I’ve got questions! Case volume, turned necks, concentricity and new lapua brass. From start to finish with a new box of unfired lapua brass- please list the 1sts and foremosts step by step of what to do/use(tools) for the entire process. Do i fire some el cheapo projectiles to expand brass before case weighing/ sorting? Please help! Im sure itll be a lengthy response but well woth the anwers. Tired of tryn to piece info together from accshtr.com. A semi detailed answer would be much appreciated. Thanx!!
My platform is a 110ba. I dont go to extreme measures when loading. I shoot 300 smks and start with black hills once fired brass.
I trim to 2.714’ish.
I weigh projectiles for <300, >300 & 300 dead on.
I weigh cases and sort out above average highs & lows.
I full length size (I know) because I enjoy it chambering super slick.
I load my sorted components in batches (try to minimize differences shot to shot)
Don’t know about h2o capacity. Most powder charges will be somewhere between 90-100 grains.
I am still trying to work a load, havent shot at any major distance. I would love to get the 300’s above 2700 fps. I am stuck around 2550 to 2600 with rl25 & ws780 out of my 26 inch barrel. Would love to try rl33 which is posting good velocities out of shorter barrels but I cant find any.
Barret sells once fired lapua, black hills & norma brass at decent rates. Doubt I helped any but there it is.
Not quite what i was looking for. But thanks for the tip on barrerts lapua brass. That is definitely useful!
Re-read your post. I undestand why you said “not really what your looking for” now. You are using lapua brass. I somehow read that as “I’m reloading 338 lapua”. Thanks for playing nice! My bad. I shut up now.
length of answers tends to be commensurate with length of the questions. give us some more detail and we’ll give you some more detail. ffs, you didn’t even tell us what caliber you’re shooting, or what type of shooting you want to do.
i’d recommend you buy a reloading manual and read it. as you said, it will be lengthy but worth the answers.
then if you want details about benchrest shooting, subscribe to precision shooting magazine or buy their back issues/compendium. learn from the experts.
the answer to your question is: no, you weigh brass first if you’re sorting by weight.
223, 6br,308. Sorting by case volume. I’ve read the manuals and searched accshtr.com. I would think subscribing to a magazine would have simillar results. Let me try this another way.
Gunna be trying my hand at 6mmar 600 yard benchrest competiton. Would like to perform all the tedious work neccesary to achieve the best most accurate handloaded cartridge possible- regardless of if some steps are deemed questionable for actual proof of improving.
So… Question 1-
If you were an accuracy nut that just bought a box of 6br lapua new unfired brass. What would be your first step done for reloading. Lets assume that whenever sorting brass-it’ll be by case volume.
I’d post this question on the forum over at accurateshooter.com. There are many more shooters into that level of handloading over there.
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&tn=Extreme+Rifle+Accuracy&x=51&y=16
try one. (they’re out of print i think, but you’ll be surprised what you learn). I’m not a benchrest shooter but I try to learn from them
I’ve only sorted by weight and not gone so far as to fill them with water and weigh that. IME, lapua brass is close enough that sorting didn’t seem to help me much. Other brands I tend to check and if they’re a few grains high or low I toss them into the practice pile.
The first step would be knowing your chamber neck dimensions and measuring the brass. you want to know the OD of a loaded round. if you haven’t made one yet, you can calculate it OD = bullet dia + 2*neck thickness. Compare them to see how much clearance you have and how much you will need to neck turn if any. for “benchrest” i’d target somewhere around 1-1.5 thou. For practical shooting that i do, I like 3 thou. If you have a factory chamber, you probably won’t be able to take an accurate measurement easily. And it won’t be tight, so the only advantage of neck turning would be a slight clean up pass just to make sure the walls are straight.
for perspective, this is my group from last night, at 601 yards. It’s about 2". (the head is 4"x4") using cheap, crappy RP brass. no turning, no sorting, no futzing with primer pockets. heck, i didn’t even clean the cases since the last time i fired them. 2" won’t win any benchrest matches, but it’s good enough for the matches i shoot. I’m showing this just to say how truly small the differences are going to be when you start doing all that other work.
(i fired 4 rounds but missed the first cause i second guessed myself on wind. called it right (.4 mil) and then at the last second changed my mind…)
Still tryng to learn here…if you were getting a custom krieger barrel for an ar, 600 yard max range, no bullets heavier than 69 grain, only plan on shooting handoaded .223- which chamber would u specify for the most accuracy? 223 or wylde? And why? But please- no it defeats the purpose of havn an ar answers!
If your going to be shooting br get a 223 chamber custom cut for the round your going to shoot. Have the throat custom cut for the bullet and the amount of jump you want and the neck cut to your specs to give you a couple thousandths clearance. The answers your looking for are not really as easy as your making them out to be.
Br competitors have there chambers cut to very specific dimensions that they provide to the smith. They are not just shooting standard chambers. They are specifying the chamber down to very minor details like taliv was pointing out.
If your just getting into it get a douglas barrel from CLE and have them cut in any one of the match chambers they offer. Forget about the 69 and step up to the 77. Start shooting the competition and refine what you need from the experience.
Most people when they start br are not going to be held back by there equipment. For the reloading end of it what your looking for is consistency. Lapua brass does not need much work. You need to do a lot more research if your going for utmost accuracy you have to find out what works for you, are you going to trim meplats, or point them, maybe both. Are you going to weight sort cases and bullets? Are you going to sort your bullets by bearing surface or base to ogive?
All the info you seek is out there and can not be spoon fed to you. If you asked 10 different top level competitors about there methods you would get 10 different processes. While some of the steps maybe the same. What works for one person may not work for another.
Geezum, everytime I turn around- i gotta order something new. Mire to investigate once again. Not lookn for a golden spoon, just a push in the right direction. Thanks for the reply.
I did give you a push in the right direction. The only reason I put a barrel on there is because you were talking about getting a krieger barrel. I think CLE has krieger as well. If you buy straight from krieger dont get to hung up on what reamer is used. Just get a quality barrel. If you already have a match grade barrel use that. If not order one from CLE with there match chamber.
For 600 go to the 77s with lapua brass. Load that to magazine length with 24 grains of varget slight crimp with a lee factory crim die. Pick a primer wolf srm or rem 7.5 should work well with that load. Remember to work up the load but you should find that 23.9 to 24.1 of varget will be very accurate.
That load is a high power pet load and should do great for you. Slowly fine tune your load by implementing weight sorting, neck turning, bullet sorting, and meplat trimming or bullet pointing.
Just work on the basics of getting the load consistent. Shoot for single digit e.s. and sd. If you dont have a custom chamber neck turning may not get you much. Bullet sorting by bearing surface length or base to ogive should help with the consistency.
The biggest thing is just getting out there. You will figure out what you need faster that way. If your using a chamber like 223 wylde neck turning can help with neck tension but the gains are probably not worth the time.
There is so many variables in this that nobody can really tell you do this and that and get x results. If thatoad does not shoot you need to look at the gun or yourself. That load should shoot in anything.
Double tap