Necessities- Reloading for Factory Rifles

[Scot E]

[FONT=&quot]Gents,[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]After a bit of a hiatus from reloading, the archery bug got me pretty good and has consumed my time the last few years, I am in the process of getting back into rifles and reloading in large part because my oldest son is now ready to start hunting. So I am looking for the proper make/model/caliber for his first center-fire rifle and am looking at a long range gun for me as well. During this process I have been reading a ton of threads here trying to figure out specifics as both guns, for sure my son's, will be a factory gun in standard cartridge at least till he burns out his first barrel. It seems appropriate to start at the reloading side then work backwards to determine what make/model/caliber to get.
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[FONT=&quot]In my reading I have found some fascinating threads on various procedures used for reloading for accuracy and consistency. One thing that surprised me a bit was the numerous mentions that much of the extreme measures that reloaders take to get the most accurate loads may not do much with a factory gun. As an example, I just read the article [/FONT]http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/f28/resizing-full-length-neck-sizing-die-61398/[FONT=&quot] discussing the merits of neck sizing vs. full length sizing, a fascinating read. It also mentioned much of the benefits seen from the extra prep work aren't advantageous with a factory rifle due to generous sized chambers and other issues caused by factory quality guns.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]So this got me to thinking about what the consensus is for accuracy reloading for factory rifles and long range accuracy. What is really worthwhile and what isn't when it comes to reloading for a factory gun, i.e., Savage or Remington 700 and maybe Howa, regarding neck turning, brass prep and sizing, brass and bullet sorting by weight, and the other parts of reloading, etc? Is there a list of the To Do's for factory guns vs custom chambered guns? Also, what tools do you consider essential for long range accuracy reloading in factory guns?[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Thanks for the input.
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[greener280]

Its hard to determine what you should do without knowing what tools you have at your disposal. You can spend a lot of money really quickly when it gets down to it. If it were me I would uniform the primer pockets, de-burr the flash hole and de-burr the inside and outside of the neck, also check and make sure your case length isn't too long. When it comes down to actually reloading the ammo you have a lot of options in dies (RCBS have worked great for me in my factory guns), this is one area where you could get into some money but a $50 die works pretty well. Now for tools for seating your bullet, two things that I use a lot are a bullet comparator (Hornady one works well) and a Hornady seating depth tool (allows you to finds where the bullet touches the lands). After I do my brass prep and find my lands using the bullet comparator I will usually seat my bullets .015 off of my lands and do pretty well from there.

Hope this helped a little.

 

[Scot E]

I have a trimmer, debur tool, champfer tool, comparator, seating depth too and RCBS dies.
I was thinking about adding a neck trimmer and run out gauge but am not sure how necessary that is now. Was also thinking about getting dies that use mandrels and not the expansion balls like RCBS as I have heard these are better on case longevity and accuracy but again not sure if this deals with factory guns or just the custom stuff.

Thanks for the info.

 

[Trickymissfit]

to start out with I really only neck size for my rounds that are in 22 and 6mm centerfire. All the rest I reload just like everybody else does. I personally like Forster dies, but also reallize everybody has his own opinions. I prime most of the time with the Forster prime setup on the back of my Forster press (just always worked well for me, so I keep using it), but have strayed from time to time when I discovered a new tool. Now I use nothing but the Forster or a K&M. I measure powder with an electronic scale (Pacts to be exact), and trickle like anybody else does when using long grain powders. I also have two powder measurers I use all the time, but have been thru four or five others. I use a generic Lyman #55 with the Sinclair bottle attachment kit, and a Harrell Culver measurer. With ball powders there is very little difference between the two. I also use several different drop tubes, and this can be a big difference. I trim all my rifle cases with a Wilson case trimmer, but still do my revolver cases with an old Lyman.

I also use a small K&M arbor press and several sets of Wilson dies plus one custom built set by Pendel (cut off his .222 match chamber reamer). My case forming setup is similar to the above, but also have a small RCBS press I use to cut off cases (easier than using the Forster).
gary

 

[Trickymissfit]

I have a trimmer, debur tool, champfer tool, comparator, seating depth too and RCBS dies.
I was thinking about adding a neck trimmer and run out gauge but am not sure how necessary that is now. Was also thinking about getting dies that use mandrels and not the expansion balls like RCBS as I have heard these are better on case longevity and accuracy but again not sure if this deals with factory guns or just the custom stuff.

Thanks for the info.

I like the stem setup on a Forster sizer better than the others
gary

 

[Troutslayer2]

I'm no expert but I've been turning out great ammo for over a year for factory rifles. I finally got a Wilson case trimmer last month, up until now, I didn't have enough brass growth to need one. I still do not have anything to turn case necks. I do not have anything to measure runout. I do not really have anything to measure of the ogive of the bullet, although I can do this with some rod stops by chambering a dummy round and measuring from the muzzle. I do not know how to go about annealing my cases. I have never weight sorted anything, but I think I would if I had a digital scale. In all reality, there are some things that you need to do and some things that are possibly superfluous. If the end result is safe ammo to shoot animals with there are a lot of things that you read about on here that you do not need. A good reloading manual tells you what you NEED to do, a lot of threads on here tell you what you could do to make things more accurate.

IMO- the best thing you can do with a factory hunting gun is to install a magazine that will allow you to put the bullet closer to the lands. Second best thing is probably bedding it.