Come up anytime. Typically July is the best time for me. Me and my wife are heading to Texas end of May first part of June pig hunting with thermals
A&D FX120I and V4 worth it?
- Thread starter Nuclear Worker
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Awesome good luck on the hog hunt!!!!!!
If you shoot competition (or plan to; meaning that you want to become the best shooter you can be), then yes you should invest in the best equipment you can.
However, powder charge consistency is NOT at the top of the list.
If you have the resources and can justify the time to become intimately knowledgeable with your equipment, how it works, and the effects of changing anything, not to mention environmentals...The V4, AMP annealer, Forster press, custom dies, etc. Will pay dividends in the quest to be all you can be.
IF 1MOA is acceptable, don't go there. You can buy a factory rifle and ammunition today that will shoot better than that out of the box. IE, my first Tikka T3x shot .5MOA or better using Norma match ammo. That was 5 years ago. Now, many rifle manufacturers are guaranteeing these kinds of numbers.
For what it is worth..
However, powder charge consistency is NOT at the top of the list.
If you have the resources and can justify the time to become intimately knowledgeable with your equipment, how it works, and the effects of changing anything, not to mention environmentals...The V4, AMP annealer, Forster press, custom dies, etc. Will pay dividends in the quest to be all you can be.
IF 1MOA is acceptable, don't go there. You can buy a factory rifle and ammunition today that will shoot better than that out of the box. IE, my first Tikka T3x shot .5MOA or better using Norma match ammo. That was 5 years ago. Now, many rifle manufacturers are guaranteeing these kinds of numbers.
For what it is worth..
I agree I grew up in shogun only country where we used the old pumpkin slugs and smooth bore barrel. If you could hit a pie plate at 50 yards you were sighted in. I didn't have the money for anything but factory guns and ammunition. Now that I'm 58 years old I finally have a custom 6.5x284 that I started reloading for. Down the rabbit hole I went! Now we have 2 custom 6.5 Grendel and finishing up my wife's 6BR chassis rifle. I have a Forester coaxial Forester dies and Forester brass prep station. And a bench source annealer. Hornady powder dispenser. I still have to get dies for the 6.5s and the 6BR. There is a local range we can shoot 600 yards at . So my wife would like to enter some local competition with the 6BR. Any advice on custom dies would be appreciated. Every time I think I have figured out which dies to get I read a post and someone always has a bad opinion on them. No matter what brand. Again we are very new to all of this. Still trying to get out of the mindset that if you can hit a pie plate at any yardage you are good to go. And for hunting that is probably correct. So much of the things people talk about is really beyond my knowledge. I think I am going to sell my bench source and get a Amp. So to everyone that reads my posts please understand I am just trying to understand all of this.
WildRose
Well-Known Member
I've been very pleased with both custom Redding and Hornady dies.
You don't really need custom dies though if you're shooting SAAMI spec rounds, just the competition die sets should be fine for your purposes and much less expensive.
You are Definity on the right track to spend a lot money. If do it for the enjoyment of getting the tightest groups, and ringing some steel this will also help with hunting. If you are going to spend money on the "More Expensive or Higher Level" reloading components a suggestion would be
"BY ONCE CRY ONCE".
I have been around reloading for 55 years some new reloading equipment comes to the market every year. "Newer, Better, Different, More Advanced, MORE EXPENSIVE!
Once you go down that rabbit hole you will spend a lot of money Buy what is "Reviewed & Tested to be the Best". You are going to get answers from different shooters/reloaders on every piece of reloading components. I personally like RCBS MatchMaster dies FL with Bushings and going to have Whidden make us custom dies for the 338LMAI, Henderson Three way Trimmer for Brass, AMPII Annealer, CPS Primer, V-4 Auto Trickler, K&M Neck Turner. We also have all the other brands of reloading equipment which we first purchased. Now it would have been great if we had all this new & expensive equipment to begin with. Could have saved lot of money in the long run.
Buy yourself equipment that you and you wife can afford and will enjoy shooting smaller groups.
Now more expensive "Better" equipment doesn't necessarily mean that you are going to shoot better groups. It is a combination and accumulation of shooting skills, rifle, reloading, and ammo.
Good luck!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for the information. Yeah it is easy to get caught up in want for all the stuff that guys who shoot f class use. I have to remember where me and my wife are at in this game. 90% of the time we shoot less than 300 yards. I do believe in the buy once cry once. Just hard to decide what is my best choice. For my 6.5x284 I use a Forester micro seater and Redding body die. With a Lee collet neck die that I sent in shot brass to have made. I'm sure there is better but honestly it probably does better than we can shoot. There's so many things I need to learn yet.
