The U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU) regularly published reloading “how-to” articles on the USAMU Facebook page. One excellent “Handloading Hump Day” post covered preparation of once-fired 5.56x45mm brass. This article, the first in a 3-part series, has many useful tips. If you shoot a rifle chambered in .223 Rem or 5.56x45mm, this article is worth reading. You can obtain once-fired Lake City 5.56x45mm brass for less than half the cost of premium .223 Rem brass.
This week, Handloading Hump-Day will answer a special request from several competitive shooters who asked about procedures for morphing once-fired GI 5.56mm brass into accurate match brass for NRA High Power Rifle use. The USAMU has used virgin Lake City (LC) 5.56 brass to win National Championships and set National Records for many years. In this 3-part series, we’ll share techniques proven to wring match-winning accuracy from combat-grade brass.
GI brass has an excellent attribute, worth noting — it is virtually indestructible. Due to its NATO-spec hardness, the primer pockets last much longer than most commercial brass when using loads at appropriate pressures.
Preparing Once-Fired GI 5.56 Brass for Reloading (Part 1 of 3)
Assuming our readers will be getting brass once-fired as received from surplus dealers, the following steps can help process the low-cost raw material into reliably accurate components.
1. Clean the Brass
First, clean the brass of any dirt/mud/debris, if applicable. Depending on the brass’s condition, washing it in a soap solution followed by a thorough rinsing may help. [This step also extends the life of the tumbling media.] Approaches range from low-tech, using gallon jugs 1/2 full of water/dish soap plus brass and shaking vigorously, to more high-tech, expensive and time-consuming methods.
2. Wet-Tumbling Options (Be Sure to Dry the Brass)
When applying the final cleaning/polish, some use tumblers with liquid cleaning media and stainless steel pins for a brilliant shine inside and out, while others take the traditional vibratory tumbler/ground media approach. Degree of case shine is purely personal preference, but the key issue is simple cleanliness to avoid scratching ones’ dies.
If a liquid cleaner is used, be SURE to dry the cases thoroughly to preclude corrosion inside. One method is to dump the wet brass into an old pillow case, then tilt it left/right so the cases re-orient themselves while shifting from corner to corner. Several repetitions, pausing at each corner until water stops draining, will remove most water. They can then be left to air-dry on a towel, or can be dried in a warm (150° F-200° F max) oven for a few minutes to speed evaporation.
Shown below are Lake City cases after cleaning with Stainless Media (STM). Note: STM Case cleaning was done by a third party, not the USAMU, which does not endorse any particular cleaning method.
NOTE: The USAMU Handloading (HL) Shop does not RE-load fired 5.56 brass. We use virgin LC brass with our chosen primer already staked in place. However, our staff has extensive personal experience reloading GI brass for competition, which will supplement the Shop’s customary steps. In handloading, as in life, there are many ways to accomplish any given task. Our suggestions are note presented as the “only way,” by any means. Time for loading/practicing is always at a premium. Readers who have more efficient, alternative methods that maintain top accuracy are invited to share them here.
3. Inspect Every Case
Once dry, inspect each case for significant deformation (i.e., someone stepped on it), damaged mouths/necks and case head/rim damage. Some rifles’ ejectors actually dig small chunks of brass out of the case head — obviously, not ideal for precision shooting. Similarly, some extractors can bend the case rims so badly that distortion is visible when spinning them in one’s fingers. These can be used for plinking, but our match brass should have straight, undamaged rims.
Dented case mouths are common, and these can easily be rounded using a conical, tapered tool, [such as a .223 expander mandrel. A dummy 7.62 or .30-06 cartridge with a FMJ spitzer can also work.] If most of your brass is of one headstamp, this is a good time to cull out any odd cases.
4. Check the Primers Before Decapping
Your clean, dry and inspected brass is now ready for full-length sizing, decapping and re-priming. Historically, primer crimps on GI brass have caused some head-scratching (and vile language) among handloaders. Our next installment will detail efficient, easy and practical methods to remove primer crimp, plus other useful handloading tips. Until next week, Good Shooting!
Accuracy Potential of Mil-Surp 5.56×45 Brass
So, how accurate can previously-fired GI surplus brass be in a good National Match AR-15? Well, here’s a data point from many years ago that might be of interest. A High Power shooter who wrote for the late Precision Shooting magazine took a Bill Wylde-built AR match rifle to a registered Benchrest match. He had no difficulty obtaining consistent 0.5-0.6 MOA accuracy at 200 yards using LC brass and a generic “practice” load that was not tuned to his rifle.
Stunners in silver. Above are the NRA Leech Cup (left) and Wimbledon Cup (right).
Shooting Sports USA has a fascinating article about the Perpetual Trophies awarded in national-level NRA matches. The story recounts the history behind the elaborate trophies, some from the 1870s. SSUSA’s Jennifer Pearsall writes: “The pieces of wood, stone and precious metal … are more than just instant recognition of achievement. They are the link of the American shooter’s present to his or her patriotic past. As you read this legacy of the NRA ranges, their founders, and the long list of cups, bowls, and plaques, realize that the history of competitive shooting is undeniably a significant part of the foundation of this country”. Read Full Trophy Story HERE.
The NRA was co-founded by Col. William Church and Gen. George Wood Wingate (ranked Captain at the time). Both Church and Wingate hoped to improved the marksmanship skills of American soldiers. One of the newly-formed NRA’s first actions was to issue: “An Act to Establish a Rifle Range and Promote Skill in Marksmanship”. That led to the opening of the famed Creedmoor Range, with a special inaugural match in June of 1873.
Many of the awards presented in the first NRA matches were cash or firearms. Some of these firearms were heavily embellished works of art. In the very first match, a member of the 22nd New York Regiment took home a gold-mounted Winchester Model 1866 valued at $100 — big money for the time.
In the 1870s shooting competitions were social as well as sporting events. Ladies and gentlemen came to watch and cheer the winners. This illustration, originally from Harpers Weekly, portrays the shooters and the viewing gallery at the 1876 Grand Centennial Championship—the “Palma” Match.
The Leech Cup — A Gift from Ireland
The Leech Cup was created for the first meeting of the American and Irish shooting teams. The elaborate cup was presented by Major Arthur Leech, captain of the the Irish team, to the Amateur Rifle Club of New York. This masterpiece of Irish silversmithing was later given to the NRA in 1901 by the New York Club. Today, the Leech Cup is the oldest trophy offered in overall NRA competitive target shooting, awarded through the National High Power Long Range Championships.
Michelle Gallagher with Leech Cup in 2013.
The Wimbledon Cup
The Wimbledon Trophy was a gift from the NRA of Great Britain. It was given, as a gesture of sportsmanship, after the the U.S. Team was denied the ability to compete in England’s Elcho Shield match, then limited to Britain, Scotland, and Ireland. To maintain friendly competitive relations, the British presented the Americans with a large, engraved, lion-footed tankard trophy to be awarded each year to the Champion U.S. long-distance rifleman.
The Palma Team Trophy
Originally named the Centennial Trophy, in honor of the Centennial celebration of the independence of the United States of America, the Palma Trophy was commissioned from Tiffany’s at a cost of $1,500. The trophy was a full-sized replica of a Roman Legion standard, executed in bronze with silver and gold inlay. On the banner of the standard was the legend, “In the name of the United States of America to the Riflemen of the world”. Above the banner was an eagle, bearing in its talons a wreath of palm leaves and a plaque on which was the single word, “PALMA”, the Latin word for palm tree, which was used by the Romans to signify victory, or the ultimate in excellence.
Because the word Palma was so easily seen, the trophy soon became known as the “Palma Trophy”, and by 1878 was referred to officially by that name. The sriginal seven and one-half foot trophy is now lost, having not been seen since at least 1954. Serving in its place is a copy which was commissioned by Dr. Herbert M. Aitken of Eau Claire, WI. The copy was made from the original Tiffany blue-prints at a cost of $32,500. Dr. Aitken has given this copy of the Palma Trophy to the NRA for use in the Palma Match. The trophy is retained by the winning team until the next Palma Match.
In 2008, the Palma Trophy was returned to the NRA, and it was decided that the trophy, once refurbished, will travel to the host nation for the match every four years, then returned to the NRA for safekeeping.
The first competition for the Palma Team was a challenge match for which the British Commonwealth nations were invited. The match was fired in 1876 at the old Creedmoor Range on Long Island as part of the Centennial celebration of the United States. Teams representing Scotland, Ireland, Canada, Australia, and the United States took part. The match is currently fired on a four-year interval.
Happy New Year to all our readers and site visitors, and especially the 81,030+ members of our AccurateShooter Forum. We hope 2026 brings you good times, fulfilment in your lives, and success in your endeavors. We also wish for high match scores, tight groups on target, and successful hunts in the New Year.
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Looking Forward to 2026 Every year we work to improve AccurateShooter.com. We have continued to upgrade the Forum, adding enhanced security measures, with background checks on all sign-ups and enhanced scammer detection. On the content side we have expanded our popular Deals of the Week and Sunday GunDay features. And we’ve added a Video Showcase every Saturday. We also now offer more product reviews in our Daily Bulletin. We hope you’ll continue to enjoy our feature articles, our Deals of the Week, our match reports, and our Forum Classifieds. The formula seems to be working — our audience is bigger than ever, with Forum membership growing substantially year after year.
Forum Membership Increased 6% in 2025
Our Shooters’ Forum grew significantly over the past 12 months. Total registered membership grew by about 6% as Forum ranks swelled to 81,030+ members! More people are successfully buying and selling through our Forum Classifieds services than ever before. Silver and Gold members get unlimited Classifieds for 12 months. Gold members also get custom Avatars and other privileges.
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For the very first day of 2026 we present a precision rifle built with a modern 6mm cartridge — the 6GT. Developed by George Gardner of G.A. Precision and Tom Jacobs of Vapor Trail Bullets, the 6GT was designed to have the efficiency of a 6mm Dasher without the need for case forming. It was also designed with a longer case body so it feeds better from magazines. Even with the added capacity, the 6GT is still very efficient, and can achieve good velocities with less powder than a 6mm Creedmoor.
Today’s feature rifle was smithed and tested by Gavin Gear of UltimateReloader.com. Gavin did all the gunsmithing — chambering the barrel, fitting the muzzle brake, and even laser engraving the barrel. In building this 6GT rifle, Gavin used top-tier components: BAT TR action, Krieger 28″ 1:7.5″-twist 4-groove 6mm barrel, TriggerTech Diamond Rem 700-compatible trigger, and Area 419 Hellfire Muzzle Brake. The barreled action was then fitted in a handsome and rugged MDT ACC Chassis. On top is a Zero Tech 4.5-27×50mm FFP Trace Advanced scope in 30mm Hawkins Precision high rings.
We recommend you watch the video above — it covers the rifle build, load development, and then features some remarkable shooting sequences across snowy hills in the Pacific Northwest. Gavin’s team actually used a drone to capture overhead footage of the location.
After developing a promising load with Berger 109gr LRHT bullets, Varget powder, and Alpha brass, Gavin literally headed for the hills to test his new rifle at longer ranges, shooting from bipod. His load had shot well under half-MOA at 100 yards in testing so he was hoping he could hit multiple steel targets positioned at 340 yards, 760 yards, and 1000 yards. Indeed he did, proving the rifle’s great accuracy and Gavin’s fine trigger-pulling skills. You can see the hits at these time points in the above video:
340 Yards — 18:15 time | 760 Yards — 19:00 time | 1000 Yards — 19:54 Time
Gavin’s 6GT Hit Highlights on Steel out to 1000 Yards
Building Gavin’s 6GT Precision Rifle
Gavin Gear did all the gunsmithing on this project, using his own Precision Matthews TL-1660 lathe for the chambering with an Alpha carbide 6GT reamer. The barrel work took about four hours total. Shown below is the reamer cutting the chamber, which was finished with a 0.170″ freebore and 0.270″ neck diameter. For other brands of brass you might want the chamber to have a larger 0.272″ neck diameter.
Chambering the Krieger barrel with Alpha carbide 6GT reamer, 0.170” freebore, .270″ neck diameter.
This project when smoothly, with Gavin able to install the barreled action in the MDT Chassis and fit the buttstock in an hour or so. So total build time was about five hours. One nice “finishing touch” on the project was laser engraving the 28″ Krieger barrel — a process you can see in the video below.
Laser engraving of Krieger 28″ barrel.
About the 6GT — Sort of a 6 Dasher on Steroids
6GT Cartridge Design Features
The 6GT was designed to have an optimal length and capacity for mag-fed PRS/NRL tactical rifles. The 6GT is longer than a 6mmBR and 6 Dasher, but shorter than a 6mm Creedmoor and 6.5×47 Lapua. That gives the 6GT ample case body length to feed reliably from a magazine, while the case capacity is sufficient to run popular powders at reasonable pressures. It has a 35-degree shoulder angle.
On paper the 6GT seemed like the perfect cartridge for PRS- and NRL-style centerfire competition. It has the low recoil of a 6 Dasher, with good feeding and mag compatibility. With the 6GT, a competitor can push 6mm 105gr bullets at 3000+ FPS or run heavier bullets at ~2950 FPS. With this 28″ Krieger barrel, Gavin actually achieved 3004 FPS running 109gr Bergers.
Gavin started with quality Alpha Munitions brass. The cases were then annealed with an AMP Annealer and trimmed to length with a Henderson powered trimmer (see video below). After sizing with a Forster Co-Ax press, Federal SR Primers were seated using a Primal Rights competition seater. Next the powder was measured with an A&D FX120i force restoration scale. Finally, the Berger 109gr LR Hybrid Target bullets were seated with a Forster Micrometer die, again using the smooth Forster Co-Ax press.
Initial Load Testing with Berger and Hornady Projectiles
Before it got cold and snowy, Gavin did load development, shooting from a bench with a Sinclair front rest. The Krieger cut-rifled barrel was accurate right from the start and Hodgdon Varget powder proved to be a very good choice for the 6GT.
Gavin’s 6GT boasts a MDT ACC short action chassis with SRS-X Elite buttstock, vertical grip, and MDT CKYE-POD Bipod.
Gavin did initial load testing with both Hornady 110gr A-Tip Match and Berger 109gr Long Range Hybrid Target bullets. The Berger 109gr LRHT bullets were the most promising. A variety of charge weights were tested, with Gavin settling on 34.6 grains of Varget. This delivered fine accuracy with a 3004 FPS muzzle velocity. Group size measurements with this load are shown in the chart. At 100 yards, four three-shot groups averaged 0.361 MOA, and the rifle produced a nice 0.387 MOA (0.405″) five-shot group.
———————————————— Winter Wonderland for Shooters ———————————————–
As we release this story, the New Year — January 1, 2026 — is just 22 hours away (East Coast Time). Perhaps you’ve been eagerly awaiting for the big event, getting champagne (and sparklers) to celebrate the New Year. With the election of Donald J. Trump in November 2024, America has seen big changes in 2025 — we’re pleased to see that the current President has restored border security and is protecting Second Amendment rights. To mark the dawning of 2026, with hope for a good year, we expect many folks will open a bottle of champagne. You could pop the cork the traditional way, or read on and learn how to release the celebratory champagne with a rifle shot, as demonstrated by the talented Kirsten Joy Weiss. Click on the above video to see Kirsten release champagne with a rimfire rifle.
A while back at Thorton Winery in Temecula, California, a champagne vintner, we were shown the best way to open a champagne bottle. We were told you should hold the bottle nose up at an angle then rotate the BOTTLE slowly while holding the cork. That works great… but it’s not as stunning as the way sharpshooter Kirsten Joy Weiss opens a bottle of bubbly.
A former competitive smallbore rifle shooter, ace trigger-puller Kirsten Joy Weiss tried a special New Year’s trick shot a few seasons back. In keeping with the festive New Year’s spirit, Kirsten attempted to shoot the cork off a champagne bottle. After a few unsuccessful tries, she managed to hit the cork with at least two shots. But alas the cork did not fly. She actually hit the cork, but it did not release. That was surprising…
Undaunted, Kirsten changed her strategy, aiming for the neck of the bottle. This duplicates the process of “sabering” a champagne bottle — a method of liberating the bubbly by slashing off the end of the neck with a blade. Aiming for the neck of the bottle, Kirsten successfully blew off the top of the bottle. (Apparently, when “sabering” it is actually the pressure within the champagne bottle which does most of the work).
We celebrate a New Year when the clock strikes midnight tonight. As 2025 draws to a close, we all hope 2026 will bring happiness and fulfilment. With that spirit, here are six “fun and games” targets. While each requires good conventional marksmanship skills — hitting a small aiming point — there are other strategies involved, such as playing darts or “making change” by hitting the right combination of coins. Most of us started shooting as kids, just plinking for fun. Here’s an opportunity to be like a kid again — to spend a day at the range just having fun with friends and family members.
Dartboard Target with Colored Rings
This printable Dartboard Shooting Target has the numbers inside the outer dartboard ring to allow a larger target. With this target you can shoot for the center bull, or actually play pub-style dart games, aiming for numbers and particular rings. If you don’t know how to play traditional dart games, visit NiceDarts.com for complete darts rules. One popular game is “Around The World”. The object is to hit the numbered zones, starting with number 1. Then you try for 2, 3, and so on. After hitting all the numbers 1 through 20, then hit the bullseye to win. CLICK HERE for Other Dart Board Color combinations.
Slot Machine Jackpot Target
Enjoy a little Las Vegas-style fun on your next trip to the range. This cool Slot Machine Target has four sets of slot machine patterns each with three rows of three symbols. Connect three in a row to win — and hit the Jackpot! This is one of many colorful, free targets available from Targetz.com.
American Coins Target — Make Change
This unique American Coin Target features actual-sized Eisenhower Dollars, Susan B. Anthony Dollars, and Kennedy Half Dollars in the top row. Below are rows of Quarters, Dimes, Nickels, and Pennies in descending order. NOTE: A U.S. Quarter has a diameter of approximately 1 inch, so it’s One MOA at 100 Yards. NOTE: When printing, select “100%” value and landscape mode — NOT “fit to page”! That will keep the dimensions of the coins accurate. Combining math with marksmanship, this target lets kids practice their math skills while having fun. Choose a money amount (such as $2.57 or $3.73), and “make change” by shooting a combination of coins.
NSSF Billiards Table Target
This Billiards Table Target offers 15 brightly-colored numbered balls with the cue ball at the bottom. Aim for the numbers, shooting 1-15 in sequence, or alternate between stripes and solids. You can also draw an “X” on the white cue ball (or attach a paster), and use that to set your zero. This target is fun for shooting outdoors with rifles at 50 or 100 yards or indoors with pistols.
This billiards target is part of a set of 12 Fun Targets from the NSSF. These were issued a couple seasons back for National Shooting Sports Month, held in August of each year. The other free targets include Golf Links, Bowling Pins, Fireworks, Baseball Diamond, Dutch Windmill, Water Balloons, Light Bulbs, Dartboard, and three Bullseye targets.
Flies in Circles Target
Now you can boast to your buddies that you hit a fly on your target — 16 times. On this target, 16 flies with bright red eyes are arranged in a inside circles, 16 to a page. There are various ways to use the fly targets. Some shoot to hit the head only — so aim for those red eyes. There are 11 other variations of this Fly Target available on the Targets.WS website.
Tic-Tac-Toe Fun Game Target
This Tic-Tac-Toe Shooting Game Target lets you challenge your shooting buddies at the range. One player can shoot the red triangles, while the other shoots the white zones, taking turns. You proceed just like a regular Tic-Tac-Toe game, alternating shots, with the goal of getting three of the same color in a row. This is a fun game for a parent and a young family member. You’ll find other fun targets on Targets4free.com.
Special BONUS — AccurateShooter.com Load Development Target
Our Load Development Target has been used by tens of thousands of shooters. It has proven very popular, since all your load data fits neatly in the boxes under each target. In fact this target is being employed by both rifle-makers (Bergara) and barrel-makers (including Criterion) to test their products. The target was designed for aiming efficiency. The red diamonds have 1/2″ sides and you can align your cross-hairs on the horizontal and vertical lines. It is a clean design that is easy to see even at 200 yards with a 20X scope. NOTE: When we test, we usually crank in a little elevation, setting the point-of-impact higher, so our shots fall in the gray circles. That way you leave the red diamonds intact for precise aiming.
You’ve probably heard of cut-rifling, but did you know this process was invented in Germany nearly 500 years ago? Read on to learn more about how a cut-rifled barrel is made…
The cut-rifling process, used by leading barrel-makers such as Bartlein, Blake, Brux, and Krieger can yield a very high-quality barrel with a long useful life. Cut-rifled barrels have been at the top in short- and long-range benchrest competition in recent years, and cut-rifled barrels have long been popular with F-Class and High Power shooters.
You may be surprised to learn that cut-rifling is probably the oldest method of rifling a barrel. Invented in Nuremberg around 1520, the cut-rifling technique creates spiral grooves in the barrel by removing steel using some form of cutter. In its traditional form, cut rifling may be described as a single-point cutting system using a “hook” cutter. The cutter rests in the cutter box, a hardened steel cylinder made so it will just fit the reamed barrel blank and which also contains the cutter raising mechanism.
Above is a computer animation of an older style, sine-bar cut-rifling machine. Some machine features have been simplified for the purposes of illustration, but the basic operation is correctly shown. No, the cut-rifling machines at Krieger don’t use a hand-crank, but the mechanical process shown in this video is very similar to the way cut-rifling is done with more modern machines.
Read About Cut-Rifling Process at FirearmsID.com
To learn more about the barrel-making process, and cut-rifling in particular, visit FirearmsID.com. There you’ll find a “must-read” article by Dr. Geoffrey Kolbe: The Making of a Rifled Barrel. This article describes in detail how barrels are crafted, using both cut-rifling and button-rifling methods. Kolbe (past owner of Border Barrels) covers all the important processes: steel selection, hole drilling, hole reaming, and rifling (by various means). You’ll find a very extensive discussion of how rifling machines work. Here’s a short sample:
“At the start of World War Two, Pratt & Whitney developed a new, ‘B’ series of hydraulically-powered rifling machines, which were in fact two machines on the same bed. They weighed in at three tons and required the concrete floors now generally seen in workshops by this time. About two thousand were built to satisfy the new demand for rifle barrels, but many were broken up after the war or sold to emerging third world countries building up their own arms industry.
Very few of these hydraulic machines subsequently became available on the surplus market and now it is these machines which are sought after and used by barrel makers like John Krieger and ‘Boots’ Obermeyer. In fact, there are probably less of the ‘B’ series hydraulic riflers around today than of the older ‘Sine Bar’ universal riflers.
The techniques of cut rifling have not stood still since the end of the war though. Largely due to the efforts of Boots Obermeyer the design, manufacture and maintenance of the hook cutter and the cutter box have been refined and developed so that barrels of superb accuracy have come from his shop. Cut rifled barrel makers like John Krieger (Krieger Barrels), Mark Chanlyn (Rocky Mountain Rifle Works) and Cliff Labounty (Labounty Precision Reboring)… learned much of their art from Boots Obermeyer, as did I.” — Geoffrey Kolbe
Video find by Boyd Allen. Archive photos from Border Barrels in the UK.
For many years, the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU) regularly published reloading “how-to” articles on the USAMU Facebook page. In this article, the USAMU’s reloading gurus address a question frequently asked by prospective handloaders: “Should I buy a single-stage press, or a progressive?” The USAMU says the best answer is Solomon-esque in both its wisdom and simplicity: “Get BOTH!” However, there is definitely more to the issue, as the USAMU explains below.
Progressive Press Safety Considerations
by USAMU Staff
Many are the beginning handloaders who have asked a friend about their “setting up” a progressive press for them. The idea is that the newbie could then just feed in components and crank out buckets of practice ammo without needing to really learn much about handloading. Tempting though this might be, that’s simply not how it works. Such an approach might be ok if there were never a malfunction with either press or operator, but that’s unrealistic. Our hypothetical newbie would then lack the knowledge to problem-solve most situations.
Worse yet, several different handloading operations would be occurring at different stations on the progressive press at the same time. It takes an experienced operator to keep track of, and truly understand the significance of, all those potential mini-problems. Loading without this experience is a recipe for potential disaster – such as a double powder charge (especially with pistol cartridges) dropped while the loader was attending to some other function, etc. Progressives are an animal unto themselves, and while they offer many benefits, they do take some getting used to – even by experienced handloaders!
ILLUSTRATIVE HORROR STORY
Here, enter a 40-year veteran handloader who decided to jump onto the progressive bandwagon late in his career, having used only single-stage presses all his life. A High Master NRA High Power Rifle competitor, he had no background in competitive pistol shooting, where historically most progressive presses are found.
Experienced Action Pistol shooters have typically encountered multiple episodes in which shooters “skipped” a powder charge for some reason, leading to a squib round and a bullet possibly lodged in the bore. Thus, at matches, it’s reflexive for them to yell “STOP!” in unison if they see a shooter get a “click” vs. a “bang”, and rack the slide to keep firing. This writer has personally seen several pistols saved in just such scenarios over the years.
Click No Bang — What NOT to Do
Our High Master set up a popular progressive press and began turning out .223 Rem 100-yard practice ammo with abandon. He was using a moly-coated 52gr match bullet and an economical, fast-burning surplus powder that gave great accuracy. Once on the range, he began practicing strings of rapid-fire. All was well, until he heard “Click!” rather than “Boom”.
Lacking the above experience or onlookers to halt him, he reflexively operated the charging handle on his expensive, custom NM AR15 Service Rifle, and the next trigger squeeze reportedly registered on seismographs over at least a three-state radius. He sat, uninjured but bewildered, until the hail of expensive bits and pieces quit raining down around him.
When the smoke cleared, he immediately cursed the horrid, evil, demonically-possessed progressive press for this, his first-ever reloading mishap. His $1400 NM upper was ruined, but thankfully, his $800 pre-ban lower… and he had escaped injury.
This tale is told not to discourage the use of progressive presses, but to emphasize the need to EASILY and IMMEDIATELY KNOW what is happening with the press at each station, every time the handle is cranked. Not to do so is, as they say, “bad ju-ju.”
It illustrates why we at the USAMU Handloading Shop agree in recommending that new handloaders should begin with a single-stage press. Once one thoroughly learns the steps in each phase of handloading by repeated experience, then one will be qualified to move on to a progressive press.
The single-stage press will REMAIN virtually indispensable for one’s entire handloading career, even after having purchased a progressive press (or two). There are endless small projects that are best handled on a single-stage press, and a poll of USAMU’s Handloading staff reveals that not one would willingly be without his single-stage press, despite owning at least one progressive.
When you make a reloading mistake, you may need to “pull down” assembled ammo. The embedded UltimateReloader.com video demonstrates how to use the Hornady Cam-Lock bullet pulling system.
When Reloading Goes Bad — The Danger of Over-Charging
Our friend Gavin Gear of UltimateReloader.com was recently reloading some 9mm pistol ammo with his Hornady progressive press. As part of his reloading procedure, he visually checks the cases — and he noticed that the charges seemed high. Sure enough, his most recently-produced rounds were about two grains over spec. He diagnosed the issue: “I was using a powder measure without a baffle. What happened was, over the course of the loading session, things settled in, and the charge level increased.”
Not knowing just when his powder measure started delivering too much powder, Gavin decided, for safety’s sake, to pull down all the ammo he had just reloaded. Yes that’s time-consuming, but it’s better than the alternative — having a dangerous Kaboom while shooting. With fast-burning pistol powders, a two-grain over-charge could cause a blown case, damaged firearm, and/or serious injury.
Watch Cam-Lock Bullet Puller Used to Remove Bullets from Loaded Ammo:
Use of Bullet Puller starts 4:00 minutes into video.
Gavin says it is vitally important to perform safety checks during the reloading process: “You’ve got to do it — check every single round to make sure there IS powder, and that there’s not too MUCH powder. Double, Triple, Quadruple check your components… and your powder charges. You can’t be too careful.”
To pull down a loaded round, first place the cartridge in the shellholder on your press ram. Then raise the round up into the bullet puller device installed where a die would go. The Hornady Cam-lock bullet puller works by clamping the bullet in a collet when you flip down the red-coated lever. Then, with the case held by the rim in the shell-holder, the bullet exits the cartridge as the press ram is lowered. It takes time, but it’s pretty fool-proof once you get the hang of it. This entire process is illustrated in Gavin’s video, starting near the four-minute mark.
The Hornady Cam Lock Bullet Puller has four (4) key components: 1. Cam-Lock die body; 2. Cam-Lock lever; 3. Stem; and 4. Collet (Caliber-specific).
NOTE: In order to use this tool, you’ll need the appropriate collet for each diameter range of bullets you intend to pull. For example use collet #3 for 6mm, collect #6 for 7mm, and collet #7 for .308 Caliber.
RCBS Lock-Out Die
A good safety option for users with progressive presses is the RCBS Lock-Out Die. This has a charge detection rod that dips into each case after powder has dropped. You adjust the die to the proper charge height for your desired load. If the actual dispensed charge is too high or too low, the Lock-Out Die senses the problem and stops the press from advancing to the next case (it does this by preventing the ram/shellplate from fully elevating). We’ve used the Lock-out die with success for both pistol and rifle cartridges. It’s sensitive to about one-half grain with pistol powders.
This Lock-Out Die works with Hornady and Dillon progressives as well as with RCBS progressives. It does take up one die station on the press.
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The Palma Team Trophy
A former competitive smallbore rifle shooter, ace trigger-puller Kirsten Joy Weiss tried a special New Year’s trick shot a few seasons back. In keeping with the festive New Year’s spirit, Kirsten attempted to shoot the cork off a champagne bottle. After a few unsuccessful tries, she managed to hit the cork with at least two shots. But alas the cork did not fly. She actually hit the cork, but it did not release. That was surprising…
RCBS Lock-Out Die
