Shooting & Reloading

Questions or Comments? kirby@wallaceinfo.com

Contrary to what you may have been taught by the media, millions of Americans enjoy the sport of target shooting.

Target shooting, particularly for those of us who also engage in reloading, is a sport that combines knowledge of firearms, ballistics, body control, hand/eye coordination, physics, environmental variables, a familiarity with the explosive properties of gunpowder, and a little bit of psychology and physiology (really).

Target shooting does not involve any form of "pretend" shooting at people! If you are shooting at "silohette" targets and imagining yourself shooting at a person, then you are not engaging in target shooting. You may be involved in defenseive shooting practice, and that can be OK. But if your motive is imagining yourself shooting people, you need to back it off - WAY OFF...

As a hobby, I reload ammunition for my weekend excursions to the range.  At the present time, I reload exclusively for the .300 WinMag.  To give you an idea of how the thing stacks up, visually, compared to some other popular loads, take a look at the following rounds:

	.223 (Military/NATO 5.56)
	25-06
	30-30.
	30-06.
	.300 Win Mag.

.223 This round is used in the military's M-16 (and it's non-military sporting rifle counterparts, such as the AR15 and the Ruger Mini-14 Ranch Rifle).

25-06.    This is a popular "varmint" round, very good for it's flat trajectory and high velocity.  It is, perhaps, not well suited to deer hunting due to it's relatively light weight.  But it takes prairie dogs at 200-300 yards quite nicely.

30-30.    A common Deer round in Oklahoma.  Given Oklahoma's "brushy" terrain, a 100 yard (or less) shot is the most likely scenario in these parts, and the 30-30 is well suited to this task, even though it's kinetic energy (hitting power) deteriorates quickly after that distance (in my opinion).

30-06.    Probably the most popular deer hunting round known.  Almost any regular hunter has one of these in his "arsenal."

.300 WinMag.   All the rounds pictured above are factory ammunition except this one.  This is one of my reloads.  This particular one uses a nickel-alloy case with CCI primer, a 180 grain Hornady BTSP (Boat-Tail, Spire Point) bullet that has been moly-coated, and 72 grains of IMR 4350 powder.  It's muzzle velocity is in excess of 3000 fps, making it faster than all the others except the .223 (which typically has a MV of 3200 fps) and the 25-06 (which also has a typical MV of 3200 fps).  Those two rounds, however, carry only a 45 grain and 125 grain bullet, however, making them rather light hitters and subject to easy deflection off almost anything (even rain drops will significantly affect their trajectory.)

NOTE: I have quit using the nickel coated cases.  In my experience, I have seen the nickel coating flake off and go down the barrel with the bullet.  I've ended up cleaning small flakes of this stuff out of the barrel, and I'm sure this can't be good for it.

The bullet pictured here in my .300 WinMag round is primarily a hunting bullet due to it's soft lead nose that is designed to make the bullet expand, or "mushroom" on impact.  Without this expansion, almost any bullet will completely penetrate the body of the animal, thus wasting a LOT of it's energy.  Ideally, the bullet should not exit the animal, but expend all of it's energy in the vicinity of the vital organs, bringing a quick and painless death to the animal and a nice chunk of venison steak to the table.  Hunting bullets are designed for this express purpose.  If there is one thing I HATE, it is to see some idiot out there hunting with military surplus ammo.  He is likely to maim or cripple an animal, leaving it to a slow, painful and pointless death.   If you are going to hunt, for God's sake, do it right with bullets designed for hunting.

That's my hunting load, but my primary interest is target shooting, and so I load match bullets that are either full metal jacket bullets, or ballistic tip bullets.  Some ballistic tip bullets are also designed for hunting (especially Winchester/Nosler's Combined Technology Ballistic Silvertip, and Nosler's Partition bullet), but I use them for target shooting also.

My Setup

All shots were fired using my Savage FP110 Tactical, .300 WinMag, HBAR, with Simmons Whitetail Classic, variable 4-20x, power, 50mm scope, using the loading data specified with each target.

The Simmons scope is probably the weakest link in my chain.  It's a nice scope, and it was very reasonably priced, but it does have a problem with parallax.  Still, a Simmons is not a Leupold.  It gets me through my weekend hobby excursions though.   Perhaps one day I will shell out the $800.00 or more for a decent scope.  In the mean-time, I will make do with my $175 Simmons.  For the price, I still think it's a great deal.

The Rifle:

Keep in mind that in these targets, I am not aiming for bulls-eyes.   I am looking for the best load that produces the best groups.  Once I settle on a particular load that consistently gives the best groups, I will sight-in on bulls-eye for final target shooting.  Also, some people shoot three-shot groups, whereas I go for five shot groups.  I think that by insisting on five shots, I am getting a better gauge of the accuracy of the load.  Three shots in a tight group is much easier to get than 5.

5 Shots, 100 Yards.  Win/Nosler Ballistic Silvertip, 180gr.   69gr IMR 4350.  OAL 3.55	5 Shots, 100 Yards.  Win/Nosler Ballistic Silvertip, 180gr.   71.5gr IMR 4350.  OAL 3.55
5 Shots, 100 yards.  Win/Nosler Ballistic Silvertip, 180gr.   69gr IMR 4350.  OAL 3.55	5 Shots, 100 yards.  Win/Nosler Ballistic Silvertip, 180gr.   70gr IMR 4350.  OAL 3.55
5 Shots, 100 Yards.  Sierra MatchKing HPBT 200gr.  70gr IMR 4831.    OAL 3.55	5 Shots, 100 Yards.  Sierra MatchKing, 190gr. HPBT,  72gr. IMR 7828 powder, OAL: 3.6  NOTE: I changed my target on my last outing because I found the "X" to be a bit confusing to keep a crosshair on.  I liked this better, but I changed it again to make the white bullseye 1/2 inch instead of the 1/4 inch you see here.  At this 1/4 inch size, at 100 yards, my crosshair covered most of the circle!

What I AM doing:

Brass preparation begins by decapping and full length resizing (see note below).   I then scrub the primer pocket with a wire brush tool made for this purpose.   I decap and resize BEFORE tumbling the brass, so the primer pocket gets cleaned out also, and also so that I do not have to waste time trying to be careful not to get case lube inside the case.  After tumbling, I reseat a new primer and individually weigh each powder charge on a balance scale to within 1/50th of a grain.  Once powder charges have been funneled into the case, I seat the bullet.  I seat to a length that is the maximum length that allows the bolt to close without any camming force (so the bullet should just be at the rifling of the barrel).  Consequently, none of these rounds will fit in the magazine, but part of accurate target shooting is getting used to chambering each round individually anyway.

During shooting, I use a Harris bipod on the front and a 25lb bag of lead shot for the butt.  Thus the rifle is bedded firmly and minimizes any movement I cause by handling the rifle.  It also allows me to fine tune the height by squeezing the bag to raise the butt of the rifle slightly.

My technique is to center then say to myself (under my breath), "center, hold, lean in, VERY light pressure on the cheekplate, (very slowly) pull... pull... pull..." and let the bang come as a complete surprise.  I do this to minimize the odds of my "jerking" a shot out of the group by the involuntary "flinch" that invariably comes when you try to anticipate the shot.

What I am NOT doing:

I am not just neck sizing, which is what I would rather do.  But my decapping die is the same as my sizing die and it decaps at the bottom of the resizing stroke, so I do not really have any choice.  For my last batch, I use the decap pin by itself with a rawhide mallet to tap out the primer without resizing.  But I've only had once outing since, so it's too early to tell if it made a difference.

NOTE: I have, since I wrote that last bit, bought a Hornady neck-size die.  I've only had a few outings with it's work so far though, so it's too early to tell if it's had any significant effect.

Here are some of the bullets that I load for various purposes, with cross-section views:

	This is a 165 grain, full metal jacket bullet typical of military style ammo.   In spite of the fact that a full metal jacketed bullet, like this, is more accurate than an all-lead or soft point bullet, this particular bullet is designed for ease and efficiency of manufacture, not for accuracy.  The military buys billions of these things a year, so they have to be cheap to make.  The most notable flaw is, as you can see, an open and exposed base at the bottom of the bullet.  This bullet's lead core is exposed at the base.  During firing, the enormous pressures generated behind the bullet and applied to it's base (typically as much as 60,000 psi) will cause this lead core to be shifted slightly inside the bullet, and some of it will be vapourized off the base.  The result will invariably be a bullet that is slightly out of balance when it leaves the muzzle - causing it to "wobble" in flight, thus killing accuracy.  The second anomaly is the bullet jacket - the copper part that you see pictured here. (The lead has been melted and removed in this picture).  You will notice that the base of the bullet (bottom arrow) is thicker on one side than the other.  (The effect is slightly exaggerated in this picture due to the photo being taken on a scanner instead of with a camera.  The scanner gives a slight "to-the-side" viewing effect.)   The top arrow shows where the jacket wall is thicker on one side than the other.  This too will contribute to an out-of-balance bullet during flight. This bullet was designed to be easy and cheap to manufacture, not to provide tight groups in target shooting.  Individual bullet weights vary by as much as two full grains.  I loaded about 300 of them for nothing more than many months of Sunday afternoon "plinking" at relatively short ranges (100 yards).
	This bullet is a Winchester/Nosler Combined Technology, 180 Grain, Ballistic Silvertip.  It has a coating similar to a moly coating that reduces friction and extends barrel life.  Again, the view is slightly offset due to the scanner, so it is not easy to see that the jacket is very uniform in thickness.  But you can see very easily that the base is solid, protecting the lead core from the high pressures that build behind it.  This bullet is useful for hunting due to the plastic tip.  Upon impact, the tip is forced back into the lead core, initiating it's expansion.  The tip also resists malformation during flight, giving it a good penetrating point similar to a full metal jacket. This bullet is very stable in flight and the ballistic tip defeats deforming before firing and during flight. Most of my best groups have been made with this bullet.
	This is a Hornady 180 grain, boat-tail, spire point bullet that has been Moly-coated..  It is designed primarily as a hunting bullet.  It is not the best choice for accuracy or target shooting because of the soft lead tip.  The soft lead tip is prone to get knicks and dents which will affect accuracy.  But it makes a fantastic hunting bullet.  Also, the Moly coating reduces friction on the barrel and just plain LOOKS neat.
	This is a military surplus, armor-piercing bullet.  Instead of having a lead core, it has a solid steel core.  It will not expand at all upon impact.   The bullet will maintain a fairly pointed shape upon impact, and the steel core will push through and "cut" through an inch or more of solid, hardened steel.  The physics involved at the impact point must be fascinating, but I am not a physicist.  This bullet has both a solid base AND a full metal jacket, so you might think it capable of being more accurate, right?  Not so.  This bullet has a serious, accuracy-killing, flaw.  First, note the top arrow.  There is an anomaly in the copper jacket, above where the steel core has been embedded.  This will significantly affect balance.  Second, and most "damning" is the placement of the core.   Notice how "off-center" it is (bottom arrow).  Notice how close to the jacket wall it is on the right as compared to the left.  Also notice how it is slightly "tilted" it is --- it is lying in the jacket at an angle from the bullet's axis.  Finally, notice the base of the bullet.  It is severely off-center.  In the bottom photos, the top is an edge detect image, showing more clearly the lines.  Even without this, the plain photo image at the bottom shows this out-of-balance condition pretty easily.  This bullet will be very unstable in flight.  Not enough to make it "tumble" and be completely useless, but enough that it will have a significant "wobble" in flight - killing accuracy.  It's probably good for consistently hitting a four or five inch target at 100 yards. Again, military style ammo like this and the FMJ bullet at the top, are designed to be cheaply and quickly manufactured in large quantities.  It is useless as an accurate, long range target or sniper round.   I load them purely for the fun of shooting old car parts.  You should see what one of these things does to a piece of 1" Stainless Steel!!!  :-)

Handgun shooting.

I also enjoy both indoor and outdoor range handgun shooting.  Here are some of my favourite handguns for this sport.

At one time, the gun above was my favourite "carry" gun.  It used to be all
black (blued), but I sent it to ROBAR for refinishing, and now it's so nice
that I don't want to use it for a carry gun.  Its worth preserving now, and
matches its twin stainless steel, below.

The next two guns are guns are both manufactured by ASTRA.
 
The pictures on the 1" Stainless Steel  photo were shot with these two guns
and my Ruger Mod77 .300 WinMag (not pictured).

 
My Astra Model A-100 .40SW  This is a very nice gun
that has a 14 round capacity.

My Astra Model A-100 .45acp.  This is my carry gun now.
Standard 8 round mag.

The nice thing about the Astra Model A-100 is that the parts are
completely interchangebale between the two.  By swapping the
slide, barrel and ramp (all easily disassembled), I can make two
two-tone guns with either configuration I want.  In the two pics
below, the .45 is on the top, and the .40sw is below it.