My first reloading F*#! up

magpul79

magpul79

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Well I finally had my first one. I knew it was coming sometime and luckily I figured it out before I tried to use the rounds!

What I did was load up 100 rds of .223, hornady 60g Vmax with 20.5gr instead of 25gr of Varget. I realized it when I went to adjust my scale for a different caliber. I think maybe its time for glasses.....

My question is, can I use these for plinking rounds? Or are they too underloaded, and I should go buy a bullet puller and break them all down?

Your advice is appreciated.

Thanks
 
Really, you'll be needing a puller sooner or later.

Fire off a couple, take some notes on that loads performance and pull the rest. As long as you don't fire them off without being certain the previous shot left the bore, all should be well.

¿No?
 
This is your excuse to buy a bullet puller as you will use it several times throughout your reloading career. Kinetic or Collet..whatever. I will always pull bullets with questionable loads.

My .02
 
hakx said:
This is your excuse to buy a bullet puller as you will use it several times throughout your reloading career. Kinetic or Collet..whatever. I will always pull bullets with questionable loads.

My .02
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Same.

I did up 40 rounds a few weeks ago off of figures I had in my head. Turns out I should have used 45gr of W748 instead of 41.5.

I personally prefer a collet bullet puller. AS long as you are attentive to what you are doing you shouldn't do any adverse damage to the projectile (indentations etc. that could effect performance)

I've tried kinetic pullers a few times and I hate them to be honest.;

On the + side, I'm sure happy that I found a file folder containing targets from previous load testing that I thought I had lost 4 months ago.!!!! :-D
 
hakx said:
This is your excuse to buy a bullet puller as you will use it several times throughout your reloading career. Kinetic or Collet..whatever. I will always pull bullets with questionable loads.

My .02
Click to expand...

What do you recommend?
 
I would shoot a few to see if they shoot ok for accuracy. If they do I would just use them up plinking, if they shoot patterns then I would pull the bullets. Varget is a mid speed powder and not prone to problems on light loads like some of the slower powders are. My Hornady manual gives the starting load for your combination at 21.7gr, you aren't radically below that.


Mark
 
hakx said:
This is your excuse to buy a bullet puller as you will use it several times throughout your reloading career. Kinetic or Collet..whatever. I will always pull bullets with questionable loads.

My .02
Click to expand...
I concur, after needing one its always there now if I need it. I also pull bullets with questionable loads, not worth it imho.
 
mmattockx said:
I would shoot a few to see if they shoot ok for accuracy. If they do I would just use them up plinking, if they shoot patterns then I would pull the bullets. Varget is a mid speed powder and not prone to problems on light loads like some of the slower powders are. My Hornady manual gives the starting load for your combination at 21.7gr, you aren't radically below that. Mark
Click to expand...

^^^ Like he said.


I used to use a balance beam scale and several times loaded ammo that was off by 5 gr. I tried some 22 Hornet that were underloaded by 5 gr and found the most accurate load I had ever made.
 
magpul79 said:
Well I finally had my first one. I knew it was coming sometime and luckily I figured it out before I tried to use the rounds!

What I did was load up 100 rds of .223, hornady 60g Vmax with 20.5gr instead of 25gr of Varget. I realized it when I went to adjust my scale for a different caliber. I think maybe its time for glasses.....

My question is, can I use these for plinking rounds? Or are they too underloaded, and I should go buy a bullet puller and break them all down?

Your advice is appreciated.

Thanks
Click to expand...

I seem to do that every time I start up loading a batch. Move the tenth of a grain weight on the scale instead of the 1 grain weight. Always catch it when I move to the next measure; it's annoying going back and pulling those 3 - 5 rounds, but that's my penance for the goof up.

I recently moved to a collet puller after breaking my kinetic puller, HO LEE CHIT is it ever a lot easier.
 
Grip-n-pull bullet puller, found one on ebay and love it. I use to use a kinetic puller but always ended up with powder all over my bench and the damn thing was too loud
 
I was ladder loading some rounds and had finished up a box of 100, with 10 rounds on each load.
Last time I checked the box they were in I discovered it must have been knocked over because all those rounds fell out of their slots into a big jumbled up pile.
 
Here's the starting load from Reloading Data Center

60 GR. HDY V-MAX Hodgdon Varget .224" 2.250" 25.0 2924

According to this calculator http://www.handloads.com/calc/reduced.asp you should still be getting 2100 FPS.
(granted this is for handguns and pretty generic at that)

I say shoot them and have fun. Don't know if they will cycle a semi. If you have a chrony please post your results.
 
Pull the bullets and start over....a kinetic puller works great, just smack it down hard on a block of wood two or three times. I put a wad of paper towel in the end of the kinetic puller so the bullet have a cushion to land on. It takes no time at all.
 
Paatz said:
I was ladder loading some rounds and had finished up a box of 100, with 10 rounds on each load.
Last time I checked the box they were in I discovered it must have been knocked over because all those rounds fell out of their slots into a big jumbled up pile.
Click to expand...

^^^That right there sucks. ovrec
 
Thanks for all the advice guys, I think I'll try a couple and see what they do (just keep the cleaning rod handy to check the barrel). If They shoot it'll be a good day at the range! I do think I'll stop at the gun store tonight and see if they have a puller just so I have one.

As for the varget stinson, I stumbled across it at a local shop, they had ordered it for a guy who never came to get it. So I bought all 3 lbs that they had ordered!!
 
In my opinion, if the load is under the listed min charge
In a manual, I'd not use them, lower loaded ammo
Can cause issues as well " squib loads" I've seen bullets get
Half way out and stop in barrel, or not go off " hang fires"
, I'd just for same of it, buy a bullet puller
I use one from midway in the states, hammer style
Had it for 7 yrs now never let me down
The RCBS One is sort of junky
Mine has a steel shank the RCBS is all plastic
Just my opinion
 
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