Who says you can’t hand load precision varmint cartridges?
These took a while to do today. There’s only 85 rounds. And 40 of the cases were from the other day’s range pick-ups.
I decided to use the same procedures as I do with my match ammo. Which meant my margin for error was .0005” on every measurable process. From sizing, to trimming, to seating. And the powder charge was within .01 of a grain. My shoulder bump was .0005”. While not a firm bolt close on a sized case, it had just a little resistance. Runout is pretty much nonexistent.
The only thing that isn’t the same as my match ammo are the five different case head stamps. Hey…it’s free range once fired. I did vet the cases and excluded about a half a dozen for various reasons.
I have not been very active in the past year, so this was nice to get back into. Some relearning was involved. Checking my notes for head spacing, trimming, seating depth, charge weight, etc.. The only process I omitted was annealing. Just too many head stamps and nonexistent AMP settings to bother with once fired cases. And I didn’t much feel like using the Aztec mode and sacrificing cases just to get an annealing setting.
Rifle: Bergara B14 HMR chambered in 6.5CM (22” 1:8” twist)
Brass: various
Primer: CCI BR2 LRP
Powder: Varget 42.0gr
Bullet: Nosler Varmageddon 90gr
Performance: 3170fps (+18c) 1990 FT-LBS energy
(btw, the rifle package is finally finished with the addition of the MDT GRND-POD bipod)