Made it to the range this afternoon to test my first attempt at hand loading. Weather was 66, sunny, no wind. After getting on paper at 25yds (and probably pissing off the guy shooting at the pistol range), went up to 100 and fired a few three shot groups to get everything dialed in for deer hunting this fall.

First picture is .223 and .358. Quite happy with these groups. After these groups got them centered in and about 1.5" high at 100.


This group was my .300WM. I'm thinking I may get a little tighter groups if I play with the powder charges a bit, but should do just fine this fall.

It's usually the old loaders who get careless who damage rifles; not the newbees. They tend to be more careful and don't load a full case of 2400 into a 243. Of which I have seen the results. Two Rem 700s in the same day, true story.

Well done. Wish you all the best.

May I make a few suggestions.

Firstly I would buy a chronograph. A Shooting chrony is cheap but very useful as you know the velocity & you can calculate bullet drop etc. & actually check it on the range to see how it works for you. I always stop increasing the powder charge as soon as I reach close to max velocity with good accuracy. If you are using the book loads with the same components, then the Chrony does not lie - a low velocity confirms that you can increase the powder charge.

BUT - never use that rule if you are changing the combination of components

Secondly the 358 Win is a great medium rang cartridge to 250 meters. It is best with 225 gr bullets at around 2400 fps. I used the Sierra GK BT SP 225gr which was perfect for red deer. I was very disappointed with the Hornady 200gr RN. The Barnes TSX 200 gr should also be perfect.

You might check the old Rifle / Hand loader magazines for John Barsness' loads for the 358Win. He got very good results with the faster Ramshot powders. I have no experience with those as we cannot get them here in NZ.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
It's usually the old loaders who get careless who damage rifles; not the newbees. They tend to be more careful and don't load a full case of 2400 into a 243. Of which I have seen the results. Two Rem 700s in the same day, true story.

That's true in my experience. I have made two mistakes in the last few months that I never would have made 30 or 40 years ago. The mistakes were inconsequential but were a sobering reminder of my fallibility. I am deliberately more careful now. Same principle holds on the range. I have seen way, way too many experienced people forget that gun safety applies to them too.

Even though I have been reloading for 45 years I am completely anal retentive when at my reloading station. "the devil is in the details" is very descriptive of the reloading process and double and triple checking each detail is important.

It has kept me from ruining equipment or getting injured all these years and unless Alzheimer's sets in I will keep reloading the same way.

PaulS

Good point.

I always recommend the Lyman manual to new reloaders & stick to that manual for at least 1 year. The chapters are MOST important to read.

I found it confusing in the early years when I tried comparing manuals and data from different sources.

It took some time to understand the dynamics of pressure & how it changes and spikes when components are changed.