Wow, I've been reading C. Rodney James', The ABCs of Reloading and I never realized how important it is to first identify the type of round you would like to shoot (for hunting, target, plinking) and the "rifling twist" you need in a rifle before purchasing one.
On page 74, he says, "As a rule of thumb, longer bullets of a given caliber require a faster twist to stabilize them to the point where they shoot accurately than shorter bullets."
I don't come from a reloading background so the book is helping me to understand some of the theory behind reloading as well as the practicalities of reloading.
_____________________________________________________________________________________ Remember 31 Connollystraße & Benghazi Faith Under Fire ISBN# 9780307408815
Crossfire's husband, Marty, runs the reloading department at Cabela's in Fort Worth. When I wanted to get started in reloading, I went and asked him what I should start with. I thought one of those $300 RCBS kits would be enough. He asked me how many rounds of ammo I shoot in a year, and I gave him a rough estimate. He explained that it might take a couple of years to recoup the investment if I did it right. He also would not sell me anything until I did some homework. He had me buy the Lyman book, take it home and read the first few chapters, then compile a written list of what I thought I would need after having read those chapters. I had to bring that list back to him a few days later to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything.
I brought the list back to him, and it met with his approval. I left with $1,300 worth of gear, instead of $300 worth.
I already had an idea of what kind of loads I wanted to work up, based on a number of commercial match and hunting loads I had fired in my rifles, and I went from there. I didn't buy my rifles based on what kind of load I wanted to shoot in them. I bought them because I really liked them, and then I set about trying to learn what loads shot best in them—the reverse order of what your book recommends. I can't say that it set me back at all. I learned a ton about what kind of cartridges they liked because I really enjoyed shooting them, and I spend a lot of time at the range.
Pretty much every rifle made has a favorite load, regardless of caliber.....and two identical rifles might not have the same favorite load. It is endlessly fascinating trying to find that one magic combination of bullet weight and type, case, powder manufacturer and weight of charge, and primer. I'm nearly there with one rifle—a Remington 700 with a 26" heavy fluted barrel. It has a 1:10 twist, preferring slightly heavy for caliber bullets. The nearly magic load is a 175 grain Sierra Matchking over 42.6 grains of Varget, in unfired Remington brass with Winchester Large Rifle primers. I've been able to shoot 3/8" groups of 4 at 100 yards with that load. This load comes very close to duplicating the ballistics of the 7.62 NATO Lake City 175 grain Match sniper ammo, but it shoots marginally better in my rifle because handloading gives me better control of the consistency from individual cartridge to individual cartridge.
Lately, I've also been trying to work up a couple of good hunting loads for that rifle. One will be built around a 165 grain Sierra Gameking. The other uses a 180 grain Hornady SST ballistic tip. And then I'm hoping that the 165 grain Gameking will also shoot well in my M1A for hog hunting.
We've also been loading for our AR varmint rifles. The process was the same. We bought the rifles first, knowing the general capabilities of that basic configuration, then set about figuring out what kind of commercial loads worked best in them. Later, after we already knew what worked best, we started trying to see if we could either duplicate that or improve on it.
Our next project will be handloading for the pistols. Given that we shoot far more pistol ammo than we do rifle ammo in a year, my next reloading purchase will probably be a multistage press........but that is a long time down the road.
If this is your first exposure to handloading, welcome aboard. Like I said, it is endlessly fascinating, and from the get-go, you'll pay half or less of what you pay for commercial ammo, so the savings add up and will eventually pay for the equipment. After that, it's all profit.
I'm glad I started.
“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”
