I am about to make purchase of 5-6 different bullets and this will be my first attempt at handloading. I want to determine which bullet my rifle likes best but not sure the best method for that. Seat them all touching lands and various charges, then back the seating away? How can I tell if the rifle likes the bullet when there are two variables that can affect the group size the charge and the seating? When you are talking about 5 different bullets, 3 different charges and 3 or more different seating depths that comes out to hundreds of combinations!

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and this will be my first attempt at handloading

Michael,

Obviously ..... Welcome to Reloading. Give us The Meat.

You haven't mentioned what rifle, cartridge or for what purpose.

100's of combinations; yes, therefore I'd recommend (for a hunting/plinker rifle) 2 bullets in "normal weight for caliber" and 2 powders known to deliver optimum performance in that cartridge.

That ought to keep you well occcupied for awhile.

Again, the cartridge & purpose are paramount here; if it's a .270 Winchester you can probably get yourself sorted out quite easily with many already well established starting bullet/powder combinations that are known to deliver outstanding results in most hunting rifles.

For example in a .270 Winchester a .277" 130 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip & H-4831 or for a .30/06 Sprg. IMR or H-4350 & virtually any .308" 180 grain bullet. IMO I'd be kinda fruitless to start anywhere else since these are common bullet & accuracy combinations in many hunting rifles.

I'd select a Cup & Core bullet for initial tests; then (again, purpose) a Premium bullet for further testing instead of spending alot of money sending costly bullets downrange.

Seating depth is load fine-tuning and not something I'd concern myself too much with for initial testing. In a hunting rifle reliable loads (critical) and standards OAL's are a great place to start. Benchrest & specialized loading techniques such as seating bullets into the lands are not for a hunting rifle IMO.

For hunting loads I tend to start with manufacturers componets; but this depends today on what's locally or easily available. If I was starting load development for a .270 Winchester I tend to W-W cases & primers and then work the powder & bullet around functionality. It's your choice.

Give some more info to go on here.

there are hundreds if not thousands of combinations you can try in a gun varying bullets powder primers seating dept even case brand. If you tried everything your barrel would be wore out long before you finished. What you need to do is determine what kind of accuracy your looking for make an educated guess as to starting a starting point. What i will do is take maybe 3 bullets that are going to do what i want to do with the gun, a couple differnt powders and a couple differnt primers and load up maybe 6 rounds of every combination. to start with i load to the book max overal lenght. Shoot them and if you find something in that batch that does what you want call it good. If not then either switch bullets again or fool with seating dept and go up and down one grain on the powder charge on the best of the loads you tried.

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Originally posted by Michael b Freeman:
...this will be my first attempt at handloading.

Then follow the procedures in your reloading manual to the letter. If you already have factory ammo that suits your purpose and are happy with, duplicate it as to bullet style, weight and overall length.

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Originally posted by Michael b Freeman:
...I want to determine which bullet my rifle likes best but not sure the best method for that. ...

Try the old reliable, never improved upon Creighton Audette Load Development Method. It will save you time and aggravation.

Plus, you will want to convert from OCL to ODL for Bullet Seating. When you do that, it is easy to Seat the Bullet at any Depth you desire and the Ogive to Land distance(not the Bullet Tip distance) will be the same for all of the Lot.

Best of luck to you.

The Audette methode is great, but not everyone has the range facilites or equip (good spotting scope is a must). I use a chronograph. Start 5" off max & load 1 rd each going up 0.3gr at a time for small rifle cases, 0.5gr for std size cases & 1gr for magnums. Load them all off the lands, your rifle determines that ditance.
Fire all at one target in order from low to high. I am looking for practical max & some accuracy level. If a given bullet/powder shoots well w/ 5 charge wts, it will shoot well w/ one in that group. Once you find a pwoder/bullet combo you like, verify w/ a 3-5rd group. then tweek OAL or primers for fine tuning. That's how I go about it.

Mr. Freeman, May I suggest you give us more info. If you need a load for say X cartridge, I will bet someone, like me or others, has info to help. If not, we can direct you where to look.
This site is very user friendly as long as you're not on the political forum.

application is on small deer out to 300 yards.
Shooting a Tikka T3 lite in 7mm-08 22.5" barrel 1x9 twist. I have Varget, CCI primers, Win Primers and Win brass. just not sure where to start and the best procedures.
thanks hotcore that Audette method makes sense just what I was lookin for, one question though, there was mention of using a match grade bullet then switching to a hunting bullet.
Wouldn't that hange throw off the harmonics? Wouldn't a gauy want to use the intended hunting bullet for the entire process?

I would say you are most of the way there. Varget has a great reputation in the 7mm-08. I'd start with some Nosler 120gr BT's, load to magazine length, start at you manuals recomened min, and work up in .5 gr increments until you reach the recommended max. 3-4 rounds per group, go see what she does.

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I would say you are most of the way there. Varget has a great reputation in the 7mm-08. I'd start with some Nosler 120gr BT's, load to magazine length, start at you manuals recomened min, and work up in .5 gr increments until you reach the recommended max. 3-4 rounds per group, go see what she does.

Michael,

+1!

A Nosler Ballistic Tip is normally where I start to wring the acuracy potential out of a new rifle.

First off, forget about the match bullets. Use the hunting bullets that you intend to hunt with.
Secondly, forget about loading to the lands. That is a loading technique used by Bench Shooters that SUPPOSEDLY give SLIGHTLY tighter groups. It has no place in the real world of hunting.
As posted, load to the max length shown in your load books if your rifle magazine will accomadate that. Later, after you gain knowledge and can load fundamentaly sound ammo, you can try some of the finer nuances of reloading.
Too often beginning reloaders will take one facet of bench shooting --loading to the lands--and think that is the straight road to Jerusalem when in fact it is paying attention to a whole lot of little things that gives the Bench shooters their little tiny groups.

quote:

Originally posted by Michael b Freeman:
... there was mention of using a match grade bullet then switching to a hunting bullet.
Wouldn't that hange throw off the harmonics? Wouldn't a gauy want to use the intended hunting bullet for the entire process?

Yes, it would require redoing the Test with the actual Hunting Bullet.
-----

The purpose of using a Match Grade Bullet is to determine what level of accuracy the Rifle is actually capable of. Basically Benchmarking the rifle's Accuracy Level. With some good Testing and having guessed at the best Powder(before starting), "perhaps" the Match Bullet would be shooting a bit under an inch.

Then you switch over to the Hunting Bullet of your choice, reTest and find it is also shooting just under an inch, or perhaps right at an inch. Sitting back and thinking about it, you may decide that trying to get more accuracy out of that particular Hunting Bullet just isn't worth the time, money, components and effort. Because you know a Bullet specifically Designed and Built just for Accuracy can't do any better.

But there is nothing wrong with starting with the actual Bullet you want to Hunt with.

Best of luck to you.

quote:

Originally posted by Hot Core:

quote:

Originally posted by Michael b Freeman:
... there was mention of using a match grade bullet then switching to a hunting bullet.
Wouldn't that hange throw off the harmonics? Wouldn't a gauy want to use the intended hunting bullet for the entire process?

Yes, it would require redoing the Test with the actual Hunting Bullet.
-----

The purpose of using a Match Grade Bullet is to determine what level of accuracy the Rifle is actually capable of. Basically Benchmarking the rifle's Accuracy Level. With some good Testing and having guessed at the best Powder(before starting), "perhaps" the Match Bullet would be shooting a bit under an inch.

Then you switch over to the Hunting Bullet of your choice, reTest and find it is also shooting just under an inch, or perhaps right at an inch. Sitting back and thinking about it, you may decide that trying to get more accuracy out of that particular Hunting Bullet just isn't worth the time, money, components and effort. Because you know a Bullet specifically Designed and Built just for Accuracy can't do any better.

But there is nothing wrong with starting with the actual Bullet you want to Hunt with.

Best of luck to you.

"hot dang, hot cor" you and your fellows just saved me a bunch in supplies.

Nosler BT's are great but as an alternate take a look at the Hornady IB.

All good advise so far.

Start with the length of your magazine. I made the mistake of working up a great load for a .243 with Nosler BT's seated to the lands but when I tried to load them in the magazine I discovered that the polymer tip was all that stopped them from going in. Once I re-seated them deeper the accuracy was impaired.

Captain, a great thing about those plastic tips is it's pretty easy to clip the tips off with a pair of toe nail clippers. That way you can have the effect of the greater length, and still fit in your magazine.