Reloading Question

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Zubris21

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I asked this question in another forum but didn't quite get the responses I was looking for so I figured I'd ask here as well.

Let me start off by saying I'm a new re-loader, and I'm trying to be as cautious as I can when working up a load. I just loaded up 4 rounds of 180 grain Barnes TTSX for my 300 win mag. I used 65.0 grains of IMR 4831, federal No. 215 primers and once fired Winchester brass from cheap factory ammo.

When weighing the powder I was very careful to make sure it was accurate. I first weighed it on a digital scale (calibrated) then confirmed on a balance type scale (redding) and then to be extra cautious back to the digital. I know all 4 loads were 65.0 grains or possibly 65.1 grains as a couple were just a hair over on the balance scale.

I also weighed all of the bullets and they were all at 180 grains +/- 0.1.

Now after all was said and done and the bullets were seated I decided to weigh the completed rounds and came up with the following total weights (digital scale verified 3 times)...

1. 490.0 grains
2. 490.6 grains
3. 486.4 grains
4. 491.4 grains

Now I didn't weigh the empty brass before loading, but it's the only component that I can imagine would affect the total weights like this.

My question is, is it reasonable to expect a 5 grain difference in factory brass (none were trimmed). I weighed a couple of un-prepped brass and noticed a difference of 2-2.5 grains in some, but nothing as extreme as 5 grains. So should I pull these bullets and try again or should I be ok? Like I said I was extra careful measuring the powder charges.

Thanks for any thoughts
-Andre
 
Personally, I moved up from a rock chucker single stage and bought a progressive last year. I still check every 5th or so load with an RCBS beam scale. the kind you have to move a small wheel to zero it out if it is off balance BEFORE you start filling the brass with powder. If you are getting that much of a difference in weight, make sure that all of the brass is of the right calibre. Otherwise you can have dangerous pressure problems when you fire them and you have to be absolutely positive you charged the brass with the same amount of powder.

If you have even the slightest doubt that you might have erred when filling the cases, pull the bullets and start over. Too much powder or too little is an accident waiting to happen.
 
Nothing wrong with being cautious, but you are on the borderline of being anal:p Nothing wrong with that either, I am a little anal when it comes to reloading. I weight sort my brass to within 1.0 gr. I weigh every powder charge, but only once on an Acculab scale. I do not weight sort bullets or primers, but I know people that do.
 
Funny you should mention that. I have been loading for a few years now and only for the first time weighed the finished product last week. Several of the 30/30 loads I measured where all over the place with about a 9 grain difference.
 
between headstamps, you can expect at least a 10 grain diff, maybe as much as 15- the only way to be sure is to segregate and establish a low-high range for each headstamp, unloaded with no primer
 
some bench rest shooters weigh every component and divide them in to their own lots, also some measure case volumes , base to ogive of bullets, weight of bullets, weight of primers, malpat to ogive, neck thickness, seating pressure and the list goes on, most of us can’t hold the rifle steady enough to know if all the work is worth it, but that is up to you, when i first started reloading I did most of the tricks, now not so much as it was too time consuming for the gain I was obtaining and since I’m not in to bench rest not worth it in my opinion.
 
Weighing completed rounds tells you nothing in regards to reloading.

The rest of your method sounds good!
 
Sounds to me like you are good to go with those rounds ... brass will weigh all over the place as far as weight goes.

I don't even bother with weighing my brass anymore. If I was really serious about consistency, I'd be measuring case volume and sorting that way before I worried about how much the brass weighs ... even with the weight, you dont' know where that wieght is. Is it in the body, neck, base, etc..? So long as the volume is about equal, the pressures and therefore the results (accuracy) should be about equal.
 
Wow i have never weighed the empty brass before??
if you weighed the powder charges and you did...3 times...then prees in the bullet to the specied COL give or take depending on your magazine length etc...
Load and shoot.....
i wouldnt be worried about brass weight especially in once fired brass.
just my 2 cents.
 
Zubris21 said:
When weighing the powder I was very careful to make sure it was accurate. I first weighed it on a digital scale (calibrated) then confirmed on a balance type scale (redding) and then to be extra cautious back to the digital. I know all 4 loads were 65.0 grains or possibly 65.1 grains as a couple were just a hair over on the balance scale.

This part reminds me of a true story. In WW2 every young man who joined the airforce, wanted to become a pilot. But there were a lot more aircrew who were not pilots, so the airforce weeded out the ones they thought didn't have pilot potential. Absolutely no one ever came to the airforce and said they wanted to be an airgunner.
One eager young man was waiting to go to his first interview after jooining up, when the fellow coming out from the interview had a scowling face and said to the newcomer, "Get on the friggen bus!"
Of course, the new fellow didn't understand what the fellow meant, but it soon came out.
One question was, "you are alone in your apartment and are going on a trip. you do all the thigs that need doing, including turning off the stove. you go out of the house to catch the bus, when the thought strikes you, 'did I turn the stove off?"
"So what do you do, get on the bus, or do you go back to make sure the stove is turned off and catch anoother bus?"
The first fellow who said he would go back and check, was sent immediately for air gunner training.
The fellow who said he would get on the bus, went on to many more tests and ended up a pilot in the Royal Canadian Air fForce.
And you sir, with your story about weighing the powder three times, would have been a tail gunner!
Click to expand...
 
H4831 said:
Zubris21 said:
When weighing the powder I was very careful to make sure it was accurate. I first weighed it on a digital scale (calibrated) then confirmed on a balance type scale (redding) and then to be extra cautious back to the digital. I know all 4 loads were 65.0 grains or possibly 65.1 grains as a couple were just a hair over on the balance scale.

This part reminds me of a true story. In WW2 every young man who joined the airforce, wanted to become a pilot. But there were a lot more aircrew who were not pilots, so the airforce weeded out the ones they thought didn't have pilot potential. Absolutely no one ever came to the airforce and said they wanted to be an airgunner.
One eager young man was waiting to go to his first interview after jooining up, when the fellow coming out from the interview had a scowling face and said to the newcomer, "Get on the friggen bus!"
Of course, the new fellow didn't understand what the fellow meant, but it soon came out.
One question was, "you are alone in your apartment and are going on a trip. you do all the thigs that need doing, including turning off the stove. you go out of the house to catch the bus, when the thought strikes you, 'did I turn the stove off?"
"So what do you do, get on the bus, or do you go back to make sure the stove is turned off and catch anoother bus?"
The first fellow who said he would go back and check, was sent immediately for air gunner training.
The fellow who said he would get on the bus, went on to many more tests and ended up a pilot in the Royal Canadian Air fForce.
And you sir, with your story about weighing the powder three times, would have been a tail gunner!
Click to expand...

Fair enough... Typically I'm pretty laissez-fair, but given that it was my first go at reloading on my own I figured I might as well be extra cautious. Also, I had been playing around with my digital scale when I first got it, and it didn't always seem to calibrate properly, hence checking 3 times. Also, it really didn't take more than about 15 seconds to do since I had both scales set and ready to go.

I was never concerned with the empty brass weight, until I checked my completed loads and was taken aback by the 5 grain difference. I guess I hadn't really though about the brass having that much variance. I didn't think I had anything to worry about, but I figured I'd run it by some "experts" just to make sure I wasn't overlooking anything critical.

Thanks for the responses everyone!
Click to expand...
 
Zubris21 said:
H4831 said:
Fair enough... Typically I'm pretty laissez-fair, but given that it was my first go at reloading on my own I figured I might as well be extra cautious. Also, I had been playing around with my digital scale when I first got it, and it didn't always seem to calibrate properly, hence checking 3 times. Also, it really didn't take more than about 15 seconds to do since I had both scales set and ready to go.

I was never concerned with the empty brass weight, until I checked my completed loads and was taken aback by the 5 grain difference. I guess I hadn't really though about the brass having that much variance. I didn't think I had anything to worry about, but I figured I'd run it by some "experts" just to make sure I wasn't overlooking anything critical.

Thanks for the responses everyone!
Click to expand...

Would have been best if you had never checked the weights of the loaded rounds.
I would bet my last dime that you and your rifle can not prove any inaccuracy in brass with the weights you quote, as compared to brass cases that are within .1 grain of each other.
There are sooooo many theories on these threads regarding reloading and shooting, but a great many of them can not be proven.
I was never in the airforce, but I did fly commercially and instructed. When I was taking the training to become an instructor, they were very adamant on one thing.
They told us to never tell the student any theory about flying, unless we could demonstrate it in the aricraft with the student.
Sometimes we had fun over this. When students were getting ready to graduate, some of them became pretty smart ass, indicating they knew as much as the instructor did. (more?)
I would casually tell such a student that if I put the aircraft into a steep turn, he couldn't pick his feet up off the floor. This often resulted in a look that meant, "Yeah, now it's my turn to tell one."
So I would tell him to put his feet flat on the floor, go into a steep turn, then say, "OK, pick up your feet!" They couldn't do it. I would tell him to use his hands to help. Still couldn't do it.
Click to expand...
 
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