Reloading- How Technical!?

[Leec6.5]

Due to the Cost of Living Crisis (COLC) I can no longer afford to add View attachment 484435 to my tumbling media.

K

Your posh I use T cut

 

[Jh1986]

I recently discovered the Lee loader sets that come in a wee case and include everything you need to make ammunition. You just need a hammer to smack it with. Comes with a wee scoop for the powder and everything. I really fancied buying one but they don’t seem to do one in 25-06. I put in for a .223 so that I can buy one.

Got myself one of these, and a set of balance scales and digital scales.

Not had a chance to give it a go yet. The thought of making ammunition by "hitting with a hammer", any part of it seems outrageous to me but I'll probably start over the next month or two.

 

[63]

Most of what is written about reloading online (by volume) is about what you might call ‘technical reloading’ ie trying to make super tuned ammunition that produces the best possible groups in a given rifle. It is easy to get lost in that detail and get intimidated.

If you just want to make ‘cheaper factory ammo’ then it’s pretty simple - just load to standard OAL as per the instructions in your chosen manual. It’s worth tinkering with different charge weights to obtain decent accuracy, but for stalking purposes it’s very possible that you’ll find the first charge you try is perfectly good enough.

Depending on how much you shoot, you can get a long way with a Lee loader, a hammer and some scales for weighing out your powder (in preference to the scoops).

Seen a lot of people whinging online recently that reloading isn’t cost saving anymore - personally I reckon that, even accounting for the brass, I can load copper bullets for about £2 a bang in 308 - which is around half the cost of factory loaded Sako Blade, Barnes etc.

 

[BenBhoy]

An interesting 'experiment' for the so-called Advanced Reloader is to prep' and group test 10 rounds in accordance with their sterile laboratory procedure, and 10 more that are simply resized & primed with no other tinkering including cleaning.

K

Have you performed such a test?

 

[trickie]

I look on reloading as three distinct activities -

Brass prep
Preparing ammunition
Load testing

I find load testing the most challenging part of the process. Finding cost effective locations to load test is not easy at all.

Regards

JCS

Not quite the 3 I like to think of reloading as.
The first 2 are spot on
Number3: Enjoying the fruits of the first two

If you are a bit pedantic, or a perfectionist then reloading is for you.

Should you be “slapdash” then you might not be best suited

 

[Mike1979]

Depends what you want and as everyone says you can do it in a cheap and cheerful way.

To my mind the real benefit is that you can achieve accuracy beyond standard factory ammo..is it needed for deer stalking...probably not but why shouldnt we get the best accuracy out of our kit. Will it save you money ...arguments for and against...its a rabbit hole and I suppose it depends on how far down it you want to go Im half way down the rabbit hole at the mo but got what I wanted for the 6.5 creed with copper and I wasnt getting that with factory.

 

[Klenchblaize]

Have you performed such a test?

In part when panic reloading Saturday night for an unscheduled match on Sunday.

K

 

[Demetrius]

Lee collet die is your friend........no need for lube, just pop the case in the press and pull the handle.
Spent primer pops out and neck is accurately resized.

D.

 

[timbrayford]

It is as easy as making a cake, once you’ve got your recipe right stick to it do not change otherwise you will up chasing and spending more money and it’s just a ball ache!

Been there done that got the T-shirt!

The only hassle really is getting your load and don’t get stuck into the realms of chasing the Cloverleaf as long as you’re an inch better that’s all the accuracy you need for Deer stalking.

I agree to a point, the clover leaf really depends on shooting skill and with a bit of trial and error not too difficult to achieve, especially if using a reasonably accurate factory round as a base point.
I can't say that measuring case volumes with water is anything that I've ever found the need for and all that x thousands of an inch off the lands stuff is to my mind not worth obsessing about either.
I find that using the bullet manufacturers load data for dimensions works just fine, primers wise the only ones that seem to make any difference at all are the horridly unreliable Magtech LR ones with around 3/100 loose anvils causing misfires.
Powder wise it pays to be flexible and I use whatever I can get hold of if my first choice is not available, a burn rate chart is particularly useful in this respect, occasionally chronographing loads is useful to ensure compliance with MV / ME requirements of the Deer Act.
Overall its well worth doing , I can make something far better than factory rounds and crucially be able to make what I need without time wasting trips to gun shops with their aspirational stocklists.

 

[Heym SR20]

How deep a rabbit hole do you want.

You can reload with a simple Lee Loader tool, using little plastic scoops to measure powder and a hammer to provide the force. Some primers, a tub of powder and bullets and you will make ammo perfectly good to shoot deer at sensible ranges.

Or you can go to ever diminishing returns, spending huge amounts of money to make ammo that will allow you to select which tick you shoot at. But you will to spend equally huge amounts of money and time on rifles, barrels, optics etc.

You will almost certainly develop a naisaly voice and start saying phrases like “jolly interesting”.

You will probably then get excited by caravans, extended wing mirrors and minute improvements in mpg.