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I reloaded my first 50 .223/5.56 yesterday, also my first bottleneck rifle rounds, and have a couple of questions for the experienced reloaders here.
My recipe is as follows:
Press - RCBS Rock Chucker
Power Measure - RCBS Uniflow, with the charges checked on a Hornady electronic scale.
Cases - Various once-fired (in my rifles) Federal and Remington cases, all "commercial", prepared using RCBS dies, primer pockets swaged as necessary on an RCBS swaging die.
Primers - CCI 400 Small Rifle Primers seated with an RCBS hand priming tool.
Powder - IMR4064, 25 grains
Bullets - Privi 55 grain FMJBT, no cannelure
Crimp - Lee Factory Crimp
I set the RCBS bullet seating and crimp die to seat the bullet at a C.O.L. of 2.215", measured with a dial caliper, without applying a crimp, as I used the separate Lee Factory Crimp die as mentioned above.
I picked the charge out of an older Speer manual that listed a suggested charge of 26.5 grains max. (They also had another load for IMR4064 listed at 24.5 grains, but I figured I would be OK starting 1/2 grain higher.) Note again that I threw a charge of 25 grains +/- about .1 grains, and periodically measured the accuracy of the charge by dropping the charge into a case, then dumping the powder onto the scale. I also occasionally dropped 10 loads into the little "bowl" that came with the scale (with its weight obviously tared out), and came up with an average charge weight that was pretty close to the expected 250 grains +/- a couple of decimals. Of course the Speer manual called for Speer bullets, but I went with what I could get.
Here are my questions:
1. The charge weight of 25 grains of this powder almost filled the cases! I did notice, however, that if I "settled" the powder by tapping the base of the case on my bench, it would settle down a little in the case. It looks to me, however, that seating this boattail bullet to the depth called for in my Speer manual would press the base of the bullet down onto the powder a little. My previous experience has been with handgun reloading (.9mm, .38 Special/.357 Magnum, .45 LC, and .45 ACP), and it always seemed like my loads never came close to filling the cases.
Should I be concerned about this?
2. The Uniflow powder measure kind of gave me fits. Sometimes it seemed to "hang up" partly through cycling the handle. Sometimes it seemed like it would drop only part of the charge, then drop about a charge-and-a-half on the next cycle. Obviously I dumped these back in the hopper, but the charge-and-a-half deal would drop a bunch of loose powder all over my bench.
Why is this powder measure acting like this? Is it "chopping" the powder granules in half when it cycles or something?
3. As I said, my Speer manual is about 15 years old. Should I be leery of building loads out of it? Does the "power" of a listed powder change over the years such that a load for a given powder from the old manual will be unsafe if loaded to that charge today?
4. I matched the bullet that I had - weight and shape - to the equivalent in the Speer manual. Would there be enough difference from bullet manufacturer to manufacturer to make this load unsafe?
I haven't shot any of these loads yet - I can always bang 'em through my bullet puller and start over if you guys think I screwed up. What do you think?
My recipe is as follows:
Press - RCBS Rock Chucker
Power Measure - RCBS Uniflow, with the charges checked on a Hornady electronic scale.
Cases - Various once-fired (in my rifles) Federal and Remington cases, all "commercial", prepared using RCBS dies, primer pockets swaged as necessary on an RCBS swaging die.
Primers - CCI 400 Small Rifle Primers seated with an RCBS hand priming tool.
Powder - IMR4064, 25 grains
Bullets - Privi 55 grain FMJBT, no cannelure
Crimp - Lee Factory Crimp
I set the RCBS bullet seating and crimp die to seat the bullet at a C.O.L. of 2.215", measured with a dial caliper, without applying a crimp, as I used the separate Lee Factory Crimp die as mentioned above.
I picked the charge out of an older Speer manual that listed a suggested charge of 26.5 grains max. (They also had another load for IMR4064 listed at 24.5 grains, but I figured I would be OK starting 1/2 grain higher.) Note again that I threw a charge of 25 grains +/- about .1 grains, and periodically measured the accuracy of the charge by dropping the charge into a case, then dumping the powder onto the scale. I also occasionally dropped 10 loads into the little "bowl" that came with the scale (with its weight obviously tared out), and came up with an average charge weight that was pretty close to the expected 250 grains +/- a couple of decimals. Of course the Speer manual called for Speer bullets, but I went with what I could get.
Here are my questions:
1. The charge weight of 25 grains of this powder almost filled the cases! I did notice, however, that if I "settled" the powder by tapping the base of the case on my bench, it would settle down a little in the case. It looks to me, however, that seating this boattail bullet to the depth called for in my Speer manual would press the base of the bullet down onto the powder a little. My previous experience has been with handgun reloading (.9mm, .38 Special/.357 Magnum, .45 LC, and .45 ACP), and it always seemed like my loads never came close to filling the cases.
Should I be concerned about this?
2. The Uniflow powder measure kind of gave me fits. Sometimes it seemed to "hang up" partly through cycling the handle. Sometimes it seemed like it would drop only part of the charge, then drop about a charge-and-a-half on the next cycle. Obviously I dumped these back in the hopper, but the charge-and-a-half deal would drop a bunch of loose powder all over my bench.
Why is this powder measure acting like this? Is it "chopping" the powder granules in half when it cycles or something?
3. As I said, my Speer manual is about 15 years old. Should I be leery of building loads out of it? Does the "power" of a listed powder change over the years such that a load for a given powder from the old manual will be unsafe if loaded to that charge today?
4. I matched the bullet that I had - weight and shape - to the equivalent in the Speer manual. Would there be enough difference from bullet manufacturer to manufacturer to make this load unsafe?
I haven't shot any of these loads yet - I can always bang 'em through my bullet puller and start over if you guys think I screwed up. What do you think?
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