New rifle and reloads

[bstomper]

Just bought a new rifle and will be reloading for it. I haven't even shot it yet. I bought all the components for reloading, new brass included. I sized, trimmed and prepared all the brass and it's ready to start reloading. Now I assume I will have to do some sort of barrel break in before I start load development and as far as the new brass goes, should I fire the brass once before I start. what's the best way to proceed with this.

 

[DJ Fergus]

Just bought a new rifle and will be reloading for it. I haven't even shot it yet. I bought all the components for reloading, new brass included. I sized, trimmed and prepared all the brass and it's ready to start reloading. Now I assume I will have to do some sort of barrel break in before I start load development and as far as the new brass goes, should I fire the brass once before I start. what's the best way to proceed with this.

Not that it matters a whole lot but what caliber & rifle?

 

[Mark M.]

I would say it depends on what type of rifle this is and what you expect from it, can you elaborate a little more of what you have

 

[Mram10us]

This is one of the most divisive topics around Hold on!

John kreiger (I think he makes barrels), has this philosophy at the 0:55 mark

 

[bstomper]

Savage 12 in 6.5 creedmoor. I want to use it for playing with some medium to long range shooting and hunting

 

[DJ Fergus]

As far as break in, it's been a while since I've had a factory barrel. You are trying to break it in, hoping that it will reduce copper fouling in the long run and level out. Also you are smoothing out where the reamer cut the throat into the rifling upon first several shots. But it's a toss up with some factory barrels cause they can just keep on fouling. I'm my opinion, higher velocity cartridges can be worse about copper fouling. A factory 270 wsm I had was so bad that it was only good for about 30 shots or so before I had to clean it again to get Tight groups. But break in when done with care won't hurt anything. 6.5 creedmoor should not be as heavy of a fouling round as a 270 wsm. Being as you are new to reloading, I would break it in with cheap factory ammo. When you clean it, it will probably take 3 more shots off a clean barrel for you velocity to stabilize. Long story made short, your barrel is probably going to speed up after about 100 rounds from being a new barrel. If you find a load before that, you may have to adjust it down afterwards. 6.5 creedmoor is a great cartridge to start reloading for.

 

[nvschütze]

My break-in procedure is ten singles (clean between each round); five doubles (clean after each two-shot set); three triples (clean after each three-shot set); two quads (clean after each four-shot set) and one quint (clean after the final five-shot set). That's forty-two rounds. Takes about five hours, but I'm never in a hurry when I'm out in the desert doing it. I just accept that it has to be done. Praise God we only have to do it once per rifle...

 

[DJ Fergus]

There's different methods & different schools of thought on hand loading/ load development. Do a search on ladder test. Without writing a whole book here, I'm looking for velocity nodes, where the velocity starts to flatten out across increasing charge increments. You will usually be able to find more than one or two with in the safe velocity range of your cartridge. You can go with which one gave you the best group size. Then when your brass yeilds a different velocity from that after being once fired & resized, you will adjust velocity back to that node. This may be completely different from what others do and I way over simplified it. Some other folks will jump in here in a bit to give you more advice. My thumbs are getting sore from typing, lol.

 

[bstomper]

I should have explained this a bit better, my bad. I have successfully reloaded for a few different rifles now and have a process that works great for me, so the reloading parts is not my concern. I have never reloaded for a brand new gun with brand new brass and was wondering about barrel break in and how many shots should be shot through the gun before I start my load development. I have only ever reloaded once shot factory ammo brass and was wondering if load development can be done with brand new, sized, trimmed, and preped brass or should the brass be shot once before attempting load development. I will be full length resizing the brass for this rifle.

 

[DJ Fergus]

If you don't have a chronograph to measure velocity, there are alternative methods from what I do with velocity. The ladder test will work with out a chronograph. But the chronograph let's you see at what velocities your groups got tight. It gives you reference points. Just don't get discouraged. You will get to where you want to be. Keep researching.

 

[bstomper]

I do have a chronograph and use the satterlee method and it works great for me. I really like it.

 

[DJ Fergus]

You can develop a load on the new brass, and it's likely to shoot good or great even. But more than likely you will need to adjust charge weight even after FL resizing. Also like I mentioned, it's probably going to be around 100 rounds give or take and your barrel can speed up. Then possibly adjust charge weight again. This is why I say break in on cheap factory ammo. But that's just one way to do it. If you are really savy & experienced for where the sweet spots are velocity wise you can more easily chase that spot through out the life of the barrel.

 

[DJ Fergus]

Sorry I went too deep. I over thought your initial post

 

[DJ Fergus]

I usually buy so much virgin brass that I develop loads for it specifically. I can usually get sub 1/2 moa from it. After I resize, I adjust back to the speed I was seeing before.