What Techniques Have You Picked Up Reloading That You Wished You Knew From The Start?

[Savage 12BVSS]

We all learn from experience of course, reading or hearing others methods, or sometimes just by learning as you go. I know many on here have perfected their methods thru the years no doubt. I think a thread like this will help newer reloader's get a leg up so to speak, there has to be hundred's of combined years of experience. We don't all do it the same way or reach our goals the same. Even seasoned pro's learn new tricks and techniques as they watch, learn, and experiment. Seems like a topic that can help all those who like to roll their own, I still use a lot of the methods that my original mentor taught me.

But if I was starting today with what I know right now there would be some things I would do differently. First off a forster co ax press, they were available and the style of press I would eventually move to, money spent twice I guess. I started off with a variety of different dies, again now I would stick with forster or redding sizer's and forster seater's. I never heard of a collet die till I came here so thanks to a couple member's of LRH, they are now an important part of my equipment. I was always kinda obsessive about runout with tweaking loaded rounds as standard procedure, now I produce close to 2/3's of my loaded ammo that needs no tweaking at all, those that do are very minimal. I've ceased using expander ball's and spindles, but continue to use the dies for external sizing, I like a mandrel for neck sizing and tension. At first I price shopped for brass but now I prefer premium unless the rifle tells me otherwise. What do other loaders have to share?

 

[DoneNOut]

Choose one brand of brass and 1 bullet weight per rifle.

 

[J E Custom]

When I started re loading, I had no one to guide me so I started with a good loading manual and read as much as I could before I started. fortunately, I bough a good press and middle of the road dies.

All I knew was that I could make Ammo my self, that did well in most uses. I also worked out my safety procedure and stuck with it. (Still use it today) From there I tried to improve the quality of my ammo and in the process I learned what effects components and quality tools had on accuracy.

I have been re loading for over 55 years and still have things to learn. So I would recommend that the new re loader Spend time with a seasoned re loader discussing reloading and have him go through the needed tools for his type of shooting to start with, and a good descriptive loading manual with all of the terms used in re loading.

A good tooter can get him started with the basic tools and knowledge and then it's up to the new re loader how far he wants/needs to go with his reloading prowess. But he must start with the basics to under stand the finer points to load near perfect ammo. I also don't recommend that he listen to all the different opinions and methods to start with. Pick "ONE" person to start with and after mastering the basic principles he can expand his knowledge and skill if needed. to much information would cause an information overload and could be counted productive In my opinion.

Just some advice from an old re loader.

J E CUSTOM

 

[milo-2]

I wish I would have had measuring tools for bumps back in the day, instead of guess work. Not buying and trying 5 powders and 3 bullet choices for load development, pick one and rock, add primers to that idiocy.
I wish I had ignored the * designated for the most accurate load in loading manuals, my rifle was not the one tested. I guess I had understood burn rates of powder, but case fill benefits with slower powders eluded me.
Buying a chronograph 20 yrs earlier may have helped. I am pretty sure I was one of the first to tell others a load could be developed using as chrono as the main tool, as numbers and group size usually shrink in accordance with each other.
I guess you may be able to see that I don't like loading manuals, running scenarios in Quickload for hours on end made the light bulb come on.

 

[DoneNOut]

I wish I would have had measuring tools for bumps back in the day, instead of guess work. Not buying and trying 5 powders and 3 bullet choices for load development, pick one and rock, add primers to that idiocy.
I wish I had ignored the * designated for the most accurate load in loading manuals, my rifle was not the one tested. I guess I had understood burn rates of powder, but case fill benefits with slower powders eluded me.
Buying a chronograph 20 yrs earlier may have helped. I am pretty sure I was one of the first to tell others a load could be developed using as chrono as the main tool, as numbers and group size usually shrink in accordance with each other.
I guess you may be able to see that I don't like loading manuals, running scenarios in Quickload for hours on end made the light bulb come on.

I just shake my head when I read guys guessing their muzzle velocity. "Oh it felt like 2900fps..."

 

[milo-2]

I just shake my head when I read guys guessing their muzzle velocity. "Oh it felt like 2900fps..."

Back then I never shot past 200 yards, it was a non issue as far as knowing, sightin 1.5" at 100. good to go.

 

[marchboom]

Don't buy cheap equipment. With VERY few exceptions you get what you pay for. Reloading equipment will last a lifetime if properly cared for. Get the good parts and pieces the first time. If you don't you'll only wind up buying the good stuff later on. Why buy what you need twice? Remember, only rich people can afford to buy cheap stuff.

Things I would have bought sooner: Chronograph, Co-Ax press, concentricity gauge, wind flags, Forster and/or Redding dies.

Go to a benchrest match and see what the good shooters are using. Ask questions. Learn!

If you shoot at 100 yds or more, get good wind flags and learn how to use them. Once you see how valuable they are and how they can result in much smaller groups you'll never shoot a group without them.

 

[Ace Quackhunter]

Use the best brass and bullets that you can find and weigh everyone.

 

[fguffey]

I do not have any regrets; I decided the die and press had threads, I had no trouble understanding the die was solid and when the top of the die went up the bottom of the die traveled the same distance/direction. And then I looked at the chamber after getting 4 different answers for the same question. So I figured reloaders did not understand the chamber, and I wondered if the confusion was caused by the darkest created by the closing of the bolt.


That is when I started measuring chamber length at least three different ways without a head space. And then there was the vague understanding of the datum. Way back then reloaders/smiths called the datum a 'line', they even had an arrow pointing at it and the explanation; 'datum line'.

All I had to do was close my eyes to see the datum was not a line, in the darkness of my mind I could see the datum was a round hole. From then on I made my own datums. By the time I made one datum I understood there were no case friendly datums. Others insisted on a bevel with a radius, the difference between a datum with a bevel and a datum with a sharp edge? The datum with a bevel is a compare-tar.

And then I wanted to know what happened to the case when fired. I never went through the wringing of hands and or the gnashing of teeth. I made a tool that allowed me to determine if it was possible for the case to take off for the shoulder of the chamber before the firing pin busted the primer. I though it would be more than 'nice to know', I became a fan of the killer firing pin.

And it has always been easy for me to determine the length of the case when the bolt would not close; I always thought it would be helpful if I could determine how far the bolt needed to travel to close in thousandths.

It was about that time I thought all reloaders knew this stuff; and then? They went to a lot of trouble to convince me I was wrong.

F. Guffey

 

[MNbogboy]

Woof ta!
There is not one thing I do the same as 50+ years ago. The only piece of equipment the same is a 48 year old Herter's press, a 50 year old Redding case trimmer with (new style titanium cutter), a 45 year old bonanza model C scale....oh yah a few sets of RCBS and Herter's dies.
Pull the handle different now.
Prepare brass totally different.
Weight & volume sort brass.
Weigh charges to the kernel now.
Anneal every cycle.
Buy quality bullets over price (to a point)
Use several chronos
Extensive seating & charge testing.
Shoot 2000 to 5000 rounds a year during load development on many rifles.
20 rounds and 1 hour on the range = 3 or 4 hours at the reloading bench.
In all these pencil barrel hunting rifles I look for 1/2 to 3/4 moa from factory button barrels and 1/4 to 1/2 from after market lapped barrels. In comparison 50 years ago I was satisfied with 1 to 2 minute deer rifles.
Of coarse the 4 power or 3-9 scopes may have limited me somewhat....now it's my cataracts!.....LOL

 

[manitou]

If you find a recipe your rifle likes, buy plenty of components from the same lot!
Don't cheap out on equipment.
I really like stainless tumbling now.

 

[JeffRaines]

If you find a recipe your rifle likes, buy plenty of components from the same lot!
Don't cheap out on equipment.
I really like stainless tumbling now.

Speaking of stainless tumbling - the cheap rock tumbler set up from harbor freight is awesome for the price. Buy a pound of pins, some dawn and lemishine and you're good to go!

Don't waste time with One Shot. I had a can of the stuff that came with my reloading beginner set I used because I didn't know any better. The imperial wax is about 1000000000000000000x better. I just figured sometimes your die would gall your brass and it was the price of doing business. Scraping or polishing it out of the die sucked. No more of that nonsense!

Don't waste time with cheap electronic scales. You can get better results with a balance beam(and faster than cheap scales too).

Buy yourself a comparator set and learn to use it.

Also a chronograph should be a requirement before you start reloading. Velocity is related to pressure in a big way. You can't know where you're at pressure-wise if you have no idea what your velocity is.

 

[Okanogan]

My suggestion is to start by deciding why you are reloading and what you hope to accomplish by doing so. There is a big difference between wanting to save money with high volume plinker or short range hunting/ self defense ammo than wanting to load premium precision ammunition for long range target or hunting.
I'm making the assumptio that the thread is focused toward the precision ammunition objective which is also where most of my interests have gravitated. For this type of reloading my suggestion would be to get some high quality tools to help in measuring and controlling your reloading efforts. A good chrono graph (Lab radar/ Magnetospeed) was a turning point in my efforts. High quality mics and tools to measure set back, CTBO length, and concentricity also are invaluable to my efforts.
While reloading manuals are a good reference, they don't tell me how well a particular load will shoot in my rifles. My experience has been that overall length/ jump to the lands for a particular bullet often plays a significant part in the accuracy of my loads. Setting up a reference round for each rifle/ bullet combination and working from that reference when doing load development has helped me.
Objective field testing of my loads and useable record keeping have been important to be able to sort out what is working and what doesn't seem to produce measurable positive results.
Finally. in the past I all too often loaded up significant quantities of ammunition without fully completing load development process, only to find out later that I could produce far better results with some other combination. I don't like burning out rifle barrels or breaking down loaded ammo for components so I try much harder these days to confirm I am fully satisfied with a load's performance before cranking out anything in quantity. (This step seems obvious but I have made the same mistake way too often in the past)

 

[Savage 12BVSS]

Lotta good stuff being brought up, a chance for new loaders to pick-up on items that should be standard equipment right from the beginning. Experience is truly the best teacher.........