New Reloader Questions

[clemeister]

Almost done accumulating my reloading equipment. I'll be reloading for long range. Have the following questions:

• I have a full size bushing die with new brass. Should I measure the neck thickness now to determine the bushing I need? Or wait until after I've fire formed the brass?
• Should I start my powder ladder test after I've fire formed my new brass?
• What grain intervals should I user for ladder testing? (I'll be reloading 6.5 Creed and 300PRC)
• I live in Dallas anyone know where I can find Federal or CCI large rifle primers or H1000, Retumbo, or N570 powder? You think I can find powder and primers at a local gun show? Are powder and primers always this hard to find (if so, real downer)? Or is this related to the ammo shortage?

 

[straightshooter1]

Almost done accumulating my reloading equipment. I'll be reloading for long range. Have the following questions:

• I have a full size bushing die with new brass. Should I measure the neck thickness now to determine the bushing I need? Or wait until after I've fire formed the brass?

You should proceed to measure the neck thickness. Be best way is to do that with a ball micrometer, if you don't already have one. Otherwise, measure the case neck just before you seat a bullet and after you seat a bullet, this will give you your neck tension. Subtract the bullet diameter from the measurement you took on a seated bullet and divide by 2. That will be your neck thickness.

• Should I start my powder ladder test after I've fire formed my new brass?

If you're going to use the same powder to fire form as you'll use for your precision loading, then you can still get information from your groups if you ladder your virgin brass. You'll have to do another ladder, but so what . . . you're firing anyway and you might as well glean what you can as that should shorten your time and supplies for your ladder work.

• What grain intervals should I user for ladder testing? (I'll be reloading 6.5 Creed and 300PRC)

If you do some ladder work as you fire form your brass, use .5 gr increments. When you do your regular ladder afterwards, use .3 grs.

• I live in Dallas anyone know where I can find Federal or CCI large rifle primers or H1000, Retumbo, or N570 powder? You think I can find powder and primers at a local gun show? Are powder and primers always this hard to find (if so, real downer)? Or is this related to the ammo shortage?

Good luck. There's been a run on supplies since January. Ya gotta keep a shart eye out as when a retailer has a shipment come in, it's not much and often they run out in minutes. So, if you see something, JUMP ON IT!

Primers and powders are NOT always this hard to find.

 

[wil_pt]

Another method - Seat a bullet then measure neck size. Subtract 2-4 depending on tension you like. That will be your bushing size.
You can begin ladder test to get an idea what your rifle likes but results may change as your barrel breaks in. I usually start load devt after 200 rds.

 

[Joel Danielson]

I will qualify my response by saying that I come at this from a little different perspective than most on this site. I am a benchrest and f-class competitor. Usually a first step is to use a mandrel to uniform the interior dimensions of the brass prior to sizing. Do you know what the throat was on the reamer used for each chamber? Will this throat require you to turn necks? If you know that, it will help in choosing the correct bushing to get the tension you are looking for. I only do ladder tests after I figure out which bushing will give me one-hole type accuracy at 100 yards, along with figuring out bullet seating depths. Once that is done, you can move on to ladder tests at 300-600 yards with various powder charges. If you have consistent neck tension on your cases, it won't take long to find a node that your barrel likes for the chosen bullet. Ladder tests are done in stages, with the first being .5 grain increments and than down to .2 grains for fine tuning.
As others have said, I wish you well finding components right now. Maybe put a ad in the reloading section of the px for a f to f purchase in your market. Also make road trips to some of the small gun shops or hardware stores that might get overlooked by the guys that just search the internet for products. I just bought 5000 CCI -41 primers and 2000 Federal match small pistol primers from a small gunshop in Montana while on a p-dog shoot.

 

[Rocketmandb]

Almost done accumulating my reloading equipment. I'll be reloading for long range. Have the following questions:

• I have a full size bushing die with new brass. Should I measure the neck thickness now to determine the bushing I need? Or wait until after I've fire formed the brass?

Neck thickness won't really change pre vs. post firing. As others have said, you can use a ball micrometer to test a couple spots on each case or simply seat a bullet (or more) and measure the outside diameter of the neck. The thing to think about here is brass consistency. If you're using something like Lapua, seat one or two bullets and be done. Hornady brass is not nearly as consistent so you want to measure a few more cases.

Also, on new brass, I use a mandrel to get consistent ID, and clean out any irregularities prior to firing. On my 300 PRC, I use ADG brass, and the new brass neck size is exceedingly small. It takes a couple hundred pounds to seat, so using the mandrel with it is necessary. I also use the mandrel post-sizing on all my subsequent reloads.

• Should I start my powder ladder test after I've fire formed my new brass?

You can, but things will change on the second firing, so the data is of questionable value. It might be interesting to see how the speed changes, and get a very general idea of speed/charge.

• What grain intervals should I user for ladder testing? (I'll be reloading 6.5 Creed and 300PRC)

To start, I use .5 gr on my 300 PRC and .3 on my smaller ones. My node on my 6 BRA is less than .2 gr and I missed it on my first ladder test. Then I zero in on promising areas and run groups across a few charges within that area. Lastly, I'll validate the load with 20 (or more) shots.