Follow-on questions -- "comparison testing"

M

Montana Pete

Guest
Well, I have lots of good info and ideas from replies to my "comparison testing" thread. Here are a few more questions.

I searched to buy a Sinclair concentricity guage, which several experienced shooters recommended.

Turns out this guage is largely a way to check on the quality results from one's reloading dies-- here's the description of the guage-- These guages are used primarily to determine reloading die performance. Concentricity can be affected by many things; the quality of the sizing dies, bent decapping rods, the bullet seateer, the bullet seater stem, the quality of your cases, and the quality of your case preparation tasks like neck turning, chamfering, deburring, etc.

All I have for my varminter rifle is just the simple FL resize dies from RCBS.

Question #1: Before paying roughly $100 to purchase the Sinclair guage, don't you think I should spend a few $$$ and get the benchrest die set? And for accurate ammo, is it better to neck resize rather than F/L resize?

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Also, I just received my digital vernier caliper from the national wholesaler in the last couple of hours.

One valuable use for this tool is to determine and record the exact OAL of one's handloads. So when you load different cartridges, or load different bullets, you can go back and re-set the die to the exact way it was before.

Question #2: Can anyone think of any other uses for a vernier caliper at the reloading bench?

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Question #3: I pay an extra $1 per 100 for the CCI Benchrest primers. Are these worth the money, or would the standard CCI primers be just about as good?

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I use the little hand tool to clean the soot out of my primer pockets, but it does slow down the reloading process quite a bit by adding an additional processing step. A person cleans the pockets, the runs the cartridges through the press again to reprime.

Question #4: Is it worth the time to clean the primer pockets? Does it buy anything in terms of accurate ammo?
 
#1- no, not for a factory bbl and chamber
#2- setting up cutter for cartridge trim, check depth of threads for mounting bases
#3-only way to tell is to try them
#4- no- many in BR rarely clean pockets and put 5 in a single hole,time after time after time
 
Montana Pete: Here's some answers and opinion (based on experience) from SW Montana!

#1: Yes and yes.
#2: There are dozens of uses for a good caliper at the loading bench.
For instance I use the extending (protruding?) part of my Brown & Sharpe dial calipers to measure the length of the threaded stem of the bullet seating die. I record this extended length of the stem down to the .001" - and then I can use different bullets in the seating die and yet come back to the exact seating depth for each bullet just by making this simple measurement and adjusting to it.
Indespensible tool in my opinion.
#3: I have not used anything but BR quality primers in my Rifles for decades now. For the most part Federal BR primers at that.
#4: I have a set of primer pocket cleaners by the Whitetail Design company and clean primer pockets every reloading. It just takes seconds for me to do (per batch of 20) and allows for precise primer seating.

Best of luck with your reloading.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy
 
buy a primer seater

you state "runs the cartridges through the press again to reprime" I take this to mean you use your press to seat primers. a complete setup with a lee auto prime is about $25. this will more that recover the time you take to clean primer pockets. I know many top shooters do not clean pockets. I do cause It might make a difference and I want to KNOW my loads are the best that I can produce. I have used Varmint Guy's caliper technique and it does work. I still check my rounds with a comperator to verify OAL. Measuring to the bullet tip is not that precise but measuring to the ojive is. as to the question about uses for a caliper. Once you begin measuring stuff, you will measure everything. Also buy a notebook and take notes, if you don't you will wish you had later. As far as BR primers I doubt you can measure the difference on target with a factory tube, but you may, buy a flat of 100 for a couple of bucks and try them, either way you will learn something. Anything that reduces your doubt when the moment of truth comes and you have to pull the trigger, increases your ability to hit your target. Of these practice pays the biggest dividend.

Sam
 
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Monty-

Ithink what you wan't is a comparator rather than a concentricity checker. Buy the Hornady set, it works great for checking seating depth, fits on your calipers. The set with 5,-6,- or 7 inserts will probably fill your needs. Don't buy the case length measuring set, as you can order just a .375" insert for the seating checker. Most cases larger than .223 through 30-06 have a .375" datum line. [about mid shoulder] Use your .30 cal insert for smaller cases. Works great for checking seating depth, case sizing,and base to ojive on bullets [bearing length], if you get really hot and heavy into it. I definitly recomend the Lee Auto Prime tool. I use a Whitetail primer pocket tool to uniform primer pockets initialy then every time I reload, just habbit I guess. Your whole world is about to change when you look up Midway Usa on your computer. Do sign up for their e-mail as they will let you know about their specials. There are other suppliers out there such as Bruno's, all offering great service. On primers, you have to try them to find whats best in your gun.

Don't let this reloading thing drive you to getting Loaded!!


Steve Moore
 
I am coming back to this old thread to report that Santa brought me several tools recommended by persons posting here back in October.

One is a linear O-A-L guage. Another is a bullet comparator. I already have the digital caliper, which I purchased about the time I first posted this thread and first began getting feedback.

Now all I need to do is learn to use the new tools properly.

Thanks again for the suggestions --
 
Montana Pete: Best of luck with the new "tools" you got for Christmas!
I hope all is well in Wisconsin.
I have been rather happy with my O.A.L. gauging system and with my concentricity gauge.
Along with learning how to use your tools you also need to learn HOW to deal with (correct?) the conditions they indicate (detect).
Let "us" know and we will try to help where we can.
Happy New Year to you and yours and to all on the Factory Hybrid Forum Board as well!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy
 
Hi again, folks.

I have started using the AOL guage and the bullet comparator I got from Santa. Mine are both Hornady products.

Here's my question. I tried using my AOL guage several times in my 22-250, using a 55 gr Hornady SP bullet.

For my first several tries, I came up with the result that the bullet was almost totally out of the case before I felt resistance. I'm pretty sure it is not an eroded throat or anything, since the rifle is only a few months old.

Finally, I decided to grab the rigid part of the AOL guage and press the tool forward quite firmly, putting more strength into inserting it into the chamber. Sure enough, I felt the dummy cartridge give a little and go in a little deeper.

With this firm push into the chamber, my results started making sense. For this bullet, I got 2.08 inches OAL, measured from the ogive. Following Hornady's directions of 2 to 4 hundredths back-off, I pretty much have my OAL figured out with this particular bullet.

I repeated the test several more times -- always with that firm shove into the chamber -- and got the same result, which suggests I'm on the mark finally.

Why were my first efforts "off" ? I suspect that there's a little resistance in sliding the dummy cartridge fully into the chamber because the case mouth is large enough to slide bullets in with your fingers. It might bind a little in the neck area. If the cases were resized in the neck area, as in the case of loaded ammunition, they would probably seat fully in the chamber with no shove needed.

Possibly because this rifle is a heavy-barrel varminter, intended for accurate shooting, the chamber dimensions might be just a little on the tight side, also.

Have others had this experience? Any comments would be welcome.
 
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