March 16th, 2025
6minute read
Companies that manufacture handloading tools and components are prospering.
You might not expect that, given the tsunami of fresh factory loads over the last 60 years.
Now Hornady alone offers 245 loads for 94 rounds!
There are differences between optimal loads developed for semi-automatic rifles like this M1A and those developed for bolt-actions. Do you know them?
The current cornucopia includes a growing cadre of cartridges for self-loading rifles.
(Federal lists 27 loads for the .308!).
Shameless breeding has produced all manner of wildcats; some have gone commercial.
Loading ammo for a rifle like the Springfield Armory Waypoint has some different requirements than for an autoloader.
Original cartridges for ARs have followed.
The Why
So why load your own?
As a handloader, you could:
Smart handloaders study loading manuals.
The best factory ammo is now superb. However, your handloads can match them, and with even more bullet options.
More than 30 bow my bookshelves.
After 50 years at the bench, why so many?
New cartridges, bullets and powders bring new data.
Firing stretches brass. Keep cases within SAAMI length by trimming with a case trimming tool.
Spiral-bound, loose-leaf manuals have given way to brick-thick hardbacks.
Three of my tomes have more than 1,000 pages each!
Wringing It Out
Neck-sizing works cases less than does full-length sizing, so it extends case life.
Checking your velocity results is an integral part of developing your preferred handload.
(Leave the sizing die a nickels thickness off the shell-holder at the top of its stroke.)
For more assurance, consider small-base dies, which size cases to minimum SAAMI dimensions.
To check, repeat with a lubed case in place.
Neck turning can boost accuracy in snug chambers. It can affect neck tension, which is criticalin semi-autos.
With a primer pocket cleaner, remove debris that might prevent primers from seating fully in the fired cases.
Theres no need to recess the primer face .003, as some suggest.
I use a hand primer to feel each primer snug up in the pocket and bottom out solidly.
Dozens of powders slightly faster than these serve the .223, .308 and similar bottlenecked rounds.
Then I run my fingertip over the case head to check for flush fit.
Discard cases in which primers dont seat evenly and firmly.
Magnum Rifle primers yield alongerflame, not necessarily ahotterone.
The author still weighs charges on this 50-year-old Ohaus balance beam scale.
I use Magnum primers for powder charges of 65 grains and up (slow powders in big cases).
Large Rifle primers work fine in the .30-06 and .308 and less capacious rounds.
Youll use Small Rifle for the likes of the .223.
Handloading enables you to design your own loadings as well as load other wildcats.
Serious long-range and Bench Rest competitors sort cases by make and weight, even by lot.
They ream flash-holes to uniform diameter, turn necks to uniform thickness for minimum chambers.
Case length merits attention no matter the rifle punch in.
The mouth of a long case can be pinched by the chamber into the bullet, impeding release.
Brass stretches with each firing.
Ive trimmed cases .05 shy of new length to reduce trimmings.
Chamfering the case mouth inside and out removes the burr.
Choosing a powder, like choosing a color on Fords Model T, was once easy.
Dozens of powders of mid-range burn rate now serve autoloaders.
The pressure curves of loads matter in autoloaders that require port pressures within a specified range to ensure function.
Also, they can betoolong to fit comfortably in standard magazines or throats.
Seating deep is no panacea.
Most autoloaders function best with mid-weight bullets of ordinary profile.
Robin Sharpless of Redding Reloading has tips on handloading straight cartridges.
On the return stroke, the button opens the neck to proper inside diameter.
A so-called straight case (they havesometaper) wont accept a mouth-size expander.
Hence, three-die sets.
One die opens the case mouth from the front.
Redding expanders perform several operations in one press cycle.
Straight cases headspacing on the mouthmust notbe roll-crimped; use a taper crimp only to the extent necessary.
Velocities and standard deviations from a chronograph arent the only measure of handloads.
The short barrels common to ARs throttle ammo to exit speeds well below chart velocities from 24 test barrels.
One hundred-percent cycling is the acceptable minimum!
