How many test rounds?

[psycho_klown66]

I'm a complete beginner, and will be reloading my first rounds.

How many test rounds would you recommend to initially make before firing them?

I know as a beginner, there will be that feeling to just keep making rounds after rounds... only to go to the range and find out that you should've made an adjustment, and now you have to redo them all.

I was thinking of making just 20 or 50 rounds slowly, measuring/guaging everything... and than stop before going to the range.

[Citadelgrad87]

I'm a complete beginner, and will be reloading my first rounds.

How many test rounds would you recommend to initially make before firing them?

I know as a beginner, there will be that feeling to just keep making rounds after rounds... only to go to the range and find out that you should've made an adjustment, and now you have to redo them all.

I was thinking of making just 20 or 50 rounds slowly, measuring/guaging everything... and than stop before going to the range.

Semi? I think 50 is fine. Thats what i do, and normally i am just checking function, dont forget to ensure action lock on the last round.

[Top Cat]

I have a press that I take to the range with me for load testing.

When testing a new powder or bullet, I load a round and test it over the chronograph. one at a time until I find the velocity I am looking for, then I will load 5 more to get an average.

I know that is likely beyond what you are doing at this point.

If you stick to a starting load in the manual exactly as printed, your loads should be ok.

An issue arises say if your powder charge is too high or too low, or there is some other problem, the bottom line is that you may have to pull the bullets and start over.

I like to save time and do it right from the beginning.

[Michael in California]

20 to 50 sounds about right to me. To some extent, it matters as to how far the range is. For me, its BLM land on the outskirt of town, so if I shoot a few and find I've screwed up, no big deal.

To develop a pistol load, I load 6 rounds in each configuration of interest.

I shoot one of each load with progressively more powder looking for function and pressure signs as I go and watching the Chronograph. Stopping when I get to max powder weight or pressure signs or excessive velocity.

Then, I'll go back and shoot each load for statistics and group. 5 shots per load excepting those loads I've thrown out already. I'll download all the ones not used unless they would also result in decent plinking ammo anyway.

[flyinverted]

I make 5-10 rounds when developing a load.

If the book says 4.2- 5.0 grains. I'll make 5 at 4.2, 4.4, 4.6, 4.8 and 5.0
If I liked the 4.6 load, then the next time I go the range, I'll have 4.5 and 4.7 as well as a lot of 4.6 as well.

In the beginning don't make too many as you may have too many that won't cycle, FTF, FTE, and that's a lot of manual bullet extractions to re-do.

[LynnJr]

When your working up a new load looking for best accuracy load 20 rounds of the powder you will be using at the lightest load.
Those rounds will get you sighted in and foul the barrel for your real test loads which would be 3 shot groups.
Rarely will a starting load be your accuracy load.

[Ross]

I make 5-10 rounds when developing a load.

If the book says 4.2- 5.0 grains. I'll make 5 at 4.2, 4.4, 4.6, 4.8 and 5.0
If I liked the 4.6 load, then the next time I go the range, I'll have 4.5 and 4.7 as well as a lot of 4.6 as well.

In the beginning don't make too many as you may have too many that won't cycle, FTF, FTE, and that's a lot of manual bullet extractions to re-do.

This is what I typically do too.

One hint - when marking your rounds, make sure you annotate which powder you used in the vent you don't pull them right away.

I made this error a few years ago. Went through a divorce and set all reloading and firearms aside for about 4 years. When I got back into reloading and found a few bags of .45 acp and .270 which needed pulling, I failed to note the powder (just the charge's weight).

[mjmagee67]

I make 5-10 rounds when developing a load.

If the book says 4.2- 5.0 grains. I'll make 5 at 4.2, 4.4, 4.6, 4.8 and 5.0
If I liked the 4.6 load, then the next time I go the range, I'll have 4.5 and 4.7 as well as a lot of 4.6 as well.

In the beginning don't make too many as you may have too many that won't cycle, FTF, FTE, and that's a lot of manual bullet extractions to re-do.

THIS^ kinda

I tend to start in the middle, in his case I would have started at 4.5 of 4.6. But that is experience talking.

[jimmykan]

If you are making test rounds, make as many as you are willing to pull apart or throw away if you decide not to shoot the rest of them.

Let me tell you it gets old quickly, having to pull apart more than 10 rounds with a hammer-style inertia puller.

Collet pullers are faster, but you risk deforming the ogive and bearing surfaces.

[wbunning]

I'm a complete beginner, and will be reloading my first rounds.

How many test rounds would you recommend to initially make before firing them?

I know as a beginner, there will be that feeling to just keep making rounds after rounds... only to go to the range and find out that you should've made an adjustment, and now you have to redo them all.

I was thinking of making just 20 or 50 rounds slowly, measuring/guaging everything... and than stop before going to the range.

I shoot mostly handguns. I only pulled 48 out of a box of 50 ONCE. Now, if it's a completely new to me load, I only load 6 for the wheelies, or 10 for the semiautos at the minimum levels. Then a couple of mag or cylinder fulls through the mid range, and back to the short runs as I get near the max. For example..I just loaded and shot 6 rounds at just above a starting load with .38 Short Colt. What a worthless load that turned out to be. Less than puny and p-poor accuracy and consistency of velocity. No way I would want to shoot any more than 6 rounds of that crap. A full box would have meant a lot of time pulling 44 bullets.

Always take your test loads to the range with their testbed gun, and something else to shoot for fun :-)

[MrElectric03]

Depends on the gun. Pistol usually 15 or so, or one mag for the gun. When I bought my MPX it didn't like some of my reloads as they were 147gr and couldn't cycle the gun properly. I loaded 30 rounds of 124 gr with HS6 so I could run a whole mag and see if I'd have issues.

Bolt rifle rounds usually 5-10 rounds per load.