Switching brands of brass.

[gman47564]

I have been using nosler brass in my 6.5x284 and it has become like finding hens teeth here lately so I'm switching to lapua.. got a hundred of them a few weeks ago and to be honest I'm not too impressed how they came out of the box. Base to shoulder datum line is all over the place on them. A spread of .007 . The necks all dinged up and obviously had to be straightened up. But nothing that cant be fixed with sizing and fire forming.. case capacity is .8 tenths less than the nosler cases which is expected.. I was wanting to work up a load for the new cases and then tweak it after fire forming them. But with the base to shoulder datum line all over the place I wonder if I should just load them a couple grains less than my nosler load and fire form them before I do a load work up with them.

[LeadHammer]

Could a person do a seating depth test with them during fire forming?

[jvw2008]

If you bumped the shoulders back to fit your chamber, will there be a lot of cases that will still be headspaced too short?

Are you going to FL size with each reload cycle?

Since you're not breaking in a new barrel and if you FL size each time, you can still go look for your "magic" velocity while fireforming. If you find it, then you know your eventual charge weight will be just a teeny bit higher on second case firing.

Disregard everything I just said if you just do shoulder bumps with no FL sizing. ?

[gman47564]

jerry their on average of .006 short of my headspace as is... they will be fl resized every cycle... (I've got away from just bumping the shoulder back and neck sizing.. ) I straightend up the mouths by running them far enough in my fl die for the expander button to go through the necks.. I picked 10 cases with the same shoulder to base measurement and loaded them with a 10 shot ladder.. will shoot them in a bit to see where my flat spots is and compare to my nosler load.. after finding what im hoping will be similar mv and nodes between the two brands . then I will load the remaining cases to be fireformed with the charge I come up with in the ladder test... leadhammer my seating depth has pretty much been established with the 147 eldm's already... may play with it a little after I get a charge weight determined if theirs a need too..

[gman47564]

Well I misspoke.. the lapua case has .8 tenths more capacity than the nosler.. couldn't figure out what was going on with my 10 shot ladder test.. the same charge as my nosler load was about 60 fps slower with the lapua case. With the new lapua case and a tenth more powder than the nosler case my node is 2950. 20 fps slower than my nosler load. But it will do nicely for fireforming. Will have to add a dash more powder I suspect for my final load after fire forming.. 5 at a 100 at 2950

[gman47564]

Nice afternoon out here. 75 degrees and calm winds. Thought I would see how this load would do at a little distance.. virgin lapua brass still fireforming them. Shot three 11/2 to 11/4 inch groups on steel at 430 then shot this one on a insulation board. Not the best but not bad. Curious to see what they do on their 2nd loading..

Hope everyone had a good Easter and was able to get out and shoot a little

[DHuffman]

Could a person do a seating depth test with them during fire forming?

Absolutely!! Great time to establish a seating depth.

[autoxforfun]

Nice Shooting Grant !!! I am so glad to see Spring finally arrive.  Good to see you had a great day to go shoot.  I have not used Lapua brass for the CM.....so interesting to see what you finally conclude.

The weather was nice out west as well this weekend.  I ventured out to test a Berger 140g Hybrid load that I've been working on.  I had found two nodes that I thought looked promising so I loaded them and then went and shot at 300 yards.   I like shooting 10 shot groups....really makes you concentrate and it is representative of the Bench Rest competition that I'm trying to get better at.  Here is an example of the best node.

Have a great week....Bob

[gman47564]

Thanks Bob. Nice shooting to you as well.. I had shot 3 groups of three that shot that size just 2 of the groups were on steel. I also shot my 6.5 creedmoor yesterday to and it was shooting in the .3's so pretty happy with how my sticks are doing.

[MLN1963]

How do you manage to get everything to shoot right away? I never come away with results like that without using tons of powder, primers and bullets first. If I ever get there at all. I know a lot of it is your shooting skills, but dang man, you find a killer load for every rifle you try.

[Ranger 188]

Don't you just hate it.  We try and spend a lot of time looking for that magical load
and Grant just looks at a combo and it shoots lights out.
Really,
He's loaded for 25-30 years, sometimes you know where to start and not waste
a lot of time in development.  2-3 combinations and he's got it dialed in.
He also has a 430 yd. range in his back yard.   
Just call him;  "The Load Whisperer"...

[gman47564]

not sure how to respond to these replys... to star with I will give credit where credit is due... Gregg your right I have been pulling the handle for a long time but and its a big but before I joined this forum that's about all I was doing was pulling the handle wondering why my reloads normally wouldn't shoot any better than factory loads...after joining this forum I realized I didn't know much about loading ammo so I spent hours and hours on here reading threads in the reloading section... I read them all.. actually I read them all a couple times...then I started asking questions... im sure in the beginning some of these guys must have thought I was a dumbass..lol but I learned and kept asking questions and trying things that was suggested to me... wasn't too long I learned who to listen to and who not to pay much attention too to be quiet honest.. I took the suggestions from these guys that I trusted and believed in and started incorporating them into my routine.. doing this I learned what some guys was telling me even though they was right I had to find my own way to do it... here at home I have the ability to load rounds at my reloading bench and turn around and shoot them out the window of my little man cave... so I would load and shoot load and shoot.. watching what was going on with little changes here and there...  I would work up loads using the ocw method and find my node that I wanted and then I would play with seating depth... I've shot my share of bad groups along the way...lol.. been frustrated to the point of wanting to burn the damn building down with everything in it...lol.. but I didn't.. I kept loading and shooting... even though my friend dadajack told me I couldn't shoot pretty much I took that as inspiration to get better... thanks jack... . any way it was taking me a lot of rounds to get a good load... then one day I read a article on accurate shooters forum about the 6.5 guys 10 shot ladder method and I tried it.. and it worked with 20 rounds I had a load confirmed that would shoot under half moa... so I incorporated that into my load development... its all I use now by the way... I learned how important consistent neck tension was... probably the biggest thing to improve my loading... I like a lite neck tension and it works for me... some don't.. I have also upgraded about everything I have that pertains to loading and shooting and that has helped.. I don't get too frustrated any more if I struggle to find a good load... I just keep plugging along at it with what I have learned knowing I will find what im looking for as long as I go at it methodicaly... again I will give credit where credit is due and that's to this awesome forum and the people in it... it also helps being able to shoot at 300 and 430 yards here at home... another thing I do that I will get laughed at probably but that's ok... very seldom do I change my seating depth after I do my 10 shot ladder.. I pick the seating depth I think will work the best for the bullet im using and I leave it there.every once in a while I might have to change it a few thousandths one way or the other but not very often... mln and Gregg. along with bob I appreciate your replys to this thread... and I appreciate all the help every one else has giving me along the way...with what I have learned from you guys im confident in my ability to load and shoot quality loads and groups...

[autoxforfun]

Grant, I appreciate the approach you take with all of us newer folks trying to follow in your footsteps.  You have earned the respect of many on the forum and your counsel is usually spot on.  So well done in developing your skills and being at ease passing you knowledge along.  But also a big thanks to so many others on the forum (especially the moderators and contributors) for helping all of us learn from your experience.

Bob

[gman47564]

thanks bob... I've gained more than I could ever give back but I try to give back what I can... im still learning from you guys too... and always will... theirs so much knowledge here it would take a life time to soak it all in... and still a ton of things im trying to understand and improve at ...