Wait to reload?

Great choices, 30-06 and Swarovski/bullets. Of course best to load when you have the rifle but if you're anxious you can certainly roll a few rounds. I was doing some 30-06 to show a friend and we didn't have his rifle so I did as suggested earlier and seated them to 3.400, as I can adjust when we have the rifle. Easy to seat a little deeper if required. Great that you are learning to reload, I think of it as another hobby and there is a great satisfaction when you roll your own and it's more accurate than factory.

I highly recommend buying or borrowing a chronograph to really see what performance in terms of velocity your reloads give you.
 
somebody please correct me if i am wrong, but while i understand you can buy all the equipment and components to make ammo without a PAL, you cant actually legally be in possession of loaded ammo.
so assembling the components could get you in trouble if the wrong person took offence to you doing it
 
That news to me. I have ammo here that I bought and made long before there was a PAL. I don't ever recall anyone saying that if I didn't get a PAL, I would have to dump my ammo.

I bet there are collectors of ammo who don't have a PAL.
 
rral22 said:
All my loads are for specific rifles. I believe that it is very hard to beat commercial ammo with your own reloads unless...
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I disagree, especially if you're comparing handloads to the cheap factory ammo like fed blue box or Win super X. Assuming you're doing a half decent job, your reloads will be more consistent than low grade factory ammo. There would be less of a difference compared to match grade ammo, but you'd be making it for cheaper so either way reloads are better than the alternatives.

shootsblanks said:
somebody please correct me if i am wrong, but while i understand you can buy all the equipment and components to make ammo without a PAL, you cant actually legally be in possession of loaded ammo.
so assembling the components could get you in trouble if the wrong person took offence to you doing it
Click to expand...

I was under the impression you need a PAL to buy ammo from a store, but not to possess it or make it. I have no specific legalese to support this though, as I'm too lazy to go digging through the regulations to get a concrete answer.
 
Suther said:
I disagree, especially if you're comparing handloads to the cheap factory ammo like fed blue box or Win super X. Assuming you're doing a half decent job, your reloads will be more consistent than low grade factory ammo. There would be less of a difference compared to match grade ammo, but you'd be making it for cheaper so either way reloads are better than the alternatives.
.
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I'm not doing that, and I'm not suggesting loading your own is futile or isn't cheaper.

I would fully expect that if you spent enough money to try most factory ammo in any given gun, that you would find a load that it would be very hard to beat unless you were very meticulous in your own loading. I agree that a box or two of the cheapest factory loads would likely make hand loads look very good, but you are underestimating the quality that has been forced onto the good factory ammo by the proliferation of hand rolling. When I started hand loading 40 years ago, factory ammo was easy to beat, very few premium bullets were available out of factory boxes, and I knew hardly anyone who loaded his own. Reloading has become much more popular.

Now, things are different. There is very good factory ammo available now for almost every popular cartridge, although it is seldom cheap. It is important to remember too that there is no guarantee that throwing together a bunch of components will make a good hand load. Good loads (meaning they are safe, functional, reliable, accurate enough for the task, shooting a good bullet at near the maximum velocity from a given case) require careful construction. I think factory ammo is often all of those things today, but buying boxes of enough varieties to find the one your rifle likes can be expensive. No hand loader today can get the same velocities as the +P loads available in several cartridges without dangerous pressures.

Factory loaded does not mean poor quality; hand loaded does not mean good quality. I've seen some garbage loaded by people who think making good ammo is easy to do.
 
Talltimber1 said:
Was he the .270 advocate?
I am new to guns and shooting but was injured this winter and have done lots of reading.
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Yes. O'Connor wrote the book in the later 1940's, I believe. There weren't the numbers of available different cartridges at the time. For example, there is no mention of .308/7.62x51NATO, nor 7mm Remington Magnum. He gave his reasons for liking the .270. The man knew his stuff. Great book.
 
Thanks for the input everyone.
I have decided to hold off for now as im waiting for a replacement scale anyways.
I am also reading and watching videos about oal, headspace,cbto etc etc Its a little confusing but I think Im starting to get it.
Anyways I ordered a OAL gauge a headspace gauge and a bullet comparator insert for my caliber that fits in the headspace gauge body.
I like the thought of custom made cartridges for my rifle.
I just finished reading the Hornady manual onto the Lyman one now.
Enjoying every minute of this learning process and I haven't even really started yet.
 
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