Only took five months but for the first time since leaving Utah we are starting to get to some sense of normality. The Alabama weather is taking a bit of getting used to, but so far it has been survivable, still does not seem natural to be having 70- and 80-degree days in March. There are a few things that I am realizing about the Southeastern US. First, culturally it is quite different then the Western States, and secondly, I am really beginning to rethink what I should be doing with my Long-Range Rifle.
You can make a reasonable argument then when I went out and bought my Barrett MRAD in 338 Lapua Magnum, I was really kind of boxing myself in. Naturally, being as stubborn as a horse, I probably would not have listened to you. That was almost 6 or 7 years ago, and I have since had some added experienced in both the shooting sports and the industry.
When I was single, investing almost $2 a round in a handload did not seem to be that bad and being able to ring steel pretty darn reliably out past 1000 yards was exciting. Fast forward, married with two kids, a shoestring budget, and suddenly having a $5k rifle, with a $2k optic and a $2k suppressor, that costs $2 bucks a round handloaded, seems kind of stupid. Especially when you move to a state where the longest practical shot at the local range is 600 yards.
With a barrel swap kit for the MRAD is coming in at somewhere between $1,300 to $1,600. I am left with an interesting problem. You can buy a heck of a rifle for $1300, namely a Ruger Precision Rifle, or can build a Rem 700 clone for something less that that. I am not sure exactly what I am going to do, but it has been something on my mind. Unfortunately, it seems like my MRAD may become something of a safe queen, a relic of a time when I lacked the wisdom, it would pain me to sell it, but I am almost as equally as pained to drop another chunk of money into a kit when I could get a rifle just as good for equal or less…but then of course then we’d need another optic…. buy a mouse a cookie…maybe $1300 is not so bad after all…
Enough about my own problems, (I may do a dedicated write up on getting into long range shooting, what I wish I had known before dropping a ton of money) lets get into the fun stuff.
There a few new things on the market that were announced around Shot Show that I am just beginning to appreciate, first Vihtavouri introduced a new powder Vihtavuori N568. They indicate the burn rate to be a wedge between N570 and N565 which means this powder is likely going to be another good powder to test for 338 Lapua Magnum, or for cartridges which are both overbore, and long. The 300 PRC, 6.5 PRC, 300 RUM, and likely the 7mm RUM. It will actually be interesting to see if this powder is just a better metering version of the N570. I did do some testing with N570 in 338 Lapua Magnum with 300gr SMK’s and found it to be an excellent powder with the exception of how bulky and difficult it was to meter. You were basically relegated to using an auto dispenser as I could not get it to meter at all through a Harrell’s Precision thrower.
I am going to freely admit, the more I have gotten into handloading, the more I have become a press and die snob. I started with almost all Lee Precision Equipment and have since really gained an appreciated for Redding Dies and especially their T-7 press. It is not necessarily that the rounds you make are that much more precise, it is the fit and finish of the equipment that just give for a better overall experience. I have never gotten the same warm an fuzzy feeling when looking at Lyman products, as I have Redding, Dillon and L.E Wilson, and that may be because I’m just not a huge fan of the color orange in general… seriously…it’s between that and brown as my least favorite color.
With that said, the Lyman Stainless Steel Pro Dies, have kind of grabbed my attention. One of the things that has driven me nuts about moving from the dry arid environment of Utah into the hot humid south is how quickly every die, and reloading press I own developed a light layer of rust just from sitting in storage for a day. Some of this is no doubt from the widespread use of 12L14 or other leaded steels in some components of the dies. This is a soft free machining steel that is great for automated production and can be case hardened. A lot of reloading dies used 12L14 or similar steels, the down side is they rust, quicker then an O1 or similar type tool steel. Seeing a die made from stainless, is not new, L.E Wilson has been doing it for some time, but it is appreciated. Given that most of our wives relic our hobby to areas where climate control does not exist, a garage, a basement, under a rock…
I have not laid hands on one of these dies yet. When I do I’ll give my thoughts, but I do like the concept of a micrometer adjustment on the crimping die, even though I would be hard press to find a situation where I would use it in my handloading routine. What they do not currently offer, but what I could get behind, is a micrometer adjustable flaring die. I do like to give my rifle brass a hint of a flare, just to complement the chamfer prior to seating the bullet. I could see where a micrometer head on a flaring die would let me obsess over one more step, which probably does not actually impact down range performance, but makes me smile anyhow. (I do bring the flare in with a crimping die, but it does not crimp, just corrects the case mouth as to not snag on feeding).
The last thing of note is Nosler’s Reloading Guide, this is the #9th addition. I have not flipped through it, so I cannot give it a proper review. Even with a lot of online data being published I do like to have dead tree versions of load manuals to flip through. If you do a lot of handloading for Nosler bullets or would like to get some load data for the Nosler 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, and 33 this may be a good book to add on the shelf.
That is all I have for this week. As always if you are looking to get in touch, best way is to send me an email jay@theballisticassistant.com. You may check us out on Parler, Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit. If you’d like to submit a load to our load database the instructions are here.
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The Ballistic Assistant