/rg/ - Reloading General

So I got a Hornady Lock-n-load AP press for christmas.
What should I use to degrease the powder measure? I assume I should be degreasing with the plastic container off since whatever er I use will most likely melt it.

What else should I degrease and what should I lube?

Buy the sierra, hornady, and barnes, download hornady's

Go for it.
Make sure to work up your loads like normal.

*download hodgens

promotions.vistaoutdoor.com/EN/US/Home/Brand/6
Extra digit sorry

Only rifle cartridge i shoot is 30-30, is it economical for me to start reloading? I dont plan on shooting more than a few hundred rounds of it per year
Whats the chespest way to start reloading

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Yeah for sure you here's a calculation based on (((Cabelas))) prices

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Based in buying in bulk WC844 @american reloading sale
Berrys plated bullets @ midwayusa (you can get powder coated bullets even cheaper)
And primers on sale
You can plink with 30-30 at the same price as 7.62x39

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You'll probably want a Lee hand press kit. Or spend a little more dosh and get one of their C-frame presses and a little portable bench that you can bolt it to.

For a lever gun you're gonna need to full length size the cases every time. This is going to reduce case life, which is unfortunate.

If you own a bolt gun and if you shoot the reloads only in the gun in which they were fired you can get away with neck sizing only and the cases will last longer, but if it isn't a bolt gun you can't do that.

There are plenty of cast .30 caliber bullets suitable for plinking and even hunting deer. At 2000+ ft/sec an unjacketed roundnose or flatnose cast lead bullet will expand pretty well in soft tissue, though that depends on the alloy also.

Been waiting for my rcbs rebate for like 8 months, not fucking worth it.

Is there a good manual for matching milsurp rounds? I know .30-06 m2 is pretty easy to remake but how about 6.5 jap or .303. What bullet/powder/primer would make the most authentic for each army.

.303 British was mass produced for WWI using a type of smokeless propellant called cordite, that is no longer manufactured.

During the war, DuPont chemical--then the maker of the IMR family of powders--created IMR3031 specifically for .303 British, and it was milspec for many years.

6.5x50mm Japanese is going to be harder. I don't know what grade of powder the Japanese manufactured for it but I will guess it's something no longer being made, nor widely available. IMR4350 is widely recommended for loading it, though.

We are fortunate today that, due to recent resurgence of interest in the 6.5mm caliber, there are a lot more bullets available than previously. Most Japanese service rifle ammunition used a full metal jacket round nose semi-spitzer shaped bullet weighing around 139gr at about 2500 ft/sec muzzle velocity.

Max load, roughly matching milspec, is 39.2gr IMR4350 using the old Speer 140gr semi-spitzer softnose, if you can find it. I think Horndady also currently makes a 140gr spitzer softpoint in 6.5mm. There's a Sierra MatchKing in that weight and diameter also, but that's going to be expensive for plinking ammo.

oh. For .303 British, the milspec bullet for rifle ammunition was a 174gr full metal jacket spitzer without a boattail. There were many variations on it but all had a dual core within the bullet jacket. The rear half or two thirds of the bullet core was lead. The front core was a plastic filler piece, or wood pulp that was a byproduct of paper manufacture, or even aluminum. The purpose was to make the bullet base-heavy and more likely to yaw and fragment in soft tissue, which was successful. But bullets of this type are no longer made.

Sierra makes a 174gr MatchKing bullet in the correct diameter but it's expensive. Hornady makes a 174gr BTHP match bullet in this diameter, which is also expensive, and also a 174gr FMJBT that's about as close a match as you're going to find for milspec, but it can be hard to find and it's not a catalogued item every year.

Some people have reported very good long-range accuracy using the Remington 180gr Core-Lokt softnose bullet that they sell in .311", but they aren't offered as reloading components every year and they're in and out of the Remington catalog. Sierra makes a .311" 180gr softpoint spitzer bullet that some people have good luck with.

Do NOT get a lee hand press, it's a clumsy piece of shit and it will take you forever to use.

Just get a lee classic, bolt it to a piece of wood and then c-clamp the wood onto your kitchen table or something and it'll be a massive improvement over the hand press.

Redpill me on the Hornady AP, I already have the classic

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IMR3031 is too close to the original cordite burn-rate, which is to say it's faster than it needs to be for optimal pressure and velocity balance. Back in the day they didn't have good, slower burning powder but we do now; might as well use it.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but if the guy says he wants to get as close as possible to original WWI-era milspec ammo using as close as possible to original components--

And I know. They're bolt guns, they're not going to be choosy about powder burning rate, they don't require a certain gas pressure curve to run.

But still, he said he wanted "authentic," so...

That's true. There's also BL-C(2) which, unless I'm mistaken, is a direct predecessor/replacement of another powder used by the US during WW2 in .303 production.

Pick up a Lyman for an independent manual that's not beholden to powder or bullet companies.

After that get Hornady or Speer depending on which bullets you buy more often.

How do you reload a book?

I would like to know this as well. Just got my new press bolted to the bench and was thinking about using non-flammable brake clean to degrease the parts that say they need to be degreased

Just took mine apart and hit it w can of gun degreaser spray

For load manuals get multiple different ones. I have Lee, Lyman, Barnes, and Hornady.

I find the following books to be very useful if you are into loading:
Designing and Forming Custom Cartridges: For Rifles and Handguns by Ken Howell
The Handloader's Manual of Cartridge Conversions by John J. Donnelly
Handbook for Shooters & Reloaders (two volumes) by P. O. Ackley
Sixguns by Elmer Keith
Hatcher's Notebook by Julian Hatcher
Ammo and Ballistics by Bob Forker
Any Shot You Want: The A-Square Handloading and Rifle Manual by Arthur B. Alphin
Corbin Handbook of Bullet Swaging
The Corbin Technical Bulletins (various)
Army Ammunition Data Sheets Small Caliber Ammunition TM 43-0001-27, a US Army Technical Manual

Oh, and I forgot to mention:
Propellant Profiles

It's not a bad press if you are watching TV
Shit I even use it for 30-06 it's a small workout doing a batch of 200
m-b-r.co.uk/HTML/CalibreRelaodingInfo.php info for quite a bit of cartridges

Why does Hodgdon have cfe223 slower than Varget but Lee has cfe223 faster than H335?
Need a good ball powder for my FAL and it's rec'd to. Be between 4064 and like 4198. Have cfe223 for 556 but one chart has it inside range and other outside. Halp

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Lee book

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Modern powders are a lot more complicated than just comparing a single "speed" between them. There are many more variables present than just "speed" so any kind of chart is necessarily going to be an approximation at best.

I'd suggest getting your hands on a copy of Quickload and then experimenting in there.

Just finished working up my first load for my .308. 41.5gr. IMR4064 behind 178gr Hornady ELD-M with a COAL of 2.818. It gives about a .75 MOA 7 shot group out of my Tikka T3X Lite without giving the barrel time to cool. I’m pretty happy with it. I’ve yet to take it out to range yet though.

Gonna grab some of those too to try in the FAL. Doubt I'll get 0.75 w irons but nice to know they should do it

Is there a certain point where buying new brass becomes more economical than reloading factory rounds?

Depends entirely on the cartridge in question. If it's a common one with a lot of competition (556, 9mm, 308, etc.) it can be hard to beat buying factory ammo and reloading.

If the cartridge is something that's more obscure then it's nearly always cheaper to just buy the brass and handload.

Hornady, Speer, Lyman, and Barnes are all good. You also want one copy of COTW.

>Is there a good manual for matching milsurp rounds?
Short answer is no, you have to look at a lot of old military manuals and such and then it's mostly just an approximation. Drake is a great resource for this if you can contact him, as are the folks at C&Rsenal and Gunboards. But there is no single source, yet. I have a lot of load data myself though if you want any particular calibers.

The book that mentioned:
>>Army Ammunition Data Sheets Small Caliber Ammunition TM 43-0001-27, a US Army Technical Manual

...contains that info for US and NATO cartridges. I assume there are equivalent manuals for other nations?

1. Burning rates are approximate and can vary up to 10% between batches of the same powder.

2. Burning rates vary with temperature and pressure. Some powders are faster than others at certain temperatures and pressures and the reverse is true under other conditions.

3. Sounds like you're looking for a "Service Rifle" speed powder suitable for 7.62x51mm NATO. There are lots of good choices--7.62x51mm was developed to use ball powders in the first place. W748, BL-C(2), H380, Ramshot TAC, AA2230, AA2520, lots of others. Be aware that some ball powders require magnum primers or the CCI "milspec" primers in order to give consistent and reliable ignition, especially in cold weather. BL-C(2) and W748 are especially known for this.

A load recommended by Chuck Taylor specifically to get the best accuracy out of FALs:

Remington commercial brass, Remington large rifle primers, 47.0 grains of Hodgdon H380, and the 150-grain Nosler Ballistic Tip.

Will usually do 2700-2750-ish f.p.s. if you have a 21" FAL.

Anyway, it's a FAL. Most of them have adjustable gas regulators, so it's a lot less finicky about propellants than an M1A or AR10.

They’re great bullets, honestly. The jacket’s a little thinner than I would like, but they’re some of the highest BC .308s I’ve seen.

Cool. Sounds like you're doing something right.

Other .30 caliber boolits that have a good reputation for accuracy: Sierra 168 and 175gr MatchKings, Nosler 150, 165, and 180gr Ballistic Tips, Hornady 150gr FMJ and any of their AMAX bullets.

IMR4064 is an oldschool favorite powder for 7.62x51mm NATO match ammo. Varget, TAC, AA2520, and Reloder 15 are also very popular and well spoken of for this kind of thing.

>I assume there are equivalent manuals for other nations?
Again, short answer is no, especially the more esoteric you get. There isn't a singular resource even for each individual nation, partly because a lot of it has been lost to time. COTW probably comes the closest by giving rough bullet weights and velocities, but beyond that i cannot think of a singular resource. You CAN find the information out there, but it requires some effort.

Thanks, I’ll be sure to check them out. The only reason I went with 4064 is that it was the only medium burn powder that my local sporting goods store had. I was hoping for Varget, but it’s almost impossible to find unless I were to order some.

A friend of mine is into long range shooting and he swears by SMKs, so after I come up with a good Barnes TTSX load for Bambi blasting, those will probably be my next project.

Is there any real difference between Varget and 4064 regarding temperature stability? I’ve heard a lot of back and forth about this on reloading forums.

Got few hundred 10mm first pass cleaned ready for size and decap.
Yeah I'm looking for service rifle powders to keep port pressure w in acceptable ranges so I'm not beating it up.
Most surplus is in 145-155gr range but my DSA 18" is 1:10 twist which I've read likes 168-180gr range pills more.
Cabelas has Ramshot TAC in big bottles so I was probably going to try that.

Is there a list of powder shapes?

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The rule of thumb is: spherical (ball) powders are more sensitive to temperature changes but less sensitive to changes in humidity while loading. Extruded powders are less sensitive to temperature changes but can absorb moisture in humid environments that can drastically alter their burning rates.

And underneath this, a second layer is: most spherical powders are double base powders containing significant amounts of nitroglycerine, which is what makes them more temperature sensitive and less humidity sensitive compared to most extruded powders.

See also,

bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2008/09/tech-tip-humidity-can-change-powder-burn-rates/
precisionrifleblog.com/2016/06/19/powder-temp-stability-hodgdon-extreme-vs-imr-enduron/
chuckhawks.com/smokeless_powder.htm

For rifle powders, just about all of them are either extruded (little sticks or flakes) or spherical (little round balls, sometimes flattened).

Right I just was looking for a list so I could pick a few in my burn rate range. Have a rcbs powder thrower on my pro chucker and trying to figure out what throws the best, I assume ball

Wow, that’s a bit more than what I was expecting. Thanks for the knowledge, I appreciate it.

Short answer is no, but handloaders guide to cartridge conversions is good for the odd calibers. If you have a particular few in mind I can screenshot them

>I'd suggest getting your hands on a copy of Quickload and then experimenting in there.

How would I do this, if I were of a mind to?

Can anyone tell me what this guy is using to measure his powder with?

youtu.be/k9jpGN9HrB0

Nothing in mind i need at the moment. I was thinking about trying to compile one for all of the calibers kind of like how c&r does a history lesson on each firearm. I think a lot of collectors and such would appreciate it.
Doing research on the actual makeup of the rounds is a pain though.

formerly chuck's

Anyone have experience with subsonic 308? I figured I would get my feet wet with trailboss and 150gr soft points to do some hog murder with my 26" heavy 308 until my form 4 comes back. Is it 22mag levels of quiet?

>Blackpowder Products 4-in-1 T Loader (Preloader, Measure, Starter and Palm Saver)
$8 on Amazon

Also any 40 Stronk&Worthwhile experience with Longshot? Supposed to get close to 10mm velocity in the 40 without crazy pressures... Could be cool out of my sub2k.

As someone just getting into reloading in an effort to get .44mag to stop buttfucking my wallet, do you guys have any tips for beginners?

>I think a lot of collectors and such would appreciate it.
>Doing research on the actual makeup of the rounds is a pain though.
Don't I know it, I've been doing something similar for the last 3 years. It is... taxing to say the least.

>loading trailboss in a rifle

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>sub 308
Sell it for scrap and get a 10mm

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I can understand the development of most rounds isnt nearly as complex as the rifle itself but i wouldve expected some better documentation.

Too many .40 caliber handguns have kaBoom'd over the years for me to be comfortable trying to beat the factory ballistics. It's a very, very high pressure cartridge that exerts 25% more force on the breechface and cycles the slide with 40% more velocity than 9mm, all else being equal. There isn't much safety margin, not in firearms originally designed in 9mm, anyway.

youtube.com/watch?v=qXnwuNegPaY
Are there machines that do this for you?

It's like the standard for doing quiet rounds and generally better than 300blk for suppression...

A lot of it is very well documented, it's just not easy to find said documents for us U.S. collectors.

Fuck lads there are actually quite a lot of good deals on Amazon or rebate. I'd like a turret press but RCBS and Hornady are wicked expensive even if you take into account the RCBS rebate. Will a Lee 4 Hole Turret satisfy my needs if I am just a casual shooter? I only shoot 200 of 9MM every weekend but would like to shoot more 38/357 if it didn't cost so damn much. Would also enjoy getting into cast loads since I have a scrapyard/autoshop connection for lead.

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I need a reloading manual for shotshells, do you guys have any recommendations

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Does anyone have experience with reloading cast bullets for rifles? How high of velocities can you achieve while still maintaining a decent level of accuracy when using gas checks? I'm wondering because I found an old 1980s copy of the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook and maximum loads that reach over 2000 FPS are common with some reaching over 2500 FPS, while I hear other people who shoot cast lead bullets in rifles loading much lower than that.

Ive read h110 is good for 300blk, not sure if thats subsonics or super sonics though. Id imagine its for subs.

It's ok for both, better for supers. I use accurate 1680 for subs.

Also, can you manufacture whatever explosive you use for the primer at home?
I know you can make acetone peroxide, but I really don't want to play with that.

There are hundreds of patented recipes for priming compound for centerfire ammunition.

None of them is anything you want to try to mix up at home in the kitchen sink. Go to Wikipedia and look up "primary high explosive."

Primary high explosive isn't what I want, since it's only relevant to be triggered kinetically and not e.g. electrically.
Is there anything better than acetone peroxide you can make at home?

what ASMR artists do you listen to while reloading?

All of them are extremely sensitive and extremely dangerous.

The least insane thing remotely like this is homemade percussion caps for revolvers and muskets.

The metal cups are easily made:

youtube.com/watch?v=19qte2BQtlk

People get a roll of cap-gun paper caps and cut out the dark discs inside them and put them inside the cap with a drop of rubber cement and a bit of FFFFg blackpowder.

The resulting caps are not very reliable, and exposing them to moisture will ruin them. It's hard to imagine an emergency dire enough to justify making them or using them. That's as close as I know to homemade primers and priming compound that isn't likely to turn your house into a smoking crater if you sneeze while making them.

So, is this actually shit? It's nice and compact. Which is what I need.

You can make it from cap guns, yeah. You could put in some silicon hydroxide in the mixture to make it somewhat more tolerant of moisture. But you still need cap gun caps.

>It's hard to imagine an emergency dire enough to justify making them or using them.
Ammo bans.

Well, what primary high explosives can I make at home? Acetone peroxide should work, and in small quantities it's probably safe, but I'm not sure if you can make it stable enough to not blow up the bullets while in the magazine.
Is there anything better? I know there's mercury fulminate, but I don't want to deal with mercury.

It's limited in what it can do, and sizing 9mm cases with it is a workout--they're tapered, or at least SAAMI says they are. I've heard of people taking them to the range to reload and experiment at the bench. But yes, it's much slower and much harder to use than even the cheapest and most limited single stage bench press.

About explosives I will just repeat the advice given to me long ago by an old organic chemist named Lefty, who had an eye patch and a hook for a hand. "Making something that will go BANG is only half the trick. The other half of the trick is making it not go BANG until you want it to." Every other undergraduate chemist approaches the prof after class at some point with a molecule of dinitroacetylene or carbon tetraazide drawn on a sheet of notebook paper. Yes, they'd be very energetic if you could make them without them breaking down instantly.

I suggest not messing with organic peroxides or other things prone to 'sploding at all.

>carbon tetraazide

holy shit, an insane motherfucker actually managed to synthesize some without turning the lab into a crater in 2006.

Right, I know that. I'm just worried about ammo bans. You can make everything but primary high explosive easily.

>Lead(II) thiocyanate
>Lead styphnate
I don't want to deal with lead, also doesn't seem very easy to make.
>Diazodinitrophenol
Sounds difficult to make
>Potassium perchlorate
Sounds reasonably easy to make
>TCAP
Very easy to make

Do you think I could make potassium perchlorate at home and get it pure enough to work as primer?

I think the ATF monitors these threads and this discussion is right on the edge of getting one or both of us a midnight visit from a BATFE SWAT team.

I will just say that if you don't have at least a couple years of undergraduate organic chem courses under your belt, you shouldn't even consider any of this.

It's not illegal to make primers at home. Also, I don't live in the US.
Why is it such a bad idea? TCAP is piss easy to make at home, you don't need any degrees, just following youtube tutorials. Sure, it's not good to poke it, but as long as you make sure to keep a distance of more than a few inches then it can't hurt you. The only risk is getting your fingers blown off, it's not like you're making several pounds of the stuff.

>drop cartridge with TCAP primer
>spend rest of day removing brass shrapnel from face

You're actually retarded dude and you're going to hurt yourself

Cheapest digital scale?

Would the shock be sufficient to detonate it? I'm not sure. Not in the small quantities present inside a shell casing.
Some chink scale from aliexpress

I hadn't actually considered doing this until now. Honestly been listening to ASMR videos to get to sleep almost every night for the last 6 or 7 years. Would be pretty relaxing while reloading.

Fairly new to reloading. Managed to reload some .308 for my boltgun and going to test soon. Grandpa got an AR-10 recently as well. Are .308 and 7.62x51mm loading data interchangeable? Plan is that if my ammo works well and is accurate that I might make some for my grandpa as a late Christmas present.

>ctrl-f "redding"

Jesus it's like none of you actually know what you're doing.

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Don't get the ranges to need them inna woods but some day I'll be able to cut a strip for a long range targets

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Competition Bushing Neck Sizing dies are best dies.

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Anyone with the latest quickload? (3.9?)
Can you upload your bullet and powder files?
Or at least check if they added 62gr .224 bonded soft tip bullets by speer. I'm using 3.6 with 3.8 data and it's not in there, but I heard that it's an excellent .223 bullet.