New to reloading which primers to use

"Buy once cry once" is term most of us have endured. Try to buy the best reloading tools you can first time, as you gain knowledge you will appreciate having better reloading tools.

Reloading manuals are great reads on how to reload as well. They provide best loads for their bullets. Plenty of reloading references on line as well.

Run search here for reloading safety and you will get tons of info.

Try to identify powders that work across multiple cartridges such as 4350 type powders.

Nosler:

Speer:

Alliant powder:

Hodgdon powder:

Sierra and Berger have great CS if asked for reloading data. Just ask and they will send it along.

Loads posted on the internet are rarely verified through pressure testing and they can be dangerous to use.

RELOADING SAFETY:
1- wear safety glasses
2- only one type of powder on bench at a time!
3- only one type of primer on bench at a time
4- NEVER start at max loads, work up every load
5- record reloading data for each load

OP,
You're just starting out, don't try and over think things...yet.
Just buy those federal 210s, they are one of the best primers out there and perfect for the 308.
Buy several manuals, they all contain useful information.

M1A1ABRAMS said:

You can buy second hand loading manuals for pennies on the dollar. And actually get info that may not be in the newer manuals.

Click to expand...

Well worth repeating.

I reload several calibers from 5.56 to .375 and have been reloading since 1971. I have used all major brands of primers and have never seen much difference, if any. Just LR or SR is the only basic difference. One thing I learned just last year is that the magnum large pistol primers,.44 mag, are the same specs as the large rifle. Have not tried them but was considering it when magnum rifle primers were extremely hard to find. That has not been a problem recently and when they became available I purchased 600 rounds.
As for the manual, I have a 1970's LYMAN publication and would recommend something much newer. I have not opened it much in the 15-20 years. I am a constant user of the NOSLER LOAD DATA on line service. Why NOSLER is because they show no bias to powder brands or primer brands and provide good solid data for accuracy and performance, and for almost all calibers. When I encounter a caliber that Nosler has no info on I turn to Hogdon's reloading site or VihtaVouri., Winchester also has a site and I recommend ALL of them.
Equipment: Follow the advice of others in the forum. Especially the ones recommending the same press and dies, i.e. RCBS with RCBS, Lyman with Lyman, etc. Other than the press and dies, case prep tools I have always used either Lyman or RCBS. RCBS has a great reputation and the one thing that stands out in their favor, at least with me, is that several years back I lost my small rifle powder measure tube and they sent me a new one, no charge. I've had this powder measure for 40 years and I recently found it in my .357 pistol die case.
Some of the essentials that you will need are a good scale, press, die for every caliber you use, case trimmer (nothing fancy), a tumbler, and I would recommend a primer pilot cleanout tool as well ( they are low cost and well worth it).
Hope I have provided you with some good advice and I enjoy reloading as long as it is not for competition purposes.

I use Federal Magnum or Magnum Match in all rifle loads. All cases are uniformed and flash hole reamed out.

ChrisInKY said:

Well worth repeating.

Click to expand...

Buying the old and new Hodgdon manuals online has been useful.

First Buy some reloading manuals and read and understand them so you know what you may want and will need. the .308 is a great round to load for there is a lot of info out there for it.

In all seriousness, buy as many of those Federal 210s as you can afford. DO IT NOW. They are the best primers you can buy for your 308, and if recent trends continue they may become unavailable for many months or years.

As stated above, the primer issue is pretty straight forward. For the reloading tools decision, I believe the "buy once cry once theory" applies but that is totally budget dependent. Lots of YouTube help on the process, tips, and tools. I've mentioned this before to a new reloader but Jim on BackfireTV does a really good job describing the entry level, mid level, and advanced level reloading set up choices and it's worth the watch. Welcome to the rabbit hole!

Great responses from everyone which is expected from this group.
My take. I belong to the buy once cry once bandwagon. If you buy cheap, when you gain experience you will buy better. It just happens. Trust many here, it will!
My recommendation is this or look into this or similar.
1. Creedmoor Sports upgraded head Redding Turret press. 2 types of heads to check out. I got one and if I only had 1 press it would easily be this one.
2. Scale. Could be a big expense but so we'll worth it IMHO. So so worth it. Basically buy the best you can afford right off the bat.
3. Get a trickler. So throw a charge of powder slightly less then you want and trickle in the last grain or 2.
4. ^^^ not gonna say and really nice powder thrower at this time but they are great, unbelievably great to have and this can be $$$ . Mine is my favorite piece of kit for reloading I have.
5. Primers, those Fed 210's are probably the best out there so buy as much as you can now. Seriously buy now. Also when you think you have a lot you really don't when starting out. When I was new I'd buy a couple hundred and thought wow that's a lot. But that is what I thought at the time. Buy thousands upon thousands of your primers. Example. I easily have over 10k srp. Cci #41 and remington's for 556 and 300BO. So yeah buy as much as you can now. It's one of the components that dry up and may not see for months if not years.
6. Buy lots of manuals from many companies. Nosler, hornady, sierra, speer, Burger. All great resources.
7. Please please get a Chronograph to measure your speeds of your loads. It's really a non negotiable item to have for reloading. Please remember this....

SPEED = PRESSURE AND PRESSURE = SPEED.

you need a Chronograph to know what's going on in your rifle. 2 of the better choices for a Chronograph is Garmin and Lab radar LX. I personally love my Lab LX. It's amazing. But lots here love their garmin. Garmin is very popular here and not so much for the new Lab LX. Reason I got this over the garmin was my shooting buddy has the garmin so I wanted to compare the new LAB RADAR LX to his.
I could go on but I'll cut it here. Best of luck and enjoy the ride. It's a great ride your on.

Before you buy anything, a good idea would be to buy at least 3 different loading manuals. Never, ever, work from just one manual! And read them carefully! You will need info such as case type, primer type, powder brand and the type of firearm and barrel length that they used to develop the load in! Beware of manuals that use custom firearms to develop loads, although for new cartridges, this might be unavoidable. Good ones to start out with are Lyman, Sierra, Speer and Hornady. I recommend at least three of them but in truth, you cannot have too many! I personally use on the order of 9 different manuals. .308 Win is a cartridge that you will find a wealth of information on!

Primer type (magnum or standard) is usually determined by the type of powder you are using. Generally, ball powders are slightly more difficult to ignite so in some cases, they might need a magnum primer to prevent hang fires, that is, a usually slight delay in the time between your trigger pull and the cartridge ignition. However, at times these hang fires can be up to several seconds so anytime you pull the trigger and get a click, wait at least 30 seconds before you open the action. Few things are worse than having a cartridge go off when the action is not locked closed!

Primer brand is mostly a personal preference. However, I would recomnend you use whatever brand the manual you use chose when they developed the load. These will usually be ones from the major manufacturers, Winchester, CCI, Federal or Remington. Your chances of having problems that are primer related are very slim with any of these choices.

If you get a digital scale you will need, at a minimum, some check weights. Digital scales are known to "wander" in their readings so your scale should be checked often for accuracy. It should also come with at least one calibration weight. Read the directions carefully, learn to zero the scale, and remember to zero it each time you turn it on and again each time it is moved or even bumped. This is especially important when loading any loads near the top (e.g. maximum) of the charts. Whenever I get a scale, I zero it without the powder pan, then weigh the pan and write the weight on the pan itself. With a digital, it should have that number as a negative each time you lift the pan from the scale! If you get a beam scale, which has very few things that can go wrong, you will again need to learn to zero it and rezero it every time it is moved! Personally, I have both and use the beam scale (and check weights) to test the digital, which I use the most. However, I have had the same beam scale (RCBS 10-10) for close to 40 years and it still works perfectly.

Loading ammunition is a little bit rocket science, although there might be a slight bit of voodoo mixed in as well. Mostly it's common sense, which you get from experience, which, unfortunately, usually comes from making mistakes! Try and avoid these as much as possible as they can be both costly and even dangerous! Do not hesitate to ask questions here! It may seem to be a silly question to someone who has been reloading ammo a long time but if you don't know, you don't know! Do not guess! Ever! If you ask a silly question (it's been done, trust me!) you might get a few snarky answers, which you can ignore, but someone will answer it for you.
Keep your powder (and primers) dry!
Cheers,
crkckr

orangelightening said:

I own a Tikka T3X CTR in .308 I am currently looking at purchasing some primers as they've finally come in stock online but i honestly don't have a clue which i should buy. I am looking at Federal 210 large rifle primers. However i also see 215. I was considering picking up the 210 but don't want to waste the money if they're not even the ones i need

Click to expand...

As with anything else, YMMV. My personal preference in order of precedence is CCI, Fed, Win, and Rem. However, in my .300 WSM, the Rem excelled. At this point, be grateful for what you can acquire, esp. in your neck of the woods.

orangelightening said:

Also second question. What is the best reloading manual that could help a noob such as myself learn. Last question which reloading brand would you recommend? i am not fully aware of all the reloading brands but i've been into cabelas looking around and they have lyman, and nosler which are the two brands i see most of, i'm sure there's tons of others.

Click to expand...

I usually have reloading manuals for the bullets I will load, such as Berger, Nosler, Hornady, etc. There are plenty of reloading brands to choose from, and your budget will be the driver. This video is nicely done and might help you make your decisions. Good luck!