Today, I recalled a conversation with my daughter. It seems that the hunting season is approaching and she was inquiring if I happened to have any spare .308 Win cartridges laying around. the kids have been scamming ammo from me for years, and I make batter ammo than most of what is on the shelves at the stores, for a whole lot less money.
So, I was digging through my scrounging stocks, and found a bag of once-fired brass, .308 Federal Gold Medal Match, that I found at the local Sheriff's office range. So, I found my hand press, brought tem inside and decapped them. Then took them out to the tumbler and gave it a two-hour spin in walnut media. Shook it all out, inspected it, then dug out the priming tool and went back in the house.
The garage is currently 96F with 80% humidity. The house is 70F. It's much more pleasant inside than it is in the garage. The priming tool doesn't know the difference, but I do. It's a lo cooler indoors.
Tomorrow morning, I'll get the scales, powder, funnel, trickler, etc and set up on the kitchen tale. I'll charge the cases then set up the hand press to set bullets.
For the record, our preferred hunting load for the .308 Win is good brass, seated with WLR primers. 43.0 grains o Alliant Reloder 15 and a decent 168 grain bullet. Tomorrow, it will be Sierra's good Game King bullets, some I bought several years ago and still have in stock. But, it could just have easily been Hornady or Nosler. I've used all three at varying times, and the smallish whitetail deer we have in these parts can't really tell the difference.
I haven't really reloaded any ammo in the past three years. I've been playing the CFDA game and that reloading is very easy. It elt good to use my tools on the bench again.
5 comments:
Holy SMOKES Batman!!! You’re him? No kidding, I’ve been trying to find that exact article for the last few months. Much appreciated!
Yep, I'm him. The Castbullet days were a lot of fun, and I learned a hell of a lot from Junior, exchanging ideas, trying out new challenges, exploring ballistic ideas from the late 1800s. We learned what worked and what doesn't.
We lost Junior in the summer of 2014, and his daughter keeps the site alive as a living memorial to her dad. I am eternally thankful for her efforts.
Junior and I did things things that few people get to do, experimenting with cast bullet loads. I spent several months and many frustrating hours trying to stick a bullet in a barrel, where half of it was hanging out the muzzle.
The rifle, of course, was Junior's favorite, the Winchester 94 in .30-30 Win. I used every powder I could get my hands on, but never got that bullet to hang at the end of the muzzle. I finally gave up on the project.
Two years after Junior died, I had it happen, with a revolver and a squib load.
Yeah, I'm him. I'm glad you're still reading my scribbling, and I'm glad that Claire keeps her Daddy's site up as a tribute to him.
Nice article! Never connected that to you, until now... Sigh... And that's a good .308 load!
I had some good results with IMR3031 and Sierra Matchking 168 grain. Met a guy at the range one day who worked for Bell Helicopter and was involved with testing the 7.62 Minigun stuff for the Hueys and Cobras. He told me that 3031 was the most consistent powder that they worked with. I'll have to dig out my notebooks to remember the exact loads. I was able to get sub .5 MOA groups at 100 & 200 yds out of a Rem 700 Varmit barrel.
How much do you do precision shooting versus just plinking? I'm finding that cheap stuff for plinking is about the cost of reloading, even before I put the time into it, so I at this point I don't reload much. Have the higher prices for components, particularly bullets, changed how or when you reload?
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