Double Droptine

The more I know about reloading the more I realize I don't know about reloading. I am only a beginner and want to learn alot on the subject but will need to take it one small step at a time.

I still don't understand the full importance of a chronograph IF I am careful and I keep consistent with my other aspects of reloading.

My current goal is to become accurate with my hunting loads. Most of my shots will be under 200 yards and rarely up to 400 yards.

I currently use only the same type brass, same primers, clean inside and out of the flash holes, measure length of brass and length of finished load, use the same powder, and trickle charge every load.

I thought once I found a weight in powder that gave me the best group I stay with that. I would also compare different powders against each other to see if one powder would work better than another in my gun.

If I trickle charge every load and if my brass, primers, etc are consistent shouldn't the veolcity be roughly the same and therefore not need a chronograph?

I was also considering picking up a concentricity tool but wonder about the importance of that.

I understand how important the chronograph and the concentricity tools plus the Lapua brass and the match grade primers, etc. are if I'm shooting for competition or want 1/2" groups at mega yardages but are they really needed for developing a good hunting load to put that bullet in an elk's boiler room at 350 yards.

I enjoy reading everyone's thoughts on this. Thank you!

homers brother

Maybe a better question would be, "How do I make sure that the care and consistency I strive toward in my reloading practices are effective?"

For most of us, we measure that effectiveness in group sizes. Unfortunately, and as I've stated previously, there are other influences on group size besides just your ammuntion. The only way you can isolate out variances caused by ammunition is with a chronograph. How are you ensuring you're isolating out or mitigating those other, non-ammunition-related sources of variance?

Without a chronograph, there's a fairly high probability that you'll end up adjusting the load when the problem might be in your sight picture, stock weld, or something else.

You'll probably find less shot-to-shot variance than if you don't, but you're only able to assume to what degree they have any impact on group sizes. I did all of those things at one point and still found variances above what cheap factory loads performed at.

I paid more for my concentricity gauge than I did for my chronograph. Concentricity is important when you're shooting at extreme ranges or target shooting, but it's a minute detail if all you're doing is hunting at less than 400 yards.

Just for the record, my brass is either plain old Winchester or Remington. On one hand, I'm getting more performance out of those than I'd probably gain in the extra expense of Lapua or Nosler brass. I get 1/2" groups at 200 yards (1/4" at 100) because my ammunition is rock-solid consistent. If I miss, it's not because of my ammunition or my rifle.

When I started reloading 30-some years ago, there really wasn't any "premium" ammunition available from the factories. Hornady (Frontier) was possibly the one exception. Realistically, if all one desires is to shoot premium bullets today, you have far more factory offerings than reloading makes economically feasible. You can buy quite a few boxes of premium factory loads with what you'll spend on a good press, scale, powder measure, trickler, manuals, dies, etc. - and that's just to get started.

I managed to kill game cleanly with my poorer reloading attempts for 15-or-so years, do you need 1/2" groups? Certainly not. It's entirely the perogative of each shooter. Myself - if I'm investing time and resources on reloading that I could be spending on my family or other pursuits instead, I'm making it count for everything I can.

Don Fischer

Good posts by homers brother! May be a bit to detailed for a beginner and I have an idea it could get even more detailed. There is one thing true about reloading. Just about the time you have it figured out something happens you can't explain. Example is the standard deivation. Without a doubt the smaller that number, the more consistent your ammo should be. But not always true. I have one rifle. a 30-06, using cast bullets that will group under an inch at 50yds and has a standard dieivation of over 100! Don't ask me how that works, I'm stumped. I have a couple rifles shooting jacketed bullet loads that also shoot better than they should judging by the standard dieivation.

All those things are theory that can be proven right, the vast majority of the time. But now and then something happens and the theory gets thrown out the window and I haven't a clue why!

The bottom line in the whole shooting game is what do you get on the target. Your shooting at most 400yds, you can get by without a chronograph nicely. You won't have a clue what your velocity might be and often it's better you don't know. Your best loads may be under some velocity you think you need. For what your talking about, all you need to see is what's on the target at the different ranges you shoot.

Really good break down by homers brother though! When you get to that point you'll probably be answering the questions rather than asking them.

Pawildman

..... Yep. Absolutely correct. A great synopsis of why a chronograph is definitely NOT a NEEDED piece of equipment for a reloader who is starting out. Worry more about getting it tight on the paper first. I also have a 7-08 Rem. CDL that shoots both 140 gr. Accubonds and Ballistic Tips interchangeably, both just about 1". The SD of both these loads would make you cringe. But there it is, right on the paper. Go figure.....

homers brother

I started out with the old "Lee Loader", which is still on the market, by the way. Never comfortable with the safety of the "scoops", I bought a scale (RCBS 5-0-5) not long afterward. That'd be an investment of about $150 in today's dollars, which I could probably make it pay for itself in less than 100 rounds.

Truth is, no one NEEDS anything beyond very basic tools if all you're doing is resizing the neck, replacing the primer, replacing the powder, and replacing the bullet. But we WANT....

We want speed. We want volume. We want easy.

A single-stage press gets us quite a bit more speed and volume for not a lot of money. I switched to an RCBS Rockchucker Kit in 1987 and still use many of its components yet today (sold the scale that came with it). For quite some time (almost 20 years), it was all that I NEEDED... I was getting 1 to 1-1/2 inch groups, hunting at less than 200 yards, ...

Until I wanted accuracy (enter the prairie dog town).

There are a LOT of tools and operations associated with putting together precision ammunition, and I probably spent another $700 on those tools before I landed on the one data element that had escaped me from the very beginning - velocity - which was provided by the chronograph. Once I'd corrected that omission, all the pieces of my reloading bench started falling into place and working together. Had I bought the chronograph earlier?....

There are a lot of guys out there who are perfectly happy lobbing premium projectiles at game and thinking they're saving money reloading them over buying them from a pretty box. As long as they don't assume their premium projectiles will achieve the same accuracy as the pretty box rounds, there probably isn't a reason in the world for them to do anything differently.

Reloading is a lot like an internal combustion engine. Yeah. It'll run with things not quite working together, but it's not going to be efficient and may not get us where we want it to go all of the time. Tuned, things are a lot different. The question is, when you're ready to tune it, do you buy the right tools or do you replace the stereo?

Bernie P.

Of those I have the Lee manual has the most load data and costs about half what I paid for Nosler' and Lyman manuals.