Alistair
AH fanatic
- Joined
- May 25, 2018
- Messages
- 748
- Reaction score
- 2,507
- Location
- Milwaukee, WI
- Media
- 2
- Articles
- 1
- Hunted
- Scotland, Ireland & England
Hey Guys,
I've just picked up my very own reloading stuff! It's an RCBS rock chucker supreme kit and I'm quite excited about the whole thing.
I was taught the basics and used to borrow the kit of a friend whilst I was at uni, but now I've moved away for a job it's a 4hour round trip to visit, so it's not exactly convenient to nip over to make up 50 rounds for a comp anymore... hence the purchase.
My reloading aims for the short term are as follows:
1 - develop and make a cost effective plinking round in my .270 for running boar comps, practice and short range sporting rifle shoots. I think I have a load that I can run with using a book min load of N160 (51.5gr from memory), a sierra 130 softpoint (gameking I think?), a Federal gold match primer and my large collection of 1x fired ex factory brass (Remington and federal primarily, with maybe 160 of hornady).
This doesn't need to be blisteringly fast, and I'd be very happy with 1MOA or so, so I was wondering whether it'd be ok to run with mixed brass for these? I can keep everything seperate if required, but it'd be easier to just chuck all the old 1x fired factory in a bag and crack on.
I would also welcome peoples thoughts on throwing, but not weighing rifle loads? I have done this for .44mag lever action stuff before with cast bullets, but never with N160 and never with a rifle cartridge. Again, it's not a requirement, but I tend to make 100 of these at a time and shoot 200 odd a month, so weighing them out takes a long time. If it's acceptable or wise from a safety point of view to throw and maybe weigh every 5th load, it'd make the whole thing less tedious.
Ditto here on tumbling the brass. Is this a necessity in peoples view, or purely aesthetic? I have a tumbler on order, but nothing yet, and it'd be nice to make up a batch this week for my next shoot.
2 - Develop a really good .270 hunting load. Generally happy with the procedure here and planning to run with a 140gr accubond, but I would welcome peoples thoughts on other decent bullets to try. These will be for hill stalking Reds in Scotland and for 'long range' sporting rifle comps, so something good out to 300yds with decent bc values for wind and range estimation would be nice. I was toying with the idea of trying the 145gr ELD-X as well, but not sure what real world advantage it offers. Also have limited experience of the terminal effects, and really don't need shoddy penetration or massive overexpansion, which I hear can be an issue with some of the 'long range hunting' bullets if velocities are high or ranges shorter.
3 - .44mag lever action competition loads. Nothing new here, so no major questions. Going for .44spl type loadings with a cast semi-wadcutter as before.
4 - .44mag lever action hunting load. A tricky one. I'd like to work up some deer loads for my 20" barrel marlin, but in the UK we require 1700ft/lb for the larger species (basically anthing bigger than Roe). This is to my knowledge a pretty hot load for this cartridge, but a leverevolution or similar makes it possible in theory. Anyone got any data on these, both in terms of accuracy/velocity, or effect on game?
5 - Future plans! I currently relaod nothing bigger than .270win. However, in the future I will probably be picking up a 45-120 for black powder precision at the range. A 9.3x74r is also on the agenda, and one day I will pick up a 470NE express double as well. What are peoples experiences with the rockchucker press for these long rounds? Can it handle them, or would I need to pick up a dedicated press a la 50BMG?
So lots of questions!
As you can probably tell, I'm fairly new to all this, so advice is welcomed.
Cheers,
Al.
I've just picked up my very own reloading stuff! It's an RCBS rock chucker supreme kit and I'm quite excited about the whole thing.
I was taught the basics and used to borrow the kit of a friend whilst I was at uni, but now I've moved away for a job it's a 4hour round trip to visit, so it's not exactly convenient to nip over to make up 50 rounds for a comp anymore... hence the purchase.
My reloading aims for the short term are as follows:
1 - develop and make a cost effective plinking round in my .270 for running boar comps, practice and short range sporting rifle shoots. I think I have a load that I can run with using a book min load of N160 (51.5gr from memory), a sierra 130 softpoint (gameking I think?), a Federal gold match primer and my large collection of 1x fired ex factory brass (Remington and federal primarily, with maybe 160 of hornady).
This doesn't need to be blisteringly fast, and I'd be very happy with 1MOA or so, so I was wondering whether it'd be ok to run with mixed brass for these? I can keep everything seperate if required, but it'd be easier to just chuck all the old 1x fired factory in a bag and crack on.
I would also welcome peoples thoughts on throwing, but not weighing rifle loads? I have done this for .44mag lever action stuff before with cast bullets, but never with N160 and never with a rifle cartridge. Again, it's not a requirement, but I tend to make 100 of these at a time and shoot 200 odd a month, so weighing them out takes a long time. If it's acceptable or wise from a safety point of view to throw and maybe weigh every 5th load, it'd make the whole thing less tedious.
Ditto here on tumbling the brass. Is this a necessity in peoples view, or purely aesthetic? I have a tumbler on order, but nothing yet, and it'd be nice to make up a batch this week for my next shoot.
2 - Develop a really good .270 hunting load. Generally happy with the procedure here and planning to run with a 140gr accubond, but I would welcome peoples thoughts on other decent bullets to try. These will be for hill stalking Reds in Scotland and for 'long range' sporting rifle comps, so something good out to 300yds with decent bc values for wind and range estimation would be nice. I was toying with the idea of trying the 145gr ELD-X as well, but not sure what real world advantage it offers. Also have limited experience of the terminal effects, and really don't need shoddy penetration or massive overexpansion, which I hear can be an issue with some of the 'long range hunting' bullets if velocities are high or ranges shorter.
3 - .44mag lever action competition loads. Nothing new here, so no major questions. Going for .44spl type loadings with a cast semi-wadcutter as before.
4 - .44mag lever action hunting load. A tricky one. I'd like to work up some deer loads for my 20" barrel marlin, but in the UK we require 1700ft/lb for the larger species (basically anthing bigger than Roe). This is to my knowledge a pretty hot load for this cartridge, but a leverevolution or similar makes it possible in theory. Anyone got any data on these, both in terms of accuracy/velocity, or effect on game?
5 - Future plans! I currently relaod nothing bigger than .270win. However, in the future I will probably be picking up a 45-120 for black powder precision at the range. A 9.3x74r is also on the agenda, and one day I will pick up a 470NE express double as well. What are peoples experiences with the rockchucker press for these long rounds? Can it handle them, or would I need to pick up a dedicated press a la 50BMG?
So lots of questions!
As you can probably tell, I'm fairly new to all this, so advice is welcomed.
Cheers,
Al.