Let's talk about precision reloading

[opsoff1]

SixEight -
Great stuff - I think you absolutely may be on to something with the internal support for the swager. And the info you got re: the contour of the internal case head area is correct - a lot of different mfr's / caliber exhibitr this. Re: sawging - my knee-jerk is the same as your idea - cut 'em. I wouldn't waste the time and actually create more work for yourself.
On a side note - is it the picture or is that flash hole actually at an angle??

[opsoff1]

Also - apologies to SWThomas, I didn't mean to hijack the thread.
v/r

[Waylander]

SixEight -
Great stuff - I think you absolutely may be on to something with the internal support for the swager. And the info you got re: the contour of the internal case head area is correct - a lot of different mfr's / caliber exhibitr this. Re: sawging - my knee-jerk is the same as your idea - cut 'em. I wouldn't waste the time and actually create more work for yourself.
On a side note - is it the picture or is that flash hole actually at an angle??

That's just the poor angle I managed to cut the case apart with the Dremel tool without doing too much damage.

Also - apologies to SWThomas, I didn't mean to hijack the thread.
v/r

I don't think you hijacked the thread because the discussion about flash hole uniforming people are tending to say no. It may not be a problem with 5.56 brass but if the inner webbing is donut shaped like this a swage could introduce inconsistency and more work than it saves. I think most would agree more Q and A is better than none.

ETA:
And with flash hole uniforming being more or less a one-time thing I don't think it can hurt accuracy and may actually help it.

[opsoff1]

And with flash hole uniforming being more or less a one-time thing I don't think it can hurt accuracy and may actually help it.

SixEight
This brings up a point that is really the foundation of precision reloading - consistency. In a nutshell, we work the bejezzus out of the brass doing all sorts of cruel things to it in search of tiny groups. If we back up and from the git-go, focus on operations that build consistency, we cut out a ton of frustration down the road.
I'm pressed for time - but I will expound on this later if folks are interested.

[Waylander]

SixEight
This brings up a point that is really the foundation of precision reloading - consistency. In a nutshell, we work the bejezzus out of the brass doing all sorts of cruel things to it in search of tiny groups. If we back up and from the git-go, focus on operations that build consistency, we cut out a ton of frustration down the road.
I'm pressed for time - but I will expound on this later if folks are interested.

This is why I do everything I can to uniform my brass.
Uniforming primer pockets. Check.
Deburring flash holes. Check.
Keeping shoulder bump to an acceptable minimum. Check.
Trimming to uniform length. Check.
Chamfer/debur case mouth. Check.

These tools are cheap and why not? Like I said...it can't hurt accuracy and may help. It all depends if you want to invest the time or not.

Loading to be just a few thousandths behind the lands. Would like to if I could.
Using competition dies. Ditto.

Turning neck cases. Negative.
Crimping. Negative.

I've seen no evidence of the last two creating much of an appreciable gain in accuracy. Plenty of people don't do it and can shoot .1 MOA or better.

[Tzed250]

Precision reloading and crimping are mutually exclusive.

[HKGuns]

Opsoff1,

Please share more. Great information. I learned a ton from that single post.

[SWThomas]

Also - apologies to SWThomas, I didn't mean to hijack the thread.
v/r

No complaints here. Any educational information you can add will help out overall.

[Waylander]

Opsoff1,
I was going back over your first post more carefully and there's a lot of good info. I have a question about the powder charge ladders. I'm familiar with the concept but need a little more clarification. If you shoot only 1-3 loads at each incremental powder charge how can you be sure you didn't pull one or more of those shots and mess up the group? 5 or more shots with a cluster and maybe a few outliers would still seem to me to give you the best accuracy nodes. I'm just starting load dev so take that into consideration.

Something new to add to the die discussion...
You mentioned the strength of the press which I think is crucial. I was having trouble with consistent head spacing using a conventional small base resizing die. Someone suggested instead of the dies or press being the problem, play or slack in the shell holder, press and die may be the problem. Sure enough using arbor shims between the shell holder and dies takes out the slack and leads to extremely consistent head space. The cam-over you get is scary at first but a good press and dies will handle it. You guys can find more info on the shims unless you can find competition shell holders for the caliber you load in.

Redding makes a set of competition shell holders which replaces the shims. The shell holders are progressively thicker than the standard shell holder by .002" increments. The idea is to start with a fairly thick shell holder, adjust your resizing die until you're .002" longer than your target head space. Then drop to a .002" thinner shell holder and bingo you have your target head space.

[Waylander]

Does anybody fix bullet runout and see increased accuracy?