Going back to hand loading

[Mobuck]

I've stepped away from the majority of my handloading for a few years due to bum shoulder and other issues but the lack (and exorbitant prices) of certain cartridges has pushed me back to the bench. I decided to load some 6.5 Creedmoor for practice and maybe hunting so this is a factor in bullet selection since I don't want to spring for a variety of bullets. I know which bullets are accurate in my rifle and intend to stick with those.
Primers and powder: check & check
Loading dies: check (although it does appear that the sizing die is not compatible with the AR 6.5Cr)
Brass: check (I haven't lost many of the brass from my past 2 years of shooting and bought 50 new cases from Nosler last week)
Bullets: check (200 Hornady SST on order from Midway)
Once all the goodies arrive, I can spend a few damp, muddy afternoons loading and testing. Not looking for all out max loads, just accurate loads suitable for 300 meter steel, the occasional coyote, and possibly a deer if I run short on the American Whitetail factory loads.

 

[contender]

I rarely shoot any factory stuff (except .22LR) so handloading is always my method of making sure I have good ammo. When I get a new gun, I look at my data from previous guns & their tests,, and pull some ammo out that has proven to be accurate in the past. I then try the new gun out. If I get good results,, then I usually only tinker a little with that gun/load combo. But if I get very good results,, I usually don't bother trying to have a different load for each gun.
Accuracy is my measurement of what I'll accept.
I look at the purpose(s) for the gun, select a bullet that will give me what I desire in performance, then load for the best accuracy I can get. I usually find that a mid-range load seems to be where I find the sweet spot.

But soon,, I'll be enjoying the labor of love in a whole new caliber. My DIL has a .300 Blackout,, and she is in need of ammo. I managed to arrange to get her a bunch of brass,, and she's already gotten the dies & such. Since she doesn't handload, (yet,) I'll be the one to work up the ammo necessary for her gun.
We were discussing it last night. I'll be making sure everything is as good as we can make it. Clean the brass,, trim the brass,, uniform the primer pockets, study the better selection of powders that will match her choice of bullet(s). Load a few, testfire. Load a few more, testfire. and when I find a load, I'll have her a good load that will be for her gun, with complete test data, chrono info etc. She's excited,, and I'm enjoying being her favorite FIL.

 

[Mobuck]

Ty, if you/she is interested in some 'less than max load' ammo, I found that AA#9 did a good job. Also, I noticed that some (most) of the loads require HEAVY compression and may push the bullet back out if the brass has been over annealed during processing.
I finally located the remainder of my 6.5 Cr fired brass this morning and waiting for 'laundry day' to end so I can run my tumbler.

 

[NikA]

Careful with that loading for family and friends. I did so with 300 Blackout as well and found that it lowered the barrier to adoption enough for me to go out and buy an upper!

 

[Mobuck]

Things have 'loosened up' a bit on the 300 AAC. Lots of brass on the market now vs 5-6 years back. I'll admit it's a lot of fun to shoot. It's even funner using sub-sonics. With the light at the right angle, you can watch the bullets fly to the target.

 

[contender]

"Careful with that loading for family and friends."

No real danger in me getting hooked on the 300 BO. I'm more of a handgun guy.

But I'm actually planning on using this as an excuse to get HER into actual handloading. She's expressed interest in learning & such,, so,,, this will be our way of doing it. I'll start the process,, and let her see how it all goes. She's truly a good "gun girl" in every sense. She's even taken a Tundra Swan,, with a flintlock shotgun. She's a "keeper" for the family for sure!

 

[Mobuck]

I had a moment of desperation yesterday. Went to the primer storage for some large rifle primers and didn't find any. After pawing through all the boxes of small pistol and small rifle, I remembered I'd moved the LR primers to a different location. It seems there are fewer CCI standard LR than I thought but plenty of #34 which I was going to use with the WCC 846 anyway. Must have been a big sale on CCI mil-spec primers 10-12 years back.
My family thought I was crazy back then, but they're not complaining NOW.

 

[contender]

Buying in bulk,, when available, properly stored,, MANY things can make us happy knowing we saved money, AND don't have to worry about supply chains.
My DIL knows I have primers & powders,, so it'll be fun to get her started. I'm actually happy she's wanting to do this. My son,, he already knows how,, but always "borrowed" Dad's stuff to load. I'll bet I have a DIL who'll be looking into her own stuff for loading after all this.

 

[blammer]

contender: congrats on having a DIL-in-arms. 300BO has lots of loading options. Handloading experimentation can lead to many hours of tinkering. Going subsonic is another different world (with or without suppressor), especially with semi-auto.

FWIW: Here's some 300BO tips:

300BLK site: https://www.300blktalk.com/forum

(poster dellet on the site seems to know what he's talking about)

Keep in mind an added potential danger with 300BLK. The only part that needs changing on an AR to shoot 300BLK is the barrel. So there's NO easily observable external indication which rifle caliber upper you are using. Because the 300BLK will load in the same AR mag and will chamber in a 556-barreled upper (I've not personally tried this), there is potential safety danger.

IF you shoot the wrong round in the mismatched rifle, things will go badly. Especially true if you try pushing the 30 caliber 300BLK bullet into a 22 caliber hole.

So if you do go 300BLK, make sure you make it obvious that it is a 300BLK upper. Some suggestions:

get a BCG that is not colored black. There are a number of coated BCG's available for this.
mark somewhere outside on upper with silver magic marker or black-contrasting white or gold paint. Put something very visible like a '3' or a dot in a few places likely to be seen: on the top, side, bayonet lug, ejection port cover.
wrap something heat-resistant (and non-flammable), white-contrasting-colored around the handguard somewhere. I use some of those bright-colored computer cable velcro ties that have not melted or caused problems.
mark and dedicate AR mags for 300BLK. You can mark these with same colored magic marker or paint on the sides and bottom. You can also buy rubber bands to put around the mags that have the caliber printed on them. However, I would suggest getting a mag dedicated to 300BLK. They have slightly altered inner geometry of the mag to help the fatter 30 caliber bullet feed.
don't take both 300BLK and 556 ammo out when you go shooting. If you have to take both kinds, then keep physically separate in different containers, including the dedicated, marked mags. And keep only one caliber's container on the line with you while actually shooting. Keep the other caliber physically elsewhere, like in the trunk of a vehicle.

 

[Mobuck]

I buy 'sand' (tan) colored 10 round mags and use a black marker to mark both sides with 300. These aren't used for any other cartridge. In addition, we've used colored dust covers and charge handles for the 300 uppers. When the 300 is in use, the .223's are nowhere near the shooting bench.

 

[contender]

Thanks for the tips blammer. My DIL isn't a gun dummy,, and I haven't seen her rifle yet. But I'll pass along such thoughts. And we'll make SURE we don't mix anything up.

 

[RSIno1]

I didn't want the possibility of misfeeding a 300 Black into a 223/556 chamber so I opted to go for the 458 SoCom.

 

[Mobuck]

Getting closer. Bullets arrived yesterday so maybe can find time to load a few to run across the Chrony when it warms up this weekend. I'll start with a length that allows crimping in the cannelure groove as these could end up going through the AR(figured out why the AR didn't want to chamber the resized cases).
The 123 grain SST's are actually meant for the 6.5 Grendel so a moderate load in the 6.5 Cr should put them in their happy place while providing a comfortable level of recoil.

 

[sixshot]

Some good safety warnings about how to not get in trouble with interchanging mags,etc that will accept two different calibers. This goes back many years but a few of you might be old enough to remember it, it's been 40, maybe even 50 years ago but it actually happened. It was in one of the old Rifle/Handloader magazines or maybe it was Shooting Times, can't remember but I probably still have it.
An experienced shooter was shooting (I think a bench rest 22) and somehow switched over to a wild cat 6mm or maybe even bigger caliber case that fit in the gun. I don't remember if the gun happened to be a switch barrel or what, either way the shooter didn't switch the barrel! But the case did chamber & the shooter did fire it. After the smoke cleared & the bolt wouldn't open the shooter realized his mistake, he pulled the barrel, ended up sectioning it to get the bullet out and the bullet was about 3-4 inches long. Surprisingly there was no damage to the Stolle or Hall action he was using other than the extractor I think. He was very lucky. Do the same thing when using hot ammo if you have older, vintage revolvers around, mark it clearly.

Dick

 

[Mobuck]

I've already had one catastrophic firearm incident and sure don't want another so we're super cautious about such things.

 

[Mobuck]

Rained here today so I spent some time trimming, deburring, priming, and assembling 3 each of 3 powder charges to get an idea of how the loads will perform. Soon as the rain stops and sun's out, I'll take the CHRONY out to the range to get some numbers. I like to arrange my stuff so I can run a 3 shot accuracy test while recording velocities. Takes more time and care but I have plenty of time.
If I can get within 100-150 FPS of factory loads with MOA accuracy, I'll be satisfied.

 

[Mobuck]

Ty, your comments about the 300AAC sent me down another rabbit hole. I dug out a bunch of primed 300 brass, found a partial can of H110, dug out a peanut butter jar of .308 110 grain 'blems', and ended up with 250 rounds of general purpose ammo using my notes from years back.