Monday, April 4, 2011

Handloading "Working up a load” (and more on supplies)


"Working up a load" where the hand-loader loads 25 to 50 rounds of a bullet and powder to see what shoots best, you will find that pistol loads will start to work out sooner than rifle.

My favorite rifle powder is called Varget, and I choose it over other powders because of the cold temperature stability and firing under the same cold conditions. It is a powder made into little rods or sticks and it does not "cast" as well as powders that are little flakes or balls... the powder WW 748 is a ball shaped particle powder and is easy to cast from a powder measure into accurate weights... The other ball powders that may work well would be BLC 2 (flattened donut shaped balls), Accurate 2230 (flattened donut shaped balls), Accurate Arms MR-2460 (flattened balls), H335 (flattened balls), DuPont IMR-4895 (rods), Accurate Arms MR-2520 (balls), Hodgdon H380 (balls), there are other brands like Vihtavuori, and Scott, you may not find everywhere...

I order my powders, primers, and bullets I do not make from...

http://www.powdervalleyinc.com
http://www.wideners.com
http://www.grafs.com

When you order powder and primers, make sure you order enough to make it worth the HAZ MAT fee that comes with the primers and powder...

I just ordered another 10k of primers and an 8lbs keg of powder, the order not confirmed yet... they are all behind now because of the panic...

You can figure out the basic cost per round by using the grain vs. pounds of powder, brass, bullets, and primers...

For example .308 in Varget powder will load 1360 rounds with an 8 lbs keg in one of the standard loads for 147 gr bullets... .270 will use MORE powder than .308.

I would suggest that when you make the next trip to a local reloading supplier get a pound of three different rifle and three different pistol powders. (check the loading manual) and try them out, once you find a good powder you like buy a keg...

Most hand-loaders load for accuracy, but there are other reasons, in my case it is cold/hot weather stability, reasonable accuracy, and reliability...

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