Poodocker:You have left out so much vital information that what you have said is virtually meaningless.
I did give the most important information when I caveated the statement with the word "Personally", indicating that this is how I do it, not how the world at large does it. BTW, "Poodleshooter" is a Vietnam era slang for the M-16/AR-15 series of weapons.
Obviously, you don't need any of the above to "wing it" with your rifle, given your experience at handloading.
I realize from your website that you are much more experienced than I am (only reloading for 12 years or so), but if failing to take into account the entire list of variables that you gave.....
You need to state what kind of rifle, the caliber and note whether the chamber falls within SAAMI specifications for this caliber and if the dimensions are on the low or high side of the tolerance given. Yup, you need a micrometer.
You need to give the diameter of the throat.
You need to give the groove diameter precisely.
You need to determine how much excess headspace your rifle has by closing the bolt on a cartridge and a small piece of steel shim stock. Remove the striker for safety reasons. This rearward expansion can be a factor in weakening the case at the web and giving false "stickiness" feel on extraction.
You need to state what cases you use and whether they are unfired or reloaded and how many times reloaded.
If reloaded, state what die set you use and if it full length or merely neck sizes the cases.
Then give the length of the throat and the proximity of the bullet ogive to the rifling, i.e., a slight gap of X thousandths, touching the lands, etc. THEN give the bullet make, weight and powder charge
.....is "winging it", then every reloader that I know is "winging it" to some degree or another.
But, there are first time reloaders on this forum that are going to take what you say as a guide. If they have a different rifle, caliber, different ammunition and loading dies, use different brands of case, primer, powder and bullets the observations you have made just might result in different results than those you have had for all of those years.
Yes, that is true. And yes, they may see different results. However, if we caveat every statement we make about reloading here with "These results will have no bearing on what you just asked", then what is the point of posting? We come here to give tidbits of information to one another. Anyone who announces themselves as a newbie gets a first recommendation to buy several manuals and take everything read here with a grain of salt.
You could spend a day or so pondering your definition of primers flattening. Just beginning to lose the roundness at the edge of the primer pocket, totally flat, ironed out flat, picking up some kind of characteristic like ironed out primer indent, rudimentary flow into the firing pin hole, etc., etc.
One man's rifle may show these things out of sequence as the pressure spikes. Someone who crimps the case mouth may find yet another set of clues.
I've seen rifles that were carefully chambered by a gunsmith who was a member of the Pennsylvania Original 1500 yard shooters that fired rounds approaching proof pressures that would befuddle someone trying to use your criteria.
Again, to my knowledge, most reloading manuals don't go beyond the pictures and descriptions of "flattened" and "cratered" primers. Do those pictures exactly duplicate the results that the reader will see in his rifle? Of course not. They are no different than my rather general suggestions.
The best you can say is that you have not had any problems to date (or have you?)
I blew a primer once on a 100+ degree day in a .223 while developing match loads. I have never blown a casehead, and still haven't seen any cracked brass except in surplus factory ammo. Never in my reloads.
What you are doing is only for very experienced handloaders who like to live on the edge. Frankly, I have never heard of a target or a game animal that could tell the difference of fifty to a hundred feet per second difference in velocity of the bullet.
Whenever I develop a load, I run the load up until I see beginning pressure signs, at which point I quit and usually drop down to the last load below the pressure period. I do like to know where pressure develops for records purposes. In fact, I have to know this, as factory manuals occasionally list charges exceeding those posible in my weapons by a large margin.
If you are a first time handloader, do not deviate from the book, and compare the reloading book to the powder maker's data book.
I agree, but with the strict criterion you have given for beginners, they would need to duplicate the rifle and all other test data used to develop every load in the book! Yes, beginners should follow the manual, drop 10%,etc, but exact duplication is never going to be possible due to lot variations, and a host of other variables.
If you decide to use the scrape marks on the case as an indicator, there are several things that could make your rifle's ballistics different from the person's rifle who gives the instructions.
He may have a bolt action and you have an autoloader.
You may use small base dies.
Your chamber may be slightly funnel mouthed for certainty of feed.
Etc.
Just for the thread author's benefit-my data for rifles is derived from loading for 5 different bolt actions in different calibers and models, one lever action and 2 semi-automatics. All using Lee and Redding dies. All with factory chambers, as I don't bother with cerrosafe. If that isn't enough, or if anything I say is found to contradict that in any manual, then ignore my statements.
Then, there are handguns that don't give up this "seat of the pants" data as easily as a rifle, and the consequences could be that somebody is hurt. Trust the loading book author, not the self-styled reloading guru at the range.
Very true. As Reagan said: "Trust, but verify".
And, if you feel that you need more velocity than max loads, consider that you may be using an inferior bullet design. Some of the most expensive ones out there are ineffective under certain conditions.
I actually load light, as I shoot a lot of thin jacketed Remington and Winchester bullets.
I'm not trying to be difficult; I'm just worried whenever I sit down to a shooting bench to the right of somebody I don't know. I've been seriously hurt twice due to other people's handloads and I hate hospitals. Been in the E room twice in the past two weeks and I've seen enough of it. I don't think you'd enjoy going through what I've been through.
So, remember that when using some powders, the pressure curve spikes straight up with little to no forewarning signs.
I don't shoot other peoples handloads. I also avoid reloaders I haven't shot with before. From your history, I certainly understand your concern!
However, I still feel that my statement about the appearance of pressure signs, while not as complete as it could be, is quite safe as what is said in it is echoed in many reloading manuals.
If we had to annotate every statement here with enough information to protect every fool out in the world, we'd never finish our posts.
)
a good 300 fps slower than spec. Since then I have found a couple other cases where factory loads weren't up to snuff.
