Limited budget equipment purchase advice needed, please.

[Iowa Fox]

Great suggestion on the spinner. made one as you describe about 18-20 years ago. Got the idea out of one of my reloading books. What do you use the 12x loupe to visually inspect that close?

Yes, I do inspect necks that close and many other aspects of the reloading process & dies, ect. Freshly trimmed and chamfered cases are pretty ugly under magnification.


I learned to use the loupe during a week long class at Caterpillar. I still have the original 12x they gave me and picked up a few others along the way, I still use it a lot for a lot of different things that I do. It really lets you get a good look at the before and after the steel wool spinner on case necks. Also the inside of fired necks if you remove to much carbon after a couple firings. I've never paid over 5 bucks for one when I find them at tag or yard sales which makes them a cheap tool for the reloading bench and garage workshop.

 

[David101]

To sort by weight you really need a very good quality digital scale or either the results wont be worth the effort or it will take to long. By good quality I mean something like a A&D 120i, 300 ect these measure to the milligram and have the sensitivity and linearity of 1 milligram also.
I have an older A&D 300 and do weight sort my projectiles. Like other have said I buy 500-1000 and sort those. you need a large enough batch so that when you sort you get enough of the same to make up a box of how many you shoot.

This really is going to the lengths that a competition shooter may go to. Not all sort bullets as again the wind plays a bigger part in a lot of disciplines.

 

[normmatzen]

I, too, started trying accuracy shooting about 15 years ago with a Savage Mod 110 built in the late 50's. It is a 30-06.
My friend in Australia convinced me to hot-rod it. So, I pillar bedded it and glass skimmed the action and made the barrel fully floating. The gun
shot about 1 MOA before my work and after my work! I was still using loaded ammo and bought some Black Hills ammo and it started shooting 0.75 MOA.

I gave up. I bought a Savage Precision Target action and a pre-fit Shilen action in 243 WIN. I put it on an old LPV stock with the action area hogged out a bit and the Mag well plugged with a plywood plug. I pillar bedded it and glass skimmed it as well as opened up the barrel channel for fully floating. Now, I had reloading dies for 243 WIN and bought some 107 SMK bullets and H4350 powder and did a ladder test.

All of a sudden, I could shoot 2-3" groups at 600 yds! Can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear.

I would take one of the savage rifles with a large magnum barrel and buy a nice pre-fit from Northern in a caliber good for longer ranges like 6BR 6.5X55 or something similar.Then do a ladder test to find the best load and shoot some small groups!

 

[Whisky Tahoe Foxtrot]

Art,

Apologies this post ended up so large. Here's an executive summary:

Divide reloading steps into categories Coarse, Medium, and Fine.
This will help you prioritize reloading steps and get to component combinations/loads worthy of spending more time refining.

When sorting components, include sorting brass.

Tracking the order of your shots will enable you spot trends, record pilot error, log weather etc.

Ok full version...

Thank you for the detailed posts as you have drawn out reams of valuable advice from the respected savants at this site. I resisted posting as I'm not confident I'll have sufficient advice for you so I'll qualify this post as more for me and coalescing the tips this site has taught me. I'll share as a good forum member should.

I have walked in your shoes. Before recently joining this forum my last reloading log book entry was in April 2001. I literally have done a Rip Van Winkle and slept through my shooting hobby due to work, family, and 1 of 2 other hobbies. Recently I retired so back to the range.

I also have a collection of factory rifles though before I was too busy to shoot I had a 308 Rem 700 rebarreled and accurized as well as a 300 Win Mag Sav 110. What a difference those steps made. That is why you are getting advice to go custom. It really can make a difference. I wouldn't consider either of those hunting rifles though. Getting a factory rifle to shoot farther and group better is a valid goal.

What I have learned from this forum is to
1) focus on coarse, medium then fine adjustments in the pursuit of accuracy. This lets you prioritize time
2) Record everything and learn from it as much as possible
3) Your time is yours to value. Remember to have fun

Coarse = Charge weight, Bullet Selection, Case Volume , Primer selection. Feel free to adjust this
Medium = Seating Depth How much jump or Jam
Fine = Neck Tension How much neck resizing, uniformity, depth of resizing i.e. distance to shoulder

EDIT: there is a tech article on neck tension at the accurateshooter.com part of the website. Explains why you would sort out seating depth before sorting neck tension.
https://www.accurateshooter.com/technical-articles/reloading/neck-tension-not-just-bushing-size/

Think about what are the causes for flyers and work on the steps within your control
From Pressure variables to Barrel Harmonics, I'm certain this is too broad a topic but we have to try.
I'm guessing you aren't tuning your factory barrels so the recommendations here are action, bedding, stock, and if you are sticking with your original stocks and not bedding then make sure the action is torqued to factory specs. Several of my rifles where never torqued to the factory specs.

Some of the symptoms of pressure variables are measurable. Muzzle Velocity, Spread, and Deviation are measurable, as is certainly group size which is the "grail quest" of shooting. Measuring velocity will give you valuable data as will the order shots are fired and where they land. This will enable you to further investigate flyers as they occur. Do the groups open up and stay open indicating something like barrel temp, fouling, or wind? Or is there one single frustrating shot outside the group which could be many things. Track the order of your shots. I use a similar target on the bench and mark the shots as they land so I don't forget. Combined with the target with the actual holes, this is useful information for investigating. I place brass in that same order, so I can check if the problem was the case. Here's why this is important.

In addition to sorting bullets by weight, diameter and size, you can also affect the amount of pressure variables through sorting your brass. Quality brass when sorted minimizes case volume variables. We know that varying volume is a quick way to get varying pressure. As you sort your brass you can select smaller more uniform sets for longer ranges. Best done on virgin brass or before trimming as the goal here is consistent volume. Keeping these sub lots of brass together is a step to reducing volume variables

Apologies to the elders here if I have made errors in the retelling of your key teachings. I remain a padewan learner. Here's to no bad days...