My Reloading Rules for Long Range Shooting

[secondofangle2]

Just thought I'd toss this out there. I have repeated a lot of mistakes that I should have known from experience not to, so I made a list for myself to post over my bench. Some will get folks' feathers ruffled - they shouldn't, these are for me, if you don't like them, then by all means you do you. Keep in mind Im purely a recreational/hobbyist shooter not a competitive shooter. Hopefully some of it resonates, and may help some of the Newbies from making costly mistakes that I have made over the years in terms of time and money.

RELOADING RULES FOR LONG RANGE SHOOTING​

• Don’t load for speed and compromise brass life & safety
• Don’t load for accuracy and ignore velocity SD
• If you’re anywhere near a max load without pressure signs and you have good accuracy (1/2 MOA) & velocity SD (<10), STOP. That’s your load.
• Don’t ignore pressure signs; when the bolt or the brass speaks to you, listen to it.
• When working up a load without a lot of available data, use 15 cases over and over so if you go overpressure and blow the pockets, you limit the damages
• Don’t skimp on components or mix and match; That means Lapua, RWS, Alpha brass unless it's not available. Your factory ammo once-fired brass may be a bargain up-front, but the lack of consistency and longevity compared to Lapua down the road will have you regretting it
• Don't use temperature sensitive powders unless you have no other choice or are not shooting long range. This means most of the Alliant powders except AR-Comp, RL15.5, RL16, RL23 (supposedly).
• If you have a bad day shooting, don’t reinvent your load. You settled on it, after much toil, for a reason. You just had a bad day.
• Don’t stockpile brass – good cases last 10+ firings. A couple hundred cases will get you to your next barrel
• Shoot a batch of 100 cases until it’s toast before dipping into new brass; 100 toasted + 100 brand new cases is worth more than 200 once-fired cases.
• Don’t leave excess lube (especially lanolin) on your cases; it will attract dirt and gum up your chamber. Wipe it off with a rag dampened in a gentle solvent.
• Don’t waste time with tedious manual tasks of dubious benefit, e.g., cleaning primer pockets, turning necks, measuring runout, measuring primer seating depth, weight sorting anything. Use that time to shoot and have fun and refine your skills
• If you’re spending more time reloading than shooting, you’re spending too much time reloading.
• Do things in large(r) batches whenever possible to save time reconfiguring equipment and for consistency, e.g., annealing, brass cleaning, trimming.
• If it doesn’t shoot, it’s you, the barrel, the bullet, the powder/charge, or the seating depth.
• If you’ve changed a variable 5 times and the problem persists, that variable is not the problem.
• Guys never post pictures of their worst groups and velocity SD. What you see online is cherry-picked and unrepresentative of the average. Don’t chase somebody else's unicorns.

 

[Dave62677]

Don’t chase single digit ES

 

[rustyinbend]

This is an AWESOME list !!!

 

[458win]

Your going to ruffle some feathers with that tedious manual tasks don’t matter lol. Very well put together list!

 

[tate1976]

Some good tips

 

[secondofangle2]

Your going to ruffle some feathers with that tedious manual tasks don’t matter lol. Very well put together list!

That's what I knew would be controversial! It's a personal thing for me. I just hate doing certain things; some I quit doing and didn't notice a difference, others (neck turning) I never started and if there's a difference I don't want to know, cuz I ain't doing it!

 

[pfl338]

Just thought I'd toss this out there. I have repeated a lot of mistakes that I should have known from experience not to, so I made a list for myself to post over my bench. Some will get folks' feathers ruffled - they shouldn't, these are for me, if you don't like them, then by all means you do you. Keep in mind Im purely a recreational/hobbyist shooter not a competitive shooter. Hopefully some of it resonates, and may help some of the Newbies from making costly mistakes that I have made over the years in terms of time and money.

RELOADING RULES FOR LONG RANGE SHOOTING​

• Don’t load for speed and compromise brass life & safety
• Don’t load for accuracy and ignore velocity SD
• If you’re anywhere near a max load without pressure signs and you have good accuracy (1/2 MOA) & velocity SD (<10), STOP. That’s your load.
• Don’t ignore pressure signs; when the bolt or the brass speaks to you, listen to it.
• When working up a load without a lot of available data, use 15 cases over and over so if you go overpressure and blow the pockets, you limit the damages
• Don’t mix and match components (e.g., Lapua & Peterson) or recipes; use the best ingredients you can get, find one load that works, and stick with it
• If you have a bad day shooting, don’t reinvent your load. You settled on it, after much toil, for a reason. You just had a bad day.
• Don’t stockpile brass – good cases last 10+ firings. A couple hundred cases will get you to your next barrel
• Shoot a batch of 100 cases until it’s toast before dipping into new brass; 100 toasted + 100 brand new cases is worth a lot more than 200 once-fired cases.
• Don’t leave excess lube (especially lanolin) on your cases; it will attract dirt and gum up your chamber. Wipe it off with a rag dampened in a gentle solvent.
• Don’t waste time with tedious manual tasks of dubious benefit, e.g., cleaning primer pockets, turning necks, measuring runout, measuring primer seating depth, weight sorting anything. Use that time to shoot and have fun and refine your skills
• If you’re spending more time reloading than shooting, you’re spending too much time reloading.
• Do things in large(r) batches whenever possible to save time reconfiguring equipment and for consistency, e.g., annealing, brass cleaning, trimming.
• If it doesn’t shoot, it’s you, the barrel, the bullet, the powder/charge, or the seating depth.
• If you’ve changed a variable 5 times and the problem persists, that variable is not the problem.
• Guys never post pictures of their worst groups or SD. What you see online is cherry-picked and unrepresentative of the average. Don’t chase somebody else's unicorns.

I have been reloading for decades. This is a awesome list to reference. It is so easy to go down a rabbit hole when reloading, this kind of helps keep that in check. Thanks for posting!

 

[KnowNothing256]

I’d add one thought if perhaps you find it useful: validate trajectory at your desired range. This can even save you the cost and headache of a chrono, and will also tend to show you just how important that SD/ES really is (often not very).

ETA: Sorry, great list too. I also have started leaning down my process as much as possible, and primer pockets were one of the first things to go.

 

[Lightning8]

I need to load more than 100 at a time so I need more brass than you suggest

 

[OREGUN]

That’s good stuff right there. Thanks for writing it all down.

 

[Taylorbok]

DO stock pile bullets and powder. Buy enough to burn out your barrel. (if you can get it from all the same place it will likely be one lot number saving headache)

 

[jasent]

Very similar to my list

 

[Steel head]

Generally solid advice for all reloading ^^^^
Far too many dork out on reloading.

Time is better spent shooting, learning the areas conditions and taking notes than chasing 1/4 moa groups and single digits ES that the wind is going to shit on anyways.

A decent load with lots of shooting practice will always beat a amazing load rarely shot.

 

[secondofangle2]

I need to load more than 100 at a time so I need more brass than you suggest

Yep. For 223 and 308 I keep like 1000 and 750 in circulation. And I use the Giraud annealer (ran several hundred 223 on the Giraud tonight). For the 338LM, 375CT and 50BMG, I run much smaller lots of brass and anneal it on the AMP one at a time - just as an example about how all rules need to be broken LOL. In all seriousness, annealing is the one reloading "chore" that I don't mind. There's just something about the smell of hot brass regardless of it's flame or magnetic field doing it

 

[jasent]

 

[atepointer]

Generally solid advice for all reloading ^^^^
Far too many dork out on reloading.

Time is better spent shooting, learning the areas conditions and taking notes than chasing 1/4 moa groups and single digits ES that the wind is going to shit on anyways.

A decent load with lots of shooting practice will always beat a amazing load rarely shot.

I'm still learning so much and am a new reloader. Having said that with a great tutor I was able to employ much of the above out of the gate saving a lot of headaches. I've even gone further with less is more and while I don't admit it to be the template for all it has allowed me to progress at a pace I'm more than pleased with and throughly enjoy.

I think a lot of it is b/c shooting manbun caliber is really easy to reload for so probably more tolerant of what I'm doing. I use ball powder and don't trickle, don't anneal and clean barrel/brass at same time 3-400 round count. I noticed zero dif when cleaning every trip so gradually let it slide out more and more and really the only reason I do it now is when the bolt tells me it needs some attention. Yes it's a factor of being really busy and then lazy with limited free time. I do not enjoy reloading I do it b/c I have to.

I think when I retire I could enjoy it more and likely will, but for now: resize, deprime and prime in one stroke cycle on an old CH4D press. Chunk out 43.8 of Staball on Uniflow and seat at jam. Oddly with my Proof pre-fit I can seat at jam and still just get in the mag, but I single load so no matter anyway. Accidentally found out how well they shoot at jam when fire forming new Lapua.

Shoot out to 2k and have a lot of fun with the boys. Honestly I'm not sure what my mindset would be if I was cleaning brass/barrel every trip, trickling every charge, annealing, ogive fiddling. I'd shoot less b/c I refuse to stay up til midnight reloading!

 

[Steel head]

I also generally dislike reloading but I have a weird tendency to shoot abandoned Remington cartridges or wildcats from them

Ball powder and good technique throwing it can give surprisingly good results

In the smaller cartridges you definitely don’t have to clean as much.

Annealing is pretty important, especially for good case life and consistent sizing.
It can be done cheaply.

 

[Hkmiller]

I'm still learning so much and am a new reloader. Having said that with a great tutor I was able to employ much of the above out of the gate saving a lot of headaches. I've even gone further with less is more and while I don't admit it to be the template for all it has allowed me to progress at a pace I'm more than pleased with and throughly enjoy.

I think a lot of it is b/c shooting manbun caliber is really easy to reload for so probably more tolerant of what I'm doing. I use ball powder and don't trickle, don't anneal and clean barrel/brass at same time 3-400 round count. I noticed zero dif when cleaning every trip so gradually let it slide out more and more and really the only reason I do it now is when the bolt tells me it needs some attention. Yes it's a factor of being really busy and then lazy with limited free time. I do not enjoy reloading I do it b/c I have to.

I think when I retire I could enjoy it more and likely will, but for now: resize, deprime and prime in one stroke cycle on an old CH4D press. Chunk out 43.8 of Staball on Uniflow and seat at jam. Oddly with my Proof pre-fit I can seat at jam and still just get in the mag, but I single load so no matter anyway. Accidentally found out how well they shoot at jam when fire forming new Lapua.

Shoot out to 2k and have a lot of fun with the boys. Honestly I'm not sure what my mindset would be if I was cleaning brass/barrel every trip, trickling every charge, annealing, ogive fiddling. I'd shoot less b/c I refuse to stay up til midnight reloading!

What bullet are you shooting and do you know your velocity of that 43.8 load?

 

[atepointer]

Steely: yea annealing comes up and it could happen, but not there yet. It will be like telling a kid who wants to go ride a bike he has to do chores and homework first!

HK: Barnes MB 140 @ 2790. Bolt lift like butter brass looks great and taking out for 9th firing this weekend. Have run out to 44.1 max just to see, but the accuracy started to drop off for me. 43.8 is the sweet spot and even if I miss a bit on either side of 43.8 still tight as a drum accuracy just a great charge for me right now. Bolt lift and brass stayed nice.

 

[secondofangle2]

Steely: yea annealing comes up and it could happen, but not there yet. It will be like telling a kid who wants to go ride a bike he has to do chores and homework first!

HK: Barnes MB 140 @ 2790. Bolt lift like butter brass looks great and taking out for 9th firing this weekend. Have run out to 44.1 max just to see, but the accuracy started to drop off for me. 43.8 is the sweet spot and even if I miss a bit on either side of 43.8 still tight as a drum accuracy just a great charge for me right now. Bolt lift and brass stayed nice.

The Giraud annealer pictured above may be just the ticket for you. It's less than 1/2 the price of the AMP, and you can set 200-300 6.5 cases on the hopper turn your back for another task and let it do it's thing. Despite what the net experts say, there is nothing wrong with good 'ol fashioned flame, and while it may not be as good as AMP, it's better than nothing and way faster!

 

[jasent]

This is how i anneal brass. Been doing this way since 2008. Every loading

I enjoy reloading, not as much as shooting but I do enjoy it

 

[parshal]

Can you give more details on bullet item number 2?

I really like the last two items!

 

[Taylorbok]

Can you give more details on bullet item number 2?

I really like the last two items!

• Don’t load for accuracy and ignore velocity SD

this is to say you can have a load that shoots bug holes at 100 yards but have SD of 20. When you start launching this round out over a mile that is gonna equate to lots of misses

 

[atepointer]

The Giraud annealer pictured above may be just the ticket for you. It's less than 1/2 the price of the AMP, and you can set 200-300 6.5 cases on the hopper turn your back for another task and let it do it's thing. Despite what the net experts say, there is nothing wrong with good 'ol fashioned flame, and while it may not be as good as AMP, it's better than nothing and way faster!

Hey thanks second! Yea time is a precious commodity for me to break away from phone and computer. I can hit the hide b/c I have 5 web pages open all day, but to leave the computer is not so easy during normal hours. I like this will look into it. Thanks!

 

[atepointer]

This is how i anneal brass. Been doing this way since 2008. Every loading

I enjoy reloading, not as much as shooting but I do enjoy it

Thanks jasent!

 

[Steel head]

This is how i anneal brass. Been doing this way since 2008. Every loading

I enjoy reloading, not as much as shooting but I do enjoy it

Torch master race!



Annealing is probably the part I dislike the most.
Light up a cigar
Put on some music
Get er done.

 

[Taylorbok]

Torch master race!



Annealing is probably the part I dislike the most.
Light up a cigar
Put on some music
Get er done.

you may have seen this already but this Elfster style machine cost me around $100 Cad to build, quick, easy cheap.

 

[Dogtown]

I'm just in a race to lower my ES

 

[davethedog]

If you're accepting amendments to the 16 (very good) commandments, I would like to add the following that one day I will also learn.

• LET THE BC OF THE BULLET DO THE WORK, NOT THE VELOCITY
• Subtract 150 FPS from any touted figures for weird wildcats and then ask yourself whether it's really worth it.

 

[parshal]

@davethedog, I've come to live by those this last year.

 

[Taylorbok]

• LET THE BC OF THE BULLET DO THE WORK, NOT THE VELOCITY

IMO for ELR if you can't run the selected pill at 2800 ish you are giving up to much velocity, 3k is where the pixies and unicorns like to hang out.

 

[davethedog]

IMO for ELR if you can't run the selected pill at 2800 ish you are giving up to much velocity, 3k is where the pixies and unicorns like to hang out.

For sure. But it is also okay to settle for 2850 even if you know some other dude online somewhere says he can push it 100 fps faster. When you put it all in to the calculator, that extra speed can't be made to seem worth chasing.

 

[secondofangle2]

If you're accepting amendments to the 16 (very good) commandments, I would like to add the following that one day I will also learn.

• LET THE BC OF THE BULLET DO THE WORK, NOT THE VELOCITY
• Subtract 150 FPS from any touted figures for weird wildcats and then ask yourself whether it's really worth it.

I like these! And I presume this is a post you don't want a dude with the initials D.T. to see? Like XC DT not the other DT.

I might add the second one to my last one about exaggerated claims on the internet; and modify the first to "Your gun wants to work smarter, not harder. High BC bullets is working smart; blazing velocities is working hard."

 

[larryh128]

That's what I knew would be controversial! It's a personal thing for me. I just hate doing certain things; some I quit doing and didn't notice a difference, others (neck turning) I never started and if there's a difference I don't want to know, cuz I ain't doing it!

You don't want to know.

 

[davethedog]

I like these! And I presume this is a post you don't want a dude with the initials D.T. to see? Like XC DT not the other DT.

Idk who that is but I don’t know why I wouldn’t.

 

[secondofangle2]

David Tubb. I was presuming you were referring to the XC cartridges that maybe aren’t *quite* as fast as originally advertised

 

[davethedog]

David Tubb. I was presuming you were referring to the XC cartridges that maybe aren’t *quite* as fast as originally advertised

That’s been my experience with Sherman’s and some stuff from WTO too. If they’re the ones selling the dies, reamers, and brass, think twice.

 

[atepointer]

what's the word on using one of those torches when you have really bad farts? I gotta be honest I would not feel comfortable letting one of these eye watering air biscuits go within 30 feet of that torch these things will peel the paint off the wall Right now

 

[jasent]

what's the word on using one of those torches when you have really bad farts? I gotta be honest I would not feel comfortable letting one of these eye watering air biscuits go within 30 feet of that torch these things will peel the paint off the wall Right now

Flash bang?

 

[atepointer]

Flash bang?

Yea just not sure I'm up for any accidental remodeling. May have to watch my known explosive food intake b/f I undertake annealing.

 

[Schw15]

This is how i anneal brass. Been doing this way since 2008. Every loading

I enjoy reloading, not as much as shooting but I do enjoy it

When I anneal that's how I did it. Sometimes in the dark to see the case light up and stop. But cheap easy way to do it. But I need a new torch head so haven't done it in awhile I guess that reminds me to buy one haha

 

[jasent]

I don’t need to do it in the dark. I turn the brass with my fingers holding the head. Soon as I feel the temp change at the head it’s done. You’ll burn yourself and drop the brass before you can over do it.

 

[Schw15]

I don’t need to do it in the dark. I turn the brass with my fingers holding the head. Soon as I feel the temp change at the head it’s done. You’ll burn yourself and drop the brass before you can over do it.

Yeah I hold it bare hand it gets very hot and that is my timer it's done. I just did it in the dark a few times to watch the color change.

 

[Rockdoc173]

I like it, I'd just say that "Don’t load for accuracy and ignore velocity SD" kinda depends on the goal. BR guys don't care, ELR guys do

 

[TripleBull]

• If you have a bad day shooting, don’t reinvent your load. You settled on it, after much toil, for a reason. You just had a bad day.
• Guys never post pictures of their worst groups and velocity SD. What you see online is cherry-picked and unrepresentative of the average.

I'm going to have to do some intensive searching to find out what is meant by "bad day shooting".

Of course we don't post pictures of our worst groups! A wasp stung me and caused that 12 MOA flier! I'd never post a picture of the ugliest woman I ended up with at closing time either.

Fun list. I never know if I'm going to enjoy reloading on any given day or if it's going to be drudgery. I tend to plan to get a certain volume of work done and that can turn out to be a real pain in the ass if I can't get into the right rhythm. But when my reloads outperform factory ammo, it feels like it's worth the effort. I certainly don't pretend that I'm saving money, considering the investment I've made in the RL room. Still buying quite a bit of factory ammo, because those triggers demand to be pulled more than my RL bench time will support. So that's one of my rules:

When the trigger demands to be pulled, you must abide.

 

[Steel head]

I like it, I'd just say that "Don’t load for accuracy and ignore velocity SD" kinda depends on the goal. BR guys don't care, ELR guys do

Yea, objectives/requirements definitely are different from short range benchrest to ELR.

 

[Steel head]

I don’t need to do it in the dark. I turn the brass with my fingers holding the head. Soon as I feel the temp change at the head it’s done. You’ll burn yourself and drop the brass before you can over do it.

You should watch the video orkan did years ago on annealing.

 

[Steel head]

David Tubb. I was presuming you were referring to the XC cartridges that maybe aren’t *quite* as fast as originally advertised

Hopefully I’ll find out by this fall

That’s been my experience with Sherman’s and some stuff from WTO too. If they’re the ones selling the dies, reamers, and brass, think twice.

I did a ton of research on the SS’s and that’s what I saw as well.
A lot of best case numbers advertising.

 

[Smokin7s]

I like these! And I presume this is a post you don't want a dude with the initials D.T. to see? Like XC DT not the other DT.

I might add the second one to my last one about exaggerated claims on the internet; and modify the first to "Your gun wants to work smarter, not harder. High BC bullets is working smart; blazing velocities is working hard."

Man that guys got some funky thoughts you seen his crooked reticle?

 

[Taylorbok]

Man that guys got some funky thoughts you seen his crooked reticle?

NO...? please share.