First Reload shoot!

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DaveH14 said:
Mine is showing 5.56 x45 Nato 4150 CrMov 11422. 1 in 7 twist. 17+ "
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I forgot to congratulate you! I remember the first time I shot my own re-loads, a little apprehension, then confidence when it works! Congratulations! :)

So, you answered my question, but now we need to know if you understand why I asked?:cool:
 
@DaveH14, welcome to THR. This is a great place with a real wealth of information. Stay awhile and take advantage of it. Enjoy the journey/hobby/addiction and stay safe while doing it. Congrats on shooting your first reloads, it's a great feeling, and yours look like a good grouping/load. You can always adjust your sights/scope or hone your shooting skills as needed to get on the bullseye. Or play a bit more with the load you made to see if you can improve it. Or.... Welcome to the rabbit hole, lol!

My first reloads were great, fed, fired, ejected perfectly. Unfortunately I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with them from inside the barn. It wasn't my gun or shooting skills, it was my reloads. Almost 4 years later, and they shoot very accurately, and being honest my shooting skills haven't improved, my reloads have. My first reloads were for my 45acp 1911 if it matters, and now I load for about five different calibers, including .223 in my AR.

Keep at it, looks like you have a great start!

chris
 
DaveH14 said:
Mine is showing 5.56 x45 Nato 4150 CrMov 11422. 1 in 7 twist. 17+ "
Click to expand...

A 1:7 twist will likely shoot a 62gr or greater better than the light 55 gr. For match quality it's hard to beat 69gr SMK. For a cheap bullet look at the RMR 69gr HPBT in house bullet. These are around 1/2 the price of SMK's. Your 1:7 may like pills up to the 90 gr range, 75-80gr should be shoe in. But to be careful of OAL if you want to mag feed.
 
Hugger-4641 said:
I forgot to congratulate you! I remember the first time I shot my own re-loads, a little apprehension, then confidence when it works! Congratulations! :)

So, you answered my question, but now we need to know if you understand why I asked?:cool:
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Yes Hugger- I was a little more than apprehensive. LOL. I thought you asked only because of curiosity.
 
DaveH14 said:
Yes Hugger- I was a little more than apprehensive. LOL. I thought you asked only because of curiosity.
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Well, since I don't know how much you know or what research you've done, what I was wondering is if you knew how different twist rates affect different weights of bullets?
Your 1/7 twist is probably going to like heavier bullets like 69gr to 75gr. It will work fine for 55gr, but you are likely to get better groups with a heavier bullet.
I was mostly just curious about your barrel length, but it can make a difference. Since you said you have a 17" barrel, it's almost a given that you have a carbine length gas system, which is the most common and arguably the most forgiving and reliable.
If you told me you had a 10.5" barrel, I wouldn't try to offer much advice for more accurate loads. :cool:
 
DaveH14 said:
Newby at reloading. Only available primers for my .556 AR were the CCI 41 milspec. primers. The CCI, mentioned previous post were not actually available. So I went to the range with progressive loads using the CCI 41's. My check round for comparison were PMC .223 Bronze 55 grain FMJ. (I assume small rifle primer). All reloads had 55grain Hornady FMJ bullets in various cases that were resized using the same die. Accurate 2230 powder.

The PMC was dead on bullseye at 50 yards. The progressive loads were slightly higher and to the right but within an inch of the original. Target photo attached. I don't trust the cheap scale I have and will be duplicating the next time with a quality digital scale. But for the first reload I was happy with the group. Could the CCI 41 have cause the hotter shot or could the data be ignored because of questionable scale? Anyhoo I stayed way below the recommended top grain load in the book.
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Welcome to the high road.
Like several others posted. Point of impact varies even when you use a different powder to get the some velocity. 50 yards is too close to tell a lot. But if you only shoot to 50 or 100 yards. It will be fine.
A cheap balance beam scale is more repeatable than a cheap electronic. I have tried using the RCBS balance beam that comes in the partner kit. It's the only balance beam I would throw away. Just make sure the important parts are metal.
Anderson makes a reasonably priced adjustable gas block. Once I find my load. I like to turn the gas down till it barely runs without being unreliable.
Having shot PMC in my AR I would say you're not doing too shabby.
 
I use the basic Lee balance beam scale. Our lab used balance beam scales up to a couple years ago. I developed a trust in them from that.

I find Hornady bullets have a different impact point from other manufacturers. That may be the cause of the impact shift. I had my 30-30 zeroed with Winchester soft points and every Hornady bullet I tried hit 3-4 inches right of the Winchesters. My Hornady Amax load in 308 hits 2” left and lower than my Sierra Match King load. It keeps my cold-bore first shot test interesting.

Welcome to THR and reloading. 223 was the second rifle cartridge I tried. I started with 30-30 just because I figured the manual action would be more forgiving. I try a lot of stuff in that, but 223 I try to keep in standard ranges for cycling.

I tend to stay on the lower half of published data ranges for rifles. I also usually stay away from 5.56 loads, mostly because my data sources didn’t list them when I started. I have a 1/7 twist as well and found 52 grain and 75-77 grain bullets about even for accuracy. Some factory 68 grain loads turned my rifle into a shotgun so I haven’t been back to them. Hopefully that was brand specific. I have a box of the RMR 69 grain bullets to try with a supply of CCI #41 primers. Should be good.
 
DMW1116 said:
I use the basic Lee balance beam scale. Our lab used balance beam scales up to a couple years ago. I developed a trust in them from that.

I find Hornady bullets have a different impact point from other manufacturers. That may be the cause of the impact shift. I had my 30-30 zeroed with Winchester soft points and every Hornady bullet I tried hit 3-4 inches right of the Winchesters. My Hornady Amax load in 308 hits 2” left and lower than my Sierra Match King load. It keeps my cold-bore first shot test interesting.

Welcome to THR and reloading. 223 was the second rifle cartridge I tried. I started with 30-30 just because I figured the manual action would be more forgiving. I try a lot of stuff in that, but 223 I try to keep in standard ranges for cycling.

I tend to stay on the lower half of published data ranges for rifles. I also usually stay away from 5.56 loads, mostly because my data sources didn’t list them when I started. I have a 1/7 twist as well and found 52 grain and 75-77 grain bullets about even for accuracy. Some factory 68 grain loads turned my rifle into a shotgun so I haven’t been back to them. Hopefully that was brand specific. I have a box of the RMR 69 grain bullets to try with a supply of CCI #41 primers. Should be good.
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the only thing that can effect the balance scale is a change in gravity. Think Planet X approaching Earth orbit event.
 
Mark_Mark said:
the only thing that can effect the balance scale is a change in gravity. Think Planet X approaching Earth orbit event.
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You’ve clearly never seen me operate one.

The biggest issue is the lab versions we used had a ceramic bearing V and a triangle edge lapped sharp sitting in it. We’d use them in the field a lot and if they weren’t stored properly while driving they’d vibrate and wear the steel edge and start to stick a little. If stored properly they'd last your entire career.
 
DMW1116 said:
You’ve clearly never seen me operate one.

The biggest issue is the lab versions we used had a ceramic bearing V and a triangle edge lapped sharp sitting in it. We’d use them in the field a lot and if they weren’t stored properly while driving they’d vibrate and wear the steel edge and start to stick a little. If stored properly they'd last your entire career.
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I can literally throw my balance at the wall and it would still work!

RCBS should make a Long Beam Balance for more sensitivity thus = more accuracy
 
If I can do that then breaking a scale should be easy.
All that said, I trust my balance beam scale at least as much as a fairly expensive digital.
 
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Nice group. I wouldn't worry about them being different than the commercial rounds. A little different recipe has a little different results. By all means have a scale you can trust (buying new/more gear is fun), even if just having check weights or another cheap scale or both so you can compare and be super confident in your product. There's always room for more in the rabbit hole.
 
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