bullet seating depth?

Excellent thanks who much for all the help and great info guys. Thats the great thing about this place. Lots of great and helpful people.
One last question. My first batch I plan on loading with less powder than the lowest velocity the hornady book calls for. How much less powder should I use?
 
You should NOT use less powder than the starting load in the manual. There may be exceptions to this, but again that is more advanced stuff.

IMR 4064 for example starts at 40.1gr and goes to a max of 49.2gr for your 178gr Amax in .30-06 in Hornadys book. You should not load any less or any more powder than this bracket they have tested and provided. You will of course need to look at the info for the exact powder you use, but if you want light loads, you may need to use a different powder, bullet or even a whole different cartridge.
 
uchi said:
Excellent thanks who much for all the help and great info guys. Thats the great thing about this place. Lots of great and helpful people.
One last question. My first batch I plan on loading with less powder than the lowest velocity the hornady book calls for. How much less powder should I use?
Click to expand...
do NOT load less then book ( .4gr may be) , you can get overpressure this way as well , you should / need to read as much as you can about reloading before reloading if you’re planning on playing with accuracy nodes, fast or slow loads.

My load work up : there are other methods

what I do when working up a load is work up in 1 gr increments so for 300wm using re-22 (powder) and 180 gr bullet my powder range is from 73gr to 77gr (from the BOOK) I'll make up 3 or so round of each in 1gr increment , so that 3 rounds @ 73gr, 3 rounds @ 74gr, 3 rds @ 75 gr....etc..

I'll shoot them @ 100m to see which group the best in my case it was the 74gr. ( this gets me my rough accuracy node)

then I make up some more rounds starting from 73.6 gr ( .4gr below my rough node) up to 75.4gr going in .2gr increments I'll make 5 of each increment

I'll shoot 3 rd groups @ 100m to see which one groups the best.

then I do two ladder type tests @ 300m

I'll shoot @ a 4' x4' pc of plywood covered with paper so I can see hits, i then shoot 1 of each increment 73.6, 73.8, 74, 74.2, ....so on at the same aiming point.

the key to this test is to know where each shot hit and which increment it was:

for example:

1)my first round was 73.6gr hit low from my aiming point
2) 2nd slightly higher
3) 3rd higher yet
4) 4th hit the aim point
5) 5th was higher
6) same height as #5
7) same height as #5
8) same height as #5
9) 9th was higher and so on


shots # 5 through 8 are in the accuracy node, I compare this to the 100m test to see if the best group was in the same range if so then this confirms to me that I'm in deed in the node (this node was from 74.4 to 75gr)
I then work a load using a powder value from the middle of the node for me this was 74.7gr , you can then mess around with .1 gr increments, bullet seating depths etc... but I didn’t go that far.

Point to note is to document what you are doing, if you neck size only, if you full body size, how many reloads are on the brass, specs you are loading to etc… reloading for accuracy is about removing variables and being consistent much like long range shooting.
Another good site to read on in benchrest forum http://www.6mmbr.com/index.html

Hope this helps and dose not confuse.
 
Last edited:
that makes perfect sense, i was gonna do the same for my load development except i was gonna make 5 of each in case i get a couple stray flyers due to my own shooting error.

good to know about not useing less powder, i could have sworn i read somewhere to make them a little lighter and work up from there. great info guys thanks for taking the time to post it
 
What H4831 said. Use the book, and for the first few hundred rounds, stick with middle of the road bullet weights and styles. 150's, 165's 180's, jacketed lead core. Stay within book powder charges, neither lower than start weights, and certainly NEVER above book max. You will read, as you have here, a whack of old wives tales about reading primers, case expansion, etc. as indicators of excessive pressure. Yup. They can be. They can also be indicators of other issues as well. But the point is, that by the time you see popped primers, blown primer pockets, excessive? case expansion, -as if you had instrumentation exact enough to measure such, and were a good enough operator of such instrumentation to make meaningful measurements - what you are getting is indications of excessive, not "maximum" pressure. Excessive to the point of being dangerous. Stick to the book.

Once you have a comfortable handle on bullet seating depths, measuring leade, observing different velocities of same weight bullets fo differing ogives and subsequent differences in bearing lengths, differing bullet materials, case neck thicknesses, yadda yadda yadda, then, maybe, if you are adventuresome and don't much care for the rifle in question, go ahead and experiment. Just, be nice to the guys beside you at the rnage, and let them know you are shooting over max loads. They may want to observe from a safe distance! Tens of thousands of rounds loaded in excess of max book value are fired every year in North America. But then, tens of thousands of folks drive drunk every day, Only a few of them ever kill anyone.
 
ykkid said:
What H4831 said. Use the book, and for the first few hundred rounds, stick with middle of the road bullet weights and styles. 150's, 165's 180's, jacketed lead core. Stay within book powder charges, neither lower than start weights, and certainly NEVER above book max. You will read, as you have here, a whack of old wives tales about reading primers, case expansion, etc. as indicators of excessive pressure. Yup. They can be. They can also be indicators of other issues as well. But the point is, that by the time you see popped primers, blown primer pockets, excessive? case expansion, -as if you had instrumentation exact enough to measure such, and were a good enough operator of such instrumentation to make meaningful measurements - what you are getting is indications of excessive, not "maximum" pressure. Excessive to the point of being dangerous. Stick to the book.

Once you have a comfortable handle on bullet seating depths, measuring leade, observing different velocities of same weight bullets fo differing ogives and subsequent differences in bearing lengths, differing bullet materials, case neck thicknesses, yadda yadda yadda, then, maybe, if you are adventuresome and don't much care for the rifle in question, go ahead and experiment. Just, be nice to the guys beside you at the rnage, and let them know you are shooting over max loads. They may want to observe from a safe distance! Tens of thousands of rounds loaded in excess of max book value are fired every year in North America. But then, tens of thousands of folks drive drunk every day, Only a few of them ever kill anyone.
Click to expand...

The OP asked a direct question. How to recognize rising pressure in his reloads. A knowledge that every handloader is better off for the knowing. Knowing signs does not suggest hotrodding will be the intension. Nowhere was he encouraged to recklessness, in fact, OP seems an admirably prudent and carefull beginner. Fully capable of deciding for himself how to safely persue his new hobby, and the very reason for his questions.
Knowledge is power.
OP knows more now, from this thread's level headed responders.

Wait till you print that first tiny handloaded group, Uchi.:D :) ;)
 
vviking said:
The OP asked a direct question. How to recognize rising pressure in his reloads. A knowledge that every handloader is better off for the knowing. Knowing signs does not suggest hotrodding will be the intension. Nowhere was he encouraged to recklessness, in fact, OP seems an admirably prudent and carefull beginner. Fully capable of deciding for himself how to safely persue his new hobby, and the very reason for his questions.
Knowledge is power.
OP knows more now, from this thread's level headed responders.

Wait till you print that first tiny handloaded group, Uchi.:D :) ;)
Click to expand...

well said
 
uchi said:
that makes perfect sense, i was gonna do the same for my load development except i was gonna make 5 of each in case i get a couple stray flyers due to my own shooting error.

good to know about not useing less powder, i could have sworn i read somewhere to make them a little lighter and work up from there. great info guys thanks for taking the time to post it
Click to expand...

3 or 5 or even more rounds is up to you and what your happy with, normaly when shooting for groups it is good to shoot 5 + rds like you said just in case of shooter error.

as for light or hot loads you likely did read it but to be on the safe side "since your new" to this stuff it would be best to stay with in book values.
 
all great info guys thanks a lot for taking the time to write it all out for me. everything makes sense and ive learned a good bit from this thread alone. im going to look for a tumbler this week and hopefully im able to get a re loading book at the same place. im just waiting to get my rifle back so that i can press a bullet in to a case and make sure everything fits.

i did notice while playing with the trimmer that the federal cases i have didnt need trimming, but the winchestor ammo did, first case i tried was too long. thats from the same box that 2 cases i had were too long to load into my gun.

thanks again for everything guys
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom