On other gun forums there are often postings dealing with variation among/between published loading data providers. Dialing in on minutia within the numbers, not seeing same in the field. Heartache when same powder, differently branded, falls short of Scripture.

I am a stickler for accuracy and consistency when handloading. I don't however seek the perfect load, try for 5 shot/one hole groups, though I once had a Ruger 77 Heavy in .22-250 that would do just that. I don't keep much records other than the wax pencil notes on the inside of the box of freshly re-minted rounds. Not good (suck) at math so data cruncher I'm not.

Don't load much these days, same for shoot. Along with off the rack eyewear, I use off the page data with happy results. I have yet to make a truly bad shot that was the fault of published data.

My routine is about as basic and boring as can be done, but would like to hear from other reloaders if you have some non standard approach that yields improved results. Mostly just for the fun of learning, but I've heard one of the three questions Peter asks at the Pearly Gates to gain entry has to do with reloading.

The way I see it, is I never start with a published max load. I always start low and work up to the most consistent load. It may take another trip or two to the range, but it's safe.

CDF

The only attempts to load to max were with the afore mentioned Ruger, and a lightweight .300 Win. The latter was because I was being insulted without injury and wished to correct that. Chasing tiny numbers around the cobblers bench seems a waste of time, money, components, especially given the cost of the consumable bits. That .22-250 made, if I did my part on a windless day, single, sharp holes from a fistful of rounds with just about any well assembled load and quality bullets. No supreme reloading wizardry on my part.

Just made me wonder how many weigh brass and bullets, along with powder, or do neck turning, flash hole fiddling, base truing, sacrifice primers to the gods. I've done those things but it's just waxing the car.

A true maximum load would, just after the bullet cleared the muzzle, cause the gun do disintegrate. I'd pay to watch that.

I'm saving all my reloading components for end of days. I got so much factory shit I wouldn't be able to reload 25% of it.

I use the scoops, and choose powder that will work with them and get me a middling load. Only weighing I do is the finished product to check for squibs.

wooglin wrote: Fri Dec 13, 2024 6:35 am I use the scoops, and choose powder that will work with them and get me a middling load. Only weighing I do is the finished product to check for squibs.

To me, any inaccuracies I get from using the scoops on hand gun ammo will be much smaller than my shooting errors--but they're all within the four ring anyway. Rifle loads I weigh. I don't know whether weighing handgun loads instead of using dippers will give any better performance for me? I don't think so.

CDF

wooglin wrote: Fri Dec 13, 2024 6:35 am I use the scoops, and choose powder that will work with them and get me a middling load. Only weighing I do is the finished product to check for squibs.

Just curious, which cartridges do you use this check for? At one point long ago, I would purchase .243 Win. brass, re-form it to .22-250 so as to have thick necks, which I would then turn for a better fit with the chamber. then segregate the cases by weight. I was what you might call "ate-up" with it. I sold that rifle to a dealer, but still have some of the brass with the now incorrect headstamp that I can't get rid of.

I have a set of old (red) Lee scoops, but like also to use a fixed rotor measure to avoid the scales. I keep a distance from the bathroom scales also.

I reload either all starline or all federal brass per sitting, depending, but not mixing. So all the brass is a relatively consistent weight, and all the primers and all the bullets are a relatively consistent weight. So when I weigh each finished reload I look for a consistent weight give or take _maybe_ a couple of grains at the outside. If I see variation approaching the weight of powder I'm using, I know I likely screwed up.

These are all handgun loads, and like CDF I'm mostly wanting it to go boom and not really looking for enhanced accuracy. They are also all light loads, so a little variation on the overcharged side is ok. I'm not about to hit the max. And a slight undercharge is at least going to be enough to exit the barrel.

I have never had much satisfaction from weighing finished cartridges. Maybe that's because I don't weigh the brass or the cast or jacketed bullets I use. Once I weighed a box of fifty RNFP for my .45LC Vaquero. I lined them up from lightest to heaviest. I noted there wasn't that many tenths of grains different between them. These were factory bullets, probably from Midway. But I reasoned again that my skills might now show any changes among them all, so I quit thinking about that.

When I weigh jacketed bullets, they're much closer. It's the cast ones where I saw some variability. If I cast my own I'd probably get a wider variation.

CDF

When I load rifle cartridges I am much more detail oriented than when I load for handguns. Handgun is just resize the brass and knock out the spent primers, expand the case mouths, polish them in a tumbler, reprime, charge with weighed powder charges, seat bullets with a taper crimp and check OAL with calipers on every tenth round.

With rifle rounds, I'm always loading for as much precision as I can get - cases get trimmed to OAL every time. I do not weigh them but I do check OAL after trimming and set the shoulders and resize the case mouths with dies. Them tumbled and reprimed. I don't weigh bullets - I only load factory, match grade bullets and they are seated with a micrometer seating die and checked with a caliper. I don't weigh finished rounds. I wipe them down with a clean chamois and store them in compartmented boxes.


My precision, hand loaded, 6.5 CM typically shoot .25 MOA better than factory match ammunition running the same bullet so I'm not motivated to change my loading process as I'm getting <1 MOA performance (usually more like .5 MOA performance) from my current procedure.

I think some guys are obsessed with stuff like annealing, weighing, sizing, and such and that's a good thing when we are pursuing accuracy to the Nth degree. For them....for me, handloading is a ritual that I completely enjoy almost as much as shooting.

VooDoo

Love the picture. Thanks for posting, this is the kind of thing I'm after, nuts-bolts, process and tools.