I've been stocking the shelves today, making sure I have a good supply of essential items...It's not a simple matter of unpacking shopping bags though, not when it comes to these supplies anyway...With this stuff...Well, I make my own!
I've made just over 200 rounds today and whilst it's very time consuming because only make precision ammunition for my rifles, it is rewarding; I get a sense of achievement as I lock up my workshop knowing there's a couple hundred more freedom pills in the safe. It's also quite relaxing; Country music on the speakers and the repetitive task of reloading ammunition.Today I made 6.5mm Creedmoor ammunition which is what I use for my long range shooting...Out to just over a mile.
Whilst working away I was thinking about a conversation I had with a user here, @zacknorman97, about the measurement used to weigh gun powder when making ammunition. We were talking about different ammunition and I'd done a post on some of the types I use which you can see here.
It was difficult to explain the measurement in a way he would understand, other than saying it's a small measurement, and so I decided to do this post as a follow up.
I'll keep it pretty brief ok? So, you don't get bored but first a couple pictures to show you a little about what makes up a rifle round.
Above left are the components that make up a rifle round. At the bottom of shot from left to right: The case, primers, gun powder and projectile. You can see the completed round to the left of shot.
Above centre shows a closer view of the projectiles, primer and gun powder and above right shows the completed rounds. These are .243 rounds with an 87 grain vmax projectile. You will note the projectile also uses the grain as its weight measurement, in this case 87gr.
OK, so now...The weight thing.
One grain is a measurement. It does not refer to one granule like a grain of rice. Savvy?
One grain = 0.00228571oz
It's a small measurement. But...What does that actually mean? Keep reading.
Below you can see some images of my beam scales which is what I use to precisely measure out gun powder. I have weighed a few common items.
Toothpick, match and earpod
Toothpick 1.5 grains, match 1.8 grains, earpod 52.8 grains. As you can see the weight of 1 grain is small - The toothpick is 1.5 grains!
A grain is indeed a very small measurement and when used to measure gun powder it allows me to very accurately load the ammunition with exactly the right amount as determined during my load development phase which I will talk about some other time.
Let's apply it to gun powder
Below you're looking at exactly 1 grain of gun powder; AR2209 to be exact. (There are many, many different types. Again, that's a different post altogether.) It's not much huh?
In my 6.5mm Creedmoor rounds I load 43.4 grains of AR2209, the optimal load which I determined after load development. Each different gun will be generally different - I won't get into that here though.
So, when I'm loading I often use a pair of tweezers to drop a single granule of gun powder into the measuring thing to get the weight exact. Again, I want precision loads as they do the same thing each time I shoot them...Known results are important when firing at live targets and especially in long range shooting.
These granules make up 1 grain of AR2209 - There's 37 granules there.
Here they are a little closer up - This is 1 grain of gun powder.
Loading ammunition is a skill...It's not simply a matter of throwing them together and hoping for the best.
If too much is added the excess pressures involved could cause damage to the firearm, serious injury like the loss of a hand or eye and certainly also death. Too little gun powder and it won't send the bullet down the barrel and out of the muzzle...A follow up shot will almost certainly destroy the gun and very likely injure, maim or kill the operator.
A lot of concentration is required and a lot of knowledge and understanding around what is actually going on also. Getting it wrong is not recommended.
I've been shooting for a long time, close to 30 years in fact; I haven't reloaded my own ammunition for all of that time though. One doesn't always go with the other. Many of my friends do not reload as they are hunters only, and don't do long range shooting. I hunt, cull and compete around the country in practical long range shooting so need precision ammunition...Besides I'm slightly OCD and this sort of goes hand in hand with that condition.
Here's a single granule of gun powder on the tip of my finger, the pointy end of a toothpick and a match to demonstrate the size of a single granule of gun powder (2209).
So, there you have it. A fairly basic demonstration of how much a grain weight actually is, and a little stuff about why it's so important to get it right when reloading ammunition.
Like anything with guns there's always more though and just in this post there's many other offshoot topics I could elaborate on...I'll do so at some stage, but not right now.
If you guys have any questions don't hesitate to ask and if you don't want to do so publicly you can hit me up on Discord, my user name thingy is below.
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default - Tomorrow isn't promised.
Be well
Discord: galenkp#9209
So do I get this right that you mainly do this yourself because of the long distance shots? So this way you can have influence of how far/fast the bullet goes?
Is it cheaper than buying bullets?
Yes it means my ammunition is constant. What I am chasing is a standard deviation (SD) of under 10 feet per second (fps).
The reason is that the speed of the bullet over a long flight time, say 1.7 seconds, means it will land in different places on a target. The faster it gets to the target the less it drops due to gravity.
Factory ammunition is not precision made and the SD varies greatly as there is variations in the powder load. There are also other variations like projectile seating depth and depth of the primer. With my rounds they are all identical.
If I do a ballistic calculation knowing my rounds have a 10 fps SD, and send the bullet it will hit in a certain spot, if I did the same calculation but the bullet was a factory load and was faster or slower in fps then it would hit in a different spot. The wind also affects a slower bullet more too. I never know how factory ammunition will behave.
So, having hand made rounds like mine means I can be accurate and precise when making them and the behave in more predictable ways. This is critical when the distance ranges out past say 300-400m.
To reach 1000m my .243 rounds are in flight for 1.98 seconds...It's a long time in the air and I need to know the bullet is going to act predictably...That 1.98 is based on a muzzle velocity of 2913fps...I know that because it's my own round.
A factory round might be sometimes 50-100fps slower...This makes a massive difference to the calculation, but I don't know what the speed is so can't adjust.
Does this make sense? I hope so.
Jep that makes sense and is exactly what I thought. First I thought that I would feel a bit uncomfortable shooting my own made ammunition but now I think it is the absolute opposite. As you never know where that bullet is coming from, how much powder is in it and so on.
How long you need for one bullet. Or how long did the 200 take.
You definitely need music for this kind of work. :)
Fantastic, and cheers for the follow-up post. Showing it next to commonly found items, like toothpicks, really show a sense of scale, and how tiny a granule of gun-powder really is. Something I haven't thought about during the last post, is how gun-powder looks. Admittedly, I haven't been paying much attention to the actual powder, but I do remember older firearms having a more powder-y texture, than the granules that these modern guns have.
Just an interesting thing to note, I guess. I don't suppose these granules of gun-powder are just as fragile? So, to get 43.4 grains for Creedmoor rounds, could one just toss-in, say 40 or so grains, and then just use tweezers for the rest, or do you have to carefully use tweezers for all of them? I can't imagine the concentration and patience it takes to get this right, I know I surely don't 😅.
Thanks mate, it was a fun little post to write and to get those images...Was surprising to me how liitle powder makes up 1 grain to be honest.
So, I have a powder thrower that I set up to throw the charge into that little gold holder thing. It goes onto the beam scales and then I use a trickler to trickle in additional powder. The tweezers come into play if I have to remove granules or add one or two at a time. I'll do a post about it sometime. I have some photos somewhere.
Quite an intricate process, then. I'd love to see a Part 2 (or technically 3, after the cartridge comparison ) :-)
I could do that. If you scroll you'll see a comment I made here with for points on the process...Just a basic list. It will give you an idea. But yes, I can do a follow up showing all the bits for sure.
Yeah, took me a while to wrap my head around some of the terminology, and how it goes together. Great explanation, but it's only marred by my slow, lazy brain...
That's a pretty precise description - I always thought people buy ammunition, is it a lot cheaper if you make your own ?
Hmm, good question. It can be a little cheaper, but mine aren't really. Maybe marginally, but that's not why I do it...I do it because they are more accurate, and it's a good skill to have.
Oh wow. Miniature measurement in progress, indeed very satisfying for OCD. As you described it, a little mistake can cost you immensely. Pfeww pressure😅Good job!
Hey there...Yep, it's certainly one of those jobs where one needs to concentrate and being a little obsessive-compulsive can pay dividends. getting this wrong often ends badly. Thanks for commenting. :)
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Good write-up of what a grain is. But, you totally missed your chance to weigh a grain of rice to show how many grains a grain is. :)
DAMN IT! Lol.
I'll be honest...I wanted to do so, but didn't have any! It would have been cool though...Now I'm wondering...And will have to buy some rice.
WTF...!?!?
Keep it brief....??
"I'll keep it pretty brief ok? So, you don't get bored but first a couple pictures to show you a little about what makes up a rifle round."
Carry on as You will I say..... This Shizz is Waaaaaaayyyy better than porn. I could read this all day.... And Your Macro Fo-Tog-raphy. Home Run "Sir @galenkp"
I wonder if I could unlock Your phone with this one... Heheheh
I just wish Jonboy @janton had not given in to his Boss Lady Miss J. (I would also to mine tho... Maybe)
He is missing some great stuff. And We are missin his great stuff.... LoL
Yeah, that keep it brief comment was my dry humour at work...It was never going to be brief.
I find this stuff interesting and it's been great to help that lad out who keeps asking the questions. He gets something out if it, knowledge, and I get to have a bit of fun.
I hope people find it into but at the end of the day I enjoy it and that's what counts.
Yep, thats my phone opening finger. It also opens my two banking apps so no copying it ok? Lol.
I just wrote a post out of the blue. "Out of the Blue" WTF does that even mean....?
Anywhooo.... Give Me some constructive criticism on it when You get a minute or 3.
I wish, is what I would like to do more of, writings of the days events, good or bad, a few pictures, a daily (every few days maybe) diary type writings....
I'm on my way to an appointment right now but will respond here with a few pointers later ok?
I am looking at Your account balances now.....
Haha, you won't find much there.