that leave the door open for charge weight inconsistencies?

Not criticizing, just curious.

Go check out the stickies in the reloading section by Tresmon.

Pretty good info.

Yes, it does leave room for inconsistencies. The thing is, in a well developed load they don't amount to much for a whole lot of practical purposes.

I agree with this. I liken it to many other things related to information overload. Until internet forums arrived, I did not even know that the Model 70 30-06 of my youth was "too heavy" to be carrying around the mountains. I guess when I was 12 I was a tougher S.O.B. than most adults today. I am guilty of seeking additional information on reloading; but, I know that the basics in my reloading manuals are sufficient.

Charlie-NY....

Random variation adds in a special way. One consequence of this is that you can fruitlessly fiddle forever with the minor sources of variation. Most powder dumps are consistent enough to qualify as minor sources. If you want to reduce variation, it is necessary to find and fix the major sources first.

Random variations in charge weight are actually built in to your powder scale. The charge master has an accuracy level of + or - .1 grains. So any charge could be at either maximum value or dead nuts on. This would mean that a max .2 variation between one charge to the next is possible and even likely.
Most powder throws with a properly setup baffle will be able to consistently drop a charge in this range except with some stick powders. I gave up weighing each charge long ago after figuring out as others have that a variation of .2-.3 is nothing in the grand scheme of things.

For straight ammo consider the tools.

In the case of a fired piece of brass, I anneal, use a Redding body die to bump shoulder, clean neck with 000 steel wool, leave the carbon inside the neck but swipe with a nylon bore brush, run it into a Lee Collet Die, for competition rifles use a Forester seating die (0.0000-0.0005") and for hunting rifles a Lee seating die (good for 0.0010" runout), a Lee factory crimp may be used if the rifle is heavy recoiling or having difficulty getting a super low ES. Preliminary to this the cases are neck skimmed and trimmed to length. As the cases 'stretch' they are trimmed and the neck thickness checked as well as they will thicken at the shoulder-neck junction, the collet die puts the donut on the outside.

Insure the base to ogive dimension is consistent, the powder charge is exact from case to case.

Chose a powder that will give an OCW load and tune to barrel time OBT.

The above techniques will make any rifle ,that does not have mechanical issues, shine.

The 2 rifles I use for hunting , a Steyr Pro Hunter 7mm-08 (6.25" 1000 yard 3 shot group), Sako Finnlight 30-06 ( 7.5" 3 shot group at 1000 yards) both have 6X scopes. These were used in a club event in hunter class, nothing special as these are true hunting rifles , as opposed to one that is built to the rules.

Good tools and techniques in handloading will make most any rifle shine.

Just as an anecdote, several years back an amateur contributor to Precision Shooting magazine did a short article, I won't bore you with his testing and methodology, but the upshot was he tested something like 3 different powders, measured with a Harrell measure, weighed with a quality scale and a Lee Dipper Kit. Conclusion, with a nationally competitive heavy benchrest rifle of verified accuracy, no statistically significant difference between equipment and powder tested. The howls of outrage from the owners of the 300 buck Harrell measures were heard across the US.
I don't think the poor guy ever got another article published. I guess my point is, powder throw inconsistencies are probably one of the least of anybodies worries for extreme accuracy.

Here is a link to a prior post, where I work through the math, if that sort of thing interests you.

link

I found the book "Handloading fo Competition" Zediker press, to have a lot of useful information. But unless you are loading for competition most of it should be forgotten for hunting loads. Like someone else mentioned Phil Sharpes "Complete Guide to Handloading" is very interesting reading regardless of how useful it is now.

John Barsness books have lots of useful information and are good at de-bunking many myths and time wasters.