As I mentioned in an earlier entry, you won’t necessarily save money by handloading your own ammunition. What you can do is tailor your loads to shoot better than factory ammunition (at least in your guns).
Here’s how I do it.
Choosing a bullet
I needed to develop an accurate load for my AR15. It has an 18″ .223 Wylde barrel with a 1:8 twist (one full rotation of the rifling for every eight inches of barrel length).
Every gun barrel is a law unto itself (for reasons I won’t pretend to understand), so the ammunition that shoots best in someone else’s gun won’t necessarily perform best in yours.
There’s a couple of ways to pick a bullet: one is to buy a bunch of different kinds of factory ammunition and shoot it. Note the one that shoots best in your gun and then load that kind of bullet. However, that approach gets expensive and can be difficult to pull off in times of ammunition shortages.
Another method is to look at what’s available and check out how it shoots. In this case, I did some online research and found that a lot of people were having good luck with Sierra MatchKing 77 grain bullets in their 1:8 barrels, so I ordered some.
Powder testing
After referring to my trusty Sierra reloading manual I learned that their “accuracy load” for this bullet (tested in an AR15 with a 20″ barrel) used 24.1 grains of Vihtavuori N140 powder. I was lucky enough to find a pound of N140 online and got to work.
(note: some of these are Amazon affiliate links, which means that if you click the link and then buy the associated product, Amazon may pay me a fee–your cost is unaffected)
The powder charges in the Sierra manual started at 22.3 grains and went up to a maximum of 24.5 grains. Starting at 22.5 grains (close enough!) I loaded five rounds each at half-grain intervals: 5 at 22.5, 5 at 23.0, 5 at 23.5, 5 at 24.0, and 5 at 24.5 grains.
Sometimes you can’t get from the bottom of the recommended range to the max in five half-grain steps (I use smaller steps for handguns: .2 grains).
In that case I just start at the max charge and count down in half-grain steps until I have no more than six groups. Since I’m not normally interested in the “slow” end of these broader charge ranges, I’m not too worried about missing an accuracy node down there.
I don’t exceed the published max, especially given our high summer temperatures. I know some manuals are more conservative than others, but since high pressure signs–like ejector marks–can appear early if you’re loading softer brass, while others–like flattened or “blown” primers–sometimes don’t appear until you’re well into the “red” if you’re not, I don’t like to push it.
After loading my test rounds I measured the runout of each to make sure there weren’t any “bent” bullets. For gas guns and lever action rifles, I’ve found that more than .004″ of runout (total needle deflection on the gauge) starts to show up on target, adding an unwanted variable to the equation.
I then labeled each group of five and set them aside for testing.
When range day came I set up a target at 100 yards and shot each group of five in turn. The lowest charge, 22.5 grains, acted as a warmup for me and for the barrel. I didn’t worry about that because as I mentioned above, I’m usually not all that interested in the lowest charge.
As you’ll recall, Sierra’s best results were with 24.1 grains, but my smallest group–right at an inch–corresponded to the max charge of 24.5 grains. This is an extremely small sample size, but since my results were reasonable I was content.
A chronograph can help you decide whether your results were a fluke or not. In this case the 24.5 grain group showed consistent velocities for all five rounds.
The last step is to record your results. While this load was no world-beater–especially for a target round–it shot better than factory ammo in my rifle and may someday be worth revisiting. I keep notes on each load I test, along with pictures of the test target. Here are the notes from this test:
My next step was to develop a hunting load for this rifle. .223 Remington is a decent cartridge for light/medium game, but I wanted to cover my bases by choosing a bullet with excellent terminal performance. I also hoped to at least match the accuracy I’d seen with the Sierra bullets.
After lots of internet research I decided to try an expensive, all-copper bullet developed by Hammer Bullets. I sent away for a box of their 64 grain Hammer Hunters and set about working up a load.
There’s no loading data published for these bullets, so I looked at the Barnes website for data on their all-copper bullets. They have data for 62 grain and 70 grain TSX bullets: since the Hammer Hunters are long for caliber and because I’m an innately cautious fellow, I rounded up and focused on the 70 grain data (with its lower powder charges).
Another problem was that the powder I had on hand–N140–was not listed in the Barnes data. So my next step was to consult several reloading manuals to see which powder of the ones that were listed was closest to N140 in burn rate.
In my other manuals Alliant Reloder 15 and Hodgdon Varget consistently bracketed N140 in the burn rate charts. Both were listed in the Barnes data for 70 grain TSX bullets with a range from 22.5 grains to 24.5; coincidentally the same range I’d tested with N140 and the SMKs.
Again I loaded five groups of five, checked them for runout and went to the range.
This bullet clearly preferred 23.0 grains of N140. You can also see that the step above 23.0 shot better than the step below. If that trend were more pronounced I’d consider further testing between 23.0 and 23.5 grains, using smaller steps, to see if I could zero in on that accuracy node.
As it is, it looks like 23.0 grains splits the difference reasonably well. Since I’m just under 1 MOA and the chronograph tells me the velocities were consistent, I’ll load some more of those, zero the scope and see if they hold their accuracy at longer ranges.
Seating Depth
For AR15s, lever guns, and handguns I just load rounds to the length specified in the manual or, as in the case of the Hammer Hunters, to max magazine length.
However, bolt action rifle ammunition isn’t normally limited by magazine length. You can further tune those loads by experimenting with seating depth. Some bullet types will display a preference for the distance they have to “jump” to reach the lands of the rifling.
Some marksmen prefer that their bullets contact, or are even jammed into, the lands to negate runout. We more casual shooters avoid doing that because if you have to eject an unfired round with its bullet stuck into the lands it may come apart, leaving you with a bullet stuck in the barrel and powder all over the action–a nuisance in the field.
You can buy (or make) a modified case that screws onto the end of a gauge like this, place a bullet loosely into the modified case, then remove the rifle’s bolt and insert the whole business into your chamber. Once the bullet contacts the lands, you tighten the set screw, remove the round and measure it.
(the bullet sometimes sticks in the barrel, but tightening the set screw on the gauge allows you to replace the bullet in the modified case at exactly the same depth once it’s tapped out)
A bullet seated to that measured length will be touching the lands: anything shorter will have to “jump” to reach them. You can find the depth that type of bullet prefers in your rifle barrel by doing a Berger seating test.
Berger ballistic techs recommend trying groups at .010, .050, .090, and .130″ off the lands (Barnes recommends that you start their TSX bullets at .050″ off the lands and work up in .025″ increments). I shoot this test the same way I do the powder test, checking results on paper as well as on the chronograph.
Sometimes it’s difficult to see a preference, particularly with small sample sizes. Some bullets are just less sensitive to seating depth.
I load rounds for the powder test to .010″ off the lands as a matter of habit, so if the subsequent seating depth test shows a “tie” between .010″ and any other depth, I’ll go with .010″ since at that point it’s already worked for me twice.
There are lots of other variables that can affect the precision of your loaded rounds, from the type of primers you use, uniformity and neck tension of your brass, to your reloading practices and equipment, etc., etc. We haven’t even addressed the quality of your rifle or that of the shooter behind it.
It’s best to set a goal for each load before you start, keeping all these variables firmly in mind. For some applications, a solid 1 MOA load might make you very happy; for others, that might be a disappointment that finds you making excuses and second-guessing yourself…
I try to keep it simple: once my rounds are shooting better than factory ammunition, I stop and declare victory. Assuming I was lucky and chose my components well, I can get there with 50 rounds (30 for powder testing; 20 for seating tests) or less.