Reloading Accuracy 

by James Roberts

I have my own way of loading hunting bullets or ammo to get the utmost accuracy out of them. I will first shoot some factory loads through the particular rifle that I will be loading for and use that once fired brass for my accuracy loads. First I take that once fired brass and uniform the primer pockets and flash holes. Then I neck size the brass and slip a bullet into the case and leave it seated out as far as possible, not seating a primer into this case. I then take that seated case and bullet minus the primer and insert it into the action of the bolt action rifle that I fired it in originally and close the bolt. The rifling's in the barrel will seat the bullet and it will be touching the rifling's. I then remove that seated bullet and case and place it in my bullet seating die and seat it into the case .004 deeper which gives me a bullet that is seated .004 back from the rifling's. I use this dummy load to set up my dies for seating any other loads for that rifle and that brand bullet. 

I use two different types of bullets for my hunting loads, a Nosler ballistic tip and a Sierra Game King which both gives very good accuracy. These bullets are used mainly for whitetail deer and I have had very good success with them. If you're planning on taking thicker skinned game or angling shots or rear shots, I would suggest using a Nosler Partition or Speer Grand Slam bullet or any other premium bullet of which there's many on the market today.

I will take all my once fired brass for the particular rifle that I'm loading for, trim them to length and then neck size all of them. I made my own die alignment washers and used a micrometer on them to check for the proper thickness all around and use those washers to set up my die for neck sizing. By using a washer, the die when screwed down tight against this washer which is on top of the shell holder will be uniform and aligned perfectly when you tighten it down in the press. It will give the same uniformity on all the brass and will also seat the bullets all to the same uniformity. Without the washer under the die, the die could be cocked slightly off center which is hard to tell by just looking at it. Once you have the die screwed down tight, just store the washer out of the way.

It's important to trim them all to the same length so you will get the bullets all seated at the same depth off the rifling's. I then place them in a tumbler and clean them for several hours. I next set up my powder measure to throw the amount of powder that I have decided to use minus just a few grains. I then use a powder trickler to add the last few grains to the powder pan while it's resting on the scale, slowly turning the trickler until the scale is balanced and the same amount of powder is added to each case. It's only a simple matter of seating the bullets with the seating die to the same depth which I like to be .004 back off the rifling's. 

There's other ways of getting the same results and you could neck turn all the necks on the brass for even better results. I haven't needed any of the other methods myself as I have taken deer out to 325 yards with one shot from my 30-06 using my accuracy techniques and it's a cheap way to do it.

To see my 30-06 loads for hunting, you might want to go to that page at this link: 

 30-06 loads

© copyright 2006 James Roberts