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Everyday Sniper Podcast, Berger NO BS BC Part 7 Reloading for Precision Rifle

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  • Apr 12, 2001
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    Base of the Rockies
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    Awesome episode with a ton of great info, looking forward to part 2.
     
    I was listening to this while de-priming some brass getting ready to clean prior to prepping to load. Lots of good info. Looking forward to the next installment... BTW I think I need to try out some Berger bullets for my 6.5 cm. I typically don't shoot past 1000 but was thinking maybe its time to try something other then the 140 ELD-M's in my loads. I am open to suggestions for anyone that has done testing already.
     
    Great episode and I'll likely listen to them all again.

    One question that I hope will be addressed in the future is their thoughts on primer pocket uniforming. Maybe I missed that part, but I didn't hear them talk on the merits (or not) of doing it...
     
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    Reactions: Josh1978
    I was listening to this while de-priming some brass getting ready to clean prior to prepping to load. Lots of good info. Looking forward to the next installment... BTW I think I need to try out some Berger bullets for my 6.5 cm. I typically don't shoot past 1000 but was thinking maybe its time to try something other then the 140 ELD-M's in my loads. I am open to suggestions for anyone that has done testing already.
    I am new to reloading, (only been doing it for around a year now) and have been thinking about trying some Burgers in my 6.5 PRC.
     
    I was listening to this while de-priming some brass getting ready to clean prior to prepping to load. Lots of good info. Looking forward to the next installment... BTW I think I need to try out some Berger bullets for my 6.5 cm. I typically don't shoot past 1000 but was thinking maybe its time to try something other then the 140 ELD-M's in my loads. I am open to suggestions for anyone that has done testing already.

    If you are shooting inside 1,000 yards then the 130 Berger Hybrid bullet is an excellent choice. The excellent velocity you can achieve offsets the reduced BC. You'll get less recoil as well. 140 Hybrids are also excellent.
     
    After listening to this series so far, my next case of 6.5 ammo will be Berger (assuming MHSA has it back in stock). If nothing else to say thanks for the time and information. I can't express how nice it is to hear genuine real information from people with so much experience. It's the reason I keep listening to this podcast and almost no others.
     
    Brilliant part 1 and like others have said, can’t wait for part 2.. you hear so much anecdotal BS on forums about what effects certain techniques and processes do or don’t do.. it’s great to hear from you guys in a very practical and evidence based way..

    Great podcast! Thanks for taking the time to do it!

    I’ve got some questions regarding powder choice, because until recently when Hodgdon powders were readily available in the UK and Europe, when I could look at an infinite amount of US based forums and find a good starting point for powders, now using Viht powders, the amount of user feedback is relatively limited and so there’s a bit more exploring that can be done with different calibres, barrel lengths and powders..

    I’d be interested to hear a bit more about the internal ballistics of how pressure relates to velocity, in terms of you have 2 chambers, say a 6.5x284 and a 6.5CM.. with a max SAAMI pressure of 58k and 62k respectively, I’m pretty sure a maximum pressure doesn’t relate directly to speed, if you ran say a 6.5CM at 58k with a 140gn projectile and a 6.5x284 at 58k with 140gn projectile, they wouldn’t be the same speed, guessing because it’s about how long the pressure can be sustained for? This will (I guess) be due to powder capacity and also barrel length?

    Leading on from that, if you’re shooting a short barrel, say 21” with a 6.5x284 and running a medium-slow (ish) powder like N165 through it, and you notice that you get to the top of the velocity ‘curve’ before you see any pressure signs, am I right in thinking that this is because the powder hasn’t 100% burned before the bullet leaves the barrel? Conversely, you could find max load before you reach the top of the velocity curve, because the powders burning too quickly?

    How come a CM or other small cased round get similar or greater speeds with like for like bullets and barrels with a smaller case capacity? What are the factors around this and if you were to choose a powder for a casing (without looking on the forums or advice) what would you be looking for? A powder that you get to a maximum velocity before maximum pressure or the other ways around?

    I’m sailing close to the wind with my knowledge in this area and would love to hear the experts thoughts on the nitty gritty of it all.

    Thanks from the UK!

    Flyingfisherman
     
    I've listened to parts of this podcast. Does he say anything about annealing?
     
    Great Podcast! Looking forward to part 2. I had a question that may pertain to part 2. In a previous podcast Brian had mentioned that sorting bullets according to weight has very little influence on the SD of the bullets BC. I would like to ask Brian if he sorts bullets, and by what method he would suggest if he were going to? Thanks!
    Dennis Rhodes
     
    Great Podcast! Looking forward to part 2. I had a question that may pertain to part 2. In a previous podcast Brian had mentioned that sorting bullets according to weight has very little influence on the SD of the bullets BC. I would like to ask Brian if he sorts bullets, and by what method he would suggest if he were going to? Thanks!
    Dennis Rhodes
    There’s an interview with Brian somewhere regarding sorting.
     
    Great Podcast! Looking forward to part 2. I had a question that may pertain to part 2. In a previous podcast Brian had mentioned that sorting bullets according to weight has very little influence on the SD of the bullets BC. I would like to ask Brian if he sorts bullets, and by what method he would suggest if he were going to? Thanks!
    Dennis Rhodes
    In a previous podcast he addresses bullet sorting. What he said is back in the 1950's the manufacturing capacity/quality wasn't even close to what it is today so that is largely where 'sorting' started to take hold.

    Back then if they had bullets that were say within 5 grains of each other on average people would sort them to 1 grain increments. Now though if bullets are manufactured within 1 grain tolerances people want to sort them by .1 grain... which by and large is a waste of time if you are using quality bullets.

    (Note, the numbers I mentioned above are made up by me, I was just paraphrasing the statement and the intended meaning)

    Basically they were saying that just because your grandpa did it and it had great results it doesn't mean the same thing today.
     
    Outstanding podcast. After listening, I have one question and one comment...

    1. At one point Brian mentions that primer choice for a specific load is important. I knew this and considered it part of load development. But aside from things like magnum primer for magnum load, or magnum primer for cold weather performance, what are some other considerations on what primer to choose for a specific load? He seemed to refer to matching the primer to the powder. Are there rules of thumb for this that might help in choosing, or is it all based on trying different combos and recording performance?

    2. Brian's comment about dull chamfer tools creating burrs that scratch bullets was interesting. Early in my reloading, I noticed that when i seated a bullet I would find copper flakes on the case mouth that had been scraped off the bullet. At the time I was using a cheap chamfer tool. I found a suggestion on Varmint Al's website, where he recommended polishing the neck rim with steel wool after chamfer/debur. I adopted it because it made sense to me, and because I could actually see that it smoothed out imperfections in the case mouth left by the chamfer tool. No more scrapes, and the bullets seat very smoothly. I have always wondered if this impacted the precision of my loads. My SD's are never very good, but the chrony is suspect. The performance of my load at distance is better than the SDs would suggest it should be.

    Below is a picture of how I polish the necks on my RCBS Trim-Mate. Drilled a hole in a copper pipe cap, attached it to a properly threaded screw and stuffed it with fine steel wool. I give each case about 10-12 revolutions in the wool. Maybe I've been on the right track with this!
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