Anyone Make Specific Loads for Specific Guns?

Sounds good to me!

With some guns, you almost don’t have a choice but to make a specific load, sometimes with a special cast bullet, to have any accuracy at all.

I make specific loads for all of my guns, to get the most out of them.

All the time. My 38 specials are different for each of my 38s, mostly. My 223s are different for my AR and myTC. My 12 ga are not. 7 1/2 for trap, 9s for skeet.

I load for multiple of the same calibers in multiple guns and treat each load for the most accuracy I can get out of each gun. In some cases the same load works in multiple guns, and that is a plus. I was loading for 6 different 9mm’s and only had to make 3 loads with my cast bullet to get an acceptable accuracy level. I’m now working up 4 loads for 223, out of 2 guns, a bolt and a semi. Each rifle will have a plinking load and a defensive/critter load.
You are doing good, keep it up. It really depends on your goal for the loads. Safe in all may not shoot well in most, or it may. Upper limits may shoot lights out in one and like crap in the other. Determine what your expectations are for each and load to that.

All my guns have specific loads, even ones in the same cartridge.

Specific loads to specific guns. Case in point, several Lee-Enfields in stock, I keep the brass segregated so each gun only gets reloads that were fired in it. Cases last longer that way as I resize them to headspace off the shoulder and not the rim. Yeah, it's tedious, but they don't see the range all that often anyhow,...

I currently have 4 rifles in 308 and load several bullets for specific purposes. Some shoot better in specific rifles than in other rifles. But I don't specifically tweak loads for a specific rifle.

DMW1116 said:

I have a 223 load for one specific rifle and another for a different rifle and they don’t really cross over well. I have the same situation for my 2 9mm pistols and hollow points and I’m working on separate loads for FMJ. Is this normal or just me being really picky?

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yeah. everyone that reloads does.

I often do but I also often make loads for just about everything in a given caliber as well.

Yes! Most of our loads are firearm specific. That said, we don’t have many firearms of same cartridge! We test to see if accuracy is acceptable in multiple firearms, if it doesn’t meet expectations .....then it’s develop a specific load for a specific firearm.

For defense handguns (short range use), accuracy is not the issue....as it would be difficult to have any load with unacceptable accuracy at defense handgun range. Feed reliability trumps accuracy.....if feeding is reliable, same ammo for multiple firearms! Assuming same cartridge! memtb

I do, but I also gave a general load that shoots well out of all my guns in a specific caliber. My 9mm that I load in numbers shoots out off all my 9mm pistols and shoots well in a PCC in 9mm as well.

Rifle loads, well you are seeing. The single stage stage 50 at a time is the best way to go per specific rifle.

For me creating a load for a purpose is the point of reloading. With a slew of different firearms, all with barrels that measure differently and chambers that vary a lot, I have found combinations of bullet, powder and COL specifically tailored to a particular gun to be the key to accuracy . So much so that I track reloading by firearm in addition to caliber.

I have specific loads for each rifle . I do have a few loads that I use for my six .223 bolt rifles . All sized the same with the same COAL ,they shoot fine enough for casual steel and plinking but not quite benchrest accuracy . It's nice to load them up in bulk at times .

DMW1116 said:

Is this normal or just me being really picky?

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I load for a few rifles differently. Loading for example .308 Winchester I load certain loads for my M1A and my AR10 never using a powder slower than Varget and prefer IMR4895, IMR4064 and AA2495. My bolt guns I use a much wider range of powders. Loading .223 Remington I load heavy bullets for my faster twist guns but for my bolt gun with a 1:12 twist I load much differently. So while not rifle specific I do load for different types.

Ron

Like a lot of the fellers above I do tailor loads for specific guns. But a few share a load or two. I have 5, 44 Magnum guns and I mostly make up 3 different loads. I have 4, 9mm pistols that use 3 different loads. It doesn't make enough difference in my short barrel 38 Specials so I use one that works well them all. But there are also a few that will work best with only one load; a 9mm Tokerev needs .358" bullets, a 9mm Masada likes hefty charges with a Nosler 124 JHP, and my 44 Mag Contender sings with Ranch Dog 265 gr RNFP over WC 820 so I load up ammo specifically for these. Even my 22 rimfires have ammo preferences and I used to keep a stock on hand of their favorites...

I like reloading so custom reloading is just part of the fun...

It depends on the use of the rifle. When I was competing in Service Rifle, my service rifle loads were specific to my competition rifle.

I shoot prairie dogs with 204 Ruger rifles, an AR-15 and a Savage Model 12. I have a compromise load that gives good accuracy in both rifles so that I do not have to carry to the field two "tons" of ammunition instead of just one.

Every gun in my safe has it's own load. I was going to load some 270's for one of my friends and when I checked his rifle the COAL was .025 less than my gun. Both were Savage 110's. I am so glad that I checked the length before I started to work up a load. No way would one of my personal loads work in his gun.

I have a book for each gun, in which I detail things like measurements, preferred loads, round counts, and such. I still refer to them when it is time to load for a rifle, as each rifle gets its own load.

I have those books for revolvers as well, though I'm not quite sure where most of them are. I eventually got tired of finicky guns and so spent some money ensuring that each gun of a particular caliber is as dimensionally identical to the others as I could make them. Now, with very few exceptions, I can pick up any example of a particular caliber and know that it will work with my "standard" load.

DMW1116 said:

I have a 223 load for one specific rifle and another for a different rifle and they don’t really cross over well. I have the same situation for my 2 9mm pistols and hollow points and I’m working on separate loads for FMJ. Is this normal or just me being really picky?

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Yes, no and sometimes. Some guns require a special load - ex. a cut Webley Mk.1 in .455/.45ACP/AR. It's a black powder era revolver some idgit cut to take .45ACP in moon clips (yes, I know, "Moonclips Rule!!!" but not in a black powder era revolver. The fact that the Webley is still in one piece is a testament to their design and 18th Century British engineering; not I sure don't want to be holding it firing smokeless powder charges when time and metal fatigue catch up to it. I load special BP .45AR rounds for it using reproductions of the 265gr. .455" HBRN bullet original to the Mk.1. Likewise, I have some special BP loads for my .32H&R and .38S&W top break revolvers. On the opposite side of the street, I have some very "hot!" loads (I can't publish here) using 200gr. LRN bullets in the .38S&W based loosely on the old "38 Super Police" and .380 Mk.1 loads - but just a little hotter - for my solid-frame .38S&W revolvers and my one Webley Mk.IV top-break which is designed to fire the hottest of .380/200 loads.

Things like the T/C get their own loads and so do my hunting rifles. But, for the most part, I have three classes of load: shelf stock that's been refined to work in any weapon of a specific caliber, and work very well in most; special purchase loads I work up and load until the special item purchased is depleted, based on a component I bought special and won't be replacing; and, special purpose loads for hunting, target, or as mentioned above, a weapon that just can't use a common loading. So, yes, I do load for some guns but not all and some get real special treatment.

I used to have specific loads for each of my guns, but with all the guns I have, it was getting pretty ridiculous how many different specific loads I needed to maintain.

With a couple of exceptions, I tend to have a hunting load and a range load for each rifle caliber. For handguns I'll have a self defense/woods load and a range load for each caliber. This simplified things for me hugely, and I gave up very little accuracy-wise.

Everyone's goals are different though, so you need to do what works best for you.

DMW1116 said:

I have a 223 load for one specific rifle and another for a different rifle and they don’t really cross over well. I have the same situation for my 2 9mm pistols and hollow points and I’m working on separate loads for FMJ. Is this normal or just me being really picky?

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Tuning your loads to your guns is the prime benefit of reloading.
For me, that is much, much more important than "saving money".

I have a "blasting load" that works in everything in that caliber when I have multiple guns in that caliber but I also have an accurate load figured out for each firearm and have some of that made up for each one. I think how much you delve into it depends on what your end goal is though.