What would you consider an accurate powder measurement?

[Ridge Walker]

Wow !
To arrive at 53.5 gr, it's almost like the reloader was looking at that very same page and slipped up by looking at the 760 charge weights.

So once again the old adage is proven.
Never shoot someone else's reloads.

 

[Ridge Walker]

Hodgdon Manual.

View attachment 884067

Your OVERloaded ammunition is likely to destroy your rifle, and probably injure you in the process.

Good job Tac. I think Overdrive nailed it, the reloader read the wrong line.

Now I'm wondering about the rifle if it was shot with any of those hot loads

 

[tac]

Good job Tac. I think Overdrive nailed the reloader read the wrong line.

Now I'm wondering about the rifle if it was shot with any of those hot loads

Nobody can answer that except the vendor, who might be less than forthcoming.

I've seen the results of overloading - in that case, a compressed load of 2400 in .38 Special case fired in a 1917 Colt. The bystander died. The owner had been loading for his .30-30 and had overlooked changing out the charging bar on his spiffy loading rig.

 

[Certaindeaf]

Do not worry. I am a scientist and my brain is trained on metric system and I do unit conversions for living. Since I will be using Excel for all my calculations and loading data record, it is not a big deal to convert to from grains to grams and back.

They shot the Hubble space telescope straight into the ground because of conversion issues.





Well, almost.

 

[Ridge Walker]

Nobody can answer that except the vendor, who might be less than forthcoming.

I've seen the results of overloading - in that case, a compressed load of 2400 in .38 Special case fired in a 1917 Colt. The bystander died. The owner had been loading for his .30-30 and had overlooked changing out the charging bar on his spiffy loading rig.

Damn. That is just tragic. Living with that would be hard. Horrible in fact.

 

[DirectDrive]

I'll tell this story so someone else might learn from it...
I had a pellet "bridge" once and lifted slightly to clear it.
Unbeknownst to me, when I lifted I dumped a second charge of 540.
Blew up a nice Remington 1100 as a result.

I had a nice entrance and exit hole in my trousers.
A piece of shrapnel grazed my thigh and left me with a large bruise.

The lessons I learned from this :

When reloading shotshells and you get a jam (bridging shot pellet) stop everything and clear it.
Don't lift and proceed.

Use cylindrical charge bushings.
They are less apt to jam.

If possible, use a powder (or load) that will "show" when a double charge occurs.
"Show" meaning spill out or throw an obvious bad crimp.

The 540 mentioned above is a ball powder and at my charge weight (x2), a normal crimp was possible since
this ball powder takes up a small volume.

Reloading is perfectly safe when you keep a clear head and use a good, uninterrupted routine.
I let that bridged shot pellet interrupt my routine.

 

[tac]

I bought an RCBS Rockchucker single-stage press in 1978 from Wiesbaden R&GC.

I bought a Lee multi-stage press in 1990 from a pal.

I use the first for all my rifle cartridges - one at a time and s l o w l y.

I use the second for my one and only revolver cartridge.

I look at EVERY charge weigh AFTER I put it in the case - and I look at it again before I insert the bullet - one at a time. By hand.

Am I an old fuddy-duddy?

Yup, I surely is/am.

I can still count to ten with my hands without using one hand twice.

 

[oremike]

Now, I got a ammo loading question if some of you could give me an advice. I just purchased old Tikka 658 in 30-06 I with the rifle I got about 500 rounds of ammo. 350 rounds are factory loads (Federal and Remington) and 150 rounds are reloads. The owner of the rifle told me that these reloads were developed for this Tikka rifle (22in barrel 1:10 twist). I took careful measurements of few randomly chosen cartridges, and these reloads are very accurate when it comes to neck size (they are all .332), length and total weight. They are super nicely organized, clean and they look very well made. However, I have zero practical experience with re-loading. These reloads were using Remington 165 gr Core-Lokt bullets and Winchester 748 powder. They are charged 53.5 grains. I am concerned that 53.5 might be a little bit too hot. I spent a couple of hours searching reloading data for Winchester 748 powder, and I could not find anything that would tell me minimum/maximum charge for this powder in combination with 165 gr bullets similar to Rem core-lokt in 30-06 cartridges. I only could find Winchester 748 powder loading data for lighter bullets (up to 150 gr), but nothing for 165 gr. Thus, I better ask some of you who are re-loading experts before I shoot these cartridges.

Since the data is suspect, I would pull the bullets and throw away the powder. You can't tell what powder is what by looking at it. I'd then start fresh with known componates. I'd even weigh the bullets to see if they are 165's.

 

[Ridge Walker]

Since the data is suspect, I would pull the bullets and throw away the powder. You can't tell what powder is what by looking at it. I'd then start fresh with known componates. I'd even weigh the bullets to see if they are 165's.

Honestly at this point I agree. A few bucks is cheap insurance.

 

[DizzyJ]

For what I do and my anal retentiveness, I measure to +/- .02gr for most rifle loads and +/- .1gr for most pistol loads.

 

[Ridge Walker]

For what I do and my anal retentiveness, I measure to +/- .02gr for most rifle loads and +/- .1gr for most pistol loads.

Honestly that's where I am at too. Want talk anal? Let's talk runout lol.

 

[DizzyJ]

Honestly that's where I am at too. Want talk anal? Let's talk runout lol.

Runout, neck tension, neck thickness, case weight, trim length, bullet seating depth, primer selection, amount of chamfer, angle of chamfer, seating pressure measurement, times fired, annealed state.....

Yeah, lots of rabbit holes to go down. Enough to make a person go mad if they let it.

 

[Ridge Walker]

Runout, neck tension, neck thickness, case weight, trim length, bullet seating depth, primer selection, amount of chamfer, angle of chamfer, seating pressure measurement, times fired, annealed state.....

Yeah, lots of rabbit holes to go down. Enough to make a person go mad if they let it.

And don't forget the ever important H2O Capacity, and primer pocket forming

 

[tac]

Three shots - 155gr Lapua Scenar, 44gr 4064, Lapua brass, CCI #200 Large rifle primers - @100m

 

[DizzyJ]

Three shots - 155gr Lapua Scenar, 44gr 4064, Lapua brass, CCI #200 Large rifle primers - @100m

View attachment 884145

Awesome group! Starting out with premium brass is definitely a leg up in the game!

 

[Ridge Walker]

Three shots - 155gr Lapua Scenar, 44gr 4064, Lapua brass, CCI #200 Large rifle primers - @100m

View attachment 884145

That will make yer day!

 

[Mikej]

Three shots - 155gr Lapua Scenar, 44gr 4064, Lapua brass, CCI #200 Large rifle primers - @100m

View attachment 884145

Yeah what? You missed all three times!

 

[RVTECH]

Thus, I better ask some of you who are re-loading experts before I shoot these cartridges.

Looks like you have 150 rounds to pull !

FWIW I was given a bunch of old .30-30 and .32 WS ammo a while back and although they were in factory boxes they appeared to have a 'reloaded' appearance to them so I went about pulling them.

Well while looking at several of the .30-30s I thought the bullets looked a little different so I 'miked' them and they were .32 caliber ! - apparently the person had used .30-30 brass to load some of the .32 WS rounds.

 

[ddjchemist]

Thank you all so much. I definitely won't shoot those rounds and will disassembly them when I get all the tools. I am currently reading Lyman 50th Edition Reloading Handbook. I am planning on shooting the rifle later today with some Federal match-grade 165gr ammo that I got with the rifle.

 

[ddjchemist]

Hodgdon Manual.

View attachment 884067

Your OVERloaded ammunition is likely to destroy your rifle, and probably injure you in the process.

Thank you so much for this table. After seeing some data for 150 gr bullets with 748 powder, I got doubts about the ammo. I am glad I asked the question. I will disassemble ammo and use shells and bullets when I start reloading. I will use different powder for 30-06 loads (I am exploring all the options)