Gas gun guy now loading for a bolt gun

[GhostFace]

Okay guys I just had a bolt gun
Built for me. Its in .30-06 and it has a Obermyer chamber. I have developed a good load for it that hovers right at 1/2 moa at 100 and 360 yards. I havw not shot it for groups beyond that yet. I know I should be happy with this but in order to see how accurate this rifle can be I think I need to change my relaoding practices up a bit.

I cut my teeth on loading for gas guns and I always have FL sized. I read that just using neck bushings can help improve accuracy and preserve brass life. I would like to hear your pointers on loading just for a bolt gun. I can tell you know that i wont be turning necks or anything like that. Im not a bench rest shooter so those princepals I will not follow. If i can tighten tjings up a bit I will be happy.

I am using RCBS dies, a FL and a seater if that matters.

 

[long range newbie]

redding dies work very well, If I'm loading A bolt gun I'd like micrometer seater and bushing neck sizer, but they cost a pretty penny compared to rcbs ($200-250 range). Annealing saves brass life a lot and makes it have consistent neck tension.

 

[jkonzal]

I do not use the same dies for reloading both guns. I have a dedicated set for the bolt gun, and another set for the gas gun. For bolt gun, I only neck size and I anneal after every second firing.

 

[GhostFace]

Okay, explain neck sizing to me? How does one arrive to the proper tension? How do you adjust the tension? How much more accuracy will be gained by going from FL to neck sizing?

 

[JGorski]

Okay, explain neck sizing to me? How does one arrive to the proper tension? How do you adjust the tension? How much more accuracy will be gained by going from FL to neck sizing?

I really dont think you're going to see any accuracy difference between FL & NS only, unless your FL die is made for bushings as well, if you had both dies custom made to your reamer the FL die should not be sizing the body much anyways. When using the bushings you can control how much neck tension there is on your brass, best is usually .002", so if your loaded neck size is lets say, .339" you'd want to buy a .337 or 336 bushing to give you .002" neck tension, too much tension may or may not give you issues, I use regular old Hornady new Dimension dies for my 06 and it shoots very well for a factory rifle.