Salmonchaser
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2019
- Messages
- 2,433
Been mentioned many times, keep careful accurate records.
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I believe there are many good reasons various folks handload and those reasons drive different choices. Sounds like you have a clear sense of yours. Neither right nor wrong, but others may choose different approaches.Best advice I can give you is to find one powder and even a bullet that works in all of your rifles. That way you can buy it in bulk and save money. Others may disagree but the way I look at it is that you will be fine tuning with the powder anyhow. Why not use something across the board.
IMR 4064 all the way. It is a VERY versatile powder that can be used in a TON of different rifles.
Most people but 8 different powders and 25 different bullets and WASTE a ton of money.
If you can stick with one powder and 1 bullet and make them all work by fine tuning to each of your rifles you will save money and pay for your investment.
Also, DO you need a rifle that shoots 1/2" groups at 100 yards or will 1" groups work?
Ask yourself that before you waste a ton of time and money.
ME, a sub- 1" group at 100 yards will suffice for ALL of my hunting applications. I consider it the benchmark as I dont shoot past 400 yards for anything anyhow.
Others will 100$ disagree but others have spent a fortune on supplies over the years and never saved a dime in the long run.
I love shooting. But I love my money more than .25" 100 yard groups.
For the record I mix my brass and re-size to a .003 setback for headspace dimensions every time on all of my rifles. I achieve the 100 yards accuracy stated above and never have failure to feed issues.
Your santa is good at gift giving, but kinda sucks at keeping secretsThanks for all the replies everyone, a lot of great info here! I'll keep an update with how things progress.
For what it's worth, the kit is the Sportsmen's exclusive Hornday Lock-n-Load Classic with tumbler and case trimmer bundle.
Thanks again for all the responses and links, a lot to go through!
Reloading for a .338 WinMag questions....can you PM me?The recipes/power listed in manuals as being most accurate is usually a good place to start. Worry about wringing out the last bit of velocity second.
Good luck and have fun learning. You'll find that there are endless things you can do to improve the "accuracy" and also find out how much of it is a total waste of time for a hunting rifle. YMMV.
- get a mic and a good set of calipers
- get a bullet puller, not the POS hammer type
- buy a chronograph, even if its a cheap one to start out with the new doppler radar type are pretty slick, but not cheap
- get a reloading notebook, and keep good notes.
- get a couple reloading manuals, they are nice to have for cross referencing, or at least download all the data you can find
- get a good scale that throws powder, or at least get a powder measurer to speed up loading (I don't get caught up in the 1/10 of a grain accuracy in cases that have 2-5 grains capacity difference...
- Don't mix/match cases, note above of difference case capacities. you can measure/determine volume with water Some brands have higher volume than others. Just beware of that when looking at load data. The "max" listed may well be over max capacity for your brand case.
- Don't hot rod shit. Its not worth the extra 100fps when you are wearing out cases prematurely. YMMV
- learn the signs of case failure and learn about annealing
- IMO, the biggest thing is make sure your rifle is accurate as you can make it before you start tinkering with loads. Even if its as simple as bedding it. You will never know the true potential with reloading if the rifle doesn't shoot well to begin with. I've yet to have a rifle that didn't improve with bedding the action... I've done about a dozen.