Reloading Tips
Reloading or Hand Loading Ammunition can be extremely dangerous. You should always be very cautious and if you don’t fully understand what you are doing then seek advice.
Two things are important to note at this point.
1. Monometal bullets do not like travelling down barrels with significant carbon fouling. Clean your barrel with an appropriate solvent on a regular basis.
2. Do not load monometal bullets close to the lands. This can lead to a significant start pressure spike and can be dangerous. I suggest a minimum jump of 50 thou without exception. As an aside this will also be beneficial from a precision perspective.
The first thing I would say about reloading any rifle ammunition is that there are no short cuts to achieving a precise, accurate load. What works in one rifle may not work in others. The following is the methodology I use to find a precise load for hunting rifles with my bullets.
Firstly I obtain a charge weight range with an appropriate burn rate powder. This will normally be a fairly straightforward exercise using published load data from manufacturers in appropriate cartridges.
My bullets are designed at weights in order that there will be a bullet of similar but slightly heavier weight AND construction (ie monometal) where there is a plentiful source of information in charge weight terms. As a rule of thumb this data can be used safely with my bullets. For example data for the 85 grain 6mm barnes tsx can be safely used for my 80.5 grain 6mm bullet. The data for the 6.5mm 120 grain barnes ttsx can be used safely for my 6.5mm 112 grain bullet and so on.
Data for similar weight lead cored bullets is NOT usable. This is due to the much lower volume of a similar weight lead cored bullet vs a copper monometal bullet.
With all charge weight tests it is advisable to start at the lower end of the charge weight range and work up keeping an eye out for pressure signs. Running a chronograph whilst testing is also very helpful to check MV's are in the right ballpark. In all likelihood the max charges for my bullets will be a little higher than the heavier (control) bullets' maximum as one would expect.
Most monometal bullets like a decent 'jump' to the lands and mine are no exception. I would suggest running one's initial charge weight test with the bullets seated 50 thou off the lands. This should provide some reasonable groups and in many cases some very good groups. If the best group requires a little tidying up I would then run a jump test at that powder charge from 50-90 thou off. This should result in a group that is comfortably sub MOA. I have found some rifles to like a jump even further than that and have, on occasion ended up with as much as 120 thou jump.
If finding a load proves difficult please email and I will do my best to help.