EDITION 7.0 Table of Contents - Accurate Powder

1 1 EDITION of ContentsGETTING STARTED: Considerations and Helpful Tips ..2 Setting Up ..2 A Reloading Place ..3 The Bare Essentials ..3 The Chamber, the Throat and Neck Sizing ..4 RELOADING BASICS ..5 Good Habits ..5 Examine the Cases ..5 Lubing ..6 Sizing ..6 Maximum Case Length and Chamfering ..7 Priming ..8 Powder Charge ..8 Bullet Seating ..9 Seating Depth and Pressure Changes ..10 When to Crimp ..10 Roll Crimping ..10 Taper Crimping ..11 Storing the Finished Product ..11 TIPS, TRICKS AND SIGNS OF TROUBLE ..12 Work in Batches ..12 There is No Free Lunch ..12 External Pressure Signs ..12 Measuring Pressure ..13 Squib Loads ..13 Use the Right Powder ..14 Use the Right Amount ..14 Bullet Stabilization Problems ..14 A Hobby for A Lifetime ..15 LOAD DATA AND ABBREVIATIONS ..16 Warnings/Disclaimers ..16 Abbreviations List ..17 Understanding the Data/General Guidelines/Notes on Cartridge Overall Length ..18 Handgun - Powder to Cartridge Reference List.

2 19 Handgun Data ..20 Rifle - Powder to Cartridge Reference List ..38 Rifle Data ..41 Shotshell - Warnings/Disclaimers ..82 Shotshell Data ..84 MONTANA X-TREME GUIDELINES FOR PROPER GUN CLEANING ..102 Recommended Cleaning Procedures ..103 Gun Cleaning Products ..104 BLACKHORN 209 HIGH PERFORMANCE PROPELLANT ..107 Take Charge of Your Accuracy ..108 .50 Cal. Load Data ..109 Black Powder Cartridge Load Data ..109 Optimizing Performance ..110 Blackhorn 209 Comparison Data ..111 BURN RATE CHART ..112 Western Powders, Box 158 Miles City MT 59301Ph: 406-234-0422 Fax: by ROB BEHR 2018 Western Powders, and accuracy are the two most common reasons for shooters to begin hand- loading. Some never move past the basics and enjoy the hobby for a lifetime, just for the savings alone. For others though, reloading becomes the gateway to precision that no factory ammunition can provide, where groups are measured in thousandths of an inch and accuracy is king.

3 Handloading can resurrect a family heirloom that uses ammunition long since discontinued or turn an obscure war prize into a shooter. A good handloader can transform a deer rifle into a varmint rifle or a low-recoil plinker. In the end, it is this versatility, along with savings and accuracy, that keep handloaders happily loading cartridges. SETTING UP nThis article is intended as an overview of reloading basics. It needs to be supple-mented by other reloading manuals, including at least one by a prominent bullet manufacturer. Barnes, Sierra, Hornady and Nosler, along with many others, all offer Considerations and Helpful TipsGetting Started:BY ROB BEHR3 EDITION books on the subject. Friends and the Internet are also useful resources for loading tips, but they need to be treated with a grain of salt. If their advice differs significantly from published data, common sense should favor companies with ballistic labs and staff RELOADING PLACE nA good reloading space should be free of distractions, well lit, dry and warm enough to be comfortable.

4 Ideally it should be a room dedicated to the hobby. The bench simply needs to be sturdy. A press exerts quite a lot of force on the bench, which must be stable enough not to break or bounce as it is used. Several nice reloading benches are available complete from their manufacturers. Plans for dedicated re-loading benches are also readily available from Internet sources. Even a reinforced kitchen Table works well. The bottom line is that handloaders need a bench before the first round can be BARE ESSENTIALS nThere are basic tools every handloader needs, and reloading kits offer an excellent way to get started. Kits should include most of the items listed below. The rest will need to be purchased separately. Whether they come from a kit or individually, these are the tools everyone needs to safely begin reloading:SINGLE-STAGE PRESS This is the main tool used for handloading.

5 It uses mechanical advantage to resize fired cases and seat bullets. Most have some provision to seat DIESA rifle die set is usually comprised of two dies. The first sizes and deprimes fired cases, and the other seats a new bullet. For straight-walled cases, like many pistol cartridges, die sets will include a third die used to flare the case mouth prior to bullet mate a case into the press. They are machined to match the rim or extraction groove of the cartridge being MEASUREMost kits will contain a Powder scale, most of which use weights on a balance beam to measure Powder . More expensive options may include an electronic scale, which can be more Accurate and TRICKLER A tool used to precisely pour (trickle) Powder onto the TRAY AND LUBE Lube is used to keep resized cases from sticking in the die. The lube tray is a simple roll-on type applicator. It s easy to see that reloading makes good economic sense.

6 4 EDITION FUNNEL A funnel specifically designed to pour Powder into a case TOOL A tool used to chamfer and deburr the case CALIPER Precise measurements are required for safe and reliable handloads. A good caliper is the best tool for the TOOLMost presses come with a tool to safely prime cases. Several after-market hand tools are also available. CASE TRIMMERC ases stretch during firing and loading. This may eventually cause problems with cham-bering and higher than expected pressures. Lee offers trimmers intended for individual calibers. Lathe-type trimmers add versatility for the larger scale handloader. THE CHAMBER, THE THROAT AND NECK SIZING nFor a handloader, understanding a bullet s interaction within the chamber is funda- mental to good accuracy and safe handloading. The throat is a smooth, funnel- like area of the chamber that guides a bullet into the rifling. This space allows a bullet to move forward relatively unimpeded for several thousandths of an inch before it begins to swage down to the bore diameter and into the rifling.

7 Precise align-ment of the bullet with the throat is a key to rifle accuracy. If a bullet is misaligned with the throat, pressure will still drive it into the barrel, but on a plane other than its ideal ballistic axis. A bullet on its ballistic axis spins much like a well-thrown football. Off its axis, the bullet will yaw, severely diminishing accuracy. This is most commonly seen when a bullet (usually light and short for the caliber) is seated far away from the throat. Once fired, this bullet has a long jump into the rifling, which may keep it from fitting concentrically into the barrel. On the other extreme, a bullet set beyond the throat and into the rifling, can spike pressure and damage the firearm. This is why consistent resizing and precise bullet seating is fundamental to making Accurate handloaded a cartridge has been fired, it expands to match that chamber s dimension and then shrinks slightly as it cools. This case can usually be used again in the same cham-ber with very little reworking, except to add tension to the neck so it will hold a bullet.

8 This type of reloading, called neck sizing, creates a more precisely aligned cartridge, because it already matches a specific chamber. Neck sizing is one area where the re-loader has an accuracy advantage over factory-produced ammunition. Where factory ammunition must fit many chambers and action types, handloaded ammunition can be made to fit one firearm very CUTAWAY1. Case Mouth2. Neck3. Shoulder4. Case Body5. Case Web6. Flash Hole7. Primer Pocket8. Extractor Groove5 EDITION HABITS nHandloading is a fun and safe process when simple safety guidelines are followed. The most obvious areas for concern are open flames and heat sources. Never smoke while reloading. Avoid intoxicants. Keep your reloading bench clear of clutter and only allow components needed for the job at hand to be on the Table . Never mix powders or substitute components. Stick to published loading information. Extreme care must be used with any reloading data that fills a case less than half full, which raises the threat of a double-charged cartridge.

9 Finally, if something does not seem to be working, stop and figure out the problem. A few minutes of research is time well spent. EXAMINE THE CASES nIn the photographs, new factory cases have been used. Whether you use factory new or previously fired cases, it is important to examine each one for defects. Small dents in the case mouth (Example 1) can easily be corrected as part of the sizing process. Others may have manufacturing defects and should be discarded, like the case head separation seen in Example 2 or the malformed primer pocket seen in Example 3. Other defects, such as cracks on the neck, case body or distinct lines above the case web (a sign of potential case head separation) are all reasons to discard 1: Dented Case MouthExample 2: Case Head Separation Neck sizing is one area where the reloader has an accuracy Reloading Basics6 EDITION European or Asian manufactured cases, especially in military calibers, it is worthwhile to check each case by shining a flashlight into the case mouth.

10 These cases may use Berdan priming, rather than the more common Boxer priming. A Berdan primed case uses two offset flash holes instead of the single, centralized one seen with Boxer primers. It is easiest to discard these cases. If rarity, or some other reason, makes reloading them necessary, special tools are required. Attempting to deprime this type of case using standard dies will break the decapping n Cases need to be lubed to pre-vent them from sticking inside the sizing die. A small amount of case lube should be applied to the lubing tray and the cases gently rolled by hand (Exam-ple 4). Too much lube will cause pressure dents on cases, so any excess amount should be wiped away. Too little lube can result in a stuck case and a quick trip to the sporting goods store for a removal kit, conveniently sold by all of the big reloading com-panies for just this nThe next step is to install the sizing die, shown partially dismantled in Example 5.