Load development..

[chrispbrown27]

I assume that everyone has seen the small packs of various brand bullets they sell now for load development. It seems like a great idea, but the way I develop a load these simply won't work. I have always loaded in groups of 3 with the same bullet and powder.....as in 3 rounds of 43.5 grains of powderx, 3 rounds of 43.6 grains of powderx, etc., etc. Then I shoot them in groups of three until I find the loads that shoot the most accurate and load up more of those....say 43.6 grains, 43.8 grains and 43.3 grains all shot best then I load more of those and then narrow down from there. In doing this obviously the small development packs will not be enough to find a good load. So my question is....is there something I am missing here or are these load development packs just a gimmick? I just can't see how a pack of 12 bullets can be enough to develop a good accurate load. If there is a better way that makes 12 bullets the perfect number, please share it with me because lord knows it would save me a LOT of money on bullets! ha ha.

 

[Dwh7271]

I'm kind of a bullet pig and like having lots of different ones around to try.
I agree with your analysis. I ladder at different powder weights until I find one or two that look promising and then mess with seating depth, so 12 normally wouldn't work.
I understand the idea but with the recent problems with availability 12 doesn't sound like a good number. What if it took 12 to find a load(I wish!) but I can't find anymore of that particular bullet? Then start all over with another 12?

 

[SJB358]

Me personally, I wouldn't waste my money on them. I would much rather have 50-100 of them. Even if you did fine a load in 12 bullets, getting the next 50-100 from the same manufacture could make a different load due to different lot #'s.

 

[DrMike]

Me personally, I wouldn't waste my money on them. I would much rather have 50-100 of them. Even if you did fine a load in 12 bullets, getting the next 50-100 from the same manufacture could make a different load due to different lot #'s.

Scotty is right. I've seen these packs, but I've never pulled out my wallet to pick them up. It costs more to package in smaller amounts, and we, the consumers, pay for that. I want to ensure that I have enough to work with to ensure that I get a load. Moreover, I like to ensure that I'm working with the same lot number, if possible.

 

[super-7]

They had an article on these in either Rifle shooter or Shooting times, about a year or so ago. From what I gathered these weren't for beginning reloaders or the start of load development, but more for guys interested in trying different bullets in a rifle they had all ready been playing with.
In other words if you had a 270 win and were using a load of 130 gr sst but whanted to try a barnes or a nosler or Berger , these sample packs allow you to do that. Also it's a seating experiment as they want .025" thou between each set of 3 .
I have never bought them but I can see there usefullness in certain situations.