reloading methods for u reloaders

[WTM]

for those on here that reload, could you give a rundown your preferred method of reloading for hunting cartridges. ie, how do you go about finding the best oal for groups, where you start your loads and how much do you increase up to the next weight of powder charges. what order do you start, do you find the best oal, then go with the best powder charge for the best group or do you find the max powder charge then find the best oal with that charge?

 

[Huntaholic]

Its not rocket science! (well ok, maybe it is on a tiny scale). I start by picking what bullet I want to shoot and then get my COL before doing anything else. I typically seat my bullets 3 to 5 thousandths off the lands. Then I look over the charts and see what powders have the best velocity and accuracy and start about 2 grs. under max. I then work up from there until I start seeing pressure signs and back off until they dissappear, then shoot for groups.

 

[ewc]

I do the same as huntaholic - cept my oal is dictated by either magazine length or clip length - I load to that maximum oal to start and follow his advice.

 

[jakeway]

I take a re-sized, un-primed case and load it with bullet of choice. I seat the bullet so I know it's too long, then chamber it n my rifle and slowly close the bolt to see if I can. If I can't, I turn the bullet seatign die in 1/4 turn and re-seat the dummy round, and chamber it again. I keep doing this until the bolt will close, then do one more 1/4 turn on the seating die. Then I take a COL reading and write it in my log book, and also set aside that round for future seating depth adjustments.

After that, I do like others have said; I load up 6 shells with three or four different charges of my powder of choice, starting at about 2 grains blow published maximums. I fire two three-shot groups with each. If there aren't any excessive pressure signs, I take the two best accuracy loads and load up 10 or 15 more rounds in each, and re-check the two loads on the next trip to the range. Last time I did this, the best group was 41.0 grains, and the second best group was 42.0 grains. After the second trip to the range, the 42.0 gr charge ended up being the most consistent.

I also do my first batch of accuracy testing at 50 yards, to eliminate errors due to scope deficiencies. The second batch of comparisons are done with 5 shot groups at 100 yards.

Another thing I've just recently added to my routine is chronographing the loads during testing. This helped me to decide that the powder and bullet combo I chose was giving me the veliocity and trajectory that I wanted. It also comes in handy when deciding between two charges with similar accuracy. Sometimes the targets look similar, but the velocities of one may be more consistent. I use consistency or smallest variation of velocity readings as the first tie-breaker.