pretty good .308?

[sgt308]

I am reloading 100 .308 I think I have an acceptable combination of Primer powder and bullet, I would like to get it as accurate as possible.
What are the important things that must be done?

weigh each powder load with a digital scale?
weigh the Casings? measure each case to the same length?
assure each primer is perfect?
set the head space to? exact lenth of finished shell?
clean each casing with a sonic cleaner?
Etc.

what are the most important to least important things after the recipe is picked? maybe the one thing you would be sure to do if you did everything else with only normal care.

 

[Fuzzball]

Re: pretty good .308?

You're wanting to move too fast. First you need to learn the basics of reloading. And learn how to develop a good reload by range testing. After maybe a thou rounds or so, it may help if you get into the more detailed tweaks of accuracy but you have plenty to learn before getting into all that. You have to learn to shoot pretty good too!

Digtal scales are no better - if as good - as beams. And counting kernels of powder will gain no better accuracy than the normal +/- .1 gr. accuracy of any common scale. Few of us bother to weigh cases or bullets for shooting inside maybe 600 yards. There is no way we can insure that primers are identical - and they aren't. Surgically clean cases may be helpful in surgery but it doesn't matter on the range.

 

[Bluesop7]

Re: pretty good .308?

For me the most important two things are same length (measured to ogive) and then powder charge. I don't sort or weight cases, bullets, etc...Primers for me are an afterthough. I seat them fully and dont think about it any more. Cleaning after every firing is also not needed depending on how you do things. I use imperial sizing wax so I just size and them wipe off the sizing wax and powder residue and I'm good to go.

I seem to get less and less picky with everything (aside from the first two things I mentioned) and my accuracy has stayed the same. I personally see no reason to nitpick over the little crap that most people seem to be obsessed with but whatever floats your boat. Your mileage may vary.

 

[justinbaker]

Re: pretty good .308?

make sure you have a good digital scale, beam scales are more accurate than cheap digitals

 

[Shooter_308]

Re: pretty good .308?

I worry most about: consistentency.

You can't have repeatable results without it.

 

[NoFail]

Re: pretty good .308?

As a few have stated, be most wary with powder charge seating depth and COAL consistency. As you seat your bullets measure them all with a caliper. You will see they are not the same because bullet lengths are not consistent. That is why measuring from case bottom to ogive is better, the ogive is typically consistent bullet to bullet. I still have to get the gauge(s) to be able to measure ogive and it top on my list now. For now I seat the first bullet to a desired OAL and just leave the setting alone on my Forster Ultra seating die. I figure even though the OAL's are different because of inconsistent bullet lengths they must still be consistent at the ogive. But until I get the tools I need I have no way to verify this.
Like Rebel said you really need to slow down and learn before you start just loading a lot of cartridges at once. You need to get decent at it and you need to find a load your gun likes. Otherwise you could just be wasting money. Start reading more if you have not yet. I got a lot out of the "TresMon" authored threads stickied at the top of this forums page. Particularly part 1 and part 4, I think, well actually all of them, but yeah read them all.

 

[AZIROC]

Re: pretty good .308?

as said above... crawl, then walk. go out and get the basics down. When i started i started with .223. first i just cared about getting charge weights down and COAL down. then i went from there.

 

[B3dlam]

Re: pretty good .308?

I recomend reading every thread TresMons has stickied in this section once you have read each of those origional posts you should have a pretty good idea of what you need to do.