What are your reloading quirks.

[std7mag]

My reloading quirks??

Ya want the whole list?
Or just the top 10?

 

[okie]

My best work is done in my tighty whities....

 

[searcher]

In that die I had one stick with imperial. Its a great product but it isn't magic.

Man - that WAS a rough die. I can't recall ever hearing of someone sticking a case using Imperial. Maybe you were the first? A good entry for the Guiness book.

 

[searcher]

My best work is done in my tighty whities....

I'm sure the EMTs will find that amusing, should you ever have a reloading accident.... Ha!

 

[ebb]

Naw just a day in the life of Mark

 

[jds holler]

My best work is done in my tighty whities....

Now I need some brain bleach. jd

 

[J.D.Erwin]

So I notice sometimes that I make the same errors over an over again in the reloading room. Well, not really errors, but quirks that make me roll my eyes.

What are some of your oddball quirks? I'll go first.

• I have been known to anneal brass even though I'm 90% sure it has already been annealed. I keep pretty good notes on my reloads. But I'm not good at note taking during the process of making loads. So I will often prep brass and then life stuff happens. I'll come back 15-30 days later and forget if I had annealed. Then that little seed of doubt will plant in my brain, and I'll second guess results.

Or another one:

• At the end of seating the bullets of a given batch of loads. I intentionally mess up my die settings so I wont forget to purposefully set the seating length. Too many times before I have thought my die was set correctly only to forget I last seated a completely different bullet and seating length.

So what are some of your quirks in the reloading room, cleaning the bore, at the range or in the shop?

The three N's of reloading Take Notes, Read Notes,Keep Notes . If your reloading for several rifles you have to have reloading loading log for each one.

 

[Kracken McGraw]

My best work is done in my tighty whities....

That’s when you’ll get a Fed-Ex package that needs a signature.

 

[Fclassfool]

Here goes.

I never clean primer pockets.
I never clean the inside of case necks.
I never anneal.

I do clean primer pockets but I also can't remember the last time I tumbled a piece of brass

 

[Rocketvapor]

The biggest quick I have is thinking primer weight matters

 

[Fuj]

Quirks Ya' Say ?? Developing a new one today......

 

[17cal Fan]

I never lock any die in place unless it has pressure from the ram to square it with the ram. Usually by placing a Lee auto prime shell holder on top of the required for cartridge shell holder in ram. Have no proof that it makes any difference but if I see a youtube video or a manual where they just throw the die in and lock it down, my eyes go crossed and I have to look away.

And that all stems from over analyzing everything.

 

[Dgd6mm]

Procrastination.....

 

[jds holler]

Maybe some of these processes are necessary for some shooting disciplines but applying them universally can create unnecessary complexity, costs, and time with no discernable results for some disciplines. In other words, load to produce the results needed for your discipline. My reloading processes are geared to produce, "acceptable results for my shooting discipline."

I can't tell you the number of times a fellow recreational shooter / hunter or someone on this site has said to me, "but all the top match shooters do this or that." I am not a match shooter, and neither are most of the serious shooters I meet at then range so why in the world are they trying to apply advanced complex processes when shooting a factory rifle where sub 1 moa will meet all their needs?

Maybe we need a forum category for "semi-precision shooters".

I think K22 nails it for most of us. With good basic techniques most of us own rifles that will shoot 1 MOA or better. With a lot of advanced reloading techniques, we could tighten that up to some undefined degree.

Speaking for myself, I've never shot in any formal competition, I hardly ever crack off a shot at anything over 300 yards, and frankly 1 MOA is good enough for everything except bragging rights. I'm not a fan of mediocrity, but I'm leaning toward the philosophy of "good enough is good enough".

RV, you can weight sort all the primers you want, but I don't think I'm gonna follow you down that path. jd

 

[Turkeytider]

Are " Quirks" and things that can explode compatible? Just somebody that doesn`t reload askin` !

 

[K22]

I think K22 nails it for most of us. With good basic techniques most of us own rifles that will shoot 1 MOA or better. With a lot of advanced reloading techniques, we could tighten that up to some undefined degree.

Speaking for myself, I've never shot in any formal competition, I hardly ever crack off a shot at anything over 300 yards, and frankly 1 MOA is good enough for everything except bragging rights. I'm not a fan of mediocrity, but I'm leaning toward the philosophy of "good enough is good enough".

RV, you can weight sort all the primers you want, but I don't think I'm gonna follow you down that path. jd

If you watch Ryan Cleckner's short video on "acceptable accuracy" it will do a better job than I did trying to express this philosophy. I am not an advocate on mediocrity either, but I've set standards that will produce the results I need. In other words, I know what is good enough for my purposes. This is supposed to be fun, right? Anguishing over this or that isn't fun for me but that's just me.

I've developed my reloading, cleaning, etc., processes down to the point where I am content with the results on target. One of the most important elements for me is eliminating cold barrel flyers since being a varmint / predator hunter, the cold barrel shot is the money shot. I can't take fouling shots in the field every time I see a critter.

 

[danny]

Not oddball, but something I do to every case, every time; primer pocket uniform so that I always have proper pocket depth to properly seat primers.

Danny

 

[danny]

I used to be a drunk, - full-on journeyman drunk. A journeyman drunk does everything drunk, - driving, working, holidays, funerals, brain surgery, - everything.
I have always been an avid reloader, since 12 years old. And yes, I reloaded drunk. I think I developed defensive techniques to prevent disaster, because I was well aware of my condition, and the dangers of screwing up.

I've been clean and sober since 1998, but I still use my defensive techniques of reloading, and they have served me well. It's ironic that those techniques are every bit as valuable now that I'm almost "old" as they were when I was chronically "drunk". jd

Don't drink and drive: you might spill your drink.

Danny

 

[Sixgun]

So I notice sometimes that I make the same errors over an over again in the reloading room. Well, not really errors, but quirks that make me roll my eyes.

What are some of your oddball quirks? I'll go first.

• I have been known to anneal brass even though I'm 90% sure it has already been annealed. I keep pretty good notes on my reloads. But I'm not good at note taking during the process of making loads. So I will often prep brass and then life stuff happens. I'll come back 15-30 days later and forget if I had annealed. Then that little seed of doubt will plant in my brain, and I'll second guess results.

Or another one:

• At the end of seating the bullets of a given batch of loads. I intentionally mess up my die settings so I wont forget to purposefully set the seating length. Too many times before I have thought my die was set correctly only to forget I last seated a completely different bullet and seating length.

So what are some of your quirks in the reloading room, cleaning the bore, at the range or in the shop?

I hear you ya Brother sir. I would lose track in my seating process and second guess myself until I just zero'ed my die on the seating depth I want. If I make any changes I can always just back to zero.

 

[Sixgun]

Boots Obermeyer used to have section on his company’s website that had notes about various things related to barrels and such. One thing that I do after the final tumbling (walnut shell blasting media) is to use compressed air and blow out the dust still in the brass case. He said that the dust residue caused excessive wear on the barrel. And recommend blowing out the brass. It’s not really a pain to do, it goes quite quickly. That’s my quirk and sticking with it for the last 25

I do the same thing.