Loading on the road

[danjordan78]

I see people referring to loading their ammo while they are at the match. What kind of presses are they using? Flying or driving with them? Buying powder and primers there?

Help explain!

Coming down to matches from Alaska its tough to bring enough ammo. I guess the other option is shipping it UPS but that can get expensive too.

[LilBunniFuFu]

If you are going to major matches have you considered buying match ammo? A little on the expensive side but you know it is there and that you won't fail at the chrono. And with the situation the way it is I would be scaredfof not finding the components I needed at my destination. I'm sure some others will chime in on your actual question though.

[Sarge]

I see people referring to loading their ammo while they are at the match.

Exactly where have you seen people referring to that? There is no way that even makes any sense from a practical standpoint.

I do know of a guy at our club that shoots precision rifle. He has his whole reloading room in a converted trailer and parks it on the range and loads rounds to experiment with.

[ttolliver]

I once saw a fellow loading for one of the Swiss rifles, perhaps a K31, right at the shooting bench. He was measuring powder with scoops and using a small hand press that wasn't much bigger than a wine bottle opener. All of the equipment was clearly vintage.

[Guest]

I've known a couple of folks who had a motorhome or camper that had a press set-up they would use to reload while they were traveling about. One was an older NRA bullseye guy and he would travel in his little motor home from match to match up and down the west coast. he had a single stage press of some type, and dillon 550. He cleaned his brass in a bucket with with soap and water and would put it on top of his little motor home to dry out as he drove.

Not sure it makes a lot of sense if you are heading to a specific match to pack a press to load ammo after you get there as it seems like there would be a lot opportunities to have something go wrong or not have what you need. So, I'd say the UPS expense would be worth it if you are traveling to a destination match. The one exception to this might be something like doing all the practice days before the Steel Challenge where it would be easy to go through a boatload of ammo and you have a camper or someplace where you can load.

[Travtastik]

I have seen precision rifle shooters load rounds at the bench before a match. The one guy I talked to about it was using a lee hand press. He said he could adjust his loads for the heat changes during the day.

[Flatland Shooter]

Loading at the match is too risky. It seems like every time I wait until the last minute to load up rounds for a major match something bad happens. Usually something simple like I break my last decapping pin or that last can of powder turns out to be empty.

Happened just enough times that I load 'em up early. I'm signed up for several major matches throughout the year and got ammo set aside for each of them.

Bill

[danjordan78]

Thanks. Never made much sense to me either. No way I would plan on doing it as too much equipment to fly with, but for someone driving to big matches not unthinkable. The one place I could see it coming in handy is like Bamboo said at SC if you are going to be there all practice week.

Didnt know how prevalent it was so thought I would ask.

[wgj3]

The isn't something that USPSA or 3gun or IDPA shooters would do. It's something you see in the Benchrest community. Fairly common there to tailor loads to conditions. Very low volume.

[Steve RA]

I knew a guy, years ago, who was single and just traveled around the country shooting matches who had a Bluebird motor home and he had a couple of Dillon 1000s and a few other presses for rifle and shotgun in it. That was his home, had sold the house he and his wife had after she passed away. Didn't seem like the worst life you could imagine !!

[neckbone]

I'm a benchrest shooter and see a lot of my competitors load between sessions on the line.

It is considered necessary when shooting 6mmPPC because of temp sensitivity as the day heats up. They use maybe 20 pieces of brass.

My shooting buddy per-weighs the powder at home and stores it in glass vials. He does it to be able to use the same brass. If chasing temps, weighing at the match is required.

The .30 BR is not sensitive to heat and so I load 100 to 150 rounds at home.

They use arbor presses and Wilson dies, as I do at home.

It would not make sense to me to go through the same loading routines for pistol, given the lack of accuracy (achieved or needed) and the number of rounds fired. Plus, when would the loading time be available during the match?

[jmorris]

When you fill out the application for the match contact the "contact" person and work out a way for you to ship your loaded ammo to him. Or someone else that you know in the area, going to the match.