solved all my reloading problems...

NOT!!!

but this shooting season will hopefully be better from a reloading perspective. i finally took the plunge and bought most of the advanced tools for reloading, competition seater, flash hole deburrer, primer pocket reamer, case guage, etc.... started turning necks a few months ago, and bit the bullet on 500pcs of lapua brass. my f/tr's should have no excuse for not shooting well. well.... maybe one.

still would like to find a concentricity guage, and i am sure i will discover more stuff i have to have, but not having to hope my stuff is right, i/e knowing it is right will put at least one part of the puzzle at ease.

my new f/tr is still minus optic's, might have to do something about that before it shoots well too.

I started to eliminate all the variable a few years ago.....The weak link is still having a blast pulling the triger ;D

Hershey I don't know all the distances of f/tr but if you need good fixed power optics at a reasonable price look no further than the SWFA line. Great scopes with good glass for around $300, come in 10x 16x 20x, or a 3-9. If you hold off a little while they are coming out with a 6x and a 4.8x20 supposedly by summer.
The variables are $600.

From reading your post, I'm not sure what caliber your shooting and at what, Target, Varmint, Hunting, Range. But as far as glass is concerned, in the $300. range, there's lots of good (Just not the best) glass out there, and im not counting the mounts.
So with out this info, its hard to even make a recommendation, other than, dont buy any scope with out looking at Bushnell 3200 and Sightron's in the same price range.
Find a place that has them in stock, and physically look through them, twist the adjustments for feel, etc, you dont have to buy there, as the Internet can beat most store prices. Do your homework first.
Mike.

Post a WTB for a FX16x40 Leupold.

i am thinking i want the bushnell 6500 variable upto 30x, or one of the 8x32-?'s. my first f/tr has a 20x super sniper, and it does well, but i want to do better. i got 2 deals pending on gun stuff, (pursueing other interests) and once they shake out, i am gonna hunt down glass. (or be eternally in debt). if both these other deals fall apart i may just buy once cry once and do the sightron or nightforce 8x32-?, if i find a t-36, or something like that on the cheap i may go that way. i really want to be able to dial up to at least 30x if conditions permit. my 4200 bushnell dials upto 24x and it does make a difference. i need to commit to a bullet too, i can't decide to go slow and heavy (190-210), the 175smk or the 155's. i got 500 190 smk's, and 500 of the 155smk's, plus 1000+ 168 and 180smk's, so just got to pick a poison....

If I were you, I would let the rifle decide what bullet it likes bast, and you can make the decision on the scope.
BTW I have a Bushnell 4200 24X on my 6BR, and a T-36 on my 22BR.
Mike.

i agree the rifle may not like what i pick, but usually you can make a given bullet shoot if it was a smart choice to begin with, the 175smk is very popular but i have not seen one of those on a shelf since before obama, i am curious how the 180's do. someday a chrono is in the picture, but probably not this shooting season. my long term goal is make the 1 hour drive to camp perry and shoot a 1000yd match, but still need some serious gear for that to be successful. i still don't have a local place to shoot past 300 yet. one club is building a 600yd backstop, and i told them i would join when it became a reality, but it still is allot of work packing everything up rather than throwing it in the wheel barrow and walking the 100 or so yards to my bench.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hershey

i am thinking i want the bushnell 6500 variable upto 30x, or one of the 8x32-?'s. my first f/tr has a 20x super sniper, and it does well, but i want to do better. i got 2 deals pending on gun stuff, (pursueing other interests) and once they shake out, i am gonna hunt down glass. (or be eternally in debt). if both these other deals fall apart i may just buy once cry once and do the sightron or nightforce 8x32-?, if i find a t-36, or something like that on the cheap i may go that way. i really want to be able to dial up to at least 30x if conditions permit. my 4200 bushnell dials upto 24x and it does make a difference. i need to commit to a bullet too, i can't decide to go slow and heavy (190-210), the 175smk or the 155's. i got 500 190 smk's, and 500 of the 155smk's, plus 1000+ 168 and 180smk's, so just got to pick a poison....

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Go with the Nightforce..... Might as well go with the highest power BR Nightforce....a little over a grand.

The inside flash hole deburr is a good move. Think about getting all your cases to the same condition before you run it. I find that consistent case length is important but even if a case is inside mouth beveled (or not) and how much influences how much bevel you end up in the flash hole .... and never take too much out of the web ..... safety first.

(I debur all my metallic inside flash holes ... even pistol and revolver cases .... better burn)

I find that just the right light and a dark background and you can peer into the just deburred case and get a good visual comparison .... a fresh bevel really shines in the right environment.

The neck turning is more problematic.

I would suggest a ball micrometer and use it to sort your brass for serious work with that. There is a school of thought that a case that has a neck seriously thicker on one side ....... ALSO has a body that's wall is thicker on one side.

So if you outside turn a lopsided case as to it's mouth, the body won't be improved but the opportunity to detect it later will be wiped out. You can only measure the mouth ... it's better to do it now and not waste time trueing up cases that just should be used unturned.

Another critisisim is that most rifle chambers don't have a tight enough case mouth section to benefit from outside turning. I don't know because just about all my turning has been aimed at varmint calibers .... and I feel it shaves about 20% off group sizes. And that is without the benefit of a ball micrometer, in that case I just blindly turned first. So a presort would likely derive even more benefit.

The third problem is that to uniform the neck you have to shave more brass off than will allow you to have enough neck tension to firmly grip the bullet after it's seated.

I have run into this.

Depending on how your ammo is handled and stored and used ..... this may not be huge for you ...... I don't know.

But I use the Lee collet dies as much as possible and Lee will upon request sell you an undersized mandrel (by .001") that in my case (.22-250) competely cured that problem.

As a matter of policy, I am real careful when I set up my outside neck turner .... if a few cases are just not competely trimmed off totally, I don't get my shorts in a bunch ..... I would rather preserve that precious neck tension than even up the case a mere ten thou more when the chamber will likely not notice it anyway.

Your gun(s) may well vary from my experences but I thought I would share my trials and tribualations as I have worked with this process since about '83.

Best regards and enjoy!

Three 44s