New to Loading

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Big k

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Hi fellow CGNers,

I just purchased a dillon 450 from a friend at the range. I bought a 243 Die set, a loading hand book, and a few other items. No tumbler or brass cleaner yet.

My 243 rifle is a Tikka T3 Heavy Barrel. I am to trying to develope a target load for very tight groups at 200 and 300 yrds.


Below is my first recipe. I was wondering if some of the more experience guys could let me know if I am on the right track.

Using the Dillon 450 as basically a single stage (I want to take my time and make sure I do things right)

1. I De primed and hand cleaned 60 pcs of brass with a neck brush
2. re sized and manually cleaned the primer pockets
3. checked the case lengh (they were all under max for 243 so I didnd have to trim any)
4. re primed
4. I started loading the following...

(I am at work now so I am going by memory)


Using 70 Grain ballistic tip bullets (Hogden)
CCI large rifle primers (the book called for Rem 9 1/2 but store didn't have any)
10 rounds 37.5 grain of IMI 4063
10 rounds 38.5 grain of IMI 4063
10 rounds 39.5 grain of IMI 4063
10 rounds 40.5 grain of IMI 4063
(The above falls within the min - max in the book.)

After I loaded and set projectile, I measured each round with calipers to confirm OAL


My question is am I on the right track?? Am I doing anything wrong? Should I be doing anything differently?
 
looks like you are on the right track as long as you are within min an max, see how they fire and give an update. only thing you didn't mention is there no crimp or light crimp etc
 
right track. I use IMR 4064. you'll get it sorted out. the one thing I found that seemed to make me happy was neck size only and crimping my rounds.
 
Big k said:
Thanks for the replies. I did not crimp. I hope that will not be an issue.
Click to expand...

Crimping or not is more an option instead of an issue. The idea is you want the bullet to stay in the neck until some amount of initial pressure builds. So the idea is to aim at some tension that can be held consistent so they all shoot the same way.

Your brass life will be greater if you get into neck sizing instead of full length sizing. Once it's fired you use the fire formed brass and only size the neck down. And you keep that brass set aside for that rifle.

With the use of fire formed brass you have no issue with head spacing since it matches the brass to the rifles's chamber length. If you find you have trouble closing the bolt on the fire formed brass I understand that one option is to use the full length die but use a travel stop that only sizes back the neck by a thou or two so the bolt can close but the brass doesn't need to stretch back out much when it fires.

To really zero in on the most accurate load you'll need to look at playing around with different bullets and different powders. Your list of loads is a good start but it's just that... a start.
 
Rory McCanuck said:
My only criticism would be maybe take smaller steps, like 1/2 gr at a time.
If you had an accuracy node between 38.6 and 39.4gr, you'd never know it.
Welcome to the addiction!
Click to expand...

I agree with the above^^^^^

I usually load 4 of each load starting at min and working up in .5 of a grain increments. This way I get 5 groups to a box and I rarely have to pull bullets and dump powder.

That being said I rarely load for velocity and I find accuracy happens in my rifle at the bottom to middle of the charge scale.

Other then that it sounds like you are on the right track. Take your time, have fun and most importantly make notes on what you observe from each group.
 
You may want to measure the chamber length of your .243 in order to determine your seating depth. You will adjust this in order to attain your best degree of accuracy. I like to seat mine about 10/1000's off the lands.
 
Make a ton of notes and mark all results. Weather conditions when shooting too. 10 rounds of each charge is too many in my opinion. I generally load in 0.3 grain increments and 3 of each charge. When my performance goals are getting close (accuracy and velocity) I load in 0.1 grain increments and 6-9 of each charge. Once my performance goals are met, I then start to mess with bullet seating depth to fine tune. I also trim my brass to be all the same length...
 
I agree with the others, welcome to the addiction. Take your time, be systematic and all will be good. My advice would be to make sure you match your bullet/case combo to your rifle as bullet ogives are different from make to make. Enjoy and be safe!
 
Thanks again, I will try these loads at the range tomorrow. I will definitely take notes and report back. I will move to .smaller increments for the next batch once I zero in on what the rifle likes.

Do I need to get a different dye to neck size or just back off the full size dye?
 
Big k said:
Thanks again, I will try these loads at the range tomorrow. I will definitely take notes and report back. I will move to .smaller increments for the next batch once I zero in on what the rifle likes.

Do I need to get a different dye to neck size or just back off the full size dye?
Click to expand...

I would buy a neck sizing die, thus, increasing the life of your brass. Having said that, I have multiple rifles in the same calibre ie, .308, .303, 7.62x54r etc... I would only consider buying a neck sizing die for my 7.5x55 Swiss, as it is the only rifle I own in that calibre and the brass isn't readily available.
 
I will definitely do that. I also hate dealing with the case lube etc. So I assume you don't need that for neck sizing.
 
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