Thread: How hard do you typically push your loads?

How hard do you typically push your loads ?

Do you stick with the start load, opt for something in the middle of the range, or are you almost always trying to add another .3 of a grain to get another few FPS?

Myself, I learned to reload at a time while I was pretty exhausted mentally.

So I learned to make sure that the cartridge was in spec and not liable to cause any problems to me or the firearm.

I also recorded every load I ever did in a book for each caliber so I had a record of what I had done, and could go back and check my loads if necessary.

I developed the habit of sticking at or pretty close to the starting load. The day will come when I buy a chrony, ladder load a bunch of rounds and head out to the range to try and find a best combo for each rifle. What I have works well enough for now though.

I have met one or two people at the other end of the spectrum, and learned to stay a discreet distance from them when they discharge their firearms. One guy in particular comes to mind.

He bought some Barnaul 308,140 gn SP, pulled the original projie's out, and seated some long blunt nose ones that looked to be about 180 gn in their place. No reduction in powder.

His method of seating the new projie.........unique. Hold the case and projie horizontally in a vice, and crank it shut gently, with an original Barnaul 140 SP alongside as a sort of rough OAL guide.

He took some of these frankenstein shells out the back of a farm, ran them through a Chinese M14 clone, and came back in one piece afterwards. The thing that caught his attention was that the 5 shot mag had a lot of primers in the bottom.

The baffling thing about this guy is that he's very bright. Not a mental slowcoach at all. Just has no objections to living dangerously.