Ready to reload. Please help.

[darkker]

darkker for you to say capacity dont matter sounds funny coming from you because your ALWAYS preaching OVER PRESSURE!!

ive SEEN brass that varied 13 grains internally in the same bag once...ive seen brass from the same lot vary 3 to 6 grains internally several times so it does matter.

i respect your opinions on powders,burn rates,pressures and all..BUT..you preach them like if someone goes a .01g over they are going to blow their selves up when in reality unless you run pistol powder in a rifle cartridge its pretty hard to blow up an action especially in modern day fire arms.

Nuance my friend, nuance and audience....
For starting loads with an eye to 100 yards, the capacity doesn't matter. For a guy who is asking how to use Google to find out how much reloading would cost, or what he would need; capacity doesn't matter.

If you follow my ramblings and info, you would know 0.1gr is smaller than nominal variances of any powder, and not going to get me hammering. What IS, is people who start 0.1 great over max, without any clue where their lot falls, and want help looking at "signs".....

If you actually had 13gr capacity difference from equally sized brass, you should have called someone. 13gr difference in weight wouldn't surprise me, but honest internal capacity does.

[LongRange]

humm why didnt i think of calling someone about that bag of hornady brass? 8th wonder i guess...and that was H2o weight not external. also you keep saying capacity dont matter?? did you notice the OP is talking about loading at least 3 different brands of brass? i blew the head off a case and several primers before i realized internal capacity matters when i first started loading...same load different brass...so again capacity does matter.

[Fotheringill]

This is not going to save you money unless it is at the end of a very long road.

Initially, I would purchase a kit. It will give you everything you will need to get started. Go slow and be aware that as you progress, you will probably be replacing a lot of what you initially purchased as you gain more knowledge and decide on your preferences. I would suggest opening a Brownell's account and spend the $50 per year for free (if slow) shipping and returns. It will pay for itself in two or three small orders from Midway or the like.

You will need a manual that does a lot of "how to's". The best that I have seen is the Lyman 49th and now 50th. Read it several time and understand everything in the front section of the manual.

Don't get frustrated if you are all over the target board for a few months. As you get more familiar with the equipment and routines, you POI will get better. Be wary of grizzled old pros who have been handloading for a zillion years. They may know exactly what to do and what not to do, but you may not understand the explanations, or worse, no explanations at all.

Referencing the kits- they will include a cheaper rather than more precise balance scale and and powder drop. They are NOT precision instruments and tools but will be enough to get you started. You don't yet need a precision laboratory electronic scale and a Harrell's powder drop or an electronic scale or dispenser

Good luck and have fun and feel your own way into this endeavor.

[darkker]

humm why didnt i think of calling someone about that bag of hornady brass? 8th wonder i guess...and that was H2o weight not external. also you keep saying capacity dont matter?? did you notice the OP is talking about loading at least 3 different brands of brass? i blew the head off a case and several primers before i realized internal capacity matters when i first started loading...same load different brass...so again capacity does matter.


Yes.
So depending upon total case capacity(221FB Vs. 7mmRM) typical capacity wiggles don't matter to 90% of all shooters. Especially to a beginner, unless, again he falls prey to the notion that he needs to run things at full capacity or over at all times.

I did see that he was talking about several brands. I have at least 6 in my 308, and 4 in my Creed.
For your seperation, for it to be meaningful, there needs to be a whole lot of specifics stated; otherwise it's just a boogie-man story. So again to be clear, I'm not saying there is never a reason to consider it; I'm saying it doesn't matter to most folks. Take one of my above posts with seperation pictures. They were there for a point I was making, but in reality, some could have been differing stamps; not certain without digging into the pictures. Since I load everything "the same" the fact that some of them seperated, does that mean that it was an overload due to capacity?? No. COULD it have been? Yes. Was it? No.

So what is the answer? The answer is that it depends. Likely this is over the OP, but good info none the less. So some of my brass has lasted as many reloadings as I have done for the Creed, something like 9-10. Some of them didn't go that far; some have gone much farther(re-sized from another cartridge). Some cases have seperated after 3 firings, simply by coincidence or perhaps dumb luck, they were used while Pressure Testing. I absolutely know for a fact that those loads were well under SAAMI MAP. Yet they seperated, wasn't because of pressure excursions due to powder, primer, capacity. Likely they were too soft too far down; possibly undersized too much, but again if that last bit were the case, they didn't experience excessive or even abnormal pressures. Without knowing sizing regime, powders used and it's age, and the pressures, or at the very least, velocity, and loading method; you really can't accurately say that the capacity was different and caused the issue alone. The first lot of Superformance powder we tested was different than what was tested by Hornady by around 12% slower!! My second batch is actually slightly quicker burning than what they tested. If are loading stick powder by weight, you can exaggerate burning rates and capacity issues. Not the case with loading it by volume. Likewise, loading ball powder by volume can get you into trouble.
All of that is still to say CAN, not does. If you simply take a manuals data that is several years old, and assume you have the same burning rate in your powder, then start above the starting loads and don't test going up with a chrono; yes you can run afoul with pressures. But it isn't likely to be a large issue with typical variances, until you get to the higher end of pressures. Again, take a component out of it's design parameters, and assume some things without testing, and it CAN be a different story.

But to bring this around to the OP again, at 100 yards, small differences in burning rates won't cause him sleepless nights when beginning. If he chooses some random load on the net that either doesn't say, or is obviously over-pressure; yes he can have an issue.... There is that word again... CAN.

[Appleseed]

Have NEVER loaded new or reconditioned brass to published full capacity dry weight powder charge.
Why would any new reloader push the manual data?

If the brass appears to have defects on case inspection, trash it. I consider myself a beginning loader after 10 years. Only problem I've had is not prepping the brass as clean as it needs, and not trimming necks. And the problem was apparent as bolt felt stiff when locking. Took it to mean discard the round. (Got a new dial caliper yesterday, probably adding the case gauges to check when loading numbers).

Is it good advise..."follow instructions and do not push/experiment" with published load data? I appreciate the technical loaders and shooters here, but sometimes specialized technical info is beyond basics and confusing.

Learn safe loading basics.

[darkker]

It actually isn't uncommon at all for new people(especially) to overload cartridges. Many times they read some article, or ask on a forum "what is your go to load for X". A prime example is to jump over to a Creedmoor forum, where you would struggle to find a rifle that isn't pushing 2800+ fps with a 140gr bullet. That is over-loaded, but it's what the "experienced" reloaders said to do because they didn't "see" pressure signs. Watching brass or primers isn't any way, shape, or form, accurate in pressure reporting. Likewise everyone seems to ignore the warning on EVERY bottle of powder that says "Drop loads 10% when switching lots". They assume that canister grade powder is always the same thing in every bottle.

To the published data portion, no one since the very old A-Squared manual ever lists lot numbers on any component. So someone new to the game looks at book data, or online data. There is NO mention of any lot numbers, or ANY date when it was tested; But without fail they will go clear to max listed, and typically the higher number they find, because "it's within published limits". Their load may or may not be within published limits, but it isn't what was tested and unless they can compare velocity, they don't know.

Safe basics are key, but the basics often get trimmed down to ignore some important key things to remember. The newest Norma manual has a nice article on how much moisture content affects burning rate changes, and how much it can change when in a "Sealed" container.

[Davehafelein]

I just started reloading a couple of years ago. Some of the things I learned:

I bought a Lee Challenger single stage kit. Works fine for me. I'm interested in accuracy, not speed.

Don't buy 8 lbs of any powder right off the bat. Try different brands until you find the one that works best for you.

Check the torques on ALL fasteners on your rifle. A loose screw can make your accuracy erratic and thus taint your data.

Keep good records on your range performance.

Once you find the right combination (brass, primer, powder, bullet), stick with it.


One source of .308 info: http://www.accurateshooter.com/cartridge-guides/308win/


Lastly, I learned a lot about reloading from watching a video series on Youtube entitled Sniper 101. There are about 100 different videos on long range shooting. Part 47 - 53 covers reloading. I found the entire series interesting and informative. My only disagreement with Rex is about temperature sensitivity with respect to muzzle velocity. Some powders are less sensitive than others.