New to reloading. Please help!

[maxjperkins]

I have shot many rifles and have seen people reload and know the steps and principals but I have never done it myself. I have some noob questions about loads and combinations, and I'm hoping you all will put up with my dumb questions and help me. I have done a search and found some suggestions, but I didn't like how spread around the information was so I'm going to just ask it here.

I'll first start off by saying that the rifle I'm shooting this from is a Howa m-1500 in .243 Winchester (1 in 10 barrel twist).

1.) I'm curious to know the quality of different brands of brass, bullets, primers, powders, etc. Could you please list from worst to best the quality of brands? (Lapua, Remington, Winchester, Black Hills, Sierra, Nosler, Norma, any other big ones, etc., etc., etc.)

2.) I'd like to do some target shooting which is my big concern. I won't be doing much hunting with the rifle. I would be far better off using a boat tail than anything else, correct?

3.) What velocity should I aim for? What bullet weight should I aim for? I want something that is as high of a velocity as I should safely go without fear of burning out the barrel. I plan on doing shooting at 600-800 yards max, so I'm assuming I'll need to adjust the weight accordingly. Is there a chart or something somewhere that gives the recommended paper target bullet to use at a given range?

4.) What kind of powder should I use? I've heard that there's slow burning and fast burning but I don't know the difference or if there are other types of powders.

5.) How much powder should I use (range). I know a lot of this is experimentation but I'd like to get a starting point to aim for my intended velocity.

65.) Any additional and relevant info about the loads I should try.

[alan]

I'm not especially familiar with the caliber you mention (.243), hiowever the reaklly dumb questions tend to be the ones you didn't bother to ask.

The following might help some.

Get hold of a couple of reloading manuals, and see what they list in the caliber you intend to shoot, or speak with shooters. I don't know that the .243 Winchester is particularly suitable for target shooting, I used to use 30-06 and 308 Win.

I would suggest a medium burning rate powder, stick or ball type, take a look at which powders are listed. Read the text prior to actually loading ammunition, then proceed slowly, with care. Reloading is NOT rocket science or black magic, however you do need to pay attention to what you are doing.

Good luck in your efforts.

[Dustin0]

I would start with a reloading manual. Midway has some nice ones that have pulled the info from lots of books and put in one just for that calbier. Then pick load that looks like it work for you. If stick with known repices you shouldnt burn out the barrel. Wish could let you more but i havent started on 243 yet. Still building the gun.

[Ozzieman]

I don’t load 243 but I do load the 6mm REM.
You have a really large selection of bullets but I would suggest you start with a good quality like Sierra or Hornady. I know with the 6mm bullet depth or how deep you seat the bullet is very important. I would suggest you have the chamber measured and seat the bullets so that they almost touch the rifling, this did more for my 6mm than anything.
Start with a simple load, something like 4895 and start mid load and work up.
My 6mm always liked the heavier loads for accuracy. But you have to work up your own loads, just start with what manuals suggest and work your way up.
For 6mm I like Remington brass the best, but what you should do is buy new and stay with the same manufacture.
Primers, I have never seen that primers make that much difference in accuracy, and with the craziness that’s going on now, use what you can find.
You have a lot of good questions, what I would suggest is to go out and buy a good reloading manual like RCBS or Hornady and READ READ then READ.
A lot of your questions can be answered, but the really good thing is that it will bring out more questions you will need answered.
There is a lot of equipment you are going to need for reloading this caliber.
I would suggest a good set of match dies like Redding. Your going to need a good case length trimmer, get a Wilson.
You can find some reloading data for your caliber at the following location.


http://data.hodgdon.com/main_menu.asp

and I'm hoping you all will put up with my dumb questions and help me.
The only dumb question is the one you never ask.

[langenc]

Dustin) mentioned loading books-specifically LOADBOOKS. It is a compilation of all data for a caliber in one book-Sierra, Hornady, Nosler, etc etc etc.. and the powder makers also --all for less than about $8.

For 243-it is a good target gun. Shoot whatever brass you have or can scrounge. Get some of the 3 mfgrs mentioned above-in 80 and/or 95 gr bullets. I like to pick one and stick with it. Experiment and get the best loading for your gun. Loading=cartridge length, powder/quantity, and bullet.

Aim small. miss small.

If you will use the gun for any hunting, shoot a target at 25, 50 and 100 yards-same target. Then you can see just where the bullets hit with a particular scope setting.

[Red_Eagle]

Sounds like a Seirra 107gr Match King or Hornady 105gr A-Max is what you're looking for. For powder, IMR 4350 and 4831 are well thought of. This past weekend I had very good look with Hodgdon Hybrid 100V. The data is in the Hodgdon data center.

http://www.hodgdon.com/

[Sevens]

Full disclosure: I'm pretty much a handgun guy. I reload a few rifle rounds, but I'm not in to hardcore rifle accuracy. Not that I don't like it, I just don't have the hardware and the place to exercise it. In any case, I'll offer some opinions.

1a) Brass-- Tough to list brass in any order, but most folks in this game would likely place Lapua at number 1, Norma just behind, then the stuff from any of the big US makers next (Win, Rem, Fed, etc). And the "best" might mostly mean, "most durable" or "most similar to each other". You needn't have the "best" brass for accuracy, the best way to get the most accuracy from your brass is to weigh them, measure them for capacity and PREP them (neck turning, flash hole uniforming, etc) so that the brass you are using is indistinguishable from one piece to the next.

My advice if you are new to the game is to get a hundred or a few hundred pieces of all the same head stamp and start there, no matter what that head stamp is. If money is no object then SURE, go drop some coin on factory fresh Lapua brass and go forth.

1b) Powder-- I think Vihtavuori has the reputation of being one of the best powders out there, but it's certainly the most expensive and may also be the hardest to find. I've had great luck with Hodgdon powders and I also like the web support they have with reloading data. I use Alliant powders a lot in handgun, but find their web support really poor. Winchester powders are now all marketed by Hodgdon. Not nearly as many fine-tuned choices in Winchester powders as there are in Hodgdon. Ramshot is one of the newer players in the game and they seem to be more of a budget line of powders. Published data is not nearly as plentiful.

1c) Primers-- Good luck, primers are still a real SOB to find. As for brands, I don't think it will matter, but for extreme long range accuracy the best thing you can do for yourself is to buy a LOT of them at one time and stick with the same production lot. Or, to put it another way, if you bought a box of 100 primers, worked up an outrageously accurate load at 600 yards and then ran out of primers, you could (theoretically) go to the same store, buy the same brand of primers but they come from a different production lot and your results could be less than what you got from your first 100 in repeatability. So, your best bet is to find some primers in stock, buy a thousand of them and stick with them and only with them for your "pet load." If, in the mean time you wish to work up some 150 yard hunting load using different brass, a radically different bullet and with entirely different expectations, use some other primers and save your 1,000 lot for your extreme 600 yard accuracy work. Maybe 2,000 is a safer bet?

2) Boat tail bullets-- That would be the common advice of the past many years, so you likely won't go wrong by starting with a boat tail match bullet, but the reality is that you could find your best groups coming from whichever concoction of components and technique seem to brew together with your rifle to produce the best result. Some folks will tell you that there are no shortcuts, but I don't agree. Find someone that has a pet load in your caliber and give it a twirl. It may not be the best that you can do for your rifle, but it might be CLOSER than starting at random. With bullets, stick to the known brands for the best shot at accuracy. Nosler, Sierra and Berger have a terrific reputation for good reason. Bullets, especially in rifle, are an item where the ones that cost more quite often DO perform better.

3, 4, 5, 6-- caliber specific, not my arena.