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  1. #1
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    Default Reloading from the Start vs not.

    Hi

    a recently received my new 30-06. We have been reloading with all our rifles and I have the same plan for this rifle.

    My first plan was to get lapua brass(100) and accubond(90% chance). The rifle is brand new so there will be some work to do with the new barrel.

    One of my buddies then told me that he had bought norma oryx ammo and used the kept the brass for reloading. He then skips the labour for reloading the ammo for the 1st round(fire form). The price was about the same.

    So the debate which I’ve been dealing with in my mind is which route to use. And what the impact of fire form has. I don’t know much about the fire form part tho.

    What is your opinion?

    Thanks in advance!


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  2. #2
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    Default Re: Reloading from the Start vs not.

    I have done both routes, but for differing reasons.

    In the case of my 22Hornet, good luck in finding brass, so in this case, one is just about forced to buy ammo and then reload.

    In the case of my 308 I purchased recently, I had the choice of PMP hand-me-down brass, or buy Lapua brass and start there. In the end I bought the Lapua brass, just because of the known fact of low case capacity that PMP brass is renowned for.

    Personally, I don't really see a vast difference in the two ways of doing it.

  3. #3
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    Default Re: Reloading from the Start vs not.

    The question that I would ask is - what did your friend do with the factory ammo before he started to reload? Did he just shoot it out on the range, or go hunt with it, etc? If he wanted to save himself the effort of fire-forming the cases by just shooting the factory ammo, then he essentially spent the same effort as he would with fire-forming the cases, at least if you do that on the shooting range.

    If you plan to use your rifle for a very particular purpose that necessitates handloading, you might just as well then fire-form brand new cases. But if you just want to shoot your rifle as an all-rounder and for e.g. hunting, you might save yourself some effort by going with factory ammo. Normally, if you reload from the very start before using your rifle at all, you first would like to get a suitable load for your intended use of the rifle - that could cost you more in terms of time and effort before you have something usable for your rifle as opposed to getting factory ammo that could do the job satisfactorily, at least in the beginning.

    So I think the question(s) you have to ask yourself - what is your intended use of the rifle, how much time and effort can you (and are you willing to) spend on getting to just actually shoot your rifle.

    I would personally buy new brass, fire-form it and load from the very start. It will cost you considerably more in the end to get a particular amount of brass when you first shoot out factory ammo, instead of just buying the particular amount of brass from the very start.

  4. #4
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    Default Re: Reloading from the Start vs not.

    Quote Originally Posted by wave.jaco View Post
    The question that I would ask is - what did your friend do with the factory ammo before he started to reload? Did he just shoot it out on the range, or go hunt with it, etc? If he wanted to save himself the effort of fire-forming the cases by just shooting the factory ammo, then he essentially spent the same effort as he would with fire-forming the cases, at least if you do that on the shooting range.

    If you plan to use your rifle for a very particular purpose that necessitates handloading, you might just as well then fire-form brand new cases. But if you just want to shoot your rifle as an all-rounder and for e.g. hunting, you might save yourself some effort by going with factory ammo. Normally, if you reload from the very start before using your rifle at all, you first would like to get a suitable load for your intended use of the rifle - that could cost you more in terms of time and effort before you have something usable for your rifle as opposed to getting factory ammo that could do the job satisfactorily, at least in the beginning.

    So I think the question(s) you have to ask yourself - what is your intended use of the rifle, how much time and effort can you (and are you willing to) spend on getting to just actually shoot your rifle.

    I would personally buy new brass, fire-form it and load from the very start. It will cost you considerably more in the end to get a particular amount of brass when you first shoot out factory ammo, instead of just buying the particular amount of brass from the very start.
    Hope i did the the “quote” correct?

    He has a 7x64 and only for hunting. I will also be only hunting with this 30-06.

    I am not really sure how fire form work as I learned my reloading from sitting with my father and wasn’t there for that part.

    Fire forming so that your brass expands to the size of your particular rifles “kamer” chamber?

    Does fire forming affect accuracy between the first shot for that brass and then the second after it has been fire formed?



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  5. #5
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    Default Re: Reloading from the Start vs not.

    Buying ammo for the first 100 rounds enabled me to fork out less cash per visit to the gunshop as I only purchase one packet and I was also able to shoot different bullet weights and not have a bunch of bullets left after I decided which weight I liked the most.

  6. #6
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    Default Re: Reloading from the Start vs not.

    In my opimion "fireforming" is something that needs to be done when creating cases to fit obsolete calibers or when cases are difficult to obtain.

    I fired my normal 243 rounds that were accurate before, in my new Ackley chamber and got very good results. The case adopting the new shape had very little or no affect on the accuracy. When you fire factory ammo in a rifle you mostly get reasonable to even excellent groups (and this while fireforming the cases). The factory does not have an idea of your chamber size or the max COL of your firearm and load to conform to SAAMI or CIP specs. Load your bullets in the new cases and do load development. For hunting this should give more than adequate accuracy and save on components.

  7. #7
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    Default Re: Reloading from the Start vs not.

    In your particular case you can forget about fire forming....not needed.

    Buy the Lapua cases if you want or save a bit of money and buy Hornady cases. Do not even size or prepare your new cases in any way,unless there is a visable problem such as a dented case mouth. Load straight up from new. The 3006 is not a fussy caliber and is not difficult to achieve 1 MOA with reasonable care. Decide on a bullet weight from the start,i would use 165-180gr'ers,and stick with it as the '06 is real fussy with shooting to a different POI with different weight bullet.

    You will be using the rifle for hunting,1 MOA is more than good enough.Your scenario is one where you really do not have to over think what you are doing.

  8. #8
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    Default Re: Reloading from the Start vs not.

    Quote Originally Posted by pre 64 View Post
    You will be using the rifle for hunting,1 MOA is more than good enough.Your scenario is one where you really do not have to over think what you are doing.
    This is the one thing that I had to tell myself all the time when I was developing a hunting load for my 7x64. I used to fuss about getting the grouping tighter than 20 mm at 100 m, only to realise that the target that I am shooting at (the animal's heart) is much bigger than that, and I would mostly hunt at distances shorter than 100 m.

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