First Reloading Experience. Comments Welcome.

[brettkeating]

[Divernhunter]

AA2700 and 4350 are nothing alike. You cannot compare them for loading.

The cannelure does not matter. No need to crimp the round.

The only trouble with the powder dispenser is the operator. There are a few "tricks" to get better results. The 1st is to be consistant with the lever action. Another is not to seat bullets or any other process between throws unless the measure is on another bench not effected by the vibration. This requires batch processing the brass and dropping powder into a large number of cases before proceding to seating bullets.

Your brass would have been fine without trimming. I do hope you chamfered the mouths after trimming.

If you were near me I would be glad to help you out.

[CEDaytonaRydr]

So, everything you posted are situations that reloaders encounter all the time. Take comfort in the fact that people have had the same issues you had, and the outcome was still successful.

The brass issue seems weird... Did you size the new brass when you bought it? Believe it or not, you're supposed to re-size new brass. I don't know if this is true for Arisakas but some rifles have a long throat, and can accommodate longer brass. If you can do a chamber cast, that would tell you but it's a bit of a chore. An Arisaka expert might actually know if its acceptable to run your brass long; I'm not sure...

On your OAL, it's more of a "guideline" than a concrete variable. Some people acctually choose to go long, and engage the threads. As long as you are fitting in the weapon's magazine, and not compressing the charge (when you don't intend to do so), you're fine!

For mass metering, you're never going to get the precision that you would from hand weighing. It's basically up to you whether speed, or precision is your ultimate goal. Certain powders meter better than others but if you want real precision, you're going to have to hand-weigh. Honestly, it doesn't take as long as you think. You can do 50 rounds in an hour, and I imagine you're not going to be blasting through hundreds of rounds per month with your Arisaka... (or, maybe you do? )

Anyway, seems like you're on the right track. Stick with it!

[brettkeating]

To check if these rounds chambered I made a dummy round. It worked fine. I didn't realize I needed to resize new brass, will that be a problem?

[brettkeating]

Btw I did deburr and chamfer the mouths after trimming.

[mark501w]

Nice stuff I don't resize in less the brass looks a used.

[brettkeating]

A couple other things. All of the reloading data I could find agreed on one thing, and that was proper case length. Max length was listed at 2.27" and trim-to length was 2.26". These cases measured 2.275" brand-new. Perhaps that would have been OK, but being new to this I wasn't going to take a chance on that.

Also with regard to comparing 2700 with 4350… I wasn't actually comparing them directly, only trying to figure how conservative/aggressive Accurate's data might have been in general. The only 2700 load for Arisaka that I could find came from Accurate's data, and Accurate only lists it's own powders. I can find their powders in other manuals, however… and was only trying to gauge how conservative Accurate's numbers might be, given what numbers they give versus what numbers other manuals give. Since there wasn't any other data on 2700 for this cartridge, I had to gauge their conservativeness by looking at another powder and figured the best thing to do would be to do this with another powder (however different) for the same cartridge. The only other powder listed for 7.7x58 in Accurate's manual is 4350, and the only other place that listed 4350 powder for that round was Hornady. Nobody else had 2700 data. Turns out that spot checking other cartridges besides this one, their numbers did seem more conservative across the board.

[russt]

hang in there, it will get easier. as far as the powder measure goes, depending on type of power(stick, ball, flake) its accuracy will vary. the biggest issue i find with powder measures is the user needs to be extremely consistent in their technique and also the measures usually throw more consistent after a few pounds of powder have been run through it to "lube" it up if you will.

[brettkeating]

Yes, according to the instructions, I was to clean off some metal preservative from certain parts, which I did. Then I ran a pound of powder through it before dispensing any, also according to the instructions. One interesting thing is that the dispenser would seem to "catch" sometimes on the dispensing stroke. This made it harder to be consistent.

[CEDaytonaRydr]

To check if these rounds chambered I made a dummy round. It worked fine. I didn't realize I needed to resize new brass, will that be a problem?

Yeah, it's counter-intuitive. You wouldn't think you need to resize "new" brass but you do.

If you got the bullets to seat, and the rounds chamber without issue, you're fine.

[kcheung2]

Don't always go by the cannelure. The 7.7 is also used in .303 British and 7.62x54R so the cannelure may be placed to better fit those cartridges instead.

[Divernhunter]

You do not "need" to resize new brass. The most I do is run the brass into the sizing die enough to round out the mouth. I have been doing this for many years and produce excellent ammo. I have never had a round that would not chamber easy. Your ammo will be fine.

Beware that the accurate 4350 and the 4350 in the Hornady book are two different powders. There is also a H4350 and it is different than the other 2.

If you want some help with the powder measure PM me.

[brettkeating]

@kcheung2 that is a good point. But I was also referencing my Norma factory rounds and if you look at the picture I posted, they seem to match up pretty well. The bullets are different grain though in the factory rounds, 174

[sr71brd]

For someone who admits to being new to reloading, you sure have no problem deciding that published load data is wrong or conservative. You claim to have a manual but apparently didn't read the beginning sections. Deciding to start at max loads is not the safest way to go about reloading for old military rifles. Sorry if this seems harsh, but I've been reloading for C&R firearms for a long time & seen some bad things happen.

[brettkeating]

No that's fine. I was worried about squibs too so was aiming for the middle. I stayed pretty much a full grain below the max load. It's a little tough when you only have access to one powder and one data point. Hope everything works out.