Ballistics and Reloading
Overview
There are numerous sources of excellent information for those new to reloading. The internet is full of blogs, forums, and dedicated websites that are free to the reader and probably do a better job than I could in getting you started. I would be duplicating those efforts if repeated here. I would encourage you to take the time and hone this skill. The serious Shootist will turn a lot of “money into smoke.” In other words, to keep your materials cost down, reloading is a must.
The Knowledge Center at the Midway U. S. A. website contains several videos and how-to guides. Almost every major manufacturer of reloading equipment and supplies publishes both books and free information online that will assist the novice. I also recommend “The ABC’s of Reloading” by Bill Chevalier as a solid beginner’s guide.
There are also countless sources of advanced information available in both books and videos. Find out what works to get you started. Personally, I have been policing my brass and reloading for over 30 years. Once you get the hang of it, the repetition involved with this activity can be very therapeutic.
What I found lacking in the world of reloading information was advice and techniques to help me organize and produce quality ammunition in larger quantities. Most sources address either the beginner or those wishing to produce specialty rounds. Sources abound for creating high quality but low volumes of cartridges.
My intent with this section is to cover ground that addresses the specific needs of the Shootist and provides some insight and tips that I have learned over the years. Most home reloaders don’t consume as many rounds as I do per month, and that appetite for lead has taught some valuable lessons.
Reloading and the Shootist
Over the years I have worked with both military/professional operators and civilians. One topic that always seems to come up with civilians is the expense involved in reaching the pinnacle of firearm skills.
The average Joe Nobody is at a disadvantage because military units and law enforcement departments (at least SWAT teams) normally provide weapons and ammunition free of charge to their members.
In my experience, reaching and maintaining peak skills requires shooting 2,000 – 3,000 rounds per month. As of this writing, purchasing quality off-the-shelf ammo would result in an expense of $1,200 to $1,600 per month. That is a lot of cash. By the time you throw in optics, furniture, buying and testing new equipment, wear and tear on weapons and travel expenses, it wouldn’t be outrageous to budget $2,000 per month.
Even if this number doesn’t sound all that bad to some readers, you still have a disadvantage in the consistency of your ammo. Military and LE units purchase huge lots of ammunition and most factory ammo is reasonably consistent within specific lots or runs. In addition, most sizable organizations have specifications that suppliers are required to meet, so everyone is using standardized rounds.
Civilians normally purchase what is on sale, and spend a lot of money trying to determine what works best in their variant of whatever weapon platform they choose. Let’s say you get good results from military spec M855 ammunition in your AR15. How often is M855 on sale? If similar ammo were advertised at $150 cheaper per 1,000 rounds, wouldn’t most people consider it? Another problem for civilians is availability. Over the last four years, I have seen several periods of time where M855 simply wasn’t available. This could translate into a month or two of different results while training with a different type of ammo.
Fortunately, everyday ol’Joes can turn this situation around to their advantage.
Personally, I believe having your ammo handed to you in bulk at no charge is a negative with regards to becoming a Shootist. There are several reasons why:
Ammo is like anything else – if you have to spend your own money for every round, you respect and appreciate it more.
Making your own ammunition results in better consistency. Making your own ammunition results in higher quality.
Reloading fosters more in-depth knowledge of ballistics and performance. Reloading allows for more training time at less cost.
Very few military professionals reload their own rounds. The average trooper or Marine has extensive duties, limited income, and higher priorities. They wouldn’t be permitted to use their homegrown products anyway. I have found a slightly larger percentage of law enforcement professionals reload, but compared to civilians, the number is still low. Again, duty calls. As mentioned earlier in this work, a Shootist understands ballistics. This is more than simple memorization of ballistic coefficients, feet per second of various powder loads and the bullet drop of certain types of ammunition. Before diving into specifics, some background information is in order.
I started reloading back in the early 80’s when I shot IPSC. Back in those days, I couldn’t afford enough practice rounds to stay competitive. Thus, I started reloading. I bought a press, dies, and a book and proceeded to get in even less practice due to jamming attributed to my reloads. It takes a while, but like everything else, reloading is actually very simple and safe. Over time, I improved.
I shoot the stated 2,000-3,000 rounds a month, so reloading is essential from an economic perspective. Add in my family members’ rounds, and the number goes nowhere but up. My personal belief is that “rolling my own” is essential from a performance point of view as well. Practically all nationally ranked, competitive distance shooters will tell you that making your own ammo is essential to compete at their level. This is due to a variety of reasons. Most shooters believe the secret to quality ammunition is primarily based on consistency. If each round performs exactly as the previous shot, it becomes a simple matter of zeroing the weapon, and the shots should all impact as desired. This isn’t exactly true. While consistency is extremely important, accuracy involves more than simply having the same amount of powder in each cartridge.
To begin with, factory ammunition is both accurate and reliable to various levels. Match grade or national match ammo is manufactured to exacting standards, and it would seem impossible for anyone to create more consistent loads by hand. This fact is not disputed by anyone who operates a reloading press. What most shooters don’t realize is the variance between lot
numbers of the same brand and specification can result in significant differences in performance.
Long-distance competition riflemen obtain world-class accuracy by pre-shaping the brass (casing). This is accomplished by firing the round through the weapon once and then reloading it for competition. This is a process a factory can’t replicate. This is effective because every
chamber of every weapon is different. The same can be said of barrels, even within the same lot and model of rifle. Milking that last .25 MOA out of a long-range rifle often requires
experimenting with a few grains of powder more or less as well.
Probably the most important factor for the Shootist is compensating for the free bore of any specific weapon. Of all of the variables involved with reloading as it pertains to accuracy,
adjusting the overall length of the round per specific rifle has had the greatest impact. This topic will be covered in-depth below.
While the majority of this book is not concerned with pinpoint accuracy, there are performance advantages involved with reloading for combat range shooting as well.
Establishing Requirements
My go to weapon is an M4 carbine, 5.56 NATO with a 14.5-inch barrel. I have found that 69 grain, hollow point, boat tail match bullets provide the best performance through this weapon. Furthermore, I have found that 2760 feet per second delivers the best compromise of accuracy, stability, and stopping power. I know of no brand of factory ammunition that provides these exact specifications. Finding 69 grain match ammunition is difficult. Finding that bullet loaded with just enough powder to fly at that velocity is impossible. In addition, the free bore of my rifles (I have several identical setups) dictates that I seat the bullet at a very specific height “off the lands.” I will go into some detail on this later.
The cynical, non-reloading reader may scoff at my narrow specification. Would 50-100 feet per second really make that much difference in the performance of a battle rifle?
The answer is yes, it does.
Let’s take my specification and expand on the topic for a moment. My personal preferences are meaningless and sited below only as an example, not a recommendation. What is important is for every shooter to establish a set of parameters or requirements for the performance of their weapon platform. My requirements are:
1. The round must have the maximum stopping power to take threats out of the fight. 2. The range required is 25 – 300 meters.
3. Reliability is the highest priority.
4. A non-magnified optic or iron sights will be used, thus holdover should be minimal. 5. My weapon has a 1x8 rate of twist – bullet stabilization is critical.
Over the years, I experimented with bullet weights ranging from 55 to 77 grains. I have tested velocities and chamber pressures ranging from anemic to stressing the max of the weapon. Numerous feral hog and other game animals were dissected to determine flesh damage and bullet fragmentation. At one point, I spent countless late nights reading battle damage assessments from two different wars. I have purchased hundreds of dollars of ballistic gel and wrapped the blocks in various articles of clothing to simulate likely encounters. We even took a freshly harvested deer, dressed it up in a load vest complete with loaded AK47 magazines and shot through the chest rig (and mags) from different distances to gauge the penetration. I have consulted with countless experts on the topic. I feel confident with my fighting ammunition in all but the most extreme circumstances. Every shooter should take the field feeling the same way. If nothing else, the confidence will help during critical moments when your life is on the line. Since these days I have to pay for my own ammo and more importantly my own weapons, I need every economical advantage I can get. For example, a great money saver involves loading practice rounds that mimic the ballistics of fighting ammunition.
As of this writing, 1,000 bullets of my preferred fighting rounds cost about $170. I can purchase 55 grain “cheapies” for around $100 per 1,000. I can load cartridges using the less expensive bullets that have similar ballistics to my fighting rounds and save thousands of dollars per year. While the bargain bullets do not have the same terminal characteristics, during training both pop a balloon or punch a hole through paper quite well.
Since our hunger for ammo is more intense than the average rifleman, I have focused my efforts into more of an assembly line type of operation than the average reloader. Regardless of your intent concerning reloading, the following information and tips may be helpful. A brief primer follows:
There are three major stages involved in reloading: 1. Case Preparation
2. Primer and Charge (powder) 3. Bullet seating and Inspection
Several reloading equipment manufacturers sell reloading starter kits that contain the basic tools required for all three steps. While an excellent place to start, most people find they quickly outgrow the equipment contained in these kits. My first starter kit was purchased over 30 years ago. Today, almost all of the original components lie in a drawer having been replaced by more automated or advanced models – or just simply worn out. To reiterate, starter kits are an excellent place to get your feet wet in the world of reloading and can offer a small economical advantage out of the gate. The equipment discussed below is more expensive and capable. I reload three calibers (.45, 5.56 and .308 WIN) and that’s it. If you are into wildcatting or custom work, you are probably more skilled at the workbench than I am and won’t find much value in this chapter.
Note: For those readers who question why I use a NATO specification (5.56) on one weapon versus the SAMMI (.308 Winchester) on another, there is a method to my madness. The .308 WIN allows for chamber pressures of 62,000 PSI while the NATO 7.62x51 spec is 50,000 PSI. You can shoot 7.62 x 51 in a weapon chambered for .308, but not vice versa. There are some
differences in head spacing as well.
The reverse is true of the 5.56 NATO versus the .223 Remington. The NATO round allows for a more potent load. If you shoot the AR platform, you should make sure your weapon is
chambered for both. These days, that is practically a given, but it never hurts to double-check. I reload three ‘levels’ of ammo for all three calibers:
1. Fighting – Factory, or new brass only, digital powder weight, match grade bullets 2. Target – chamber sized, once fired, fighting rounds, digital powder weight, match grade
bullets
3. Training – older brass, lighter powder, cheap bullets
Among serious bullet smiths, my activities are very limited in scope. Many people reload dozens of different calibers as well as inventing their own (wildcatting). Reloading is one of those skill sets that you can burrow very deeply into – even to the point of making your own primers and pouring your own brass cases if desired.
My suggestion is to walk before your run, especially with something that can damage your weapons as well as cause bodily harm if things go wrong.
My reloading is motivated by increasing my skills as a Shootist and the fact that I enjoy it. After retirement, one of my goals is to increase my knowledge base and capabilities in this area and
enjoy the effort as a hobby. For now, schedule regulates that I spend the majority of my bench time just keeping up with the demand for ammunition.
Case Prep
Most of the work in reloading is case prep. We recently did a 15,000 round, 4-day weekend and ended up with buckets of brass.
Every single piece has to be tumbled. We clean so much brass the electric bill probably looks like my household is involved in some sort of illegal activity. Tumbling involves a piece of equipment that is normally not included in starter kits. This machine is called, of all things, a “tumbler.”
I would advise the reader to purchase as large a tumbler as budget will allow. It hurts nothing to run this device less-than-full, and there will be times when tumbling brass is a bottleneck in the reloading process.
Tip: On the initial tumbling, don’t waste time and electricity cleaning the brass to a luster.
My process has some categories of brass being cleaned three times. The initial cleaning should be enough to remove the carbon and other die-fowling residue before de-priming and resizing the cases.
After tumbling, we size each case and then measure each for length. Sizing a case involves using a die and pressing the brass. Most sizing steps remove the old, used primer as well. After the brass has been sized, you have to measure each and every single one. About 45% will need trimming, which is the worst part of reloading in my book. We have an electric RCBS case
trimmer and also run a manual one to boot. You can purchase once fired, pre-trimmed brass, and this might be worth the expense if you are building up an inventory of ammo.
Tip: Contrary to many learned sources of reloading, I don’t sort brass for training rounds. I have never found it made that much difference. I do keep the fighting and target rounds sorted by weapon and caliber. The case wall thickness on a 5.56 cartridge is slightly thicker than a .223 Rem. Since my fighting rounds are maxed out, I use 5.56 brass for these loads.
Tip: Nothing sizes brass like being fired through a weapon, so if you track which gun was used, you can have very accurate brass for the next reload.
Tip: RCBS (and others) make something called a 3-way trimmer. IT IS WORTH THE MONEY! It will trim, de-chafe and de-bur the brass all at the same time. This saves a lot of time.
Tip: I don’t wash (with liquid) training rounds. It’s not worth the time/trouble. I do wash target rounds and use a Hornady sonic cleaner (pictured below). It’s worth the money as well.
We still run a lot cases through a trim, de-bur, de-chafe process, and make sure the primer pocket is sized and clean.
We run both a single stage press and a multi-stage press. A single stage press performs one action per pull of the lever. A multi-stage press performs up to four actions, such as size, de- prime, seat a new primer, and load powder, with one pull. Multi-stage presses are sometimes referred to as indexing presses. Right now the multi-stage press is a Hornady (on the left in the picture below – 14.5), but I have used Dillon and Lee equipment as well. You can’t go wrong with a Hornady or a Dillon. Our single stage is a RCBS (on the right in the picture below), which is known for making quality products too.
Primer and Charge
When reloading training ammo, I use the multi-stage press, and when creating a batch of target or fighting rounds I use the single stage press.
A multi-stage press can create a lot of rounds-per-hour. I have read some internet forums where guys claim output above 400 rounds per hour. I have never achieved that level of output. Counting case prep, about 200 per hour is the best I have been able to do.
Tip: I use “Narrow Base Case Dies” for 5.56 (.223) and .308 (7.62) rounds. I believe most major manufacturers offer them. I use RCBS. A narrow case die feeds an auto- loading rifle better than the normal dies.
We prime all rounds - and for training rounds, perform the initial powder load using a powder drop on the multi-stage press. Since the tolerance for this category of ammo is wider than the more potent fighting and target loads, I feel confident using this faster process. I use a stock Hornady or RCBS powder charger. These units are consistent with my favorite smokeless (Winchester 748 for rifle) cartridges with a mean differential of about one grain.
Tip: Different types of powder have different consistencies/shapes. Some are pellet- shaped granules; some are small balls while others are tubular. Not all powder drops will function as consistently with all types of powder.
Tip: Pay special attention to your powder dispenser as its storage tube nears empty. I have found a significant deviation with some types of powder between a full tube and one nearing the bottom of the barrel. This is no doubt due to the fuller tube applying slightly more downward pressure on the powder as it is “cupped” during the cycle. One method of negating this issue is to keep your tube close to full as you process the batch. Tip: Powder dispensing devices become dirty. The residue from pounds of material going through these tools can build up. I clean my reloading equipment on a regular schedule, just like my weapons. The good news is that the same tools and materials