Reloading ammunition
There are several reasons why people choose to reload their own ammunition. The two main ones being accuracy and cost. With reloading, there are many variables that can be adjusted and tested to obtain optimum accuracy from your rifle. Some of these variables include powder type and weight, primer type and brand, bullet weight, type and brand, neck tightness and bullet seating depth - reloading can be a very involving pastime! The second reason is cost - you make a rifle cartridge with premium case, powder, primer and bullet for less than half the cost of a premium 'factory' cartridge, making the attraction obvious.

To reload your own ammunition, there are a few things you will need to get started. Firstly, a basic press. The one pictured is the one I use, the Lee Classic Turret press. This costs about £60 and includes a single three die turret. The dies can be purchased new or second hand. A basic set of dies can be had for about £30 for the pair and you will need 2 to start. The first die punches the old primer out of the case and sizes the neck (the firing expands the neck of the case so it needs squeezing in slightly so that it will grip the new bullet). The second die seats the bullet in the case to a depth suitable to the calibre.

WARNING: Incorrectly loaded ammunition can cause death or serious injury. Under- or overloaded cartridges can blow up your gun when fired. Before you start reloading, make sure you consult a current loading manual and start with the minimum recommended powder load and work up in 0.1 grain increments. Manuals are available as books or as PDF downloads from ammunition/powder manufacturers websites. Even better, ask an experienced friend or fellow club member to show you the whole process.
My own case prep routine:
  • Firstly, I de-primer the cases by removing the central mandrel and decapping pin from my die and manually knocking out the primers using the shell holder on a block of lead to hold the cases.
  • The cases are then given 3 minutes in an ultrasonic bath filled with 80% hot water, 20% white vinegar and a splash of Flash liquid followed by a good rinse and a night on a radiator to dry out.
  • The cases are then neck sized in the loading press using Lee Resizing Lubricant.
  • The cases are then trimmed to length using an RCBS case trimmer and the necks chamfered and deburred with an RCBS tool.
  • The cases then spend 3-4 hours in an RCBS vibratory case tumbler with corn cob media to polish them up.
The cases now look like this and are ready to reload. These cases have also been re-annealed around the neck and shoulder and look like new cases. When cases have been fired and reloaded a few times, the brass in the neck area becomes work hardened from the repeated expansion and contraction of firing and neck-sizing. This makes the necks less elastic and prone to cracking which means they have to be thrown away. Annealing involves heating just the neck until a blue and purple ring appears just below the shoulder.

This is easily done by holding the base of the case and revolving it slowly in a pencil shaped flame of a blow lamp for a few seconds. Once they are done, the cases must be dropped in a bowl of cold water to stop the heat reaching the base of the case. The bottom end of the case is heat treated to have very specific properties and it is critical not to change these properties. Dropping hot metals in water would normally harden, or quench, them but this does not happen to brass and the neck area remains annealed.
The following diagrams show how the dies are used to firstly prepare the case for reloading and then seat the bullet to make a new cartridge: It is important that the inside and outside of the case neck are lubricated with resizing lubricant before the process begins to prevent the case getting stuck in the die or being distorted by it.
Step 1: Decapping Step 2: Neck sizing Step 3: Bullet seating
The spent case is forced up ino the decapping die which reduces the diameter of the neck and pushes the old primer out of the base of the case. As the ram is lowered, the case is pulled down past the mandrel which draws the neck out to the desired finished diameter. The case is fitted with a new primer, charged with propellant and a new bullet is seated in the case as the ram pushes the case into the seating die.
Bullet seating: How deep the bullet is seated in the case is critical. The throat on most factory rifles is usually fairly long so most home loaded rounds will fit the chamber. Seat the bullet too deeply in the case however, and pressures can rise dangerously with high loads or you simply deprive yourself of powder space with normal loads. What many people prefer to do is experiment with seating the bullet either against the lands or a certain distance from the lands to get the optimum accuracy. This requires knowledge of how long the throat, or leade, of your rifle's barrel is. There are expensive gauges available but there is a simple method that I illustrate on the 'Odds and ends' page. By using this method which gives you the COAL with the bullet touching the lands, you simply set your seating die to seat the bullet so the COAL of the cartridge is this length plus or minus the distance you want the bullet from the lands ie:
If this method indicates a COAL of 3.015" and you want your bullet fifteen thousands off the lands, simply set your COAL to 3.000". Conversely, if you want your bullet jammed five thousands into the land, set your COAL to 3.020".
Of course, this method only works using an identical bullet and case combination because the curved shape ('ogive') of bullets differs therefore affecting how deeply the bullet will seat against the lands.
This picture shows a 5-shot group I shot at Minsterley Ranges whilst testing a new powder with Lapua Scenars. The group was shot at 100 metres from a large bench bag and shows just how accurate home loads can be when you take the time to find a load that your rifle likes. The sticker is 30mm in diameter.
Rifle:Tikka T3 Stainless Varmint
Calibre:6.5x55 Swedish
Case:Lapua trimmed and fire-formed
Bullet:139 grain Lapua Scenar
Powder:44.3 grains Accurate 4350
Primer:CCI 200 large rifle
C.O.A.L:3.107 inches