Did I do it right?

[justjeff]

New to reloading and it seems pretty straight forward.

Here's what I did for 30-06

Dies are hornady except the lee universal depriming

deprimed brass w/ lee universal depriming die

tumbled

cleaned primer pockets free of media

resized using hornady single stage

trimmed to 2.484

primed w/ win lrp

measured 50.0gr of h414

seated 180gr sst to cannelure

I made a couple w/o powder or primers to check in R700

so am I doing it right? also should I invest in a neck die?

[Enfield47]

Depends on if you are shooting a bolt action or semi auto. If bolt and fired from only your rifle, neck sizing is probably all you will need to do. If semi auto, or range pick ups, then full length size.

[justjeff]

Depends on if you are shooting a bolt action or semi auto. If bolt and fired from only your rifle, neck sizing is probably all you will need to do. If semi auto, or range pick ups, then full length size.

Thanks the brass I have is from my R700 and my buddies savage. I'm hoping to get a decent hunting load for some whitetail later this year. I have about 300 180gr SST's so I'm hoping these bullet's will do the trick. Also should I invest in a comparator? Or OAL gauge to set my bullet closer to the lands?

[mark501w]

If your going to use your 700 as a repeater set OAL to fit your magazine, use one of your dummy rounds accordingly to set your die. The lands & grooves are a nonissue in this case. FL size for functioning on your hunting trip.

[Leon75x55]

get a case guage and make sure you use non lead bullets for condor zones. Those pesky condors eat the lead out of the dirt!!!

[justjeff]

I don't plan on hunting much here in CA. I mostly hunt in ME, TX, VA, and OH (shotgun only)

If I were to hunt Lead free I will use the PSE

[Garyson1311]

You did the exact same thing I did when I started reloading. From what i've learned, thats pretty much the basic way to do it, assuming you followed published loads and published COALs. From here in out its up to you if you want to join the "bullet jump" crowd or whatever.

[pdq_wizzard]

I neck size mine about 4 times then do a full length then repeat.
I do not neck size my hunting loads, if I have to take a fallow up shot and it didn't want to chamber that would suck! Also I have had some that were neck sized I had to shoot before I could get it out of the chamber. YMMV

[knucklehead0202]

sounds like you're on the right track. a good idea is to get a lee factory crimp die. some folks will claim you don't need a crimp, but if you may have to make a follow-up shot at any given point, you don't want a bullet pulling out of a case and not chambering, or worse yet, getting jammed back into it. also, I always full-length size. now i'm not a benchrest shooter or a hunter, more like a shooter-of-crap-in the desert, but I prefer knowing that these rounds are the spec they are supposed to be. I've heard it diminishes brass life but I've scarcely retired anything that hasn't been fired/reloaded upwards of 15-20 times. when they start getting tough to chamber, I trim them. no need to be obsessive, as long as you're observant.