If you want the most out of your brass?
Measure the volume of each piece and only use those that are the same.
how? Powder or water?
If you want the most out of your brass?
Measure the volume of each piece and only use those that are the same.
Eley engineers identified 50 primary variables–basics like bullet mass, case internal volume, and propellant charge mass.
Then they determined 200 secondary variables–things like the ambient humidity in the assembly facility, the metallurgy of the cases, human competence. Finally, they identified 700 tertiary variables–subtle things the TenEx project manager told me turned out to be the ultimate keys to getting things really up to “the TenEx level.” For example: weather conditions in the country where the propellant powder is manufactured on the day that particular lot of powder was mixed. (Yes, Eley actually adjusts the TenEx loading profile for each powder lot based on this and other equally subtle considerations. The same is true of the other end of the process; manufacturing “lots” of TenEx consist of one day’s run from a single loading machine because the weather is different each day.)
This article about the development of the .22 Eley TenEx cartridge will help you appreciate the variables involved:
http://www.shootingtimes.com/ammo/ammunition_eley_101405/
And since you are embarking down the precision shooting road you may want to read about the lengths to which some people go in pursuit of the single hole.
http://2poqx8tjzgi65olp24je4x4n.wpe...-shooting-magazine-special-edition-1-1993.pdf
Thanks for giving me more to think about, grumpy old man.
Some years ago, a friend and I were doing a little shooting. He was shooting his pet load out of a Remington 700 PS in 223. Other than having a witch doctor bless his load I don’t think there was anything that was missed. The cases were weighed, sorted, trimmed for length, necks turned, primer pockets uniformed, flash holes done. He would even sort the bullets by weight. He had some device, I don’t remember the name, that he used to check jacket thickness on the bullets. And don’t get me started on how he used a press. I’m sure there are some things I forget. But, one gets the idea.
His five shot groups at 200 yards were right around ¾”. He was happy.
I suggested for entertainment value for him to try my plinking load in his rifle. When I told him what it was he said it was a waste of time.
LC once fired brass prepped on a 550. RCBS lube-decap die station one. Dillon size trim die with trimmer station three. Lube tumbled off, then crimp removed with the Dillon swage tool. Loaded on the same press. WWSR, 25.5 gr Accurate Arms 2230S powder, WW 55gr FMJ bulk bullet.
The load grouped right between 1 and 1 1/4”. That was 5 shots at 200 yards. My friend was not happy. In fact, he ended up shooting 5 more groups and not one went over 1 ¼”. Then he was very unhappy.
The point being unless one is going for benchrest level accuracy most loads will out shoot the shooter.
Having a lot of the same brass (from same production lot, not simply a pile of it) from the same maker will help.
For something you're trying to get the best out of I would buy new stuff and keep good notes on it.
What is your final objective? Bench rest shooting one bullet through the hole the previous one made? XTC 800 Agg matches? Loading for rapid fire mag dumps in the general direction of a barn?
If it's not the bench rest stuff, don't sweat it. A little dose of sacrilege here...
I put some results up here a couple years ago somewhere re: some testing I did. In a nutshell, I took a box of issued service match ammo (Mk 262 I think) and split it between two mags. Then took a random pile of brass that was prepped all the same. A wolf primer, some Varget powder, 77gr SMK on top. Lee dies on a Loadmaster progressive. Then filled out a spreadsheet from the bottom up for each of a handfull of mags as I loaded each mag. Down to the range with my service rifle and chrony to make things go bang.
Ten rounds of issued match ammo, each shot velocity recorded with as close to the same time between shots as I could without being super anal about it. Then random brass mags: LC96, WCC05, IMI, PPU, WIN, LC04, etc.. completely random cases with everything else the same as possible (again from the progressive press). Finally finished up with the other 10 rounds of Mk 262 match ammo.
Results? The deviation between shots was SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER between the match ammo than the random brass I loaded. I don't recall the exact numbers but I was perplexed enough to repeat the experiment to confirm it.
Knowing this, I made up 5 rounds of each .1 grains of powder in the manufacturer's recipe book from smallest to largest and then shot them to see what each load group looked like. Different barrels like different velocities. My objective was to develop MY load for 800 Agg XTC matches. No wind bench shooting was well under MOA - without sweating every little detail.
If you want to shoot the bench rest stuff, go for it but there are far more funner things to do with my time. YYMV, IANAL, IANaDistinguishedShooter, etc.
No pro........I mean You Are Welcome.
Some years ago, a friend and I were doing a little shooting. He was shooting his pet load out of a Remington 700 PS in 223. Other than having a witch doctor bless his load I don’t think there was anything that was missed. The cases were weighed, sorted, trimmed for length, necks turned, primer pockets uniformed, flash holes done. He would even sort the bullets by weight. He had some device, I don’t remember the name, that he used to check jacket thickness on the bullets. And don’t get me started on how he used a press. I’m sure there are some things I forget. But, one gets the idea.
His five shot groups at 200 yards were right around ¾”. He was happy.
I suggested for entertainment value for him to try my plinking load in his rifle. When I told him what it was he said it was a waste of time.
LC once fired brass prepped on a 550. RCBS lube-decap die station one. Dillon size trim die with trimmer station three. Lube tumbled off, then crimp removed with the Dillon swage tool. Loaded on the same press. WWSR, 25.5 gr Accurate Arms 2230S powder, WW 55gr FMJ bulk bullet.
The load grouped right between 1 and 1 1/4”. That was 5 shots at 200 yards. My friend was not happy. In fact, he ended up shooting 5 more groups and not one went over 1 ¼”. Then he was very unhappy.
The point being unless one is going for benchrest level accuracy most loads will out shoot the shooter.
If you want the most out of your brass?
Measure the volume of each piece and only use those that are the same.
how? Powder or water?
water.
I use 70% Isopropyl Alcohol and a syringe. (fast, but not too fast evaporation and no case corrosion)
At 100yds, it really doesn't matter, but a .2ml volume difference between cases will become very apparent at 1000yds.
I am by no means a reloading expert, but I feel comfortable saying that precision loads should have the powder hand trickled on a balance scale vs. progressive dumped. Inconsistent case volumes, seating depths and powder spreads of .1gr will be amplified past 500yds. I believe consistency is far more important than brands.
I want round groups not square groups. I'm not listening to you....
It will add an air of legitimacy....What if I changed my screen name to RoundGroupie?