Re: 7.62X54R Reloading?
Handloading is like many other progressively advanced passtimes.
The more time you spend reading up on the process before starting, the less time and money you'll spend on making beginners' mistakes.
You can also get caught up in sidetracks and extraneous activities all too easily, with many folks very happy to help you do it and help to you spend your money in the process.
Begin by adhering closely to the basic process.
You will have plenty of time to add complexity once you've perfected the basics. Goals should start simple, then progress toward improving firearm accuracy and handloading efficiency. While many treat the handloading process as an end in itself, for me it's more a means to an end.
Making ammo that displays no 'buggering about', shoots consistently and accurately, while working within well recognized safety margins, is an excellent set of initial goals.
While one can't shoot well with faulty ammo, going the extra mile and beyond may leave one tuckered and jaded without the expected payoff. This happens a bunch and can be very frustrating.
If (actually when...) you start to dread upcoming shooting activities because of the daunting prerequisite handloading labors is one of the best times to reevaluate your handloading regimen.
If you're like me (and probably many others), a time will come when you say 'awheckit' and cut some optimization corners; with a resulting surprise that results aren't actually as awful as one had imagined.
For me, this led to the realization that efforts and outcomes are on opposite sides of the balance, and that various approaches can lead to the same thing, a harmonious equilibrium.
For me, this has resulted in a trimming trend, where a small diminution in overall accuracy can be the result of some considerable savings in overall labor.
This will often be the result of preceding years of repetitious handloading experience, where we do the basic things with greater efficiency and consistency, and this contributes a better consistency. This helps make up for some of the expected advantages from more complex additional handloading steps.
I suspect that many of us handloaders reach this stage, where what we once did as a basic beginners' process eventually provides considerably better results, perhaps reducing any real need for more handloading complexities; simply because we've gotten better at it over time.
As a basic rule, my suggestion would be that whatever you do, take the time to get good at the individual steps. Learn to coax the full potential out of the simple tools.
Just as the accomplished indian can get the full potential out of any bow, the best arrowmakers often make the most refined arrows with the very simplest tools. It's at least as much about how you use the tools as it is about what those tools are.
Greg
