{"id":622,"date":"2019-09-21T11:09:46","date_gmt":"2019-09-21T15:09:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.floridareloading.com\/?p=622"},"modified":"2019-10-18T04:04:08","modified_gmt":"2019-10-18T08:04:08","slug":"interview-in-3-parts-with-a-high-precision-reloader-part-two-of-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.floridareloading.com\/index.php\/2019\/09\/21\/interview-in-3-parts-with-a-high-precision-reloader-part-two-of-three\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview (in 3 parts) with a high precision reloader – Part Two of Three"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Ernie<\/p><\/div>\n

Ernie Interview
\n(part 2 of 3)<\/h1>\n

Insights from a precision rifle reloader<\/h5>\n

O: I understand you\u2019ve had some serious, previous hobbies, including I think it was RC power boating?\u00a0 Can you tell me a little bit about those hobbies and how deep into your hobbies you tend to get?<\/p>\n

E: Um, yeah, when I was a lot younger, we used to fly a control line model airplane. That\u2019s when you fly the plane around in a circle and you hold onto a handle, connected to the plane with cables.<\/p>\n

O:\u00a0 Airplanes attached by cable, rather than by radio, remote control<\/p>\n

E: Right.\u00a0 I flew that off and on throughout the years and then I got into flying radio control.\u00a0 Back around \u201971 I wanna say it was that I started getting into radio control airplanes.\u00a0 And I flew that for a number of years.\u00a0 And then a friend of mine, several years later, got me into running radio control cars.\u00a0 So I ran those for many years, and then I got into the hobby shop business.\u00a0 I opened up a hobby shop, but it got so large that I could not do everything myself.\u00a0 So when I sold an RC plane, I had my father-in-law, teach the customer how to use them. Also, I had a friend, Wes, who was really into RC boats, who would teach customers how to run the boats.<\/p>\n

Another friend, Bob Murphy, who imported OPS engines from Italy, sent me a boat one time.\u00a0 He wanted me to run it in the Nationals.\u00a0 So I went out there, and I took my kids with me.\u00a0 I had tried to get the kids into radio control airplanes, but they thought that idea was too boring.\u00a0 The boat was a different beast, and I said \u201cMan, I could get into this!\u201d\u00a0 So I got back into the boats.\u00a0 Ran one season, one year with that boat (and with my kids), and at the end of the season we needed a new boat.\u00a0 My youngest son said, \u201cDad, why don\u2019t we just build our own boat?\u201d To which I replied, \u201cOK, why do you want to do that?\u201d and he said, \u201cWell, maybe somebody would want our boat.\u201d<\/p>\n

I knew a lot about the aerodynamics on airplanes, and I knew about the cars. But I needed to do some experimenting with the boats. The current boat design was a hydroplane, which somewhat fly over the surface of the water.\u00a0 So, I went ahead (and I didn\u2019t do it for any other reason than my youngest son said let\u2019s do it) with the project. I wanted to teach him how to draw up a set of plans, and then take off from those plans a set of templates, and then build the model. We would go out there and see if it runs.\u00a0 And lo and behold, it ran\u2026very fast.\u00a0 And so that first year, we had our boats out there running.\u00a0 And people were just sitting back watching us (apparently paying close attention.) We were taking trophies and we\u2019re doing, you know, pretty well with the custom boats.\u00a0 And next thing you know, one of the guys in the club says, \u201cHow much are they?\u201d\u00a0 You know I didn\u2019t think about selling any of the boats, but I started building custom boats for local sale. It grew and grew and grew. It got to where, I guess the one reason why I didn\u2019t go shooting in competitions and all that, was because the boat building hobby became a full time job.\u00a0 And it just took the fun away from running the boats with my son.\u00a0 So finally, I told everybody, \u201cI\u2019m not building any more boats, I\u2019m just building my own boat.\u201d So I built a boat for myself, just to get back to having fun again.\u00a0 The thing is, that when you\u2019re building a boat, and you\u2019re putting them together and everything else, especially because I had earned so much respect among the comminuty, people would call and ask questions, and I couldn\u2019t get anything done because as soon as I\u2019d hang up the phone, the phone would ring again.\u00a0 That was why I kind of backed out on building custom boats completely.\u00a0 The boats were, like I said, very popular, and very quick\u2026<\/p>\n

O: Do I remember correctly that you were also doing custom machining on the engines?<\/p>\n

E: Oh yeah, yeah I did my own engine work, yeah.\u00a0 Cuz there\u2019s no way you can go out there with a stock motor and try to compete, so you had to do your own engine work, I mean, well I did.\u00a0 I did all the work on my sons\u2019 boats and mine, and we went out there and ran \u2018em.\u00a0 Had a good time.<\/p>\n

O: It was all precision stuff, which is, I think the part of it that maybe was of the most interest to you, that it was all fine detail precision stuff. It\u2019s what you especially like to do.t\u2019s what you especially like to do.<\/p>\n

E: Very fine, yeah.\u00a0 Everything, when you start working on these motors, is to get max out of \u2018em.\u00a0 Back then, when I first got into all of that, we were running Nitro methane, which was like the little airplanes; like you see in the hobby shops today, with the Nitro and you fill them up and you fly them.\u00a0 Back on I\u2019d say around \u201994 with the Nitro boats, we held the world\u2019s speed record in F-class at one time.\u00a0 And at that time, it was 96 or 98 mph. After that became a big thing, what started coming into play was the radio control boats with weedeater motors.\u00a0 The Nitros kind of started falling by the wayside because of the expense of the fuel. But, that was about when I had stopped making the custom boats for local sale.<\/p>\n

\"\"

weed whacker engine<\/p><\/div>\n

My friend, Wes, called me up. He asked me to build him a boat with a weedeater motor, and I said ok.\u00a0 I told Wes that I wasn\u2019t set up for that. \u201cI don\u2019t have any weedeater motors, or any mounts, or anything.\u201d He said, \u201cI\u2019ll send you a boat, the motor, the mounts, whatever you need.\u201d\u00a0 I said OK, so I sat down and I designed a better boat, outrigger style (hydroplane), for the weedeater motor.\u00a0 I put it together, test ran it, got it all finished and mailed it back to him and next thing I know, he calls again, he says, \u201cUh, I need another boat.\u201d\u00a0 And I said, \u201cWhat\u2019d you do?\u00a0 Wreck it?\u201d\u00a0 And he said No, I sold it.\u201d\u00a0 And I said, \u201cWes, I\u2019m not going into the business of making these boats anymore.\u00a0 And he said, \u201cMan, come on, this guy wants to buy one of your boats.\u201d\u00a0 I said, \u201cWell, I only made two, Wes, one for you and one for me to play around with.\u201d\u00a0 And he said, \u201cWell how much you want for yours?\u201d So I told him what I want for it and the guy didn\u2019t even hesitate at the outrageous price.\u00a0 I had a custom paint job on that boat, really looked like a show paint job.\u00a0 After the customer got the boat, he reported that he wasn\u2019t going to race that boat.\u00a0 He want to get it hit or damaged from racing.\u00a0 So as far as I know, as of today, the boat, he\u2019s never raced it.\u00a0 He just runs it.\u00a0 I just built myself another boat.<\/p>\n

Wes called me up, and he says \u201cLook, I need another boat.\u201d He had an Internet business on the side, selling RC boats. I put my foot down, and I said, \u201cWes, I\u2019m not getting into this.\u00a0 I\u2019m not getting into the phone calls again.\u201d\u00a0 I said, however, if you want me to build boats, and you want to sell them, and nobody knows who I am, I\u2019m OK with it.\u00a0 I said, \u201cIf anybody has a question, they ask you, you email me or you call me, but once I know that I hang up the phone with you, the phone\u2019s not gonna ring again and I can get my stuff done.\u201d\u00a0 He agreed to that.\u00a0 So that\u2019s how it all that started up again with the gas (weedwhacker engine) boats and um, man, that was going big time.\u00a0 I was shipping boats out to Vietnam, China, Japan, Australia.\u00a0 I was shipping boats all over the world.\u00a0 I was working on boats in the morning, at lunch time.\u00a0 I\u2019d come home for lunch and I\u2019d be working on boats, and I\u2019d be working boats at night. I built a lot of high end RC boats.\u00a0 At the time a standard weedeater motor would turn out maybe 6,000 rpms, something like that. I\u2019ve taken the motors and I\u2019ve actually brought them up where they were singing at 22,000 rpms.\u00a0 Everything was going great. The next thing you know, here comes Katrina.\u00a0 That hurricane totally wiped me out with the boat business.\u00a0 I just had so much stuff I had to do, rebuilding my home and other business, I just couldn\u2019t work on the boats any more and that\u2019s when I closed the company up (final!) with the boats.\u00a0 So that was that.\u00a0 I still have some boats.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t even had a chance to run any of the boats, because after Katrina, we lost the local pond and a couple places we used to run at.\u00a0 So that\u2019s when I seriously got into rifle shooting and doing the precision reloading. It\u2019s been about 5 years now.<\/p>\n

O: Do you reload for all of the guns that you own?<\/p>\n

E: Mostly.\u00a0 The only ones I don\u2019t have that I don\u2019t load for are like the 7.62x54Rs, you know, the Mosins and similar guns like that that I have.\u00a0 I don\u2019t load for those.\u00a0 I do load some for my AKs.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got a number of AKs.\u00a0 I actually only just shoot one.\u00a0 I have been enjoying having my grandson, who just turned 13, shoot some of my guns, and he especially likes shooting the AK.<\/p>\n

O: The 7.62x54R, I have a 91-30, and load that cartridge all the time.\u00a0 Is there a reason why you don\u2019t load that one?<\/p>\n

E: I just don\u2019t shoot it that much to worry about it.\u00a0 I bought several boxes of factory ammo, so I don\u2019t need to. I recently got into collecting the WWII guns.\u00a0 Like my Mouser K92 K98, I don\u2019t load for that.\u00a0 I could, but I just bought the factory ammo cuz those are guns that I don\u2019t shoot that much.\u00a0 Now the ones that I do shoot like my M1 Garands and my 1903A4, I load for all of those.\u00a0 I never bought any factory ammo for those.<\/p>\n

O: Is there a gun that you own that has rare ammunition where reloading has become especially important?<\/p>\n

E: No, I wouldn\u2019t say so, no.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t get into reloading for that reason.\u00a0 The ones I shoot a lot are the ones that I reload for.<\/p>\n

O: Do you usually use brass until it fails or do you dispose of it after a certain number of reloads?<\/p>\n

E: Well my brass, I review it carefully.\u00a0 I look for different signs on the brass.\u00a0 When I reload, I\u2019m reloading for precision. I want to say 90% of my time is working with the brass.\u00a0 I find it\u2019s one of the most important things\u2026the brass.\u00a0 Matching the brass (head stamps) is matching the volume.\u00a0 I have head space gages, so I spend time sizing for my head space. I have go\/no-go gauges for the chamber.\u00a0 I spend a lot of time on my brass, so I\u2019m looking at it real close.\u00a0 If I feel a ridge on the inside of the brass, (incipient case head separation), that\u2019s when I get rid of it.\u00a0 I anneal my brass, after I size my brass, and I\u2019m getting ready to reload, I anneal em.\u00a0 Like I said, I spend a lot of time on that brass.\u00a0 And so when I see something going stupid, then I get rid of it.\u00a0 I just keep on shooting it until I see something.<\/p>\n

O: Who\u2019s annealer are you using?\u00a0 Or did you make your own?<\/p>\n

E: No, I bought the Annealeez<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Annealeze Annealer<\/p><\/div>\n

O: That\u2019s the one that\u2019s made in Florida?<\/p>\n

E: I believe so, yeah.<\/p>\n

O: Yeah, it\u2019s relatively inexpensive<\/p>\n

E: Yeah it\u2019s $275 and the other ones I was looking at were almost $1,000.\u00a0 Some of them were more than that.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t sure if I really want to go down that road to annealing, so why should I spend a lotd of money, and I find out that\u2019s not what I wanted to do?\u00a0 So I bought the Annealeez<\/a><\/strong>, and that one works really well!\u00a0 Once you get yourself set up and you get your time set up and heat set up, and everything is like you want to be, then you let it rip and it spits em out.\u00a0 I found that\u2019s one of the things that\u2019s really helped with accuracy and brass life.<\/p>\n

O: You mentioned that you got a Dillon 650 press, is that what you started off with or did you start off with a single station?<\/p>\n

E: I started off with a 550B and then I turned around and later on I ran across a 2nd<\/sup> hand one, a friend of mine knew somebody that passed away and he got rid of his 550B and some of the tools and everything else, so I went ahead and picked that one up, so I had two 550Bs. So I set up for a large primer and one set up for small primer.\u00a0 And then I got the 650, but set that one for handling only pistol.\u00a0 I don\u2019t load any long rifle cartridges, with the Dillon presses.\u00a0 I do have a set of dies for one of my 550B in 223 Remington. What I discovered was that their powder drop is not accurate enough for the rifle stuff, with the powder I was using. It\u2019s fine if you want to plink. But for the powders that I was using, it was not giving me a consistent drop.\u00a0 So, now I do the powder drop off the press. I don\u2019t crimp any rifle bullets in place.\u00a0 Better accuracy if you don\u2019t crimp. So, I resize off the press, add powder off the press, and just use the press for assembly on the 223 Rem.\u00a0 For fast and easy loads, I\u2019m pulling 1.25\u201d to 1.5\u201d groups at 100 yards.\u00a0 That\u2019s fine for my grandson.\u00a0 He does a lot of the shooting with that.\u00a0 When I shoot, I don\u2019t use that ammo.<\/p>\n

O:\u00a0 What press do you use for your precision rifle reloading then?<\/p>\n

E: I have two presses.\u00a0 The first single stage press that I bought was the Hornady single stage.\u00a0 And then I went to the coaxial.\u00a0 I actually still use both presses.\u00a0 I use the Hornady press for de-capping my cases when I\u2019m prepping them up, but most of everything else that I do, when I\u2019m loading, is on the coaxial press.<\/p>\n

O: It\u2019s made by a company called Forster.<\/p>\n

E: Correct, yeah.\u00a0 That\u2019s Forster coaxial press.\u00a0 In combination with the coaxial press, I got a set of dies from L.E. Wilson.\u00a0 The complete set.\u00a0 I bought their case die, because it\u2019s adjustable to the chamber in the gun.\u00a0 It\u2019s a tighter gauge.\u00a0 And, for my bolt action rifles, I can adjust for about .002\u201d shoulder setback.\u00a0 With the L.E. Wilson\u2019s case gauge, you can measure that shoulder bump very accurately.\u00a0 And, then I use their seating die, and when you do that, you have to use a different type of press (an arbor press works well) because the brass doesn\u2019t come from underneath, it\u2019s pushed down from the top.\u00a0 I also have RCBS co-matched dies and it\u2019s very good dies set also. The reason why I went with that one is when they machine it, they machine it as a set, and you\u2019re buying it as a matched machined set. The way I feel about it is that they have the give and take of measurements when they\u2019re machining and I feel that they\u2019re tighter tolerance. So when you resize your brass, let\u2019s say, and you drop it in that tight tolerance case gauge, you shouldn\u2019t have any play whatsoever. And another reason why I went into those tools and presses was because of concentricity.\u00a0 I pay a lot of attention to concentricity on the case before I load them, and then also after the bullets get seated.\u00a0 I run the assembled cartridges with a concentricity gauge (rotary dial gage) to see if the bullets are running true.\u00a0 A lot of my cartridges, when I run them through those dies on those presses, are producing a runout of .0005\u201d ( five tenths) or less. Then, I index my brass, so when I run them through the concentricity gage, and I\u2019m spinning them, I find the high point, I take a marker, and I mark my brass so when I\u2019m putting them into my chamber, the marks are all sitting at the 12 o\u2019clock position.<\/p>\n

It all comes down to accuracy. You know, consistency equals accuracy. So the more you can be consistent with a load, the more it\u2019s gonna duplicate itself, accuracy wise.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got some of my loads where my groups, out of a group of 5, had only 2ft\/sec difference.\u00a0 I\u2019m using the Lab Radar chronograph. I keep striving for consistency or accuracy. I\u2019m not out there trying to shoot competition, I\u2019m not trying to impress everybody, cuz I\u2019m out there shooting by myself!<\/p>\n

(Continued in Part 3)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ernie Interview (part 2 of 3) Insights from a precision rifle reloader O: I understand you\u2019ve had some serious, previous hobbies, including I think it was RC power boating?\u00a0 Can you tell me a little bit about those hobbies and how deep into your hobbies you tend to get? E: Um, yeah, when I was<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.floridareloading.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.floridareloading.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.floridareloading.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.floridareloading.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.floridareloading.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.floridareloading.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":627,"href":"https:\/\/www.floridareloading.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622\/revisions\/627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.floridareloading.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.floridareloading.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.floridareloading.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}