In all of my Googling around about reloading (handloading) ammo, I’ve come across some interesting articles
Right now my mindset is thinking about the .223 Remington reloads that I’ve been writing about lately. I’ve got some Barnes TSX .224″ 53 grain on hand and have some 62 grain on order. I’m wanting to use the 62 grain (I’d like a heavier bullet), but just in case this particular rifle can’t stabilize 62 grain (it should) then I’ll fall back to 53 grain.
So I’ve been thinking about what powder to use. TAC meters very well and seems to produce some of the highest velocities at a relatively low density (by comparison). H-4895 and Varget produce velocities on the lower end of the chart (tho still quite fast), and have at or just over 100% load density. In reading the article on load density and the general tips, it seems to me I’d be likely to eek out a more accurate load using the H-4895 or Varget, based on filling the case up plus the shape of these 2 powders. However, the TAC’s accuracy may be good enough for hunting, plus a little extra velocity out in the field I believe would be useful. On the same token however, I don’t think the differences will amount to much in the real world… this is all just looking at tables and numbers.
That general reloading tips article has a bunch of other useful tips about extended brass life, measuring lands. Good stuff.
Fr Frog has an article about how to develop an accurate load.
Fr Frog also discusses how changing just one component can affect the performance of a reload. Components are not directly interchangeable. I liked this bit of math for determining your “work up” increment:
No wonder the reloading manuals caution you to drop at least 10 percent from any maximum charge data and slowly work up. A good rule of thumb for the amount of an increment to use when working up from a starting load is to fill the case to the base of the neck with the powder you are using, dump and weight the powder, and to then use 1 percent of that weight as an increment. As an example, if your case would hold 55 grains of the powder you are using a good “increment” would be .5 (5/10) of a grain. Once you get “in the ball park” for accuracy (see the article on load development) you could then cut that increment to about half (say to .2 gr in this case) to fine tune things.
Tons of random reloading snippets of knowledge.
Everyone talks about looking for signs of high pressure, but often they don’t explain what that can be. While this isn’t in-depth, this page has a quick list of things to look for:
Watch for signs of high pressure while working up a handload. This means extraction difficulty (however slight), flattened primers, cratered primers, ironed-out headstamps, polished headstamps, ejector marks, case-head expansion, and excessive recoil and muzzle blast. And anything else whatever that strikes you as abnormal about the load.
Stuff From Hsoi 
For rifle loads, I’ve been working through a 32lb batch of milsurp WC846 that I bought back when such things were affordable. I’ve also got some Ramshot TAC that I hoarded back from those days as well. Both meter well in the Dillon 550B and both give consistent performance when using standard NATO equivalent loadings for 55gr and 62gr FMJ in .223 and 147gr FMJ in 7.62N/.308 (which is all I ever load anyway).
What I HATE HATE HATE about rifle cartridge reloading is case prep. Nobody has created a progressive press yet (non-commercial for mere mortals anyway) that allows you to tumble clean only once, go directly from tumbler to press, and get 100% ready to fire ammo coming out the other side of press after some number of pulls of a lever. This is possible with straight wall pistol ammo, and after the ease and speed of loading 9mm or 45ACP the glacial pace of lubing, sizing, trimming and primer pocket swaging done manually its utterly frustrating. I have considered using a brass processing service to do this for me so I can go directly into my press but the best pricing I have seen for this is $30/1000 plus USPS flat rate shipping both ways (http://custombrassprocessing.homestead.com/). This seriously cuts into the savings one is supposed to incur by doing your own reloading, so I don’t really know if its worth it. Until I win the lottery and can buy my own $100k+ Camdex commercial automated reloading setup, the slow and frustrating way will have to suffice, as painful as it is.
I’m leaning towards using the TAC for the .223 load because on paper it looks like it’ll probably give me what I want. Plus being a bit less expensive well… that helps long-term. But I am going to see how my experiments go (current thoughts listed at the bottom of this post:
https://hsoiblog.wordpress.com/2009/12/16/on-primer-selection/
but who knows if that will change before the actual day of loading comes).
Yeah, all the case prep I’m not looking forward to either. This is part of what enters into the debate of “is it worth it?” to reload. All the time and hassle. But if you enjoy the hobby….
$30 per 1000 + shipping doesn’t seem too bad. That’s $0.03/round (or maybe what? $0.05 or $0.10 at WAY FAR most after shipping is added? I have no idea how much shipping this would be). It cuts into cost savings sure, but it also greatly cuts into the time investment. How long would it take you to fully prep 1000 cases? Not to mention the “quality of life” issue from the sheer hassle of prepping 1000 cases. It seems like that cost savings may well be worth it. Of course, that also depends upon the quality of the service this guy provides… ever used him?
Ive never used the guy, but from the reviews Ive read on arfcom and THR, he seems to have a pretty good service. A large flat rate box will hold 2500 .223 cases, so your total cost for brass processing with shipping both TO and FROM the guy will be around $0.04. To me thats a LOT, since i bought most of my ammo back when Wolf 55gr FMJ .223 was around $0.11/rd. delivered. Yeah, I know the market price is double that now, but that set the bar on how much I know it CAN be sold for (that is, Im fairly certain that both the manufacturers and importers costs have not doubled since 2003 and that most of that price increase is profiting-taking on market, not a reflection of significant increased cost on the part of everyone involved in getting it to retail).
So yeah, its hard for me to cough up 4 cents a round on what is effectively labor alone. I’d consider around 1-2 cents/round to be tolerable but any more than that is hard to justify when I still have thousands of rounds of ready to fire ammo I bought at around a dime a round.
Understood.
Of course, if prices are only going to go up… could it be worthwhile to get some of the ammo prepped now at “today’s prices” before tomorrow when you run lower on ready-to-fire ammo and are forced to reload?
Or better… just have kids and teach them how to do all the leg work. 😉