buy books from Bryan Litz and stop asking loosers.
spending money for shiny new toys will not get you where you want !
Improving My Reloading Process - Biggest Impact on SD
- Thread starter El Viejo
- Start date
buy books from Bryan Litz and stop asking loosers.
spending money for shiny new toys will not get you where you want !
You can buy the Vermonts on Amazon.Vermont Gauge carried by Travers. ZZ class. Just get the SS ones and not the Black Guard. They run about $4.75 and come in increments of .0005. They are sold as + or - which I generally understand has to do with the direction of the resulting tolerance (but I may be wrong about this). Get all of one type or the other. I went w plus and for our application I don’t think it makes a tinkers damn either way.
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I am wondering if anyone besides me weight sorts their brass? I sort +- .5 grain. That one thing made the largest improvement in my vertical spread at LR. I just didn't see it mentioned is all. use the outliers for bore foulers or dummy rounds. '06 Winchester brass had some wide variations but seemed to cluster into groups of the same weight. Funny that. Then in 338 LM brass made 5years apart was within 1 grain of the same nominal weight. That was a pleasant surprise. For sizing, a bushing die with the mandrel just removing any neck dents. Weighing each charge with a beam scale. Nothing fancy. Enjoy. Your mileage may vary, etc.
Since I am targeting a neck tension of .002 for my bolt gun and .003 to .004 for my gas guns, I suppose I should get bullet diameter less .004 down to diameter less .001. So for a 6.5, this would translate into .2655 to .2600. Is that right? Or would fewer increments do the job?
I would go from 0.0015 to 0.004 in 0.0005 increments. A 6.5mm bullet is .264 so I would go from .2625 to 0.260.
No difference in really in full length die. I just use the expander button in the full length die. It is one less stroke of the press handle.
I do not dry lube the necks. I do not wet tumble. I tried it and hated it. I run my "dirty" brass through everything and only tumble in medium grain rice to remove sizIng lube. It leaves a layer of carbon and sizing lube in the necks and the bullets seat super slick.
If you have es under 30 fps for 10 shots your ammo is good enough to win a prs match. You do not need fancy scales. My setup was purchased for speed. If your chargemaster isn't broken, it will load winning ammo. I have noticed a small improvement in chrono numbers. It hasn't improved the results on target. Before I owned a chrono, I developed a 243 Ackley load using results on target at 800 yards. The load hammered. Under 3" 10 shot groups at 800 yards during load development. When I bought a magnetospeed I checked the numbers. I assumed they would be stellar. The SD was in the teens and the es was in the mid to high 30s for 5 shots. The load would shoot sub 2" at 600 and sub 3" at 800 often. It was one of the best shooting barrels/loads I'd had up to that point. That was well before the Autotrickler or any fancy shit.
For trainers, I have a 223 barrel that goes on my TL3. I swap barrels at the range with a Ross vise. It is a Criterion Savage barrel with the nut loctited in place to install with repeatable headspace. It shoots good enough for a trainer (3/8 - 1/2 moa) especially for the price. I run no brake with the 223 so the recoil is more or comparable to a braked 6 mm. If your action doesn't have interchangeable bolt heads you would need a 223 bolt and a 223 prefit barrel specific to your action. I record the zero offset and it is repeatable to .2 mils. I always confirm zero on paper after swapping barrels. Also, there are other methods to change barrels that work. A barrel vise in the receiver hitch of your truck or wrench flats machined into the barrel. Once I have my match gun shooting good with tried dope I only shoot it to check zero before the match and in matches. All my practice is with the trainers. The barrel cost and ammo are cheaper and the investment in reloading time is less. I load my 223 on a progressive press an of course 22lr is buy sk standard plus and blaze away. 22lr is a rimx. I also spend a fair amount of time dryfiring with a dfat.
For scopes I was running a Vortex AMG on my match rifle and a Strike Eagle 5-25 on the rimx. Next year I'm going to run a Burris XTR Pro on my centerfire. I have had an xtr 3 for a few years as a backup scope and I have won a couple local matches with it. It doesn't bother me to switch reticles. They are similar enough. I have tried to use other shooters scopes with Horus reticles and those are enough different that they cause me issues.
We got a little off the reloading topic, but it is all relevant if the goal is to move up the standings.
If the brass you have shoots good I wouldn't stress about it. Back a few years ago I had some Winchester 243 brass that I formed to 243AI. It shot good enough for PRS. Some of it has 20 reloads on it and is still going in a hunting rifle. I saw enough difference with good brass that I don't go cheap there anymore.
Sometimes sorting bullets by overall length will yield better results. With hornady 105 bthp it cuts my groups from 3/4 moa at 450 yards to sub 1/2 moa. The beauty of the Berger/Lapua philosophy is no sorting, no hassel, no worry, just good results.
Hopefully some of this helps. Don't let someone lead you down the reloading rabbit hole if you want to shoot prs. If you want to reload as its own hobby that's one thing. If you want to win prs matches, a gun that will hold 1/2 moa to midrange from a bipod and rear bag will do what you need. After that, the time is best spent focused on the shooter.
I agree with buying the best annealer you can afford. I decided to build this one to see for myself, the benefits of annealing. Kits and plans are availavle on the internet. The plans, diagrams and templates as well as 3D printed components for this one came from Etsy. The remainder of the components came from Amazon and Home Depot. It took me a day to build and was well worth the effort. After converting 6.5 Creedmoor to 8.6 Blackout, I am sold!
