Can I roll all 5 topics into one?
Anyway, Gun first...This is actually my (older) Savage Stevens 200 with a 6-24x50 Barska Scope that I got several months ago. Shortly after I started getting reloading equipment.

Awesome rifle, using hand loads I can get a barely visible cloverleaf at 100 yards (nearly goes through the same hole 3x in a row)
Now I finally got all the pieces in,
Drum roll....
Browning Xbolt hunter 30-06 with Nikon 4-9X40 scope.

Its a sweet rifle.
reloading lesson part 1So anyway I start by getting data for the best bullet seating for both Nosler hunter ballistic tip, Accubonds and Hornady A-max.
I loaded em up with the starting load of IMR 4895. and this morning headed to the range.
So I had 20 rounds of Amax and 20 of BT.
The first rounds I picked to fire was Amax so I can start sighting my scope in. I bore sighted and found the scope was practically parallel with the barrel. So I try to load up Amax, and found the bolt wouldn't close. Same problem with the whole box.
I guess I was trying to get it to the 1/32" from the rifling, so I think my electronic measuring lost its zero (so it was off a few hundredths of an inch.
So I try my BT batch... and the first few loaded and fired fine.

then I get to a few that the bolt would not close. This was an interesting problem since the other bts where loaded all the same. (and thankfully after I had re zeroed my measurement scale so it was actually 1/32" off.
So I fire the few rounds that did work (14/20) trying to zero in my scope.
scope-zeroing lessonSo I find that the rounds land very close to the target (initially about 4" low and 6" right.)
I start adjusting my scope figuring 1/4" change per click. I get the vertical point dead on after the first bullet. Then came the horizontal, I had to move the scope 6" right. I adjusted and fired... now it was 12" to the right. Figured I was flinching... After 5 more shots, I finally figured I was rotating the adjustment the wrong way
Reset horizontal, add 6" to
left boom... bullseye.
bullet questionI shot one ballistic tip into a gallon of water. It splashed, but not as big as I thought it would. I saw a .223 varmageddon hit a pop can with water and it made water fly further and bigger (the top landed 20' away).

So on close inspection:

The round looked like it went right through the jug with little or no expansion. Now I'm not really experienced with 30 cal penetration, but shouldn't the bullet have expanded... at least a little bit? It would have made a bigger splash. Or maybe BTs don't expand well?
back to reloading lesson part 2OK back at the loading bench, I pressed the Amax down about .04" and it worked perfectly.
Now the BT problems. I saved a round that would load and was comparing it to the one that couldn't. I couldn't see a difference in size at all.
I line up the ones that worked and ones that didnt, and saw a trend.... the ones that fired where RP and the ones that didnot where FC.
See I was using brass that was a gift from my reloading 'teacher' apparently the federals where just a tad longer or has more headspace than my rifle so it would not close the bolt.
So lesson learned, when getting used brass from someone, check to see the bolt closes before putting primers, powder and bullets in it. (on the plus side, I figured out how to use my impact bullet puller

)
I start picking through all the brass and guess whats going to happen to the the dozen or so federal cartridges.
primer questionNow I have 6ish rounds of brass that have the bullet and powder pulled, but still have the primers in them. So what do I do with them? They are unfired primers, so I don't think I should just throw them away. Can they be popped out and reused? Or is it dangerous doing that and better to keep my fingers (I really like them you know

)