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Reloading thoughts and projects

2K views 15 replies 10 participants last post by  Born2Hunt 
#1 ·
Well since i have everybody in my family fixed up with guns i figure i will play with a new 243 i have had for 6 years! I am going to buy a bunch of 100 grain bullets of different brands and powders to.
On the side i will play with a new flintlock i bought and my in lines.The in lines i will try some other powders and bullets of different weights .
Anybody here have any plans you been wanting to get into?
 
#3 ·
Being a new handloader with only one year under my belt I've realized I made a few mistakes along the way already. I did not have anyone to show me the ins and outs so I learned everything I know by reading on websites, books, and forums like this. I just started working a load for my 300 wsm. In doing so I hope to apply everything I know now and make the process a little more efficient. If all goes well with this rifle I will be reworking the three I already have loads for.
 
#4 ·
If it's a big game rifle DON'T do what you said...start simple, pick a single bullet, say a Barnes TSX 100 grain, one powder and proimer and work with it alone, move the bullet in or out some and see what happens, don't have too many variables, one at a time for a five shot group at 100 yards, don't drive yourself nuts over a half inch either, any load that shoots around an inch is way more than is needed to hunt big game with... Simple, simple
 
#5 ·
Amen, 6-DASHER. One variable at a time. Test it, adjust it, see what you can do with it, then move on to another.

I see so many reloaders do things like changing seat depth and powder/charge weight at the same time. When they do that, they are lost in the woods. They have no clue what is having what affect on their load's performance.

My personal approach is to seat as long as I can (as limited by either the throat or the magazine, but I go to the longest possible length I can function through the rifle from the magazine), mess with powder charge weights until I either find what I want or go to another powder to do the same thing until I find something I think is worth pursuing.

Then I do seat depth work with ONE charge weight/powder until I either get what I want or bail on it and go to something different.

One variable at a time. Just one.
 
#6 ·
Fellas, thanks for all of the advice. I too am new to reloading but I was fortunate enough to have hooked up with a gentleman who contacted me to help. Of course he's in SC and I'm up here in PA. We spent many hours on the phone with one another, him telling me what to do over the phone as I was actually doing it. He's an old bench rest shooter and taught me about seating depth and measuring my lands right away.


I think that you fellas are right, and I've found it so much easier to choose one bullet, one powder, and one primer, make up the loads from min to just shy of max and seat at the same depth. I'd then pick the best grouping and tweak it more from there, maybe by single grains until I got what I wanted. Now just by doing that, I'm shooting sub 1/4" groups out of my rifles.


Of course, I had his recommendations as to bullets, powders, and primers, as well as his load information to use to my benefit also.


I'm just so grateful to you older, more experienced, reloaders who are willing to help out us new guys, as well as help us save money through your experience.


Chad
 
#7 ·
Dasher and TDD are spot on, my procedure is this, all 5 shot groups. I research and go with the powder that most seem to be using with success and start with my targeted load, say it's a 300WSM, I know they like H4350 and with a 200 or 210 grain bullet it likes something close to 61 grains. I'll load 5 sets of 5, 60.4, 60.7, 61, 61.3, and 61.6, seated .010" into the lands, head to the range see whats the most accurate, for instance say is was 60.7. I'll then take 5 sets of that powder charge and play with seat depth, -.050", -.025", -.010", 0, and +.010 or some variation of that, find what works best. Then take that seat depth and go with the most accurate powder charge I had and load 3 sets of 5 at .3 plus and minus the most accurate load, in this instance the most accurate was 60.7 so do 60.4, 60.7 and 61.0. You'll quickly determine whats best.

If you don't know or cant find out what powder is the best for your application pick a bullet and seating depth combo and start burning powder, after all that is the fun part

There is a world of wealth when it comes to information, just ask for good combos and more than likely you'll get good answers, keep in mind though, there are some internet hero's that know it all and spend minimal time behind the trigger and the reloading bench. It will take some common sense on your part
 
#8 ·
QuickLoad software is not cheap.....BUT.... I'll bet it's saved me more than it costs in powder and bullets in load development. The ability to get accurate date tailored to the actual, specific rifle itself, as well as nearly any bullet/powder combo you can imagine....it's invaluable.

The hitch with QL is that it is completely and entirely overwhelming for anyone without a bit of reloading experience under their belt. Once you understand the process and are comfortable with loading data, though, it's an absolute gold mine of data.
 
#10 ·
My Projects

Gear up my Dillon 550 RLB for the following:

- 41 Magnum

- 32 H&R Magnum

I was reading some of the other posts about fiddling with loads and I realized that I'm different. I fiddle very little! I find a load that shoots OK with the bullet I want and hunt with it. I do not spend hours tinkering to try to squeeze another .3 inch out of the grouping.

What I do enjoy is testing bullets on real game and tinkering with other bullets to see differences in terminal performance. In PA of course, that takes many years as we just can't shoot enough deer! I try my darnedest to recover every bullet I can, even if I have to dig it out of the ground. Since I hunt mostly from tree stands, they always hit the ground not too far away if they go clean through. You'd be amazed how many I've recovered. I want to know if the copper & core separated or stayed together. I want to know how far they expanded and what the final weight is. Sadly, I did not get the one from this year which was the first Barnes TSX I've used on whitetail.

Just my shtick :)
 
#11 · (Edited)
This is a bit of a round about how it relates to reloading...

I recently was given my great granddad's Remington 1889 sxs. I examined it and functionally it's in good shape, the locks and triggers need cleaned, but there isn't any pitting in the barrel, no cracks in the stock and still locks up good. I wanted to know what the chamber length was so I used a small steel rule and uhoh it's 2.5". So much for off the shelf stuff. The more I dug and thought about it, this gun was made at the end of the black powder era. In talking to relatives this was granddad's gun right up through the 50's, so he was shooting smokeless through it. I decided though that instead of taking the risk of working with smokeless I'd just use BP. Then the idea came that why not go total old school and get the brass cartridges.

Right now I'm waiting for the glue to dry on my first batch. Worked up square loads of 1, 1-1/8 and 1-1/4 ounce. I plan on trying some out tomorrow, though in one of my junky "new" guns. Figure if I'm going to blow something up I'd rather it be the $200 beater that I can replace in any gun shop.

I don't know what I'm looking forward to more. A: Getting my great granddad's gun fully operational again and getting out and getting a squirrel or two. Duck would be much higher on the list as that was what he loved, but I dread thinking of putting non-tox through this thing. B: The looks on everyone in the family when I send them the video of me shooting it, since it probably hasn't moved from the gun rack in 50-60 years.
 
#12 · (Edited)
I've worn out more 300 wsm barrels than I care to think about, the VLD bullets have always worked best jammed .010". With a hunting bullet I usually find they like to be off the lands, some a bunch some only .010"

If your concerned more about the bullet after impact buy ballistic gelatin, I like shooting and what better excuse can you have but to try and squeeze another .3" out of a group, most bullets will do their job, we just have to make sure we do ours and place the shot.
 
#14 · (Edited)
Oh man...get ready to be overwhelmed in a good way.

If you need help getting going (it can be confusing at first), hit me up in PM or something. Once you get going with it, you're gonna be absolutely amazed at what you can get from that software.

Once you get it figured out, you take fired brass from the rifle you're working on, measure the actual water capacity of the brass from that very rifle, and then you're going to be able to get data for THAT rifle using whatever powder and bullet you want. And you'll quickly start to understand why some people will say "yeah, I am over max on that load..." No, they aren't. They're over book published max, but for their rifle, they are NOT over max.

I have a 30-06 that I run 57.0gr IMR4350 under a 165gr Partition. This should be a pretty hot load according to most books, clocking around 2900 an change. It's barely hitting 2700. When I measured case volume and then re-ran the numbers through QL, it precisely predicted my chrono-verified speeds. That rifle could go to 59-60 gr safely, where many CANNOT. It's because of it's chamber specifics.

I don't change the load, even though it's slow for an 06, because it's rock-solid reliable right at MOA to 300 yards. It's not a cloverleaf load, but it will shoot 3/4"-1" at 100 day in, day out, year in, year out....and 2" at 200, 3" at 300, etc. It just works, so I stick with it. Nothing's walking away from a good hit from a 165PT at 2700 anyway.

Anyway......your best thing to do with QL is partner it with a chrono. You can stop trying to read tea-leaves with regards to pressure...you're gonna KNOW. Look at the pressure data in your QL data, referenced to predicted speed. With your measured case volume, this is tailored to your rifle and will be highly accurate. At that point, you watch your chrono, as your speeds will track to your pressure in your QL data, and you'll know what speed you can't exceed. Whether you have a sticky bolt, flat primers, etc, makes no matter. Physics are physics. Your chrono is your pressure gauge.

That's huge.
 
#16 ·
Glad to see others are hard at work. This the time of the year I always hide in the reloading room. I have worked up test load with various Dupont powers and a few different weight bullets in my 22-250, 222, 243 custom, 243 Varmint, and 270 I have seated the bullets at approximately .020 for starters. I have been switching some scopes around. Ordered and received some replacement parts for the Dillon 650.....plan on getting that back in operation next week have lots brass for 45 ACP and 9mm to fill. Next will be starting on a multitude of 12 and 20 ga. hulls. Plan on spending some time on the range this Spring.
 
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