My Reloading Rules for Long Range Shooting

[jasent]

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

Do you have a link

 

[Smokin7s]

NO...? please share.

Dang hang on let me go digging leupold sells it

 

[Steel head]

Do you have a link

Sent via PM

 

[Smokin7s]

NO...? please share.

 

[jinxx4ever]

Hopefully I’ll find out by this fall

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.

6.5SS , 57gr H1000, 3008 right out of the gate fireforming cases. Haven't tried pushing any harder

 

[Steel head]

6.5SS , 57gr H1000, 3008 right out of the gate fireforming cases. Haven't tried pushing any harder

My 7 saum can do that with Berger 180 hybrids.

 

[jinxx4ever]

My 7 saum can do that with Berger 180 hybrids.

that's good

 

[Steel head]

that's good

Don’t think I’m bashing the Sherman cartridges because I like the design but the stated performance gains are a bit much.

 

[jinxx4ever]

Don’t think I’m bashing the Sherman cartridges because I like the design but the stated performance gains are a bit much.

no arguement from me

 

[Steel head]

reticle looks like Todd ate mushrooms before updating to the tremor 10.

 

[Steel head]

no arguement from me

I think of them as the short action version of the 300 prc vs 300WM
Optimized for modern bullets but it you optimize the older cartridge they’re performance is basically identical

 

[Schw15]

Don’t think I’m bashing the Sherman cartridges because I like the design but the stated performance gains are a bit much.

The designs are awesome. A modern Ackley I guess you could say. Specially the new mega case is so tempting but been down that road.

 

[viper770]

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 and velocity SD. What you see online is cherry-picked and unrepresentative of the average. Don’t chase somebody else's unicorns.

right on man

 

[rayvandervort]

This is an AWESOME list !!!

I agree - the list is great but when working up a load, I sometimes tighten up the variables for a bit. Working up a new load seems to be the requirement with limited supplies. Get the load doped and load 50 the fun way per above if you have the supplies and start shopping for more and hope!

 

[Tempest 455]

Only thing I would add to this as we shoot LR FTR matches and shoot for score. Keep everything the same.

A national FTR champion once told me at a match when pulling targets. It does not matter if what I do is different from what you do regarding loading. Do what works best for YOU.

They said consistency on everything is the key!