Thread: Keeping it Simple for New Handloaders

With a 10" kill zone and a 10" wound channel, assuming 2" of overlap, you need to be within 6" of your point of aim for hunting accuracy.

That's a 12" group, or more traditionally, minute of drench container.

12" if you want to shoot 100m
6" if you want to shoot 200m
3" if you want to shoot 300m
1.5" if you want to shoot 400m



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Originally Posted by Ryan_Songhurst

Yea but you're feeding yourself bullshit basically... There's definately a sweet spot where you're gonna see good performance but it's exactly that, a sweet spot, and it's larger than your ability to shoot is able to measure. I challenge you to load up several different seating depths, load 6 of each, and then go and shoot two 3 shot groups with each of them, I guarantee that there will be variation between your two groups of the same seating depth, in some cases this variation will be greater than the variation between loads of different depths. Consistency is the key here. I have a load that can shoot under 1/4 inch, it will be more than enough for all the hunting that I ever want to do, out to further than I will ever shoot an animal, but will it shoot that every single time? Nope. Why? Because there's a big floppy piece of meat and bone with a heartbeat hanging onto the trigger which will make more of a difference in consistency than anything else.

You may call it bullshit, you may be right.....but I'll bet if you can find a consistent speed node that doesn't shoot well in your rifle, you could tune it by fiddling with seating depth.
Granted it might take a while at 3 thou increments but I am picking you could get it shooting better.
Anyway the original point of this thread was about keeping it simple for beginers so I guess maybe I got off track
No matter what you do and how you do it, if your getting results and doing it safely then do what works for you

Originally Posted by dannyb

You may call it bullshit, you may be right.....but I'll bet if you can find a consistent speed node that doesn't shoot well in your rifle, you could tune it by fiddling with seating depth.
Granted it might take a while at 3 thou increments but I am picking you could get it shooting better.
Anyway the original point of this thread was about keeping it simple for beginers so I guess maybe I got off track
No matter what you do and how you do it, if your getting results and doing it safely then do what works for you

And if it ‘spins your wheels’ then have at it

I think whiskey is rubbish and is best burnt in an internal combustion engine, but I bet there’s a heap of you that disagree with that

right ho....here is a question for you lot...
and until recent events I wouldve called myself a good safe reloader too...now Im a bit shellshocked and trigger shy.
having pulled around 90 loaded rounds which were all set up for old rifle and sized using partial length resizing...Im now going to reload them for a different rifle,which isnt in my possession now or question would be irrelevant .......if it was I could chamber a few and see if would fit/chamber nicely....
so I guess Im best to full length resize back to std dimentions just to be on safe side..would be a right bastard to load em back up and they not chamber....
so seen as though cases are still primed..........and dont have rifle here to make them dead primers.
is there any reason I cant just back sizing button and depriming pin out/up untill it no longer is going to touch primers and proceed as per normal??????
the outside of case/shoulder/neck will get squished as normal and button will pull back through neck as normal just a little earlier on stroke....
thoughts folks?????

Just take the whole decapping assembly out and resize as normal.
Or if you have case mouths that are out if round, just remove the decapping pin.

I use a universal decapping die and never use the decapping assembly on any of my dies anyway. Especially bushing dies.



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What he said...

Wait till you get your new rifle and then set up your FLSing to correctly size for the new chamber.
You don't know which end of the SAAMI spec your new one will be.

How old is your brass/how many loadings? Might be timely to scare those moths in your wallet and start off with new brass, if you can get it....

if I remove stem,wont necks be too skinny as button wont be there to pull back through and open them up to spec??? or do you mean just the decapping rod bit???
Zimmer the moths in my wallet have had such a scare lately that anymore might give them PTSD.... most of that 90 are twice fired at most.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

if I remove stem,wont necks be too skinny as button wont be there to pull back through and open them up to spec??? or do you mean just the decapping rod bit???
Zimmer the moths in my wallet have had such a scare lately that anymore might give them PTSD.... most of that 90 are twice fired at most.

Nope. Not in my experience. No stem is fine. In fact, along with annealing it has lowered my ES and SDs markedly.

Haven't tested the principle with flat base projectiles other than my hornet and I don't really care what the spreads are like as I would very rarely shoot it over 300 yrds


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interesting..so in theory your neck tension will be higher than normal...maybe there is merit in crimping after all .....
Will ponder it some more.......

Not necessarily. You will notice on the seating stroke if anything is untoward.

I have been doing it awhile but pretty sure using the same projectiles, the seating is easier opposed to using a button as a rule, so less neck tention.
The spring of the brass is more noticeable.

I can get 7-8 loads on my Ackley cases and never use a button.
Everything seems to work the way I want regarding velocity and accuracy.

I do not like using a stem because of case runout. Not that I put much stock in runout affecting much of anything but it is one less thing I have to consider.


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Geez I love reloading and agree with earlier comments if you dive too deep but can't shoot a good group you're probably wasting your time (neck-turners I'm looking at you haha). The advantage of loading and trying new loads is more trigger time so it can even out.

I'd be more than happy to show anyone the basics...I usually just end up reloading for them!

Originally Posted by zimmer

Just to reinforce the GPM's KISS principle. For my first 15 years of handloading (308 and treble 2) I used a Lyman 310 handtool. (Google it)
I had a second hand first model Redding beam balance with oil dash pot dampening. The oil constantly meniscused out over the sides then dust stuck to that.
I had no way of FLSing, I had to go to a mate for that.

Now I read about case cleaning devices, crappy electronic scales etc etc being top of newbie's purchase lists.
Reloaders concerned about the time taken winding in and out of dies into single stage presses and so on.

Through out my Lyman 310 years I successfully shot fullbore so my ammo wasn't too damn bad..

Don't get me wrong, I've now got all the bells and whistles, mainly because i reached a stage in life when i could afford it plus I enjoyed the hobby, but you certainly don't need it starting out and as already pointed out, depending where you head and your ammo needs may never need it.

Certainly helps to have quality gear from the start.Get a Lee universal depriming die. Fantastic tool. Then add T7 and R dies and CM1500. Yeah Sinclair uniformer. Also Lyman flashhole uniformer on your 18v and anneal every time. Got lotsa other tools I no longer use including K&M etc etc.LOL.