Loading your own rifle ammo.

[Pistolier60]

Is it worth it to you? It is to me, but I'm always amazed at how long it takes to load high quality rifle ammo. I spent over four hours loading 147 rounds yesterday. A big part of that time is taken up by weighing every powder charge.

My RCBS charge master scale/dispenser sped me up noticeably.

 

[Bear44]

on weighing the powder charge.

Pain in the ass, but it pays off down range.

 

[Bear44]

Depends on the cartridge... .223 I sometimes question, but .308, .30-06, 6 and 6.5 Creedmoor, .300 WM, .300 Norma and .338 Lapua, it's worth the effort for me.

I've been chasing ways to save time, and the best so far is setting up my Dillon 650 to run rifle rounds, but using hand weighed charges. My last item to upgrade is a scale, probably an A&D with an auto trickler. Right now with a Chargemaster, I'm at about an hour to prime, dump powder and seat a bullet for 100 rounds. I also have given up on about all brass prep aside from annealing and then using a good sizing die.

Don't forget trimming the brass and all that goes with that. Accuracy goes to crap if it's long at all.

 

[Bear44]

Prep your brass, then load single stage for bolt action or on a turret for semiauto use. A Frankfort Arsenal case prep center with trimmer literally cuts the time in half. Throwing charges is an art, but once you learn to manipulate the handle the same way every time it is plenty accurate.

If the powder charge isn't to within a 0.1 grain, it's not good enough for max accuracy.

 

[Bear44]

Think of it as money saving & therapy. Maybe get someone to help & teach them.
I don’t like to reload alone. It was something that I did with my dad and that made it quality time. All 3 of my kids began helping at early ages and sometimes the wife will assist.

at getting family involved. Never going to happen.

 

[Bear44]

My RCBS charge master scale/dispenser sped me up noticeably.

I found the Charge Masters slow as hell. When I was loading professionally I would have five running simultaneously and they still couldn't keep up. I now use one with the drive detached (I manipulate the tube manually) as a trickle and scale after throwing the charge by volume to get it close.

 

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

I did reloading for a few years. Got into it to save money on pistol calibers, 9mm and .45 and .38 spl.
But since I had a Rock Chucker press, I got some .308 dies and built some ammo for my rifle.
I didn't like how slow it went, and my "cheap" ammo wasn't as cheap as case-quantity milsurp or foreign made .308 ammo. My "good" ammo with expensive premium bullets still wasn't as accurate as most premium hunting ammo, and not even close to Federal GM308. So, I gave up rifle caliber reloading, at least for those calibers that are popular and can be bought in case quantity mail-order as milsurp, imported commercial production, or mass-produced commercial reloads (Georgia Arms, Black Hills, Atlanta Arms & Ammo, etc.).

 

[handloader]

If the powder charge isn't to within a 0.1 grain, it's not good enough for max accuracy.

My Redding and RCBS units will do about that, .15 or so up or down with short extruded and ball powders. IMR 4064 etc. definately not happening. You just can't bump the bench or leave a charge to settle, and the pull mut be the same force and speed on the handle every time. If I have a charge bind, it and the next one go back in the hopper. I keep dryer sheets on the hoppers and lubricate with graphite. Surprisingly my Lee dispenser that was in a package meters Unique and Red Dot fairly well.

 

[Bear44]

I did reloading for a few years. Got into it to save money on pistol calibers, 9mm and .45 and .38 spl.
But since I had a Rock Chucker press, I got some .308 dies and built some ammo for my rifle.
I didn't like how slow it went, and my "cheap" ammo wasn't as cheap as case-quantity milsurp or foreign made .308 ammo. My "good" ammo with expensive premium bullets still wasn't as accurate as most premium hunting ammo, and not even close to Federal GM308. So, I gave up rifle caliber reloading, at least for those calibers that are popular and can be bought in case quantity mail-order as milsurp, imported commercial production, or mass-produced commercial reloads (Georgia Arms, Black Hills, Atlanta Arms & Ammo, etc.).

The only thing I load for is accuracy. I will say that in my experience if I follow a good process of load development I can get much more accurate results from rifles. I have turned many 1.5 MOA rifles into 0.5 MOA rifles by finding the right load combination for them. A notable exception to this seems to be .223/5.56. I can typically find very accurate factory loads for the 223 and it's cheap so I don't load that round.

 

[Bear44]

My Redding and RCBS units will do about that, .15 or so up or down with short extruded and ball powders. IMR 4064 etc. definately not happening. You just can't bump the bench or leave a charge to settle, and the pull mut be the same force and speed on the handle every time. If I have a charge bind, it and the next one go back in the hopper. I keep dryer sheets on the hoppers and lubricate with graphite. Surprisingly my Lee dispenser that was in a package meters Unique and Red Dot fairly well.

I use a different standard. It's not 0.1 up or down. It's within the 0.1 grain. If I'm looking for 42.4, 42.3 and 42.5 aren't good enough. At ranges within about 300 yards it doesn't make that much difference, but when you start to really stretch it out you start getting vertical stringing. The longer the range, the worse the stringing.