RCBS Reloading

This line has been around for ever my RCBS rock chucker is twenty five years old. I seem to have loaded a million rounds on that press. I have changed scales and rifles,dies and calibres but loaded every thing with a rcbs press and it still works like the day I bought it.

This press has been on a half dozen different tables in to many towns.What it has done for my shooting skills and what it has enabled me to do with long range is hard to believe now. I came from thinking of a four inch at a hundred group was good to a six inch at five hundred yard big game hunter.

The satisfaction of having loaded and worked the loads to great accuracy is mostly due to the capabilities of the reloading equipment. I have always used a RCBS as a starting point. I don't really live in a house until the press is on the reloading bench. If that's a redneck thing so what. Forty years in the labor force will do that to you.

I never even think of replacing my press if it works leave it alone. I actualy started with one of the lee hand loaders ware you go through all the steps, one at a time and spent hours reloading. The Rock Chucker Press was one come out of the stone age items for me.

Tips for Reloading Data

Hi, I am Bruce Mackay and I am promoting reloading data on my web site at reloadingbench.ca. I just want to give an idea of the better tricks and benefits I have found in reloading data.  The principal benefit is the accuracy you can attain and the knowledge of how to accomplish this.  In my Hodgdon manual I have found most of the knowledge to accomplish this.

The field testing you have to do yourself, since no two guns shoot precisely the same and you will learn so much about shooting.  It’s a good idea if you write down your findings when targeting your personal hand loads, because this can be some of the best reloading data you will ever get.  The reason for this is the rounds form fit to your gun once you shoot them from your gun.  This should always be done first with new brass because this has a vast affect on the accuracy of your rifle.  

I have found several places in pistol shooting forums and shotgun forums that tell you that the first thing that most realize is the great increase in accuracy.  The technicians I have read articles from say the explanation is the gas pressure created when shooting is what controls the force of the round.  This is why the better the bullet fits the more consistent the pressure and the tighter the groups.

The other side to this is the bullet seating depth, and how close you can get the lead to sit against the lands in your barrel.  The approach I used is to use a candle and smoke the lead or just use a felt pen and coat the lead then just check and recheck until the lead is just marking the ink or smoke on the lead.  I then make a dummy round so I have the length for my next trip to the bench.  Another check that can be done to improve the accuracy is a runout test; this can be done by rolling a loaded round across a mirror.  By observing closely as the loaded cartridge rolls, the reloader can simply see .003 inch runout, and a .006 runout looks like a bent axel.  Factory rounds are in general set to be within .007 by using your press to set the round half way and then rotating the round half a round and reseating the bullet.  This regularly brings the round to under.005 and a round of .003 to .005 should not make a significant difference in your accuracy.

The actual reloading data I am not going to get into because there is too much out there and the books are previously written by pros who know best.  There is a lot you can find at numerous sites on the internet.