P.G.:

Weigh each charge? He, he, he.

Sometime just throw the charges into the case and shoot them at 600. All things considered -- I bet you will not see any difference in scores. Of course you need a decent powder measure but with Varget you will be + - .2 grains instead of + - .1 grain when you individually weigh charges.

I probably wouldn't try that with 4064. He, he, he.

Gene

Gentleman, I’ve been shooting BH 175gr, .308 in my Remington 700. The gun seems to function well with that load, as I can consistently cover a 20 shot group at 200yrds with the spread of my hand; and for me right now, untrained, that’s ok. But it’s an expensive education, and I was thinking of reloading, but I am not really interested in the process. That said, is there a consensus as to a reloading service any of you would use.

Look for recommendations from folks at the range or your gun club...

I belong to the Ft. Dix Gun Club, and have asked around, only to find thats it illegal to have anyone reload for you in NJ.

Hmm...glad I live in America...that said, I'm not sure saving a few bucks on ammo is worth not knowing the guy doing the reloading...do other guys at the club have their stuff reloaded out of state? I'd be reluctant to send my stuff off to be reloaded. If that were my only option, I'd either take up reloading (time consuming, expensive to start, and more than a bit boring, from my experience) or suck it up and buy new...

Check out Georgia Arms. They've got bulk quantities of 168 and 175. Not as good as BH but certainly cheaper and more convenient than reloading yourself. (Are you using Red or Blue BH?) DON'T go cheap; it'll destroy your learning experience if the ammo isn't accurate (I want better than M80 Ball, some will tell you that's perfectly acceptable, YMMV). Personally - you need to "bite the bullet" and reload. An RCBS Master Kit (Rockchucker) will set you up for success. Your buddies are right about the legalities of reloading for someone else - if you're paying for the service, it requires a lisense. Besides - how many people do you know that you trust to prepare an explosive that will detonate 3" from your face? My .02, HTH.

I just got into reloading myself, but I am limited on space with no workbench, so I usually just watch movies and prep cases using one of the lee classic loader kits for .308. It works, but I had a primer go off on me, so then I got an auto prime, and that seems to work better.

Any advice on guys who don't have a bench to reload on? I live in a one room apartment, so space is at a premium.

Portable set-up
 

I was in home depot on Saturday and saw a three-legged base that could be used to build a portable set-up. Something like this could allow you to put your press away when not is use. About 20-30 years a company used to make a small wooden base for a single-stage press. Once the press was mounted to it the operator would sit on the base on the floor to load.

FWIW: I hate reloading and only load because I cannot to afford to buy everything I shoot. I use a single-stage RCBS AmmoMaster to load 308, 338L, 45-2.6, 50-70, and 50-90. It is slow but the last 3 cartridges require wads and depending on circumstances, duplex powder charges and grease cookies so a progressive is for me out of the question anyway.

MVP

PF:

Sure do. Use C clamps and clamp the press onto a kitchen table or something of the sort. It ought to take you about three minutes to set up the press, powder measure, and scale. Or you can bolt the press and powder measure to a 18" X 24" or longer one inch thick plywood sheet and then c clamp the entire thing to any table or similar thing.

I figure a reloading set-up to include elbow room will cover an area that is about two feet wide and about a foot deep minimum but more comfortably two feet wide and 18" deep.

Gene

Good Reloadiong Platform
 

Check out Post #29 here:

http://www.professionalsoldiers.com/...t=black+decker

Surplus Brass
 

I myself do not reload, however when i stumbled across the listing on govliquidation.com I thought I would through this out there. If you go on the site, there are numerous listings under Ft benning, Redstone and others for surplus mass quantities of brass. Granted they are limited to 9mm, 5.56, 7.62 up to .50 and in large quantities (10,000lbs plus) and geared more towards large production companies there may be smaller parcels. Thought I would throw that out there if anyone knew anyone looking for a few tons of brass :D.

...and to think they always make us account for all spent casings when coming off ranges...:mad:

ATD
 

Attention To Detail - Just finished wasting 1.5 hrs for a CHERRY mistake. I was reloading (seating) some 300WM in virgin primed cases a friend gave me and checking OAL to make sure the die was correctly set. Lo and behold - I couldn't get a consistent length (with a Redding Competition Seating Die!) 10 rounds into it, it occurs to me to check neck tension. :o Taking my thumb and pressing on the bullet instantly revealed the problem. Six of the ones I checked moved; all requiring different amounts of force, but all moving. Needless to say, I just finished breaking down all of them plus the remnants from the last batch and neck sizing everything. I'll finish reloading them tomorrow night, humbler but wiser. Just goes to show what 30 years of reloading experience is worth when you take something basic for granted.

My son and I reload for .300 Win Mag, .308, 7.5X55, .270. .30-30 and .22-250. For my Model 70 in .270, however, Remington Corelokt 130gr from Walmart gives me the best accuracy. Go Figure.

Something to remember- what shoots best in your particular weapon might not be a Super Wham Bam Thank You Ma'am eargeschplittenloudenboomer custom load...

PG:

Only ten and you figured it out? That shows experience as something in your subconscious cued you that something was wrong. High degree of SA in my opinion. Most likely you picked it up when seating.

Why didn't you just use the soft seat technique when you are blasting? I don't believe you are doing any rapid fires with that rifle.

What is up using an obsolete cartridge anyway? He, he.

Gene

Gene - Proceedures. I checked OAL on the data sheet, then broke out the calipers to verify the first couple reloads. The first one was .10 long so I tweaked the micrometer. The second was .20 short so I "untweaked" it. By then I was annoyed but the next two were fine - and the one after that was .20 short. Talk about "all over the place". And further tweaking didn't make a difference; consistency was not there. I'm occasionally stubborn, that's why it took me 10 rounds to get back to square one. It wouldn't have been an issue with once fired brass; I would have done a complete workup, starting with the neck sizer (or FL with "gifted" brass). Since I'm a cheap ba***rd, I rarely deal with virgin brass, especially in rifle calibers - hence the cherry shortcut. I don't soft seat for a number of reasons; mostly because I want to be able to magazine feed every round if needed. If I start bench rest, I'll relook that decision; however, I won't be using the obsolete cartridge either. :p Which is the result of a conscious decision involving available brass, access to a plethora of quality (military) data, my dad's LA Rem 700 that started in 7mm RUM (no way in hell it was staying that way), and a great gunsmith/buddy willing to do the work despite his misgivings.

The good news - maybe getting the neck tension right will reduce/eliminate the annoying velocity spread I had from the first batch. Like the one that dropped low in the attached 200M group.