My case prep

[janfred]

I reload because I want to shoot accurately. It is a means to an end, not the end itself. The days I enjoyed load development as a hobby is long gone. As a clever man once said, if you want the easiest way to do things, give it to a lazy man to do. So, as you can imagine, I have worked out a system for case preparation to do the least amount of work possible and still end up with accurate and precise cartridges.

Step one, start with good components. In  my case that is Lapua brass, berger bullets and S&B primers and whatever powder I can get. In most cases that is Somchem S335.
Lapua .308Win brass has the most constant and even neck wall thickness that I have personally seen. The weight difference from case to case in a batch is less than the 3gr Nosler garantees with their Custom Competition cases and still cheaper. You may want to turn the necks if you do benchrest shooting, but for normal bisley, PRS, hunting or plinking you are wasting your time. On average my cases have a 0.015" neckwall thickness. A specific case's neckwall thickness can vary between 0.014" to 0.016" which gives a case induced total run-out of 0.002". You can turn all the cases to 0.014", but that is a lot of work for very little return.

I have 3 rifles and every rifle has 600 cases. Every case I own has space in an ammo box and every box is numbered. The boxes are used in the numbered sequence in the rifle they were purchased for. That way I do not need to keep track of how many times they have been used as they are all the same until the sequence repeats. The cases are discarded when I change barrels or when one fails. Hence the required 600 cases per rifle. Expected accurate lifespan for a bisley .308 barrel is 6000 rounds. Ten shots per case seems fair.

When I shoot, I take a cartridge out the ammo box, put it in the chamber, shoot it, remove the case from the rifle and place it back in the box. My cases are not ejected to fly through the air and fall into the sand. If the unthinkable should happen, the case gets picked up immediately and cleaned before it goes back into the box.

When others hear how I size cases sizing the ridicule starts. I take the case as dirty as it came from the rifle and size it with a forster bushing bump neck die using a .336 bushing. The shoulders are bumped back 0.003". And no, I do not use case lube. And yes, I still use the original bushing I bought with the die back in 2016. It does not scratch case necks even after using it in this way for 10,000+ uses. And yes, the bolt still closes easily on the cartridges even after 10 uses without having to full-size or use a body die. I haven't used lube on 308 cases since 2017. I think this works because the carbon on the case neck acts as a dry lubricant. And because I am not sizing the body, I do not need lubrication there either. It also helps that I do not load to the ragged edge so the web expansion is kept to a minimum.

After sizing 10 cases chosen at random are measured for length. If any are 51.1mm or longer, all the cases are trimmed with a Giraud 3-way trimmer to 50.9mm. Then they go one box at a time (50 cases) into a normal vibratory tumbler until the necks are mostly clean on the outside. I have three tumblers so can do 150 cases at a time. From the tumbler the flashholes are cleared of tumble media, case is inspected and then goes back into the ammo box primer side up. That way I can see the flash holes are clear and any media still in the case will fall out. I do not uniform, deburr or ream primer pockets. This is one of the reasons I uses Lapua cases despite the cost. I do not clean primer residue out of primer pockets. Tests I have done does not show any improvement in accuracy or velocity numbers. If there is a difference it is so small that I cannot measure it.

I then prime the cases using a Lee hand primer. The case is removed from the box, primed, checked that the primer is below flush and then replaced in the box primer side up. This way I can easily see that all cases are correctly primed.

When I charge cases, I remove the case from the box, charge with powder, seat a bullet and place the completed cartridge back in the ammo box. Job done.

Let the questions begin...

[oafpatroll]

I like the system and will adopt some of the 'workflow' controls you have described, specifically the sequence of placement of cases.

I really enjoy rifle reloading and almost have to prevent myself from working out new ways to make it take longer.

[Treeman]

I reload because I want to shoot accurately. It is a means to an end, not the end itself. The days I enjoyed load development as a hobby is long gone. As a clever man once said, if you want the easiest way to do things, give it to a lazy man to do. So, as you can imagine, I have worked out a system for case preparation to do the least amount of work possible and still end up with accurate and precise cartridges.
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This is precisely where I am at.
Funny thing is, Cody started loading for first time on Sunday 20 August 2023
Tonight when I said I was going to go finish the 8 case run, he answered " no Dad, please, I want to"

[Treeman]

I like the system and will adopt some of the 'workflow' controls you have described, specifically the sequence of placement of cases.

I really enjoy rifle reloading and almost have to prevent myself from working out new ways to make it take longer.

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I am at the far side of opposing janfreds's methodical methods. I use a case till it comes apart, and I pile cases in batch's of 1 or 2 times shot.
Somewhere between 3 and 5 shots they all stress relieved and trimmed back quiet a lot.
My bolts mostly close with some effort and I can not give you a batch number on any tin of propellant, all tins are mix's

[janfred]

I like the system and will adopt some of the 'workflow' controls you have described, specifically the sequence of placement of cases.

I really enjoy rifle reloading and almost have to prevent myself from working out new ways to make it take longer.

That was true before I got my 223.

I was doing load development just as an excuse to go spend some time at the range shooting. Problem was that I was shooting away expensive target ammunition and barrel life.

A conservative estimate is that I shot away 1/3 of my first rifle's accurate barrel life just because I was bored. Now I have a load for the 308 and go play with the 223.

[Ds J]

@ janfred:

How often do you shoot?

How many rounds per session?

I ask because I barely get to shoot once a month, therefore my reloading requirements are much simpler. My setup on my rifles is also fairly primitive (6x fixed scopes, unbedded actions etc), which means that I can push accuracy only that far.

I deprime and clean the fired cases once I have 10 shots left of 50 cases, and cleaning is done with tartaric acid & dishwashing soap, then a vibrating tumbler. Full length resize, prime, and reload with an established load. I have just one load per rifle.

[janfred]

Twice a month between 27-36 rounds at a time. 180 rounds at the provincial competition and around 500 at the national competition (hence the 600 cases per rifle). Around 1200 rounds a year plus whatever I use for NHSA targets.

For all my wierdness, my loads have all been 1/2 MOA or better, ES always less than 20 and SD less than 8 over 15 shots. That is by not wet-tumbling, using expander mandrels, annealing cases or whatever high-tech reloading techniques Hornady (and others) convinced reloaders to use.

[Treeman]

I enjoyed reloading so much at one stage that I believe I was buying weapons to develop loads for them. Problem is that with a hunting type rifle one develops a load, loads 2-300 of that load and then really has no further need for the next 5 years. I am shooting loads from 2008 in my .270 Win.
I have always been happy with holes that touch 2 outa 3 shots with all shots in one half of a 1 inch square. (IE: half inch grouping at 100 m)
Most rifles that are accurate in themselves can achieve this with very basic practice of constant COL, case within spec and a load within 2-3 % consistency.
For the purpose of hunting and non competitive target shooting the half millimetre improvement at 100 m accuracy is just not worth the 8 extra steps.

I do on occasion select a caliber and do a thorough case prep of everything I have, wet tumble, trim, dry tumble, aneal regroup cases by weight groups and a few more steps, but then its back to use and re-use till it cracks. 

[DaavG]

That's very interesting janfred, thank you. The die can be adjusted to bump the shoulders back? Had any issues closing the bolt on 0.003" bump at all?

How did you decide on that bushing size?

Lastly what do you think has the most impact in keeping your SD & ES so low?

[janfred]

The bump die's adjustment is the same as most other dies; careful trial and error adjustment of the locking ring. Some would say that 0.003" shoulder bump is excessive, but no difficulty closing the bolt.

As to bushing size; neckwall thickness x 2 + 0.308" - desired neck tension. I tried 0.004, 0.003 and 0.002". Couldn't see a difference in ES/SD so I stayed with 0.002".

As I said, start with good components. Also, it is a .308; not really difficult to reload for.

Lapua brass is quite good as already mentioned.

Berger bullets are very good. Very consistent weight and shape wise. The output from a single machine is one batch. Bullet base-to-ogive measurements are so close as to not be descernable with any of my measuring devices.

I don't mix my cases so I cannot get confused over the amount of times the cases have been used. Only time that I change times-used is when I'm finished with box #12 and start using from box #1. You would think there would be a velocity and POI change between 3x and 4x fired, but if there is it gets lost in the noise from shooting usupported with a sling.

I use fresh powder. Once I open a tin I try to use it all within a few hours. I do not leave it in the hopper between loading sessions. I have found that there can be a significant change in velocity if the powder is left out the tin for more than a day or so depending on humidity and temperature. Whatever is left goes into the recycle tin.

At a guess I would also say leaving the carbon in the case neck helps. I do not have any proof of that except that those that obsessively clean cases spotlessly goes through much more effort with their cases and still stuggle to get low SD figures.

[Treeman]

I use fresh powder. Once I open a tin I try to use it all within a few hours. I do not leave it in the hopper between loading sessions. I have found that there can be a significant change in velocity if the powder is left out the tin for more than a day or so depending on humidity and temperature. Whatever is left goes into the recycle tin.
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I find this interesting and somewhat worrying, I have also noticed a difference in powder that has stood, even if in a tin (Left over kept for next use scenario).
I started a long time ago with continuously mixing my powders when I buy new powder, I have then found that I can often with just 4 shots know how to go about my reloading.

After nearly 4 years Cody's reloads were depleted, the old batch of propellant was half tin and I had two new tins of S365 that were cooler in burn. A good mix, same load and .4 mm shorter COL had me 2 touching holes and one hole a millimeter off the touching holes - good enough for hunting, even head shots.

[DaavG]

The bump die's adjustment is the same as most other dies; careful trial and error adjustment of the locking ring. Some would say that 0.003" shoulder bump is excessive, but no difficulty closing the bolt.

As to bushing size; neckwall thickness x 2 + 0.308" - desired neck tension. I tried 0.004, 0.003 and 0.002". Couldn't see a difference in ES/SD so I stayed with 0.002".

As I said, start with good components. Also, it is a .308; not really difficult to reload for.

Lapua brass is quite good as already mentioned.

Berger bullets are very good. Very consistent weight and shape wise. The output from a single machine is one batch. Bullet base-to-ogive measurements are so close as to not be descernable with any of my measuring devices.

I don't mix my cases so I cannot get confused over the amount of times the cases have been used. Only time that I change times-used is when I'm finished with box #12 and start using from box #1. You would think there would be a velocity and POI change between 3x and 4x fired, but if there is it gets lost in the noise from shooting usupported with a sling.

I use fresh powder. Once I open a tin I try to use it all within a few hours. I do not leave it in the hopper between loading sessions. I have found that there can be a significant change in velocity if the powder is left out the tin for more than a day or so depending on humidity and temperature. Whatever is left goes into the recycle tin.

At a guess I would also say leaving the carbon in the case neck helps. I do not have any proof of that except that those that obsessively clean cases spotlessly goes through much more effort with their cases and still stuggle to get low SD figures.

Thank you for the detailed reply.

[Againstthegrains]

How often do you reanneal?

[janfred]

How often do you reanneal?

I don't anneal yet. I have a gas one and an electric one that i have not used yet.

To be honest, the grouping and SD of the reloaded cases is such that any improvement that may be gained won't really help. The rifle groups half MOA using a peep sight.

[Treeman]

To be honest, the grouping and SD of the reloaded cases is such that any improvement that may be gained won't really help. The rifle groups half MOA using a peep sight.
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I anneal to get two - 3 times case life, the accuracy gains are ?? I believe annealing may make old cases more accurate AGAIN after some use use  and it DOES does does ! ------ , but I do not believe I can anneal a new case to better accuracy.