I used to reload back in the 70’s and 80’s, yeah I know Jim wasn’t even born yet. No it wasn’t black powder. I was with the Dallas County Sheriff’s office, yes in Texas, no we didn’t ride horses or wear Colt Peacemakers. For body armor we wore Hanes t-shirts. I digress… So I started with a Lee hand loader, loading .38spcl and .357 Mag. Eventually I got a RCBS Rockchucker, don’t seem to have changed much since the 70’s. I never reloaded for rifles, but did for .380, 9mm, 44spcl & 44 Mag, as well as .45ACP.
So I went thru Jim’s Reloading 101. Well done, made me remember things I had forgotten. I went thru Jim’s recommended equipment, and purchased everything on it verbatim. Skipped the annealing machine for now. I did find the Hornady Lock and Load Headspace Comparator Kit, and Bullet Comparator kit. I also saw these Modified case in 6.5prc and 7prc (See Photo) i assume these are used to set up the dies as a guide. They are from Hornady. I have 200 rounds of 6.5prc and 7prc. They are mostly Hornady but do have some Berger and Federal Terminal Ascent. Guess that will get me started. Thanks Jim!
About the same time you were wearing your protective Hanes t-shirt, I was being born in San Antonio in 1985.
The modified cases are used with a Hornady OAL tool so you can measure headspace of the chamber and compare that to the cartridge headspace.
You get this tool Amazon.com and screw on one of those modified cases that you buy for your cartridge. That goes in the rifle through the action to measure the chamber depth. Then you’ll know how far out you can seat a bullet in the case before the bullet’s widest part contacts the rifling in the barrel.
So I am watching " This Gun Can’t Miss! Jim’s personal Fierce Mountain Reaper in 6.5 PRC"
I am watching the part about developing a load to move to .25moa. So I haven’t actually started reloading mainly because wife says I have to reload in the garage and being in Dallas it is a little warm in the garage.
You were talking about loading Berger bullets. I have been shooting Berger 140gr Elite Hunter in my 6.5prc (Seekins Havak Bravo) and getting .5-1.0 moa. So would it make sense to measure the OAL of the factory Berger bullet with a Hornady Bullet Comparator, then to use the Modified Case Bullet Depth to determine the ogive bullet depth for your specific rifles chamber to determine the difference between what the factory bullet is seated at versus the bullet depth from the Modified case bullet depth indicates. Not sure this makes sense.
