TexasSeaRay
New member
It's been almost five years to the week since I last reloaded anything for either of my 30-06 rifles (pre-64 Winchester Model 70 and a Savage 110B), let alone even shot them.
Good news/bad news.
Bad news is that I was afraid I'd be a bit rusty with both the reloading and the shooting. Good news is that I found all my old reloading and shooting notes for both guns.
I guess the handicap was loading on obviously inferior, questionable, cheap Lee equipment. The whole time I was wondering if these rounds might get confused and try to shoot the wrong way out of the gun.
One thing was for certain--according to some of the experts, no way in hell was I going to produce ammo as good as what my blue machine could produce.
But hey, what the hell? Life is all about challenges, right?
I spent almost six hours reloading a whopping total of sixteen 30-06 rounds. Was very particular about weighing each case, trimming, chamfering, deburring the flash hole, weighing each bullet, trickling the powder in the scale, etc etc.
Thought about getting some snap caps to practice my dry firing, but figured that all that marksmanship training we got at the interservice school at Benning would never leave me.
Set up my four-holer target at 100 yards, adjusted my grip, got a spot weld and knocked out four rounds for each load.
The particulars are Federal brass, Speer 150 grain SP bullets, IMR 4350 powder and CCI large rifle primers. LOT of case prep work before any of the components even got close.
But, it all paid for itself.
At 100 yards, using a sandbag to cradle my elbow just like I was taught thirty-something years ago by Uncle Sam.
I guess my old cheap Chevy reloading setup gets by. Even better was that the gun that did this was my Savage--a brand some put in the same category as Lee.
Jeff
Good news/bad news.
Bad news is that I was afraid I'd be a bit rusty with both the reloading and the shooting. Good news is that I found all my old reloading and shooting notes for both guns.
I guess the handicap was loading on obviously inferior, questionable, cheap Lee equipment. The whole time I was wondering if these rounds might get confused and try to shoot the wrong way out of the gun.
One thing was for certain--according to some of the experts, no way in hell was I going to produce ammo as good as what my blue machine could produce.
But hey, what the hell? Life is all about challenges, right?
I spent almost six hours reloading a whopping total of sixteen 30-06 rounds. Was very particular about weighing each case, trimming, chamfering, deburring the flash hole, weighing each bullet, trickling the powder in the scale, etc etc.
Thought about getting some snap caps to practice my dry firing, but figured that all that marksmanship training we got at the interservice school at Benning would never leave me.
Set up my four-holer target at 100 yards, adjusted my grip, got a spot weld and knocked out four rounds for each load.
The particulars are Federal brass, Speer 150 grain SP bullets, IMR 4350 powder and CCI large rifle primers. LOT of case prep work before any of the components even got close.
But, it all paid for itself.
At 100 yards, using a sandbag to cradle my elbow just like I was taught thirty-something years ago by Uncle Sam.
I guess my old cheap Chevy reloading setup gets by. Even better was that the gun that did this was my Savage--a brand some put in the same category as Lee.
Jeff
