As you likely already know, bullets spin during flight, due to the rifling of the barrel. But, you may have asked yourself: why do they need to spin? The answer has something to do with bullet shape. In this article, I'll show you the reason behind bullet spin with regard to bullet shape. Understanding this concept is useful to understand other bullet flight behavior that … [Read more...]
Even once you've selected all your preferred reloading equipment and begun using it, perfecting your reloaded ammunition can be surprisingly complex. I’ve had a number of questions, both from EMs and in person at the range, regarding the correct ways to adjust reloading dies. These are not simple questions, as pretty much every type of press and reloading die is slightly … [Read more...]
In my previous article, I indicated the generally accepted preference for roll crimps in revolver ammunition and taper crimps in semi-auto ammunition, and briefly mentioned the potential problems that can be caused by incorrectly crimped ammunition in both types of handguns. But why is there a difference? n a word: “headspace.” I don’t want to get into a detailed discussion … [Read more...]
Let's look at the specifics of the actual loads, starting with the selection of projectiles. I’m going to focus on projectile selection for handguns as the process of selecting projectiles for rifle loads is a complex issue involving long range ballistics including topics such as supersonic, transonic and sub-sonic aerodynamics, not to mention the specific nature of the … [Read more...]
I have covered some general issues as well as some specific issues relating to semi-automatics and revolvers. In this article, I’ll be looking at some different types of projectiles, and their related crimping considerations. Crimping Considerations for Projectiles When I discussed projectiles, I identified some basic variations on projectile types, but omitted … [Read more...]
Getting into reloading? Well, before we start talking about reloading presses, I’d like to briefly examine the concept of reloading rates as applied to assessing the performance of reloading presses. Reloading Rate - Definitions Throughout this series of articles I have emphasized the different reloading requirements we all have, as well as the different approaches and … [Read more...]
