Thread: Some Thoughts on Handloading.

When I started in 1966, although I had one can of 2201 (purchased from Dinny Collings) my brand of choice was Nobels which was abundantly available in rifle, pistol, and shotgun forms. I had their reloading charts and supplementary chart which although presenting loads that weren't pressure tested like todays data were still pretty spot on.

A couple of years into reloading I got my first 22-250 and it ran on a diet of Norma powder. Like the Nobels it was freely available and also like Nobels, Norma produced excellent reloading data. I still have mine somewhere.

I was still able to get Nobels #2 up until 1995. Belmont had a stash of it and would sell to me. I used to buy big quantities for myself and my rifle club members. Then they stopping selling, stating the cans were starting to rust.

Aside from milsurp 4895 I recall 3031 using as well. I think a lot of the IMR recipes were available back then. I don't recall powder shortages but back then there were fewer people in to reloading than today.

Early on I reloaded for a 222 and used Hirteberger brass. Long while since that was available. In my 308 I used Norma Re brass.

And Harvey's much touted book of loads? All his Nobels loads exactly matched the Nobels manuals of the day, word for word, number for number. Go figure.

Quality of firearms then to now. Mmmm, my old Forester consistantly shot sub MOA from new and still does. All I did with the bedding was remove the pressure ridge of timber along the forend and I bedded the reinforce out just in front of the chamber. No pillars, no action bedding. Used plastibond as that was all that was available. I think plastibond still exists today but would hardly be the choice for a modern day bebbing job.

Big changes for me with target shooting at any rate, is the quality of projectiles and the science gone into design for higher and higher BCs. It's become quite crazy with new lines coming out all the time. I stocked up on Berger 200.20x and now they are so old, surpassed by something else. Mind you, you could chase each new type, which in effect may not give much improvement over last year's model. Likewise hunting projectiles.

The other change is the development of less temperature sensitive powders.