Why do you bother to reload?

gbal · February 16, 2013

Terry's right in what he's posted.

I can't see why you're still taking issue with me though over what I posted, which I might add was originally claimed in Precision Shooting Magazine.

Who am I to argue with them, and therefore why argue with me?

I defer to those that actually know more on this subject than me, and I can't see why you're all getting het up over this.

It's apparently factual and I never said it was the best available, but most record setting ammo there's been.

No one has actually disproved this yet [insert smiley face]

Anyway it's all somewhat irrelevant now, but at least I have managed to engage some of you in discussion rather than people just posting their reasons as to why or why not.

There's another ammo that has been mentioned recently, I think it is 300M 6BR ammo made by Norma and the consensus seems to be that while it's expensive, it's also pretty hard to better.

I used to reload everything, and in fact was probably the first person to import and shoot 77gn SMK's in Practical Rifle.

For those of you that look down on US NRA, I have this for you.........why do you think all those fancy .223 and .308 bullets came about in the first place?

When I started loading 77's I did some research and spoke to various people in the US about loads and everyone came back with the same data...24-24.5 gns of Reloder 15 or Varget in Win or Rem brass and go shoot it.

It works and is hard to better, so why mess around?

There are some loads that just work, this is one.

When shooting 80's just use the same charge and don't worry about it.

Nowadays I do still reload, but only for big matches such as the Imperial CSR champs. the rest of the time, as in league matches, I just use good quality surplus, as minimum effort for maximum return seems to work for everyone.

There's many more factors at play in these comps than who's shooting the best ammo.

For my Whisper and .260 AI I do reload, but only shoot these in small quantities.

If I was to give you a box of factory .223 Black Hills 77's, either fresh red box or remanufactured blue box, you'd go and shoot it without worry, and even if you spent hours loading and testing, it would be doubtful if you could make better.

A few years ago I was on a shooting trip to AZ and we pre ordered some HSM 75gn ammo for a Highpower match.

We'd never shot it before and after a quick zero on steels and 2 sighters at 200yds I then shot my best sitting rapid fire ever, 200-9x.

God only knows what the powder is or even the charge.

I couldn't shoot factory ammo like that all the time though, I'd be skint!

Oh and for the record, I've never even fired a single round of FGMM 168

Hi Mark,

I didn't mention European CISM 300m match shooting,but there is some seriously good ammo used-probably a move away from 308 to 6 BR these days.I know you have done a lot to pomote 'service rifle'/across the board type competitions in UK,and were influential in promoting the heavier 223 bullets.

Sometimes it's not easy to cover everything in messaging-as in "I reload when I feel I have to-cost isn't a factor" and "I couldn't shoot factory ammo like that all the time-I'd be skint".Now,those two are definitely not tautologous,and just hint at what one person might find themselves saying,let's be kind and say 'out of context'! Enough already!

I would love some Black Hills etc-at US prices--there must be a war on somewhere,as surplus is hen's teeth at the moment-there isn't even any Lake City brass in 5.56,and no back order. I'm even being a little economical with spraying Wolf downrange-not that it's great,it's not readily replaceable.This whole discussion about reloading/factory has helped-economy isn't what it used to be-though it's still there (the brass costs,til replacement needed) and too much concern about third decimal BC-or even Lapua must have brass- have been set with the ability to read wind,and just shoot well-offhand rapid fire is just different to Bench Rest-it's all about comparison of your results with others,shooting the same discipline.-at 100 yards 1/2 moa is "outstanding" in the former,embarrassing in the latter. I like little bug holes-especially with reloads-but also falling men targets behaving accordingly(big boys tin cans),or ping pong-sorry table tennis-balls filled with talcum- no factory options there!

It's just nice to have choices with things that just work,as you say!

atb

george

tackb · February 16, 2013

Good to discuss stuff!

Now lets start on about real reloading - BPCR...................... (No, your safe, I would not inflict that 'nerditry'! )

Brgds Terry

I nearly sold my 45/120 when I thought I was going to have to start paper patching , last ditch to get it to shoot I put 110g of black in the case and just plonked a 405g jacketed head on top , no wads , no lube nothing and it shoots like a dream !