Hey gang,
I just got my Franklin Armory reloading set up and I'm in the process of getting components. I read a lot. Probably too much. It seems that reloaders go through 3 to 4 (or more) brands of powder before one is settled on for a load. Is this the case? I've noticed that Varget seems to pop up the most often, then IMR, and Hodgson. Is there a powder that is "generally" a good all rounder?
Thanks as always,
Hedge
Hodgdon, IMR, Accurate, Ramshot, and Vihtavuori are brand names with each brand offering a full line of powder with different burn rates.
Varget is a mid-range burn rate powder sold by Hodgdon, which actually is made by Australian Defense Industries and rebranded for Hodgdon to sell under their brand name.
Which cartridges and bullet weights are you wanting to load?
Varget works in a lot of different cartridges. I use more of it than all others added together.
The question as phrased raises the need for a gentle nudge before any reloading equipment to buy the Sierra, Barnes, and Hornady loading manuals. Read the beginning chapters in all of them and then read them two more times. One must have a solid understanding of all of the variables. The book by Glen Zediker, Making the Target Bigger, is the single best book on reloading ever written. Now out of print, it still is worth the cost.
There is a lot more to producing a reliable, accurate round of ammo than reading a recipe to bake a cake.
Start off with one rifle in which you are comfortable shooting 50 - 100 rounds in one session. .223, .308, or 6.5 Manbun are the obvious candidates. Then sticking with that one rifle, learn how to test loads at the range, which also will teach you a lot about improving the quality of your rounds produced.
The single biggest mistake I see over and over and over in various comments in different shooting and hunting forums is not understanding the concept of headspace and how to correctly set a sizing die. This one die is critical to reliable ignition. So often a round fails to fire and the person thinks they have a defective primer, when the real problem is the brass was incorrectly sized which resulted in excessive headspace.
One other truth to burn into the brain - handloading does not save money. Handloading creates better quality ammo, more accurate and more reliable, when done correctly, and stretches the dollars to produce more rounds of ammo for the dollars spent.
The satisfaction of making a good shot with ammo I loaded for my rifle gives immense satisfaction and is one of the joys in hunting and shooting.
It is a learned skill well worth learning.
