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Getting started re-loading

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JimP:
How's the handloading coming Jay?

Jay:
Honestly, I have taken the kit out of the box, and that is as far as I have gotten.   :-\   I quite honestly just have not taken the time to get started. With moving last year and doing major renovations on the new place, the kids, this organization, and work, etc..., it just seems as though I can always find something else higher up the priority list. I know we all have these excuses, but my "free time" to myself that I don't spend outside emptying boxes of store bought ammo usually seems to be out in the shed wrenching on a Harley or a 4X4. Someday..... but I have been saying that for a long time.

JimP:
If you want help, ask!

Rule#.308:
I wish I had gotten in on this from the get go.  I have nothing against kits but the problem is once you get into it you tend to replace things like the balance beam scale with a digital unit as well as upgrading in other areas.  I have a single stage Lee press which works fine, but to go with it I have a Lyman case trimmer, a digital scale and an RCBS competition powder dump.  I reload for .308, 30-30, 30-40 Krag, 30-06 Garand and 7.5x55 Schmidt Rubin rifles as well as .45 ACP and .38 special hand guns.
The scale and powder dump make my reloading go much faster which is a good thing since I can easily take 3 or more rifles to the range and pop out 150 or so rounds in an afternoon.  Take your time, remember you don't have to do everything at once.  Just tonight I decapped, resized, trimmed and primed 100 rounds of 30-30 in about an hour and a half.  I put the primed cases in a plastic container and will load them with power and bullets at a later date.  I have at least 100 rounds of primed brass ready to charge about all the time.  That way if I'm short on time and have a match in the morning all I have to do is fill my powder dump with the powder I use on each rifle, set the caliper using the digital scale to get it just right, then start dumping powder, seat the bullet and crimp it on certain rifles.  I do not crimp the .308 as mine is a Thompson Encore break open single shot (I also only neck size for this rifle).  I also do not crip the Garand as the recoil is so mild I am not concerned the bullets will seat deeper with recoil.
As for books, I prefer the "One Book One Caliber" manuals available for $6.00 to $10.00 each.  I would also recommend you set up a spread sheet on each firearm you load for, that way you can keep track of what you have tried and what works best.  You can also use the spread sheet to keep track of the air temperature, wind and so on.  It is true that different rifles like different loads and once you find a sweet heart you don't want to loose it.  There are also many different powders out there and you will again have to find what your rifle likes.  My 30-30 like Winchester 748 and 760 which are ball powders, while my .308 prefers the extruded IMR 4064 with a Nosler 150 grain Partition for hunting.  The Garand likes 47 grains of Hodgens 4895 or 48.1 grains of IMR 4895 with 150 grain Hornady BTSP bullet.  If you hunt you will be using different bullets (I prefer Nosler Partitions and Ballistic Tips) than you would use for accuracy punching paper (my .308 really likes the Sierra 168 grain match bullet with Varget powder for long range target).
The single most important thing I can pass on to anyone who is starting to reload is very simple "Velocity has nothing to do with accuracy.  In other words when you look in the book and you see a load that will send that bullet down range at 2700 feet per second you may find it all over the paper, so you back off to say 2500 feet per second and find the rifle will put them through the same hole at one hundred yards and give you a one inch group at 400 yards.
When I am working with a new powder or bullet I start on the lower end of the charts (but not the very bottom) and work my way up in 1/2 grain increments using 5 round groups.  when I get one pretty close to what I want I will fine tune using 1/10 grain increments until I can get all 5 holes touching at 100yds off the bench.  (This is where the digital scale comes in handy).  Have fun, hand loading is as much science as sending a rocket to the moon.  Or at least 1000 yards down range.

JimP:
"when you look in the book and you see a load that will send that bullet down range at 2700 feet per second you may find it all over the paper, so you back off to say 2500 feet per second and find the rifle will put them through the same hole at one hundred yards and give you a one inch group at 400 yards."

You may also find that a slower load does not group as well as a faster one: my most tested gun/load does best (smallest group/lowest SD in velocity) at .5 gr below max.... each gun/load combination is unique...... as you said- start out at the "start load" ( I wonder why they call it that?) and work up...... return to "start load" anytime you change any component....... different bullet brands of the same weight may not produce the same internal ballistics- different alloys for bullet jackets and or ogive shape/length of bearing surface .......  name of the game is try it and see what works.

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