Hornady Match Vs Reloads

[ja4wheel6]

I bought 200 rounds of one lot of ammo for my hunting ammo. It shoots it lights out. I do not have a chrono I trust, its a Coldwell. I am wondering if I should still chase the reloading. This is a custom rifle. will be used for shots out to 1000 yds.

I have access to rcbs rock chucker, powder measurer, primer loader, micrometer. I would just need to buy dies.

is it worth the time? the lot of ammo i have now would last a very long time for hunting.

If so, what are your loads recomened 180eldm

 

[ThatDUDE]

Just my two cents... I love reloading as a pass time, hobby, and stress reliever. I do think you may be able to get some more precision out of hand loads. However, after following a lot of Form's posts, I have come to realize that additional precision isn't always worth the hassle and time. If I had the money for factory ammo, and it shot within my precision requirements, I would personally spend my time shooting that load instead of reloading.

 

[Shootinsurveyor]

If it shoots great with factory ammo and you aren't set up to reload right now, I would stick with the factory. 200rds will last a decent time unless you are shooting a box every week. Reloading is fun, but you have to really be into it to get the full benefit.

 

[willfrye027]

You could pretty easily match the COAL, run a quick pressure/velocity ladder and match the factory velocity, and it’ll probably shoot the same. You might get tighter velocity spreads. Reloading is not as complicated or nuanced and it’s made out to be.

Biggest benefit of reloading is you can have enough components sitting on the shelf to never worry about finding what you need at the store, changing ammunition lots, etc.

Factory 6.5 cm shot well in my rifle but with handloads I can get another 100fps or so of velocity.

That being said you better have a line on some magnum primers, been pretty much nonexistent.

 

[Dos Perros]

You say shoot to 1000 yards, yet the the ammo would last a long time. Wouldn't one need to practice a lot to be proficient to 1000 yards?

 

[ja4wheel6]

You could pretty easily match the COAL, run a quick pressure/velocity ladder and match the factory velocity, and it’ll probably shoot the same. You might get tighter velocity spreads. Reloading is not as complicated or nuanced and it’s made out to be.

Biggest benefit of reloading is you can have enough components sitting on the shelf to never worry about finding what you need at the store, changing ammunition lots, etc.

Factory 6.5 cm shot well in my rifle but with handloads I can get another 100fps or so of velocity.

That being said you better have a line on some magnum primers, been pretty much nonexistent.

I have got a couple thousand on the shelf

 

[ja4wheel6]

You say shoot to 1000 yards, yet the the ammo would last a long time. Wouldn't one need to practice a lot to be proficient to 1000 yards?

Its a 7prc carbon barrel, custom rifle. The barrel appears to be a "unicorn", therefore this rifle will be shot less than 50 times a year. Training rifle will be shot a bunch. Dont want to burn out the barrel on the 7

 

[JFK]

Reloading can be enjoyable. Then again, it can be a pain if you are short on time and need to develop loads and get ammo loaded. Main thing I like about it is the (generally) better accuracy and better bullet selection. There’s also something kinda cool about taking game with something you created.

 

[willfrye027]

I have got a couple thousand on the shelf

If I was in your shoes I would make sure I had 180s and some h1000 and maybe some fresh brass for when you run out of factory. You may be surprised at how easy you can essentially duplicate the factory load. Otherwise maybe buy a case or two of the same lot of factory ammo? I dont think it’s possible to make your reloads any worse than factory..

 

[Firth]

Hornady match has been very accurate for me. I've been able to match and maybe beat it with reloads but not by enough to matter for hunting. From online suppliers it looks like 7 PRC Hornday match 180 eldms are around $2.80 per cartridge. You can probably reload for a bit less than half that. I figure $0.50 for a bullet, around $0.50 for 70 grains of H1000, maybe $0.10 for the primer, and about $0.20 for a case assuming you get 8 to 10 loads out of it. It depends on how much your time is worth to you, how fast you are, or whether you just enjoy reloading just because.

 

[Steve300xcw]

Reloading sucks. If I could snag factory ammo that did what I wanted, without getting to expensive . I would shoot nothing but factory.

 

[Rich M]

Save yourself the headaches and heartaches of reloading. Buy 1,000-5,000 rounds and call it a day.

 

[max-x]

Factory ammo typically has higher velocity SD than reloading can achieve.

The good news is that doesn't really become a factory till 800+ yd