how to start reloading for my gun?

T

trazman

Guest
Hello guys, i would like to develop a good cartridge for my rifle, but i don't know where to start...

some info... my gun is a blaser lrs2 .300 WM(1:11), i was considering to use sierra MK 190 gn... I have 250 brass of RWS

So, first question, the basing things to decide:
How to prepare the brass?
How big is the bullet ogive difference for sort bullets?
Is it good to sort bullets by weight?
which primer to use? Large rifle or large rifle magnum?
how to find the right COL?

How to reload first? should i look for powder weight or seating depth or what?

On the range... what groups to shoot 3, 5 or more? and off course on what distance should i shoot for load development?

Thank you very much, I hope it is not too much...

Tomas
 
If you have a friend who reloads, get him to help you get started. Get yourself the Sierra reloading manual and read up on reloading. You are asking questions that are not needed to begin reloading.

Don't get your information from guys on the Internet. There is some bad information from guys on these sites who may not understand your questions.

Reloading is safe and fun if you follow the basic rules.

Before you start buying equipment, get a friend to help you load some ammo. It is not rocket science.

Concho Bill
 
buy a book on reloading, read it, read it again...is it what you want to do ? get with a friend and see what he or she does( no guarrantees it right, but the basic process should be there).
not much expense in getting started. with a 300 win mag , make sure any press you buy is tall enought in the throat to handle the round.

come back when you are ready for more info...

mike in co
 
Reading

mike in co said:
buy a book on reloading, read it, read it again... mike in co
Click to expand...

Good advice. A good cheap book is Modern Reloading Second Edition by Richard Lee. After you've read that talk to the benchrest shooters and long distance shooters, observe and ask questions. Find someone that can walk you through the process. Think safety first! - nhk
 
Hm, well i have done a lot of reloading, but for ipsc shooting and for hunting with my .30-06 and 8x57 so i have some experiences... but i have never reload for precision shooting...
 
Ah, OK. Still, "precision" shooting is still different for the different shooting sports. I don't know what is available in Slovenia in terms of competitions. Neither the Blazer, the .300 WM, nor the 190 grain Sierra is particularly good for my sport, which is 1,000 yard benchrest. Might make a good F-class setup though -- I don't really know, because I don't shoot that. While some things *are* general, like a good F-class rifle, knowing what is available in an other part of the world often requires a detailed knowledge of a sport, not just "general knowledge."

For example, I have some friends in Italy that shoot short-range benchrest and some that shoot 300 Meter ISU. We can talk about technique and equipment, but have to be careful, and not just because of language. (Your English is very good, by the way.)

So you can see our problem.

If it is competitive shooting, I would go to a match & talk to people. As Bill Wynne said, there is a lot of nonsense posted on the internet, and it takes some experience to sort through it.

Let us know,

Best,

Charles
 
I think that it is useful to discuss what we are trying to accomplish when reloading to a higher standard. We are looking for the straightest ammunition that we can make, with uniform case neck tension, and a highly refined determination as to the type and quantity of propellant, ignited by the best performing primer, with the projectile loaded to the optimal length to produce the best accuracy. In order to do this, we will probably need to pick up some equipment that allows us to measure what we are doing, and select reloading components of the highest quality, as well as dies that are a close match to the rifle being loaded for. For starters, I would take a look at some of the catalogs that are available on line. Sinclair International for one, and there are others that are listed on this web site.
http://www.eurobenchrestnews.com/
After that I would suggest that you ask specific questions, one at a time. Posters are not likely to spend the time writing the book that you have asked for. Good luck with your quest. I think that the sort of seeking out and learning that you are involved in are some of the most rewarding aspects of any hobby, much more interesting than small refinements of an activity that one is very familiar with.
 
Trazman,

I would love to help you get started in reloading. If you were living in my town, I would help you get started. I have been hand loading for over 50 years with no problems. I have loaded for many different rounds and have never killed a deer with anything but one of my hand loads. I am sure that there must be people that you know in your neighborhood who would gladly help you learn about reloading your shells.

Your question has caught the attention of at least three of us "Super Moderators" so it is a good one.

I believe in reading all you can but there is nothing like hands on instruction with someone who has correctly reloaded for a while.

I learned with the help of a friend and I learned more by reading manuals later. I would like to know how many of us learned to reload without the help of a friend or family member.

Concho Bill
 
Bill Wynne said:
I learned with the help of a friend and I learned more by reading manuals later. I would like to know how many of us learned to reload without the help of a friend or family member.

Concho Bill
Click to expand...
Me, for one. I learned the hard way, with a 1903 Springfield.
 
wel guys i have to say that i am a hunter for 8 years now and i have shot several deers and boars just with my loads... the other problem is that here in slovenia there are not much people who know about reloading... at least not what i aspect from them..

It is real that i have questions that seems quite strange, but it is with reason... there are a lot of unknowns in my precision reloading like where to start... for hunting let say, i take a manual and i reload a bullet as listed and it is good for hunting up to 200m... but if i want to shoot further i have to go beyond the manual...

So this questions about primers setting depths an other things...
 
Pick one specific question. Give it its own thread, and when you think you have enough information, post another question. While you are deciding which one to ask first, tell us about your shooting rest, sand bags, the bench you shoot off of, and whether you have any way too gauge what the wind is doing.
 
i did the same but with a 222 lee loader.....buying supplies at the savon drug store !

mike in co
Boyd Allen said:
I did, with a Lee Loader (.308), and a plastic headed mallet. I have a tad more equipment these days.
Click to expand...
 
trazman said:
So this questions about primers setting depths an other things...
Click to expand...

actually there should be no question about primer seating depth......they go at the bottom of the primer pocket......
now to be uniform, uniform the primer pocket depth.

mike in co
 
sorry, there should be a coma between primers and seating dephts(bullet)...
 
blaser lrs2

I wasn't familiar with the rifle and looked it up and see it's magazine fed bolt action tactical rifle so seating depth may be limited by magazine length. So you want your overall length not to exceed magazine length, but you may need to load shorter depending on your throat length. I don't know what equipment you are using or have available, but I would seat a bullet to magazine length in a sized case without powder or primer and chamber it to see if any rifling marks are engraved on the bullet. Also measure the length to see if that changed. If the length didn't change and the bullet isn't marked by the rifling, then that is your starting length for seating depth. If the bullet is pushed into the case more or marked you will need to seat it deeper. Start on the low end with powder charges and work up with 1% increases shooting 3 shot groups at 100m and keep track of pressure signs, velocity and group size. That will give you an idea of where the best accuracy is.

Measure the shoulder on your fired cases and set your dies so that you only move the shoulder back 0.001". That will allow you to headspace off your shoulder instead of the magnum belt and will improve accuracy and case life. Keep your cases trimmed to length. - nhk
 
When working with seating depth, it is very handy to have a way to measure the overall length of a loaded round off of bullets ogives rather than their tips (meplats). If you don't mind single loading, you can ignore magazine length. It might be interesting to see if you can gain anything by loading so that your bullets touch, or are seated so that the rifling marks them. Be sure not to start with a hot load when you are doing a work up with bullets at these lengths.

Before I had more precise tools, I would put a cleaning rod with a flat ended jag down my barrel (with the action cocked so that the tip of the firing pin would not be sticking out of the bolt face) till it made contact with the face of the bolt (bolt closed) and wrap a piece of masking tape around the rod so that it was even with the end of the barrel. Then I would hold a bullet as far forward in the chamber as it would go, with something like a dowel or the eraser end of a pencil, and then put the cleaning rod back down the barrel till it touched the tip of the bullet, and wrap another piece of tape around rod (even with the end of the barrel) and then measure from the front of one piece of tape to that of the other to get the loaded length that would touch the rifling with that bullet. Compared to other methods, this one is pretty crude, but it will give you a good enough idea of your rifle's throat length to see where you are relative to magazine length.
 
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