Working up a Load in a Components Drought.
Greetings All,
Working up a load for your rifle can be as easy or as difficult as you want it to be. I have noted quite a few posts lately describing extensive load development techniques that consume large quantities of components which many of us do not have. For those of us that like to chase the last nanometre in group size or want to shoot long range these are great. Some of us wonder if it is all necessary and if we will have any components left at the end to actually hunt with. For you I have assembled a few notes.
1. Be clear what you want to achieve and why? This is called planning. If you are a bush hobbit then your need for pin point accuracy is not as high as a tops sniper. Most cartridges of the 7mm-08, .308 etc will shoot well enough for bush hunting with little or no load development. If you shoot out to 300 metres then a little more may be needed but not much.
2. What are the capabilities of the rifle? These need to be considered in the selection of components. Short mag rifles like my .308 often need to have blunter projectiles to both fit in the case and shoot well. Old and pitted bores, as many military rifles have, shoot better with flat base round nose projectiles. Pick the projectile to suit the rifle. Don't forget barrel twist.
3. Load selection is likely to be limited by what you can actually get at the moment. All the in flashy projectiles seem to be short but there are still some of the old and boring projectiles available. Powder will be tricky. Back in the dark ages of handloading many just used the middle load (half way between start and max). They just loaded the cartridges, did a quick zero and went hunting. I still do this to an extent.
4. Start Load. Where I have considerable experience with the calibre and powder I make up a couple of rounds 2 grains under max for standard cartridges and chronograph them. This will allow me to see if the combination is giving equivalent velocity (and Pressure) to the load data. You need to allow for differences in barrel length. If the calibre is new to me I will load the start load. The chronograph data will allow you to calculate a probable max load for book max velocity. test for accuracy below this.
5. Working up. I long ago gave up working up in tiny increments of powder charge looking for pressure signs. Once I am happy with velocity and accuracy the testing is done.
My method may not give the highest velocity or very best accuracy but both are more than adequate for my needs and I will have plenty of components left. I seldom use more than 10 rounds for the whole process.
Regards Grandpamac.
