Reloading at the range?

EXCRider

EXCRider

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Who here does this, is it worth doing?

What is your setup?

Does your local range allow and/or have facilities available?

My idea is to put together a small-ish self contained kit. Just enough to weigh charges and seat bullets. Brass prep and priming to be done in advance. My thinking is that it would make load development easier and give me something to do while waiting for the barrel to cool.

I have a basic design in mind but it would be over my budget so I am looking for ideas.

What tricks are you using to keep it portable? Problems encountered? Pictures would be fantastic.
 
I've seen a benchrest guy doing it at the range. He had a setup that attached to his truck somehow, either the tailgate or off the trailer hitch. It was years ago and I don't recall. Never tried it myself, but it certainly would make load development faster, simpler and cheaper. My only concern would be the weather as it's very often quite windy here and that may screw things up.


Mark
 
I don’t do it, but I’ve thought about it.

I was the range manager when the local police were using it, so I decided to bolt my single stage press to a 2x6 and clamped it to a desk. I prepped some brass to occupy my time.
 
Easier with L.E.Wilson dies with their mini press. Have thought about bringing a portable power bank to run the Chargemaster, though one of my ranges has power outlets near the shooting benches.
 
Only hassle really is scales, much better if the range has a shack you can use. I used to load stuff at the range with a Lee handpress and a Redding thrower, something like a Partner press or maybe a Lee C press is a bit better perhaps. I had all the powder settings written down, and was using ball powders with the thrower. At that time none of the ranges I belonged to had a shack to get out of the wind, so I didn't bother with stick powders at the range, all I had was a beam scale and an elec scale that drifted a lot, which I would not use for powder, it was used for cast bullets. You search thru the benchresters pages and you'll see all sorts of setups there, Chargemasters and even A&D scales, some throw and trickle still. It is nice to find a load you want to try again and just do it right then and there, or to adjust seating and try that.
 
I used to do it all the time, take sized and primed brass to the range and I would run my electronic scale off a battery pack. I had the press bolted to a 2x8 that I would clamp to the bench. You want to get your scale out of even gentle breezes.

I don't do it any more as I am now at the range more days than I am not so plenty of opportunity to test loads I make at home.
 
Back in the day I ran around with a plastic tackle box with Neil Jones benchrest dies and an arbor press, Lyman powder thrower and Sinclair hand priming tool. 100 pieces of detailed brass in 270Win and I could reload while on an extended week long groundhog hunting trip. Also carried a portable kit to tie flies stream side to ‘match the hatch’ while on these combo trips. The reloading kit saved a lot of time at the gun range testing different loads.

Now 95% of my reloading is done on a pair of Dillon 550B presses and I’m happy with the results. Cheers
 
I knew a fellow who had a tackle box with his block, bullets, dies and press. He had everything needed to decap, prime, charge, seat and crimp his ammo in between relays.
 
I use a folding workbench, fitted with a small reloading top. I can get my press, scale, powder thrower, and other stuff on, although it is tight. I set it up in the little indoor range office so I don't have wind messing with the scale. I'll do up my loads, walk outside and shoot them, then go inside and tweak a necessary. Cheap and easy!
 

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EXCRider said:
Who here does this, is it worth doing?

What is your setup?

Does your local range allow and/or have facilities available?

My idea is to put together a small-ish self contained kit. Just enough to weigh charges and seat bullets. Brass prep and priming to be done in advance. My thinking is that it would make load development easier and give me something to do while waiting for the barrel to cool.

I have a basic design in mind but it would be over my budget so I am looking for ideas.

What tricks are you using to keep it portable? Problems encountered? Pictures would be fantastic.
Click to expand...
I don't do it due to my complicated process.. That's just a me thing.. But I've seen and talked with a bunch of benchrest guys who do it at matches... as I understand it.. it may have something to due with humidity and temperature.. I'm just regurgitating conversation detail from someone who was willing to explain a bit. He was using a little Lee O press of some type on a smaller type cartridge with a balance scale.. I was fascinated by the whole thing and just walked up and started asking.. Apparently it's not uncommon for guys to tweak the load for matches.. I have seen it a few times at my home range in Mission.. Light simple and portable setups.. They aren't really adjusting the dies.. it's more about the powder measure from what I was told...
Cheers
 
I can say I've done it multiple times over the years for load development, it's part of what shifted me back to using a beam scale. My current setup is a custom reloading block that holds the scale and trickler with camera. I figured out awhile back that the most inconsistent thing about using a beam scale was how much you could change what you thought was the same measurement by where you were looking at it. And I use scoops for the bulk measure.
 

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slinkylegs said:
I use a folding workbench, fitted with a small reloading top. I can get my press, scale, powder thrower, and other stuff on, although it is tight. I set it up in the little indoor range office so I don't have wind messing with the scale. I'll do up my loads, walk outside and shoot them, then go inside and tweak a necessary. Cheap and easy!
Click to expand...
That is similar to what I had in mind. Do you find that you use all the space or could you go smaller?
 
little b said:
I can say I've done it multiple times over the years for load development, it's part of what shifted me back to using a beam scale. My current setup is a custom reloading block that holds the scale and trickler with camera. I figured out awhile back that the most inconsistent thing about using a beam scale was how much you could change what you thought was the same measurement by where you were looking at it. And I use scoops for the bulk measure.
Click to expand...
What a fantastic solution to both parallax error and old eyes!
 
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