Lodi Nationals and loads

[rmist]

Since only 35 days until the F Class Nationals....

I know it's been discussed about loading early and leaving bullets seated long until the match....but...with 600 rounds to be loaded long and have to final seat later seems a lot of wasted time. Normally I load a couple days prior the week of a match. I'm not going to be able to load that many in the week prior with everything else in life going on !! Soo...2-3 weeks prior loaded and ready to shoot. That should be a non issue...Correct ? I'll run completely out of time if I don't do it at least that early. I have 3 matches to attend prior to the Nationals forming new brass. I'll have all brass needed fired once if none of these get cancelled due to weather. I'm just curios what you think.

Thanks again

 

[kyreloader]

I recently took 400 loaded rounds to Canada to shoot for our team practice and also the Canadian FCNC. I loaded all loads long and seated the box of 100 the night before I was going to use them. I loaded those rounds the week or so prior to leaving for Canada and they were not seated greater than 2 weeks before the championship. On final seating of the bullets at nights, about 90-95% of the rounds had the click/popping sound as I seated them deeper. I am not going to argue whether this ultimately would have made a difference, but at that championship/tryout/practice, I needed every single point that I could get and taking the 10-15 minutes at night to do the final seating was worth it to me, for the mental piece of mind.

 

[rmist]

How much longer... .010", .020" ?

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[kyreloader]

My go-to load length is 2.529" to ogive, I loaded mine at 2.540" before I left.

 

[rmist]

Thank you ! I'll give it a try then. I can load a lot earlier ...just have to remember to pack the die and arbor press !!

 

[memilanuk]

Seating long and re-seating once you get on site is one option. Another is seating long with light neck tension and working up the load with the bullet stuffed in the rifling - letting the throat be the seater, so to speak. Otherwise... I typically use moderate (~2 thou) neck tension, and have shipped ammo ahead weeks or even months with no ill effects. I do pack my calipers & comparator to do a spot check once I'm on site, though.

 

[Fulvio]

Since only 35 days until the F Class Nationals....

I know it's been discussed about loading early and leaving bullets seated long until the match....but...with 600 rounds to be loaded long and have to final seat later seems a lot of wasted time. Normally I load a couple days prior the week of a match. I'm not going to be able to load that many in the week prior with everything else in life going on !! Soo...2-3 weeks prior loaded and ready to shoot. That should be a non issue...Correct ? I'll run completely out of time if I don't do it at least that early. I have 3 matches to attend prior to the Nationals forming new brass. I'll have all brass needed fired once if none of these get cancelled due to weather. I'm just curios what you think.

Thanks again

 

[Fulvio]

I only had one occasion when the bullets were pushed out about 0.010" after being seated for one week. I left the ammo in the car one day and it was very hot. After that episode, I either seat the bullets 0.020" long or a seat them to the right length but I check them with the caliper the night before the event. If they are too long I reseat them otherwise I do nothing.

 

[mgdietrich]

I shot a 200-19x iron sights from a sling on high power target a month ago with ammo that had been loaded 1.5yrs earlier. i know Fclass target is tougher, but if the rounds are consistent it shouldn't matter.

If you aren't using a compressed load, do it once and be done.

 

[Erud]

I shot a 200-19x iron sights from a sling on high power target a month ago with ammo that had been loaded 1.5yrs earlier. i know Fclass target is tougher, but if the rounds are consistent it shouldn't matter.

If you aren't using a compressed load, do it once and be done.

Would've only been a 199 on F-Class target. Might want to start thinking about using fresher ammo.