Thread: 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.

Originally Posted by Mauser308

I'll add one here - first shots with a new or a new-to-you rifle without any history, stick factory rounds that are generally considered to be 'accurate out of the box' down it. If you end up with 15" groups at 100m, you need to find out why before you start developing loads otherwise you will stick your mint-as perfect identical charge weight to the grain handloads up it and enter the black pits of despair trying to work out what it is that 'you' did wrong with your loads. It will cost a crap lot of ammo etc etc, only for some smart arse to turn up and go 'it ain't you, overthinker...'.

That, and keep it simple, stupid definitely applies to reloading.

And if your brand spanking new doesn't shoot and you end up taking it back best not to say "it won't shoot handloads either". IIRC either my last Sako or CZ stated warranty void if using handloads.

GPM....finally someone else gets it......thankyou.

Greetings All,
Thankyou for your likes and posts. A good point about sticking to factory loads for initial assessment. I appear to be a serial purchaser of some calibres so have generally had proven handloads to fall back on. The last factory loads I purchased were two boxes of 7mmSAUM cartridges in 2004 with my Sendero. These shot well with velocity close to the factory claim which gave me a goal to work to. @Micky Duck I have noted your despair at the endless testing often reported and this was one of the reasons for my OP. Bench rest shooters and other long range shooters do extensive testing of their handloads to ensure longevity of precision at longer ranges but shoot way more than one three shot group to determine the best loads. For those of us who think 300 metres is an awfully long way extensive load work ups are at best optional.
Regards Grandpamac.

Don't forget some of us enjoy reloading so much any excuse is good enough lol

If I didn't enjoy load development I'd have to start an online shop to get rid of 9/10 of all my stuff @grandpamac

Just an addition to GPM's comment re longe range shooters doing extensive testing. With the hot calibres with short barrel life eg 6.5/284 extensive testing is always mindful that each shot fired is one shot deducted from in some cases an already short barrel life.

Some chamberings are much easier to tune than others and Jupiter aligns with Mars very quickly. An example of that is I fired a lot of shots thru my 284 before I was happy whereas my 6.5x47 would probably have shot perfectly from round one if I had just filled the case to overflowing, tipped some powder out, seated bullet.

Sure, not all chambering are barrel burners and in most cases the average shooter will not burn out a barrel in their shooting lifetime.

Originally Posted by Jhon

Don't forget some of us enjoy reloading so much any excuse is good enough lol

If I didn't enjoy load development I'd have to start an online shop to get rid of 9/10 of all my stuff @grandpamac

Granted @Jhon,
I have some sympathy for that as the handloading has become for me a rewarding hobby in its own right. These days the development is aimed at producing specialist low pressure loads in my Old Soldiers plus satisfying my curiosity in the accuracy of current load data. I mostly use ADI powders as these have been easiest to obtain. Current load data from Hodgdons is generally good but some powders, in particular AR2209 have changed speed over the last 20 years or so. Chronographing a middle load tells me where my current lot of powder sits in speed.
Regards Grandpamac.

Greetings,

Found my old .303 FL die. Made by Lyman and cost $4.95, probably in the late 1970's. Sized in a bench vice and then the case knocked out with the rod. Probably needed a socket as a base. The Lee Loader suddenly looks quite modern.
Grandpamac.