Reloading Procedure

Was at the range today and heard two shooters discussing their reloading procedure and they were arguing about several points, rather strongly. Lets get your step by step procedure, dont assume the reader knows anything about reloading and skip a simple step (in your mind). Just reloading is one thing but reloading for top accuracy is another dimension. If you want, mention any special tools you may use for increased accuracy. They were talking about rifles. Thanks Daniel

I hope this is not going to be another thread where someone says something and the next guy comes along to tell them how stupid they are. I am curious though what everyone is doing. I like to learn.

Once fired brass, loading for precision

•Tumble brass in Walnut shell for 2+ hours
•Measure to the shoulder, and partial FL size -.002" for bolt action, using a Hornady headspace gauge
•Measure to case mouth of 10 pieces, trim .002" shorter than the shortest, chamfer, debur
•Clean the primer pocket with a brush attached to the drill press.
•Seat primers with an RCBS Universal hand primer
•Powder charge thrown .1 gr less than desired, on an RCBS Chargemaster, move the pan to an RCBS 5-0-5 beam scale, and trickle to final weight.
•Charge the case
•Seat the bullet

Heads up, if this thread goes to that posts on it will go "POOF" or the thread will.

There are several steps to reloading and I think it depends on your goals with the loads as to the importance of some steps or not.
The most basic I do is:
1. Resize and chamfer the brass
2. Clean out the gunk in the primer pocket
3. Seat new primer
4. Measure and pour in powder
5. Seat the bullet

Those basic steps work well for blasting ammo and have reloaded some with that way and some load workup that shot well under MOA.

Now days most of the time I insert lots more steps but for 20+ years of reloading I kept it very simple

I’ll bite


Deprime
Clean in stainless steel
Full length Resize
Trim
Hand seat primer
Charge on chargmaster
Seat bullet

I am debating moving to bumping the shoulder on my new 308 as opposed to full length resizing everything

So far, I have not seen where either poster checks/measures coal or ogive to base.

I check the first round or two to make sure the dies are still set in the proper location and proceed after that

Cleric, I see where you deprime and later full length resize. Clue this dummy in, How do you do that?

Lee deprimimg die makes it easy
Depriming LINK

That was done when I first got the new barrel. I will use a piece of brass with the neck cut longitudinally to remove almost all of the neck tension. I will load a bullet long, measure to ogive, chamber, measrue to ogive, adjust the seating stem, repeat. Takes some trial and error, but eventually I can get the seating die to seat the bullet "even" with the lands. Then I will set the die to jump the bullet .002" to .005" and then verify if the cartridge will fit in the mag. That gives me a round that easily chambers, and that I can eject the live round if needed (bullet not touching rifling), corresponding with the maximum case capacity I can achieve with that jumping to lands insurance.

If that seating depth will not fit in the mag, then I am relegated to load to mag length, and test powder charges at that OAL (overall length) and CBTO (cartridge base to ogive) ammo length.

Deprime
Tumble with SS, cleans the primer pockets
Full length size
Chamfer, deburr and trim as needed
Run thru vibratory to clean brass
Prime with RCBS hand priming tool
Change with chargemaster then reweigh on hornady digital and 505
Seat the bullet to premeasured length with hornady tool, usually .010 from lands
Works for me so far

I don’t know how others do it, but I happen to have two dies for the main cartridge I reload for. I just set the decapping pin as far out as I can and run the press far enough to punch the primer out without running the case mouth into the die.

Pretty much I do it just like FiremanJG, except that I don’t often clean rifle brass in a tumbler. The brass isn’t usually dirty or grimy since it goes from the rifle to my pocket after firing. I do, however, twirl the case neck (which is carboned up a bit) in steel wool to get the neck clean. As for a powder thrower, I use a Lyman 1200 DPS 3. Works great, though it seems to always throw 0.1 high, so I set it 0.1 low. I used to use an RCBS 1010 scale, but I retired it for the auto thrower.

My case trimmer is an RCBS Model with the 3 way cutter head that trims, chamfers, and deburs. That has simplified some chores that I hated.

Good thread!

I uniform the flash holes on virgin brass, anneal every 2-3 firings and only trim when I get over max length.

Strangely enough, I deburr every time whether I trim or not. I know it is unnecessary, it I can't stand not to...

Deprime
Stainless steel clean
FL resize (currently for all calibers, going to change this)
Trim, chamfer, debur
Vibratory clean
Prime
Charge
Seat

Deprime
Stainless steel clean
Bump shoulders back .002
Trim, chamfer, debur, uniform primer pocket and debur flash hole
Vibratory clean just to take the lube off.
Prime
Charge
Seat
wipe clean all ammo of finger print. I started doing this due to ammo that is stored for long periods of time corrodes where oil from finger prints.

Guess I'm the only one who inspects brass for serviceability before doing anything.

I pretty much do the basics of loading unless I need to trim. Life is too short and I have too many hobbies. Things like cleaning the primer pocket are for the birds. As long as the hole is clear; it'll fire.

What are the bristles made of on this brush?

1-I don't count it in my reloading process but I usually look each casing over after firing before putting back in the box, helps pass time waiting for barrel to cool.
2-decap using universal decapping die
3-tumble over night
4-FL size (I use either lube pad or oneshot case lube)
5-Trim Chamfur and deburr
6-prime with RCBS hand primer
7-charge with chargemaster
8-seat bullets.

Sort brass to see if any have dents or split necks to trash them, while sorting different case manufactures.
If any brass is real dirty I give them a bath in water-salt-vinegar solution and rinse.
Anneal after the third firing.
Lube cases, run through a full sizer and de-prime at the same time.
Check and spin all to the same length.
De-burr inside and outside case mouth.
Tumble in walnut media for a few hours then verify that all primer sockets are clear of media when unloading.
Install primer, watch for any primer sockets that may be loose and trash brass.
Load only a specific case manufacturer at a time for a specific gun if I have different head stamping's.
Load powder charge using electronic scale while verifying from time to time on a balance beam scale for accuracy.
I stay within .2 grains of powder per load lot.(Actually use tweezers to load the last couple of kernals of powder in each case.)
Load bullets while randomly checking and verifying that all are correct distance to ogive. .
Load in plastic ammo boxes, bullet up.

Is that too OCD for you?

Stainless steel, I believe. The ones I use are made by RCBS. They inteded them to be screwed into a handle, but the drill press is way faster, for obvious reasons.

I need to get some. That blade type cleaner I've been using is for the birds.

I use the RCBS primer pocket cleaner brush. Works fine, and I use it in a hand held battery powered drill driver.

I should mention that when I clean the outside of the case necks with steel wool, if there is a case neck split it will be immediately noticeable when the steel wool hangs up in the split.

Are you talking about a primer pocket uniforming tool?

Maybe this?

Not the uniformer, the cleaner.

https://www.lymanproducts.com/primer-pocket-cleaner-lg-sm.html

When I seat the bullet I lower the ram a little and turn the cartridge a quarter of a turn then “seat” it again. I don’t know where I developed this habit. Probably something I read somewhere. Now I do it without thinking and have no explanation as to why. What I do know is I am happy with the product.

I do the same. It helps with run out.

Can you go into more detail about the partial fl sizing, the reasoning, and how to use the head space tool in your process? Very curious about this.

I noticed that several deprime then SS clean, then fl size. Why not deprime & fl size at the same time? What is being gained by the two steps involved with getting the brass fl sized?

By deprime then SS clean they are cleaning the primer pockets while cleaning the cases and not putting any dirty cases in the FL sizing die.

A lot of people make good ammo by cleaning then fl size and deprime. But I like the clean primer pockets

OK, Thanks Cleric & Kmon1.

1. Install resizing/depriming die in press.
2. Wipe exterior of case with rag.
3. lube case exterior and inside case neck.
4. Full length resize and deprime.
5. Clean primer pocket and install new primer (hand tool).
6. Check O.A.L. and trim, if necessary
7. Deburr neck inside
8. Install all cases in reloading block, neck up.
9. Using a combo of powder measure and trickler load each case with powder +or-.1 grain
10.Use flashlight to check that ALL cases are filled with same amount of powder.
11.Install bullet seating die.
12.Use loaded round to set bullet seating depth, obviously back off seater and screw down to touch loaded bullet.
13.Tumble loaded cases.

Does anyone here crimp rifle cartridges? I have not saw that in anyone’s procedure. I never do for bolt action.

Why would you tumble loaded ammunition? Tumble them after sizing. It will stay pretty even after powder filling and seating bullets.

The straight walled rifle cartridges I crimp. 45-70, 38-55, 375 Winchester are 3 that I crimp. Also the straight walled pistol round chambered carbines

Why not?? Cartridge manufacturers do it. There is no chance for loaded bullets to ignite a primer, there is not enough impact force to cause a primer to ignite.

He does a decent job of explaining and showing.