Meticulous reloading data

[DLS]

@orygun

Most all factory loads use the "same" powder as we do. By same I mean the same name (or number) but it has not been blended to meet a strict performance norm. Leverevolution included.

Every lot of powder has slightly different characteristics ... we all know this. The reason we can reload with confidence is that the manufacturer has taken great care to blend different lots to result in the standard burn characteristics that listed loads require.

I guarentee you that large scale ammo makers don't bother, they simply test the lot and adjust the charge.

So if you pull apart a factory load that happens to have used a lot of powder that in on the slow side of the range and use that charge weight to load with your canister grade powder you are chancing an overpressure situation.

 

[lcb97269]

Beware of bad components. I have a batch of Rem .308 brass from the factory that was not annealed. You can literally grab the bullet and break it off the case at the neck.

 

[Spitpatch]

If the value of documentation is the original question:

Handloading makes absolutely no sense without it. Do it as best as you can do.

You are working for yourself, and the paycheck comes later.

 

[P7M13]

You are working for yourself, and the paycheck comes later.

Slave labor.
Why aren't the leftists and woke rioting on my behalf?!

 

[ageingstudent]

Slave labor.
Why aren't the leftists and woke rioting on my behalf?!

I think you know

 

[Catfishmoon]

So here is what I do, I keep records of the load dvelopment and when I get to the goldielox load I write it down on a 3x5 card. Every time I make that load I make it to the specs that are on that card. Those 3x5 cards are the also what I use for my ammo business.

This is what I do also. One I have completed a "ladder test" of various grains of powder weight together with a particular bullet, I keep the load data for my recipe of choice for that powder-bullet combination in my gun...
Perhaps it would be worthwhile to keep notes on why I did not choose the other recipes, but I do not go to that level of record keeping.