How anal are you with your "precision" reloads

[animalmother85]

I shoot machined bullets, all weigh the same +/1 .01gr, gyroscopically balanced.

I debur/chamfer the flash holes.

I make sure the primer pocket is sized.



I neck size after fire-forming (260AI) to .001" less than the size of the neck with a loaded bullet. I never size new brass, being that it also will be fire formed, it's not worth the time/added stress on the brass. I also anneal the brass for the 40 degree shoulders.

I get 3/8" 5-shot groups at 100 yards in a rifle that I haven't been able to get shoot worse than 5-shot 1/2" groups at 100 yards off of bags
(Badger Ordnance M2008, Bartlein 5R Cut Rifled 1-8.5" twist 260AI in a KMW Sentinel Stock, Huber Two-stage trigger a 2.75lbs, topped with an SWFA 5-20x50)

[762xIan]

Currently with some of the "precision" loads I make.

1. Sort and use cases of same headstamp.
2. Measure and trim accordingly.
3. Clean and debur primer pockets.
4. Hand measure each load.
5. Inspect projectiles.
6. Seat all and crimp all uniformly.

This has done well in my Garands, a .243 and .308 bolt guns I am particularly fond of.

Now if I were a benchrest shooter I would probably pay a little more attention to case weight and projectile weight making sure everything was uniform across the board.

[SteveWag]

COL is almost worthless. Base to the ogive rifling diameter is much more important. Deburr the inside of the primer flash hole, weigh cases, uniform the primer flash pocket (look at your primers, note that the anvil legs are not seated, they seat when the primer is firmly seated). Use good cases, don’t crimp. If possible, load 3-400 at a time and segregate the loads into four or more weight classes (weigh the finished loads). Same lot number, primers and bullets. Evaluate you loads with a chronograph, looking for one digit SD and 10 or less FPS spread. Nothing works better!!! OH, seat primers by hand, keep ammo covered in the shade at the range.
Check out nos. 18 and 19:

http://www.gswagner.com/6.5matchrifl...tchrifle6.html

Steve

[SteveWag]

Also, check out the lowest chart, second row down. And this W/O a Mosin, Russian primers and S&B cases!

http://www.gswagner.com/mosin-nagant/loads/loads.html

Steve

[JStem1283]

Lots of great info guys. However, I feel like I've led people to believe I'm competition/benchrest shooting etc. To be clear I just "plink" with my .308 and take it hunting. Obviously I want it to be accurate, but as long as it holds sub MOA accuracy I'm happy (in 3 years I have yet to exceed a 1" group @ 100yds). I used "precision" simply because I spend a lot more time on my .308 prep and loading than I do with any pistol or .223.

[Trucker76]

Well you did ask how anal people get with precision loads. Lot of good info here. You can go as far as you want depending on the accuracy you are happy with.

[Fred762]

Bullets yes, everything else no. As long as the pocket and flash hole is clean and the brass is true it gets used. Im sensing that there are people who get way to into this.

I agree..I know guys who sort cases by BRAND and often by year mark, then measure & trim all cases, swadge primer pockets and so on for every rifle round...I would too IF I were into slo-fire competition, or if I were a paid sniper. That said, I am neither and therefor do not presently reload 5.56 or .308..tho I have in the past.

My precision now is for getting clean, mixed pistol cases and swadging the primer pockets to make re-priming easier...I have had too many messed up primers and fixed the problem by swadging all pockets.
I do mic (for diameter) all the 9x19 cases before resizing bks I have had some which are so big that they do not even resize to acceptable specs, even with my undersize 9mm die! How that happens is still a mystery, but I see it from time to time reloading for 9x19! I guess there are some 'pistols', carbines or/and smgs which have oversized chambers and allow the cases to bulge too much. I dunno.

[Noah_Zark]

The long-range benchrest shooters at the Ridgway Rifle Club near here are pretty freakin' anal about handloads -- some even sort primers by weight.

Noah

[Tomcat088]

I do what most of the guys are talking about when reloading for a precision rifle. I don't weigh bullets anymore, and haven't in a long time. I've weighed TONS of boxes of match grade bullets (particularly Berger), and I never find more than about 4-6 in a box that very by .1 grain. So I pretty much just load them now. I pay attention to trim length, brass weight, and charge weight. Like others, I only use the same lot of powder and primers; so that usually means large purchases of powder and primers at the same time. I had seat all primers by hand. All flash holes are deburred, and primer pockets are uniformed. All charges are thrown on my chargemaster at .1 grain accuracy, and if the scale ever teeters between two numbers, it's not close enough, and it gets rethrown.

One thing that I'm very particular about is seating depth of the bullet relative to the ogive. EVERY bullet is measured right after seating, and is seated exactly .002" into the lands for my pet loads. As others have said, COAL doesn't mean much of anything, especially when the tips of the bullets aren't uniform. You may think that they're uniform, but when you start looking into it in depth at on the .001" level, you'll quickly realize they're not. I have measured runout (how plumb the bullets are seated in the case) on my bullet seating, but I've learned to mainly trust my dies, and just go with it. I usually am only neck sizing my brass, and when I do this, I will rotate the brass 1/3 to 1/2 a turn and size it again to try to make sure that the necks are as concentric as possible. I'm a long range guy, and I'm more concerned with making cold bore hits and printing the smallest groups possible as closer ranges. Something that I am heavily considering is starting to trim meplats on bullets. At longer ranges, it DOES make a difference if you're taking care of your other variables, so it may be where I take the plunge to next.

When I'm not part of the equation, my .300 WSM, Emily (full custom rifle) has turned out quite a lot of 5 shot groups less than .200" at 100 yards. She's a VERY accurate rifle. When you're getting to that level of accuracy, how the paper tears and if you're catching little gusts (which always happens in west Texas), really starts to play with the numbers. On a good day of shooting for me, the rifle has turned out quite a few groups that are right at 3-3.5" for 3 rounds at 800 yards. My load is quite consistent. At 500 yards there is no real vertical dispersion to speak of, only horizontal stringing because of the wind. At 800 yards, it's not uncommon to see vertical of around 2", which is quite good, although lots of times it will be more purely because of me. The verticals start to spread out a bit more at 1,000 yards, and at that point it's a little harder to tell if it's the shooter, me battling mirage (usually significant), or small differences in the load. It's part of the reason I'm considering trimming meplats and seeing the effect. I guess people would say that I'm fairly "anal" about my loads, but when you really start to shoot long range (800 yards and beyond), all the little variables start to add up.

[SteveWag]

Tomcat088 points out the reasons for using a chronograph to hone–in on a long-range (800-1000 yards) load/bullet/powder/primer combo. At long range the shooter is not capable of developing an accurate load – too many other things affect accuracy – including the shooter – things that are not a factor at 100 or 200 yards. At 1000 yards vertical stringing is directly related to velocity variations while horizontal stringing is related to wind. 200 yards has no wind! Everything is affected by mirage, up down, left & right.
Steve