My Factory/handload secrets of success
Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2008 6:57 pm
I'm not much for writing let alone write an article. 
Skipper says no Icon till it's written so here goes 
.
To make a long story short, I could sum it up in just a few simple words. "You and your rifle must become one". The end
... Well.... I guess I could break it down a bit. Knowing where peak accuracy is when shooting strings is key. As we all know ,carbon,copper,and HEAT are always lurking and show their ugly face after we put 3 in one hole. The only way I know of to gain this knowledge is to shoot, then shoot some more. 99% of all rounds shot out of my rifles is unfortunately at paper. Practice makes perfect. Even with the best ammo, knowing your rifle is key.
As for reloading. I prefer to let my cases grow. All of my Norma match brass is 1.859-1.860 long. DO NOT LET YOUR BRASS GROW THIS LONG UNLESS YOU MEASURE YOUR CHAMBER. THEY'RE ALL DIFFERENT!!! I do NOT neck turn. When the walls become uneven (.0005 or more), the brass gets handed down to my hunting rifle. I neck size with a Redding comp bushing die, Then bump the shoulders back with a Forster "BUMP" die WITHOUT bushing. This only bumps the shoulders back, No other work is done with the bump die. I seat bullets with a Redding comp seater. One thing "ALL" my threaded dies sport is a Hornady lock ring. They are the best on the market after a little deburring. Where Hornady splits the ring vertically the threads have little burrs. A Dremel tool with a #409 cut-off wheel will allow you to deburr the threads from the crest to the root. After the 30 second deburring job they will seat your dies perfectly square in your press. The rings have one side that looks ground flat so make sure that face seats on your press. Like I said, NO other ring come close to the squareness of the Hornady. Roll the die in a V-block with indicator attached and you'll be a believer too. One other thing that a lot of people over look is proper case mouth deburring. YOU MUST SPIN THE CASE!! NOT THE TOOL, If you want a even chamfer!!!! The VLD inside chamfer tools are by far the best. Look inside your die and on your press, If you see copper shavings your guilty. Runout suffers big time because of this. Being a Machinist for 25 years also helps my reloading skills. Everything else I do is just the standard stuff. Primer pocket uniforming,flash hole deburring and weight sorting. I also weight sort my bullets. I picked up one of them fancy Accu-lab scales to be sure all my powder charges are within one kernel. I've had my share of presses and none work as well as my 40 year old RCBS JR3. It's a hand-me-down from my dad.
On the bench I'm pretty fussy. The targets and bench MUST be level for starters.Our benches are on fine crushed stone so leveling is easy .Does anybody else level their targets??? For a front rest I use a Rock BR and a Deluxe two stitch mid-ear Protektor rear bag. When shooting I prefer a hard hold. One hand on the trigger and the other on the forend. Yes.. Two hands on the rifle!! Wind is another thing I never have to deal with. Our range is protected on all sides by tall trees and thick shrubs. The only break in the trees is between the 210-250 yard mark.
The gun that loves me so is a 100% stock Savage LRPV. A Leupold Competition 35x45 sits on top with a set of Tactical Precision rings. The only modification I did to it is a little sanding on the stock where it slides in the bags. That's it!! The factory finish was too rough for a nice easy slide. It kinda chattered before I smoothed it out. Some 600 grit emery solved that problem. It now glides back smoothly. I've been afraid to take the stock off for over a year now. Go figure..
The load I use is still the one I stole from Skipper. 26.6grains of Benchmark with weight sorted 35 grain Bergers and CCI BR4 primers. Still NO CCI BR4 primers to be had in this neck of the woods
. My 300 pieces LRPV Norma brass is sitting empty waiting for some BR4'S. That's ok because I'm done punching paper for this year. I use the same load for my Predator rifle with second hand WW brass left over from my VLP. That brass is trimed to 1.850. Look at the calipers in the picture and notice how close the comparator is to the case. And yes, that case has a bullet in it. When I load for the LRPV 99.9% of the bearing surface is in the case . I have a home made comparator bushing to measure the LRPV rounds. Most of the time the 20 cal bushing rests on the brass.
Here a few pictures where the magic happens
Skipper says no Icon till it's written so here goes .To make a long story short, I could sum it up in just a few simple words. "You and your rifle must become one". The end
... Well.... I guess I could break it down a bit. Knowing where peak accuracy is when shooting strings is key. As we all know ,carbon,copper,and HEAT are always lurking and show their ugly face after we put 3 in one hole. The only way I know of to gain this knowledge is to shoot, then shoot some more. 99% of all rounds shot out of my rifles is unfortunately at paper. Practice makes perfect. Even with the best ammo, knowing your rifle is key.As for reloading. I prefer to let my cases grow. All of my Norma match brass is 1.859-1.860 long. DO NOT LET YOUR BRASS GROW THIS LONG UNLESS YOU MEASURE YOUR CHAMBER. THEY'RE ALL DIFFERENT!!! I do NOT neck turn. When the walls become uneven (.0005 or more), the brass gets handed down to my hunting rifle. I neck size with a Redding comp bushing die, Then bump the shoulders back with a Forster "BUMP" die WITHOUT bushing. This only bumps the shoulders back, No other work is done with the bump die. I seat bullets with a Redding comp seater. One thing "ALL" my threaded dies sport is a Hornady lock ring. They are the best on the market after a little deburring. Where Hornady splits the ring vertically the threads have little burrs. A Dremel tool with a #409 cut-off wheel will allow you to deburr the threads from the crest to the root. After the 30 second deburring job they will seat your dies perfectly square in your press. The rings have one side that looks ground flat so make sure that face seats on your press. Like I said, NO other ring come close to the squareness of the Hornady. Roll the die in a V-block with indicator attached and you'll be a believer too. One other thing that a lot of people over look is proper case mouth deburring. YOU MUST SPIN THE CASE!! NOT THE TOOL, If you want a even chamfer!!!! The VLD inside chamfer tools are by far the best. Look inside your die and on your press, If you see copper shavings your guilty. Runout suffers big time because of this. Being a Machinist for 25 years also helps my reloading skills. Everything else I do is just the standard stuff. Primer pocket uniforming,flash hole deburring and weight sorting. I also weight sort my bullets. I picked up one of them fancy Accu-lab scales to be sure all my powder charges are within one kernel. I've had my share of presses and none work as well as my 40 year old RCBS JR3. It's a hand-me-down from my dad.
On the bench I'm pretty fussy. The targets and bench MUST be level for starters.Our benches are on fine crushed stone so leveling is easy .Does anybody else level their targets??? For a front rest I use a Rock BR and a Deluxe two stitch mid-ear Protektor rear bag. When shooting I prefer a hard hold. One hand on the trigger and the other on the forend. Yes.. Two hands on the rifle!! Wind is another thing I never have to deal with. Our range is protected on all sides by tall trees and thick shrubs. The only break in the trees is between the 210-250 yard mark.
The gun that loves me so is a 100% stock Savage LRPV. A Leupold Competition 35x45 sits on top with a set of Tactical Precision rings. The only modification I did to it is a little sanding on the stock where it slides in the bags. That's it!! The factory finish was too rough for a nice easy slide. It kinda chattered before I smoothed it out. Some 600 grit emery solved that problem. It now glides back smoothly. I've been afraid to take the stock off for over a year now.
Go figure..The load I use is still the one I stole from Skipper. 26.6grains of Benchmark with weight sorted 35 grain Bergers and CCI BR4 primers. Still NO CCI BR4 primers to be had in this neck of the woods
. My 300 pieces LRPV Norma brass is sitting empty waiting for some BR4'S. That's ok because I'm done punching paper for this year. I use the same load for my Predator rifle with second hand WW brass left over from my VLP. That brass is trimed to 1.850. Look at the calipers in the picture and notice how close the comparator is to the case. And yes, that case has a bullet in it. When I load for the LRPV 99.9% of the bearing surface is in the case . I have a home made comparator bushing to measure the LRPV rounds. Most of the time the 20 cal bushing rests on the brass.Here a few pictures where the magic happens
. It's a great club to belong to. And it's only $75 a year. That's the 100,200 and 300 all shot from the same line. Lots of fun matches going on also. No benchrest though 
. It might take me to start one up.
We're all gunin' for you again. Hey didn't I say that last year too 
