Thread: First reloads

Loaded up some 243 with @40mm

A few hiccups (for the record all on me)

But eventually we were off!

Most of the earlier groups were around 1 inch. Near the book max I shot this.

But we encountered some unusual primers

The first photos are the book starting charge weight.

Second ones are the load we ended up with. Half a grain below book max.

Also made a classic mistake.

I miss labelled that target. Whoops.

I have never missed priming a case.
I have missed putting powder in though, and more than once. Thankfully I picked up on it before trying to fire them. All were 243 as well.

Originally Posted by Cigar

I have never missed priming a case.
I have missed putting powder in though, and more than once. Thankfully I picked up on it before trying to fire them. All were 243 as well.

Yeah I had issues with the priming tool and getting it centred so had to de prime and re prime a bit. Lesson learnt

Originally Posted by Cigar

I have never missed priming a case.
I have missed putting powder in though, and more than once. Thankfully I picked up on it before trying to fire them. All were 243 as well.

I know a guy that turned up with most of a MTM boxful of 300winmag missing primers, shit it was funny. Hour and a half each way to the range and everything

Primer photo suggests a bit of tolerance between the firing pin and the pin hole. Pressure appears to be OK as the edges of the primer are still rounded photo 3 looks lIke it's a very light load the pin indentation is rounded. Mind you primer shape is not the most reliable indicator of pressure still it can be a guide..
Leaving the primer out is better than putting it in backwards and firing it. Nasty little bits come out the vent hole in the bolt.

Originally Posted by mimms2

Nothing too "unusual" from what I see. What tool are you using to seat them? Did you uniform primer pocket/flash holes? Did that last one back out on firing, or did you miss putting primer in?

We used a Lee ergo prime and a lyman one.

Yes. We chamfered and cleaned the hole.

Missed putting it in due to a lot of back and forth adjusting dies and trying to prime it properly.

Originally Posted by Marty Henry

Primer photo suggests a bit of tolerance between the firing pin and the pin hole. Pressure appears to be OK as the edges of the primer are still rounded photo 3 looks lIke it's a very light load the pin indentation is rounded. Mind you primer shape is not the most reliable indicator of pressure still it can be a guide..
Leaving the primer out is better than putting it in backwards and firing it. Nasty little bits come out the vent hole in the bolt.

What do you mean? A little gap between the two?

The book max was 43 grains. So still a bit to go. But I think the 2.710 cartridge overall length may be close to the lands as the round required bumping to get it to chamber. As the targex projectiles are not always the same length. Still a great projectile.

Sure not going to be 3100 like factory ammo claims but very accurate!

What do you mean? A little gap between the two?

Your firing pin is skinnier than the hole it pokes out of in the bolt. The primer will extrude back and into the gap between the two, hense the little ring around the strike mark in the primer. Nothing unusual.
Those primers look very round. I would draw no conclusion of excessive pressure on those.
Youre using the 70g or 95 Targex? What powder? 2209? ADI has 42g for 95g as max

overall length may be close to the lands as the round required bumping to get it to chamber.

theres a smear on the base of the case from camming the bolt over. I think you need to FL size your brass first. Does an empty case chamber and eject easily? When you say bumping do you mean extra force to chamber the round? Tight bolt?
You really should learn how to find your lands first and work back from there rather than guess. Its pretty easy. Whats the rifle?

Sure not going to be 3100 like factory ammo claims but very accurate!

accuracy is king. Forget speed.

Originally Posted by kiwijames

Your firing pin is skinnier than the hole it pokes out of in the bolt. The primer will extrude back and into the gap between the two, hense the little ring around the strike mark in the primer. Nothing unusual.
Those primers look very round. I would draw no conclusion of excessive pressure on those.
Youre using the 70g or 95 Targex? What powder? 2209? ADI has 42g for 95g as max
theres a smear on the base of the case from camming the bolt over. I think you need to FL size your brass first. Does an empty case chamber and eject easily? When you say bumping do you mean extra force to chamber the round? Tight bolt?
You really should learn how to find your lands first and work back from there rather than guess. Its pretty easy. Whats the rifle?
accuracy is king. Forget speed.

Ah OK.

95 grain targex.

H414. The book max off hodgon website is 42.0 as well. The 43.0 grains was from an old 1992 book.

I have only neck sized with a collet die.

Never tried.

Yes. And yes

Howa 1500. I just used max cartridge overall length.

Whats the brass sh fired in another rifle or a pack of new stuff

When I reload, I take things slowly and carefully, check every step.

That said, I have had to pull hundreds of rounds apart over the years because I made mistakes.

Get a FL die. I think this will solve your right to chamber problems.
My 243 was the only rifle I had that would develop neck donuts too. Have a check for this. Easy test is if a projectile will pass through a fired neck. If no go you’ve the dreaded donut. Throw them away if so. If you’ve not FL sized then brass flow is probably going to be reduced though.

Originally Posted by northdude

Whats the brass sh fired in another rifle or a pack of new stuff

All fired in the rifle.

Originally Posted by Max Headroom

When I reload, I take things slowly and carefully, check every step.

That said, I have had to pull hundreds of rounds apart over the years because I made mistakes.

Yeah next time I'll triple check.

Originally Posted by kiwijames

Get a FL die. I think this will solve your right to chamber problems.
My 243 was the only rifle I had that would develop neck donuts too. Have a check for this. Easy test is if a projectile will pass through a fired neck. If no go you’ve the dreaded donut. Throw them away if so. If you’ve not FL sized then brass flow is probably going to be reduced though.

I have a full length die. Just always read that once it's been fire formed to the chamber then neck sizing is the best thing to do.

Yes. I have some that will let a projectile go through the neck.

How do you fix the neck donuts?

nek minute

Many of the most accurate shooters will full-length size with a shoulder bump of only about 2thou.

This achieves the benefits of neck sizing only, in that the brass fits the chamber pretty much perfectly, with the added reliability of a tiny bump in headspace to ensure it always chambers properly.
The only way that im aware of to set this up really accurately is with headspace comparitors. 1/24 of a turn on the die is enough to put you in and out of "the zone" if you are going for only a 2thou bump in headspace.

How I set up the full-length die is by.

1. Measure the headspace of a fired case.
2. Full length size the fired case and then measure its headspace again.
3. Adjust the Die to be closer to the 2thou only bump we are aiming for.
4. Full length size another fired case, and measure again.
5. Repeat till its only bumping headspace by 2thou.