Abe Normal
New member
I found the post below on Tom Bowers board, and it's one of those questions I've been itching to ask but just haven't been able to put it quite as well as this guy Marky Mark.
Hi, guys. I'm looking for the happy medium between match benchrest reloading (super attention to every detail) and
high-volume production for rifle ammo. I have a Dillon 650 with casefeeder, and I regularly reload thousands of rounds for my
pistols and subguns, but I would like to have a bit more accuracy out of my rifle ammo.
I'm looking for the collective wisdom on which of the following steps is most helpful for accuracy:
1) weighing powder charges by hand (with tubular powder, the Dillon powder measure drops +/- 0.3 grains of nominal)
2) sorting components by weight
3) cleaning the primer pocket
4) deburring and uniforming the flash hole
5) being super anal on the case trim (I don't know to what tolerance the Dillon electric trimmer holds case lengths, but I've been
trimming to +/- .002" of trim-to length by hand... and it's getting old)
6) being super anal on the case-mouth deburring
7) neck turning
8) using brass with very slight dents (my semi-auto beats up the brass with amazing consistency -- I would reject ~50% of my
own empties if they had to be dent-free)
9) using match HPBT bullets versus factory-new (not pulled) FMJ-BT bullets.
10) using "benchrest" primers instead of regular primers
11) using "match" brass, new brass, 'range pickup' brass, or once-fired military brass
My question really is: which of these gives a high return (in accuracy) for the time and money invested? I want good ammo, not
great ammo, and I'd like to be able to make a lot of it without mortgaging the house and still have time left over to shoot some.
Thanks a lot!
Abe
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If everyone thought like me, I'd be a damn fool to think any different!
Hi, guys. I'm looking for the happy medium between match benchrest reloading (super attention to every detail) and
high-volume production for rifle ammo. I have a Dillon 650 with casefeeder, and I regularly reload thousands of rounds for my
pistols and subguns, but I would like to have a bit more accuracy out of my rifle ammo.
I'm looking for the collective wisdom on which of the following steps is most helpful for accuracy:
1) weighing powder charges by hand (with tubular powder, the Dillon powder measure drops +/- 0.3 grains of nominal)
2) sorting components by weight
3) cleaning the primer pocket
4) deburring and uniforming the flash hole
5) being super anal on the case trim (I don't know to what tolerance the Dillon electric trimmer holds case lengths, but I've been
trimming to +/- .002" of trim-to length by hand... and it's getting old)
6) being super anal on the case-mouth deburring
7) neck turning
8) using brass with very slight dents (my semi-auto beats up the brass with amazing consistency -- I would reject ~50% of my
own empties if they had to be dent-free)
9) using match HPBT bullets versus factory-new (not pulled) FMJ-BT bullets.
10) using "benchrest" primers instead of regular primers
11) using "match" brass, new brass, 'range pickup' brass, or once-fired military brass
My question really is: which of these gives a high return (in accuracy) for the time and money invested? I want good ammo, not
great ammo, and I'd like to be able to make a lot of it without mortgaging the house and still have time left over to shoot some.
Thanks a lot!
Abe
------------------
If everyone thought like me, I'd be a damn fool to think any different!