Don't be afraid to keep an eye out for used equipment as well. That is how I got started in reloading and I purchased my Lee cast press, my RCBS 505 scale, and my Lyman case trimmer in used but good condition. I doubt new equipment would gain me anything in terms of accuracy (600 and in) in a hunting rifle/load.
That's good advice. Any particular places that you'd recommend to watch for used reloading equipment?
Mainly ebay, but my LGS will actually take in used reloading equipment on trade as well, which was nice as I could see stuff in person before purchasing.
You nailed it. I've chopped all my barrels down to 18.5" to account for a suppressor and have started shooting PRS matches lately and want to continue. I'm looking to gain a bit more speed with handloads, shoot more, and reduce my long-term ammo costs.
So your reloading process is
Small items, but I would add a chamfer/debur tool, shell holders, and a loading block to set the cases in.
How often have you had to change powder or bullet due to it not meeting your standard (percent failure rate)? And how much of that do you attribute to the gun just not being a “shooter” or it just not like the bullet/powder combo?
I do it pretty much the same way. I can’t remember the last time I got the chrono out. I make an educated guess on velocity based on load data. I use BCs Litz has derived, if available. If not, I use manufacturer’s BC. Get a good 100 yard zero then go right to my 900 yard target. I use the velocity truing function in Ballistic AE. You simply put in the difference between POI and POA and the software corrects the velocity to marry the two up. I have never not had the data line up after that.Are we talking actual “science”, or we talking “The Science“?
Yes, velocity variation has an effect. However, if your high round count groups (10+) are acceptable size at whatever your distance is, why does it matter what your SD/ES is? In other words if you are grouping at distance, than the grouping is taking care of the variation. If you’re doing endless load playing at 100 yards, you’re just hoping that small SD/ES translates to small groups at range.
To that point though, all guns that I can remember that have grouped well for high round counts at 100, have done so at 300, which have done so at 800.
Not really. By the time annealing comes in, the barrels shot out or the brass is lost. 3-4 firings and I’m generally done with it for whatever reason. I don’t get into the psycho brass hording thing either
Sure they will, but not like a lot of people believe. We miss due to the largest source of error. Or I should say our hit rate is determined by the largest sources of error. Rarely (almost never?) is that velocity ES outside of a benchrest. Dudes aren’t missing due to an ES of 30 versus an ES of 10. They’re missing due to not calling wind correctly, flinching, incorrect zero, loss of zero, optic not tracking, poor positional shooting ability, etc, etc.
From what I’ve seen it can be real, but people are kidding themselves by doing so with one round. It’s the same BS about getting velocity SD or ES off of 5-10 rounds. That’s just a joke.
Hit rate for the task. The target is deer sized game out to 800m. So a 12” target at 800m. That is calculated with Applied Ballistics WEZ. Putting all variables in, reducing groups size below that has a very marginal effect on hit rate in the field, but a very large time and component cost.
There’s enough work for correct BC numbers now that if AB, Hornady, etc. put it out then it’s very close generally and closer than one can measure just by shooting.
How are you sure your velocity is completely correct? I would not trust a chrono average with less than 30 shots back to back. How do you know your adjustments are tracking at exactly .1 Mil or .25 moa for the entire range you use it at? Do you know that the scope does so with live rounds through recoil instead of just static texting? How do you know that you don’t have a slight updraft or down draft on the way to the target?
Point being that it takes relatively large variations in BC to make considerable changes to elevation inside of terminal ranges (1,800’ish FPS for an average), yet relatively little MV error to create the same elevation change. Biggest spruce of error= MV, not BC for any good bullet. Now if you’re shooting bullets with widely inflated BC’s (looking at you Hammer), then yeah, everything is kind of a guess. But much like shooting Tikka/Sako, I skip all the nonsense and drama by shooting bullets that are known performers.
Even with all that, the base reason I generally adjust MV and not BC is because it works. I have zero issues zeroing, trueing at distance, and then going anywhere in the country and getting first round, elevation correct impacts doing so, without ever chronoing the gun/ammo. I’m not into the dork crap- the gun is a means to an end, not the end, and I want the path that gets me to that end the quickest and surest.
