How may the temperature of the reloading room effect reloading?

[MarkInPA]

Something I have been thinking about lately. My reloading room is my unheated garage. Currently it is 26 degrees Fahrenheit outside and 52 degrees inside my garage. It's an attached garage so I guess it does get some heat from the rest of the house. Knowing that most objects shrink when they get cold and expand when they get hot, except water being the strange one, it makes me wonder how this effects our reloading. Our brass and bullets will be affected by this, as well as our reloading tools such as our presses and dies. Considering that we are measuring things down to the 1/1000 of inch, this could be significant. Things like interference fits between our brass and bullets, shoulder bumps, bullet seating depths, trimmed brass lengths, and sized brass. Then what happens to our reloaded rounds as they are subject to differing environments where the temperature could fluctuate from when it was reloaded. Been lots of discussion about temperature sensitive powders but, I wonder if much thought has been put into this aspect of our reloading. Anybody have any ideas or theories they could share? How significant do you think this may be?

 

[FEENIX]

Something I have been thinking about lately. My reloading room is my unheated garage. Currently it is 26 degrees Fahrenheit outside and 52 degrees inside my garage. It's an attached garage so I guess it does get some heat from the rest of the house. Knowing that most objects shrink when they get cold and expand when they get hot, except water being the strange one, it makes me wonder how this effects our reloading. Our brass and bullets will be affected by this, as well as our reloading tools such as our presses and dies. Considering that we are measuring things down to the 1/1000 of inch, this could be significant. Things like interference fits between our brass and bullets, shoulder bumps, bullet seating depths, trimmed brass lengths, and sized brass. Then what happens to our reloaded rounds as they are subject to differing environments where the temperature could fluctuate from when it was reloaded. Been lots of discussion about temperature sensitive powders but, I wonder if much thought has been put into this aspect of our reloading. Anybody have any ideas or theories they could share? How significant do you think this may be?

"My" ideal operational temp is ~55F. I do not sweat much more than most, but humidity and static electricity are the two things I like to control.

ADDED: My main reloading area doubles as wine cellar.

 

[Buckleman]

We're not killing ants at 300 yards yet

 

[crashlanding]

My "gun" room is in an unheated room in our house, this time of year is spent mostly reloading. I keep an electric heater up there with a thermostat that keeps the room around 65 degrees. I m more concerned about my scales with temperature, electronic and the beam scale, so I make sure everything is warmed up before starting.

 

[Greatgrandad]

In my experiences, reloading room temps don't matter much, unless you get into real extremes. I am more concerned with the variances we see while hunting in temps that may be in the 70-80's and then using he same ammo in single digits or low teens.

The Army had a very in-depth study on extreme temps on ammo and the various components used in production to keep said ammo within their established parameters.

 

[Laguna Freak]

Humidity is a bigger issue for powder than temperature in reloading, though one must consider that temperature dramatically effects relative humidity. Hence climate controlled reloading room is advisable 365 days/year if you are in a humid environment.

 

[MarkInPA]

My "gun" room is in an unheated room in our house, this time of year is spent mostly reloading. I keep an electric heater up there with a thermostat that keeps the room around 65 degrees. I m more concerned about my scales with temperature, electronic and the beam scale, so I make sure everything is warmed up before starting.

I'm trying to bring my garage up to room temperature with a space heater and a propane heater as I type. I'm wanting to go down and start on some reloading, so I do the same. Still the materials in the garage are going to stay cold for some time.

I think the big thing with your powder scales is to have a constant temperature when you go to use them and to try and eliminate drafts. I like to do my powder measuring inside my house rather than in my garage for that reason. We all know the pitfalls of electronic scales. Just try and eliminate anything that may interfere with them.

 

[MarkInPA]

In my experiences, reloading room temps don't matter much, unless you get into real extremes. I am more concerned with the variances we see while hunting in temps that may be in the 70-80's and then using he same ammo in single digits or low teens.

The Army had a very in-depth study on extreme temps on ammo and the various components used in production to keep said ammo within their established parameters.

Do you know if they ever published anything that may be available for us to read?

 

[Greatgrandad]

Do you know if they ever published anything that may be available for us to read?

Several years ago, there were a couple of websites who had some of these studies online, but I haven't looked for nor at these in some time. Thus, I simply recommend a search. If my old memory serves, I do believe I have a copy of one of those in an old book here......somewhere. Too many to start searching.

 

[Varmint Hunter]

My reloading room is in the basement and is fully heated. Although, it is not air conditioned. In the summer, I run two dehumidifiers 24/7. Reloading conditions are pretty good all year long.

 

[tomcat818]

I pay attention to the temp when reloading and like to be between 60-65 F for consistency of feel when working brass. My bench is in a detached very well insulated garage with a wood stove so even when it's 0 outside getting in this range and keeping it there is no problem. I would say when the stove is cooking the humidity is almost zero (the area where I live has low humidity year round) which is great for keeping one's powder dry.

 

[Seabeeken]

Mark, I would say just dont bring the cold powder into a warm area. Like a cold glass sweats I'm sure powder cold powder in a warm room would attract moisture too. I am reloading in an unheated shed until my garage gets built. Also, I dont trust electronic scales in cold weather. I've been doing most of my powder work indoors when its cold.

 

[MarkInPA]

Mark, I would say just dont bring the cold powder into a warm area. Like a cold glass sweats I'm sure powder cold powder in a warm room would attract moisture too. I am reloading in an unheated shed until my garage gets built. Also, I dont trust electronic scales in cold weather. I've been doing most of my powder work indoors when its cold.

That's a good point. Something I didn't really think about. I store my powder in my garage. It's dry but it does get cold. Then I bring my powder into my home to measure it at least when it is cold. That could be introducing moisture as you say. Might be wise to store my powder inside as well. The powder manufactures just say to store the powder in a cool and dry environment. I'll have to give this some more thought.

 

[Troutslayer2]

I leave my beam scale out all the time, completely balanced on 0. I notice that it fluctuates without being touched. Temperature, humidity, hydrostatic pressure, I'm not sure. I don't think it's enough to be even a grain of powder but it does move around based on conditions.

My space is climate controlled.