how particular are you about your handloads?

[nra-for-life]

hi everyone.

id like to hear some input from people on how particular you are with your (rifle) hand loads, what type of shooting do you do, and what are some of the main areas that you focus on in trying to produce high quality ammunition.

I'm quickly finding out that taking the time to segregate, measure , and prep cartridges can get very time consuming and even pretty costly. So i'm interested to hear what a lot of you do, what your process is etc. IE- do you take the time to weigh all of your cartridges? do you neck turn? do you weigh your bullets and if so what tolerances do you accept and how close is close enough for you in comparing weights and other measurements? do you check and compare the bullet bearing surface? etc etc... what type of shooting do you do with these loads?

If you can attribute accuracy effects to any of your particular methods that would be awesome to hear about also. IE- you were loading a case a particular way and made a change in one method or tool and saw your groups drop by 1/8 moa or whatever.

unfortunately for me, with the wife and baby i don't have the luxury of being able to spend as much time as i would like to handload and shoot so i'm looking to you experts out there to hopefully share with me some of your wisdom that may help me reduce my group sizes without having to do a lot of experimenting myself.

thank you

 

[amlevin]

The key to accuracy is to remove all the variables that cause a round to behave differently.

Some simple steps I use are to uniform the primer pockets and deburr the flash holes inside the case (only on cases new to me.

I also anneal cases after they've been fired and reloaded 5 times.

Necks are turned for uniformity even though I don't have tight chamber on my rifle. Even thickness of the case necks seems to yield more consistent neck tension and straighter rounds when checked for concentricity.

I give the cases a sort by weight on the assumption that cases weighing close to the same will also have similar volumes. To be absolutely certain of the volume though the only accurate way would be to weigh dry, fill with water and weigh again. The cases with the same net weight of water will be equal in volume. Takes a long time and I don't bother.

All powder loads are dispensed from an RCBS Chargemaster so they are all weighed. Only loads I build with the powder charge just measured by "volume" are those for my AR's and pistols.

Bullets are measured and separated by measuring from base to ogive. Then I trim the meplats with a trimmer that indexes on the ogive. This results in bullets of not just have the same amount of jump but also are the same OAL for each batch.

I trim cases using a lathe type trimmer with a 3-way head. Cuts to length, de-burrs, and chamfers all at the same time. Maybe doesn't contribute all that much to accuracy but it sure makes for uniform rounds.

I also clean my cases in Stainless Steel tumbling media. Cleans inside, outside, and in the primer pockets as well. I figure that a clean case is a good starting point.

Now all I need to do is learn to shoot as well as my ammo is capable of doing 8)

 

[Will]

I have learned to use ONE lot of brass for ONE LOAD, ONE type projectile and stick with it for an entire season. I primarily shoot 600 > 1,000 yds on steel targets. last few years have been hard on me (for medical reasons) so I have spent more time in reloading and trying to make the overall set-up faster, easier and painless. Find the one load that your rifle likes and LEARN IT under as many conditions as where you shoot allows. Oh yeah, buy bulk Everything, projectiles, powder & primers) whenever possible so you don't change anything in the middle of a season !

 

[Catfish]

It depends on what rifle I`m loading for. For my AR I usually tumble the brass and load it. It still shoots abt 1/2 moa. I have other rifles that I have to turn necks, and trim to lenth. Some that I have to inside neck turn because they get a donut at the back of the neck. If you have a factory rifle doing alot of extra thing to your brass more than likely will not help accuracy. Trimming to the same lenth might help, but turnning necks will shorten case life. I would recomand that you play with seating depth and different powders and bullets befor going to more trouble.

 

[RStewart]

Now you have one persons response. Unfortunately your question is a lot like asking "What's the meaning of life?".

It's common to see threads here that are pages long arguing the pros and cons of one particular tiny little aspect of the whole handloading process. The term "anal retentive behavior" was probably started by a psychologist watching some serious handloaders at work. In addition, the broad assortment of tools, techniques and, in some cases "Voodoo", is pretty overwhelming. Add to that the specifics of different disciplines like point blank group/score, 600 to 1,000 long range, varmint hunting etc. it gets complicated pretty quickly. I don't believe there is a "right answer" to your question.

There are some books on precision handloading. "HANDLOADING FOR COMPETITION" by Glen Zediker is often recommended although IIRC he doesn't believe in uniforming primer pockets or turning necks which many will take exception with. Tony Boyers "THE BOOK OF RIFLE ACCURACY" is another although I haven't read it. There are a couple published by Precision Shooting Magazine which are collections of reprints that I have and wouldn't recommend - the information is somewhat outdated and there's no logical flow to the book, just a collection of articles.

^^^^ This

 

[RStewart]

...Over time, as I gained practical experience, I discovered that many of these tools were unnecessary in the respect that that they served little or no practical purpose, or the information they provided was insignificant and not worth the time or trouble to obtain, and a few were just plain junk. I also began to realize that my time was better spent working on my gun handling technique and wind reading skills rather than endlessly tweaking and measuring things in my reloading room. I focused my reloading efforts toward developing simple and efficient methods for producing high quality ammunition. Eventually, I determined which tools and reloading methods worked best for me. A few years ago I sold the reloading tools and shooting gear that I no longer used or needed. As they say, the more stuff you own, the more it owns you; and I believe that to be true in regards to reloading tools.

LE Hanson

^^^ and this! I shoot F-Class and Field Precision Rifle

 

[K22]

I'm a varmint hunter, first and foremost so I require precision reloads but I'm not a bench rest shooter so I don't need to put my shots in the same hole. My standard is 1/2 moa and I've been able to acheive that out of most of my rifles using rather standard reloading procedures.

With that said, I take great care in reloading, especially for safety reasons. I'm able to produce high quality reloads without neck turning, weighing brass / bullets then segregating, sorting bullets by ogive, or using special bushing / competition dies, or expensive brass like Lapua.

I try to use high quality bullets like Noslers BT's, Sierras, or Hornady V-Max's. I use Federal Match Primers and Remington and Winchester brass.

I do deburr the primer flash holes on the brass and of course trim brass. I'm very careful sizing brass setting my standard RCBS full size die up with a Wilson Case gage to achieve optimum sizing (i.e. not oversizing but sizing for flawless feeding in the field). I've learn that I get less run out and more accurate reloads by using a full sizing die but carefully controlling the amount of sizing, setting the shoulder back only about .002".

I've learn that COL (i.e. seating depth of bullet) can have a significant effect on group size and may be different for different rifles which requires some testing to find the right depth but I do not seat bullets too close to the lands for safety and field function reasons.

I hate load development (I'd rather be hunting or practicing under field conditions) but it's a necessary chore to achieve the best possible accuracy. I start with a widely proven powder for a given cartridge then work with various charge weights and COL's then changing bullets if neither of these work.

If you start with high quality bullets with weights that are compatible with the twist of your rifle and have a quality rifle and scope that is mounted properly, you shouldn't have too much trouble getting well under 1 moa.

Again, I'm not a benchrest shooter and I'm in no way belittling all those special tools or procedures they use - shooting consistently in those tiny little circles is a thing of beauty but it's not my game.

Good luck.