Thread: First attempt at reloading. Thoughts please.

OK, so after many years of wanting to reload i finally got my ass into gear and collected the required kit with a bit of trading and bargain hunting here there and every where.
I have wanted to learn to reload for years but the cost of getting set up and a nagging feeling that it was all beyond my ability caused years of procrastination. Luckily in the last few years i spent some time with a couple of good blokes who where happy to share their knowledge and a lot of time reading books, magazine articles and following the threads on the forum, i finally decided that come hell or high water i would/could learn the dark art of reloading.

So. figured the 7mm 08 would be a good place to start. As opposed to the 7mm wsm. Easy to find brass, plenty of suitable powders etc and lots of data around and others loading for the same cal in a short barreled Tikka T3.

Brass was located and a big bag of once fired PPU was snaffled off TM for the grand total of 25 dollarydoos and 870 federal 210s were found on TM for 150 dollarydoos. Add to cart. Gunworks had 140 grn BTs so they seemed like a good start. 2208 was located and also added to cart.

Brass was sized to be 2 thou smaller than a fired case once I figured out imperial measurements and what the hell 1 thou etc actually looked like on a set of calipers.

The brass was measured and trimmed and chamfered etc.

A modified case was made and with the help of the hornday OAL gauge i decided that max length was either 2.945 or 2.944 after multiple checks. The BTO with the comparitor was 2.374. After reading Nathan Fosters book i decided to start at 20 thou jump.

A bit of reading of the instructions for the hornady dies and a bit of trail and error got me a nice dummy case with 20 thou jump to the lands. And i also had to figure out how to use the inertia puller when i got it wrong.

Now for the tricky bit. Cross referenced three sources and max load with 140/139 grn projectiles seemed to be anywhere from 41.5 ( hornady ) 42.2 ( adi ) 44 ( nick harvey vol. 1 ) so carefully calibrating the frankford arsenal digital scale that was recommended here on the forum i decided to start at 40 grns. The digital scale was double checked against the ohaus beam scale with a selection of random 30 cal projectiles that had been recovered out of animals and where all different weights and shapes. The digital scales agreed with the beam scales so i felt confident that they where fine.

Loaded up 3 at 40 41 41.5 41.8 42 42.2 and finally 42.5 and then managed to get away to the range with an hour daylight left and no wind. The boss was at home with the kids so i was a free man for a hour or so and i was the only person at the range.

Set up the newly purchased chrony and marked out the dots with the load weight and i had written on the cases with a marker so wouldnt accidently loose track of what i had loaded.

Time was of the essence a bit as the light wasnt going to last long but halfway through the ladder i stopped and checked another rifle to try and let the tikka cool a bit. The heat shimmer off the barrel was making things a bit tricky but i could spend hours up here either.

The chrony data was as follows

40 gr 2478/2437/2446
41 gr 2487/2487/2515
41.5 gr 2559/2569/NA
41.8 NA/NA/NA
42 gr 2544/ 2539/2554
42.2 gr 2614/2549/2578
42.5 gr 2583/2594/2604

Will put up a photo of the three shot groups in the next post.

My question is for all the experienced loader is what is your thoughts on the decrease in speeds when going from 41.5 to 42?
41.5 was one raggedish hole but obviously its only three shots and the barrel was getting pretty hot towards the last group. 42 grns has a spread of 15 fps and 41.5 10 fps but wasnt totally captured.
The other thing that I'm curious about is that the primers where flattening out at 41.5 but at 42.5 they went back to being round again with no sign of pressure what so ever. Do i carry on up to 43ish or load 42 or 41.5 again and have a play with seating depth changes at 3 thou at at time with a bit more time to let the rifle cool down.

The barrel is only 15 inches so not looking to set any speed records and its a bush rifle so any of the loads tested will work fine, its more the process that I'm working on and trying to understand better the what and how. The goal being to get the best performance out of my gear and develop a solid process that will see me right for the future and the other rifles in the safe.

Its been a fascinating process and I've learnt a shit load. The 7mm wsm will be next.

Photo of coreflute target

Sent from my CPH2145 using Tapatalk

Looking darn good well done

41.5 grains looks pretty accurate.

Brillant loading and shooting

I'd be loading a few more up at 41.5 and shoot a couple more groups.....looks like the rifle is a decent shooter anyway.

Google Erik Cortina and Jack Neary on reading groups, you might need to go up in powder charge after watching it, but regardless those groups must have you chuffed
That decreasing velocity can be a brain fuck when it appears and makes me dislike load development, I think it happens more with certain powders, but there seems to be velocity nodes the same as there are accuracy nodes where stuff looks like its going wrong then comes right again

I assume you weren't getting any pressure signs even at 42.5gns? I would usually work up until things started looking hot and then look back from there.

Originally Posted by Shearer

I assume you weren't getting any pressure signs even at 42.5gns? I would usually work up until things started looking hot and then look back from there.

Nope. In fact there looked to be less pressure at 42.5 than 41.5. Primers went from getting flat to looking as round as an unfired one. Made me scratch my head.

Originally Posted by Blackfern

Nope. In fact there looked to be less pressure at 42.5 than 41.5. Primers went from getting flat to looking as round as an unfired one. Made me scratch my head.

primers are not always the best indicator of pressure, velocity at a given charge will certainly give you a better indication (there's a lot more to it than that but just a heads up) not trying to tell you how to suck eggs just pointing out if you want to now what your pressure is at there are ways to figure it out using velocity, charge weight, seating depth, brass capacity etc etc otherwise you are just guessing in reality.
Some can make educated guesses based on experience, it really depends how far down the rabbit hole you want to go, and how far/hot you want to push your load.
there are no free lunches if you increase charge weight or seating depth pressure will increase and things will wear out faster and recoil harder etc etc.
you state its a bush gun ? will the 41.5gn load do what you need it to at he max range you are likely to use it out to ? if so why waste projectiles and primers etc ? end of the day it's your load, do what you want but i think your already onto a pretty good load there.

For a 15” barrel bush gun I’d say ditch the chronograph for now and revisit velocity once you have a pressure/accuracy combo you’re happy with.

When you have your process down and move on to the 7mm WSM, another way to do it (if you trust the speeds from your chronograph) is to look at the 10 shot load development where you plot/graph your increasing charge ladder.
It’s a very component efficient method and clearly points the velocity node where to concentrate load further development on.

Reloading isn’t rocket science nor is it magic voodoo.

Not hot til ya gotta kick the bolt open

Seems she likes 41.5 but not 41
Are u happy u didn't pull any shots, nice shooting BTW.
What maximum distance u going to use it at. I like to decide on a speed/ energy at a certain distance for a task. Loads that groups best closest to that speed wins for hunting guns.
Target guns like F class and the bench resters - I've seen blokes play around with just adjusting the jump by 1 thou to maybe gain 0.01 on a group and cutting meplats etc. I'd rather spend time hunting, any of those loads would have put meat on the table.
Don't know what chrono u use. If it's the opening green chrony with the white screens, use 2 led torches or slap some together from jaycar, point the light source down through the screen at the receptor. Often in sunlight with a bit of cloud around the sensor doesn't sense proper, the light is constant and leads to better sensing of the bullet passing. If u dont understand what I mean pm me , I'll send u a drawing.
Also try to compare your crony to others. Mine is about 35 - 37 fps slower than true( well the average from 7 we tested) would be nice to have a doppler


Well done for a 1st go m8. That kinetic puller is worth its $.

Well done I'd be pretty happy with those results, and I have been reloading for 35 years so all credit to you, the time and effort always pays off.

I've read that velocity drop is often associated with initial compression of the powder charge. As others have already said 41.5 seems worth picking. Don't chase speed, chase consistent accuracy.