Availability of reloading stuff

[Leo]

I have loaded lots of different shotshells, pistol and rifle calibers since the 1970's. Made my shotgun wads, cast bullets, made gas check rifle bullets, even swagged .223 bullets out of .22 rimfire empties. I never blew up anything. Something that has served me well is to never start with max power load. I usually start in the dead middle or slightly less than the middle of published data.

Even if I have the exact bullet, exact case, exact powder and exact primer, I know that I do not have the exact test barrel. I still start in the middle. A tight barrel is seldom seen a pistol but you do see it on precision rifles. A load that shot great in a 20 inch barrel showed pressure problems in a 26 inch barrel. I shot the same load for years through Douglass Ultra match and Hart rifle barrels with no troubles, but my friends Krieger barrels would blow the primers with my ammo.

Some things will fool you. For example, the 105 grain BTHP MatchKing in 6.5mm was longer than the flatbase 120 grain from Sierra. That affects things.

I have made a lot of substitutions over the years and never had any trouble when starting with a conservative load.

Don't get in a hurry, change only one thing at a time, and have fun.

 

[Hawkeye7br]

Some things will fool you. For example, the 105 grain BTHP MatchKing in 6.5mm was longer than the flatbase 120 grain from Sierra. That affects things.

This is why a most valuable tool in reloading is a bullet comparator. It's basically a machined nut, about 1.5" diameter, with a different bore diameter hole drilled into each of the 6 sides. Proper usage allows you to seat bullets from different manufacturers or different nose styles to the same distance from the rifling. Far more accurate and consistent than measuring overall length. My reloading notes only have this ogive length, never the overall length. Usually under $30, typically will do 224, 243, 264, 277, 284, 308 bullet diameters.

 

[tackdriver]

... How important is it to match primers? Is it dangerous to substitute one manufacturer for another, assuming I start at the lowest loads?

That right there is a whole topic in and of itself. The primer does make a difference, but how much is greatly debated.

Starting out, I'd recommend staying in the same family at least (Sm Rifle, Sm Rifle Mag, etc.). I've never had a problem interchanging CCI SRP with Winchester SRP or Federal SRP - from a safety standpoint. It's widely believed that CCI Small Rifle is the same exact product as CCI Small Pistol Magnum. I've used CCI SRP in a lot of 9mm in the past, and never had an issue (and they often ran better).

Because Primer supplies are SO unpredictable an difficult, I started cross testing everything I had on hand and thought I may have to use in a pinch. I didn't notice anything that concerned my safety wise, but I did run into functional problems using various Small Rifle in pistol loads. It's often discussed that the hardness of some primer cups makes them unreliable in some pistols (with weaker firing pin force). True, but I found that even with strong strikes, some of my handguns didn't set off some primers reliably (or at all). Digging, I learned that it's most likely the depth of the anvil inside the primer, and how far my firing pins protruded. Three Browning Hi Powers ate everything and smiled about it! Beretta 92, Sig P226, P365's... varying results.

All that said: 1. Stick to the same type of primer as close as you can; 2. If you can't, do a little specific research on the primers you can get; and 3. Always start low and work up, looking for signs of a problem.

There's a good deal of margin for error built in already. If you pay attention, put a little responsible thought into it (like you are here), and don't go too far off the path, you'll be fine and enjoy your handloads.

 

[Bill2905]

I wasn't aware of these publications, now I am curious and may have to order some for my calibers. Only have tooling for 9mm, .45acp, .223 and 6.5cm right now.

I like the idea of a specialized manual like this, to learn everything about something (a particular caliber) rather than the usual manuals that present something about everything.

My only concern is how up-to-date are they? Powder mfg. techniques and properties have changed somewhat over the years as well as bullet design, construction and materials.

I own six of these for various handgun and rifle cartridges. They contain the pages from each of the available loading manuals out on the market. You get the writeup on the cartridge plus the load data from each one. A couple of mine are from the 90's but I find the the data hasn't changed all that much over the years, at least not enough to make a difference if you use sensible load development practices.

 

[DRob]

"You could burn a pound of Titegroup on your driveway, and do no harm past the burn mark. Put 0.001 lb (7 gr) into a 9mm Lugar case, stuff in a 147gr HP on one end, and a small mag primer in the other, stick it in a WWII pistol... and your asking for real trouble."

CORRECT! Stick that load in any pistol and I don't want to be anywhere near it when it's shot. That's damned near a DOUBLE CHARGE!

 

[bwframe]