The quest for the magical recipe.

Slowbalt

Slowbalt

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Hey all,
Been playing with the idea of rolling my own for a long time now. And I finally bought a rifle which is worth reloading for. But a few little things are still keeping me away from the bench.

1- How do you find the magical bullet? Do you try dozens of different makes ands models, or just choose one and work with the rest to match it?

2- Does the bullet construction effect on precision? Can a hunting legal bullet be as precise as a target bullet?

3- How do you find the perfect bullet weight for the rate of twist of your rifle?

4- Can dinged brass be reloaded? My swiss arms digs a pretty bad mark on the walls of the brass, so buying lapua brass or any other multi-dollar brass to be used only once will get expensive, fast.

5- More to come I guess!!


P.S. Please do not feed me the good old : Buy a reloading manual, lots of info in there. I will buy a manual or many, the day I buy my press.
 
1) A good place to start is to read about what a lot of other people are using. Offerings from Sierra (MatchKings) and Hornady (VMAX, AMAX, HBPT) are quite popular choices you can start with. Actually, on second thought, don't buy those, leave some more for the rest of us! :D

2) I don't have experience with hunting bullets, but there are ones that are very accurate. You'll want to read about what projectiles people have had success with on the particular type of game you want to shoot.

3) This has already been worked out. For example, go to the 6mmbr.com article for .223 and you will find a chart of barrel twist versus maximum bullet weight it will stabilize. The faster the twist, the heavier the bullet that can be stabilized.

4) Is the ding on the main body of the brass or on the top part (the neck)? If it's on the neck either a full length or collet sizer should fix it. If it's on the body as long as the ding is small it's probably not a safety concern, but might mess up accuracy a bit due to inconsistent case volume. Anyway, it will get ironed out the next time it's fired.

Can you post pics of the dings?
 
Onr of the best manuals I have found for accurate loads, is the latest addition Nosler book.

After that its trial and error and when you get it figured out LOL!! the powder lot changes are th ebullets are not quite the same gr and life goes on.

X2 as tod said what are you planning on doing with it,
1) is the gun capible
2) Is the shooter
3) hunting /Target/ varmint Dont expect the same hole with a bonded bullet but it might??
 
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Bullets specs :

Must be hunting legal ( varmints only so as long as it's legal I could care less )
Must be holy accurate
To be fired in a Swiss Arms Black Special

Thing is, I want to take down gophers, and yotes at short ranges, and in the same time be able to do some target shooting at the max effective range for this rifle ( no idea how much that means ) with one and only load. Don't want to have 20 makes of bullets and powders laying around and to guess the impact of multiple loads.

Sorry no pics of brass marks as the cam is down for a week or two.:(
 
Slowbalt said:
Bullets specs :

Must be hunting legal ( varmints only so as long as it's legal I could care less )
Must be holy accurate
To be fired in a Swiss Arms Black Special

Thing is, I want to take down gophers, and yotes at short ranges, and in the same time be able to do some target shooting at the max effective range for this rifle ( no idea how much that means ) with one and only load. Don't want to have 20 makes of bullets and powders laying around and to guess the impact of multiple loads.

Sorry no pics of brass marks as the cam is down for a week or two.:(
Click to expand...

- 60 grain Amax with powders of your choice: Varget, H335, H322 to name a few.
-The 60s Amax is a flat based bullet and will do awesome at shorter ranges, but will fly well out to 400 - 500m.
- I've loaded brass that has gone through a PE-90. The mid-length ding is a concern, but the larger one is the fact the extractor and or ejector can make a divit and tear at the base of the brass as well, rendering the brass nearly useless. There is also the issue of finding fired brass to begin with....you may be better off just buying bulk once-fired for cheap, and fire & forget.
-
 
As long as it's limited to varmints only:

V-max's (as mentioned)
Nosler ballistic tips
Sierra game/match kings
Barnes grenades.
 
1. There's no such thing as a magical bullet that will shoot well out of every rifle. Some calibres show a marked preference for some bullet weights though. The .30-06 and .308, for example, love 165 grain hunting bullets and 168 and 175 grain match bullets.
2. Yes and yes. A match grade bullet will be better for formal target shooting though. Cheap, they ain't though. Hunting accuracy isn't the same as target accuracy either.
3. What rifle and cartridge? Generally, a fast twist will prefer heavier bullets.
4. Yep. Mind you, a lot depends on how heavy the dent is and where it is on the case. Case mouth dings will be fixed in the sizing die. Sometimes you need to help it a bit with needle nosed pliers. Open it enough for the expander to go in.
 
agilent_one said:
Noted.:)

I haven't ever tried the blitzkings, they may well be the cats ass. I've found sierras on the whole to be very consistent.
Click to expand...

I opened up a few gophers with 50gr BlitzKings out of my 22-250, between the Sierra BK's and the Hornady V-Max I would have to say they are both very proficient at turning gophers inside out :D
 
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