Step by step reloading for beginners

[Hotwheels81]

Not quite....

You are looking at COAL in the book for a given load... Your COAL to the lands in the rifle will be alot longer then the book values...

Look up "how to find the lands in a rifle" on google and then what I said may make more sense.

[PartTimeHunter]

Originally Posted by Hotwheels81

Not quite....

You are looking at COAL in the book for a given load... Your COAL to the lands in the rifle will be alot longer then the book values...

Look up "how to find the lands in a rifle" on google and then what I said may make more sense.

Ok, thanks. I did, lots of reading to do.

[graymatter]

thank you for doing this.

I also shoot a .308 savage. mine is a lever, I have had the gun since my 16th birthday and literally love it, being 50 in 3 weeks, tells you how much game I have knocked over, over the years.

I am very interested in getting a starter kit and loading my own rounds.
I am especially interested in baiting wolves and with it being distance shots I wonder of my .308 is enough. if I step down in grains and do my own loads
that or purchase a 22-250 , and the thought of sighting in at one kilometer, does make me wonder if my .308 will work

does anyone have any comment on this, as I sure would like some advise on getting a new 22-250 or will this work with my .308 if I drop down to 120 grains or even less

any thoughts


Gray

[SirQuincyM]

I have a 600 Remington in 222Rem that I played with several loads a few years ago and settled on this load that will hold 3/8"to 1/2" five shot groups... had lots of people tell me that it's short barrel wouldn't group well.

Great for gophers and taken a few coyotes over the past 20 Yrs or so.

20.0 Gr. IMR 4198, Fed. 200 primer and Hornady SX 50 Gr.

This load is close to max. so would suggest starting 2 or 3 Gr. less if you want to try it.

[bdurnin]

Very informative. Thanks.

[Christiano Martin]

Wow..just loved this article. This is beautiful. Keep it up mate. And a big thanks for this

[Christiano Martin]

1] Check the brass cases for defects and discard any that are have cracks or excessive dents or bulges. Also, discard any that have deformed primers, indicating excessive pressure during firing.

2] Rub the inside of the case with a soft cloth to remove powder residue and dirt. Reach into the case with a case neck brush.

3] Lubricate the casings to keep them from getting stuck in the sizing die. Spread a light coating of case lubricant on a lube pad and roll several casing across the pad at once. Reapply lubricant to the pad as needed.

4] Size the casing back to standard dimensions and de-cap (remove the spent primer).
Insert the case into the shell loader. The handle should be positioned up.
Lower the handle to resize the case and push the fired primer out. Raise the handle back up, remove the case and place it in a reloading tray.
Repeat this step for all the cases.

[Christiano Martin]

Thanks

[ray284]

Very nice pictures. The Lee manual lists a lot of loads that are to hot. I threw my Lee manual away. They make great dies and bullet moulds

[ray284]

I use a Dillon RL550B for reloadiing pistol ammo. Their powder chargers are dead on accurate. Up to 600 rounds an hour if your in a hurry. I rarely go over 200. I"m going to use it for my 223 this winter. Try a Dillon you won"t be sorry

[Hotwheels81]

Originally Posted by ray284

I use a Dillon RL550B for reloadiing pistol ammo. Their powder chargers are dead on accurate. Up to 600 rounds an hour if your in a hurry. I rarely go over 200. I"m going to use it for my 223 this winter. Try a Dillon you won"t be sorry

.....bin dar, dun dat, bought the t-shirt, bought the long sleeve shirt, bought a spare parts kit for my XL650

[Davey Boy]

A great bunch of information for the new reloader. Thanks to 32-40 for all the great links, they will be a wealth of info.

[stemorholake]

Thanx man....very informative

[CptnBlues63]

First off, as a fellow looking at starting reloading I'm VERY glad I ran into this thread and want to thank the OP for putting it up.

I like target shooting as well as hunting and plan on doing more target since buying a gun I plan on building a long range rifle with. More shooting means more ammo and more $$$ and reloading means more ammo for the same amount of $$$ spent on factory.

Also, I have a 1911 and want to reload for it for the same reason as above.

Originally Posted by graymatter

thank you for doing this.

I also shoot a .308 savage. mine is a lever, I have had the gun since my 16th birthday and literally love it, being 50 in 3 weeks, tells you how much game I have knocked over, over the years.

I am very interested in getting a starter kit and loading my own rounds.
I am especially interested in baiting wolves and with it being distance shots I wonder of my .308 is enough. if I step down in grains and do my own loads
that or purchase a 22-250 , and the thought of sighting in at one kilometer, does make me wonder if my .308 will work

does anyone have any comment on this, as I sure would like some advise on getting a new 22-250 or will this work with my .308 if I drop down to 120 grains or even less

any thoughts


Gray

I presently own two 99C's in .308 and have taken numerous deer, elk and moose with them and am a huge fan of that rifle.

Last October I put a Swarovski Z5 3,5-18x44 BT (ballistic turret) scope on my primary hunting rifle (the other is a backup I take with me always...just in case). I zeroed at 250 yards as usual (with the ammo I'm using that's +/- 4" between 100 and 300 yards so it's pretty much just 'point and shoot' within those ranges) and set the first preset at 350, the second at 400 and the third at 500 yards. It's worth noting that this ballistic turret can only go about one revolution and stops. If I turn it as far as it will go and back off one click, that's my 'dead on' for 600 yards.

This past November I took a real nice whitetail buck at 500 yards with a single, double lung shot with that rifle. I would have no problems taking a shot out to 600 yards with that same rifle.

I'm using Federal Fusion 165 grain bullets and turned in a group of 3 shots at 100 yards with that ammo/gun that you could cover with a quarter.

Would I try to shoot something at 900+ yards with it, no. The reason is, at that distance the energy (fps) is quite low. My ammo, at 900 yards, the fps is 574. I'm sure that could and would penetrate a coyote but I wouldn't try it on a deer, moose or elk.

Different ammo, or custom loads could supply more hitting power at that distance and .308 is a commonly used caliber in sniper rifles worldwide so I would suspect you could go out to 1000 m easily with the right combination rifle/ammo/scope

[Dozer31]

Anyone want to sell any used reloading equipment?

[100zero]

wife finally let me get my reloading equipment! so excited to start

[sven]

Thanks to everyone who shares freely!

[32-40win]

Another piece of info that needs to be here in the sticky;
US Export Regs;

This is the ITAR reg link to the US Munition list, covered under ITAR and the export controls regulations. Have a look at Category III, (f)1 & (f)3. (f)3 covers reloading equipt, which is exempt from the regs;

http://www.pmddtc.state.gov/regulati...AR_Part121.pdf

and this part tells you what the bad news is if you should happen to get caught in a checkstop on the US side of the border;

http://www.pmddtc.state.gov/regulati...AR_Part127.pdf

and if you really want to read the whole act;

http://www.pmddtc.state.gov/regulati...solidated.html

There are places that will export cartridge components, such as bullets and brass. I have only run across two sites so far, myself. Have not used them, others have, to get certain components that seem to be unavailable thru anyone up here.

http://www.cheyennebrass.com/

http://reloadinginternational.com/catalog/index.php

[32-40win]

It appears this also needs to be up here--powder storage regs
See part14 Div 1, you are supposed to have a powder mag;

http://www.gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p2/20...ors211-eng.php

[blackradon]

what would be a good starter kit to get started? Does the gun powder have an odour? I'll for sure will be doing lots of research before buying anything but i would like to maybe get some advice from you guys before doing so. Maybe a 'must have' parts/equipment list could help others out too, seeing there is sooo much out there these days..

thanks in advance!

[kwilliam]

Nicely done. Its always nice to see a logical progression

[tamati67]

Thanks for taking the time to make this post. It reminds me I need to pull out the press and have another play.

[bulesy1]

Originally Posted by Hotwheels81

Midnight Saturday, just got home from a long shift at work and decided to do a little hand loading demonstration.





To start with, set up a full length sizing die in the press following the manufacturers instructions.





Our next step is to lubricate the cases, you can use just about anything for a lubricant, just remember that whatever you use must be able to be cleaned off. My personal preference is Imperial sizing die wax but for large batches on our progressive we use a non stick cooking spray for economy purposes.





Now all we do is run the brass into the full length sizing die until the shell holder bottoms out on the die, then pause for a second and lower the ram to remove your freshly sized case.





After you full length resize your brass for the first time it will probably need to be trimmed. Consult a loading manual to find out what the maximum trim length for your specific brass is.


In this case we are reloading 308 Winchester in once fired federal brass. Our maximum length for the case is 2.015". While most of our brass is very close to that size, some of it is in excess of .030" which is dangerously long that need to be trimmed so that every piece of brass is a consistent length.





I use a Lee trimmer that can be attached to a drill. They are very simple and inexpensive but only trim to one pre set length.





So there we have it, most of the Lee trimmers that I have used will trim your bras from .005" to .010" under the maximum trim length. I have used other trimmers that are adjustable and some brass was trimmed a little bit too short but as long as its no more than roughly .020" under what the book says I don't think it would ever be a problem to shoot.





So now that our brass has been resized and trimmed to length we will chamfer the inside and outside of the case. What I am doing in this batch of reloads is working up a hunting load for this coming fall season for my savage 308. The load I want to try is 180 grain bullet over a Winchester large rifle primer and Varget powder.


My manual says the starting load is 41 grains of powder and the maximum load is 45 grains with a minimum overall length of 2.800", now that I have chosen my load I will prime my cases and get my scale setup

*Warning*
USE THE STARTING LOAD AND WORK UP






When you prime your brass you should watch for primers that push in with little to no effort, that is a sign of a worn primer pocket and it makes the brass unsafe to shoot. You should flatten the brass with the worn primer pockets and discard.





It is extremely important to zero your scale every single time you start a new batch. Once your scale is set up and zeroed it should not be moved until you are finished.






Starting from zero we follow the instructions to set the scale for our desired weight, once I dial that in I set my powder thrower to throw a charge just under my goal and use my Lyman trickler to get the charge weight perfect on the scale, you don't need a trickler, I use a spoon more often then anything else but it makes for a pretty picture!

Once we have our charge measured its time to dump it into a primed case and setup our bullet seating die, you can practice on empty unprimed but resized cases to get the OAL correct and keep one as a dummy round to setup the die next time but once you have done this a few hundred times you get a pretty good feel for making small adjustments until its where you want it.




And there we have it, fresh off the press hand loaded test round #1




A word on Over All Length

Bullet length varies, I have never found a batch of Sierra Hornady or Berger bullets that were the same length consistently, but that's ok...

Bullets aren't seated into the case by there tip, they are pushed into the case mouth on the area close to where the bullet tapers out to its true maximum diameter, to measure that accurately you need a tool that measures from that point to the base of the case and such tools are available but I won't get into that at this point.....

For the average Joe or Jane who wants to get into loading there own ammo I suggest you use the OAL listed in the book, setup your seating die and measure the first round so it's close to perfect and just run with it, as long as your OAL doesn't exceed .020" and keep growing then chances are all your seeing is a variation or imperfection in the very tip of the bullet.


This is meant to be a step by step for the novice reloader, if you have questions please ask and I will do my best to answer... If I get a positive response I will go more in depth into things such as die setup for various different effects and maybe even a step by step for precision reloading.

Hey! thanks for the step by step procedure...This makes me more informative on understand guns and ammo...

[bulesy1]

Wow! Nice information on Guns and Ammo...Need to learn a lot about them...Thanks

[archangel]

Great thread! Thank you.

[bulesy1]

Learning a lot from these

[bulesy1]

After going through the step by step procedure... I am thinking to buy one for myself...

[bulesy1]

learnt lot of things from this procedure... I think I am 40% good enough in this.

[Crippler1977]

Great post! Appreciate all who took the time to fill in all these pointers. I'm getting into handloading and will be referencing this page for the high pressure indicators.

Thanks all!

[bpk1982]

Anyone interested in laying out out step by step how to properly set up a sizing die? As opposed to the generic instruction of 1/4 to 1/8 of a turn...thanks