Reloading for precision

[Mountain Goat]

So mountain goat,if ya run your prepped cases thru the chamber as a QA step prior to loading would that eliminate the possibility of a case problem for your hunting loads. Thats what I do whether the cases are new, neck sized or full length sized. For hunting loads they get chamberd again after loading just to make sure. Anyway I can,t see any reason not to trust neck sized ammo as long as it chambers properly. Mountain Goat I don,t think you insulted anyone around here. Your comments will probably be well taken by most. :wink:

That's a wise step to take and it certaily works well for you. All my ammo gets the load and unload test before it gets put in the hunting box too. I guess more of the point made by all that have contributed to this thread is that there is more than one way to do things right and that will give good results.

As posted previously, the fun it what it is all about, and the different things that we each do are very much part of the fun!

 

[Antelope_Sniper]

Mountain Goat, there is was certainly no offence taken by your comments here. I just nice to have a new member to the forum.

My intent was to provide a guide to help folks be a little more efficent with their precious shooting money. AS with most guidelines, there will be many departures from reality. My .270 Win is an out of the box gun. I've freefloated the barrel, adjusted the trigger, and loaded for it as described in level 2. Since it shoots quarter inch groups, I've never felt any real need to bed it. I have two custom rifles, one is a hunting rifle, and like you I opted for a standard chamber on it. Yea, I'd like the increase in accuracy potential I could get from a tight neck, but rule one for any hunting/defense firearm is when you pull the trigger it must go BANG. My other is a tight throated .308. I often take it along as a back up long range rig. (For some reason it shoots BT's better then the match bullets, which give me a good excuse to take it along.) It will do in a pinch on a bright sunny day, but that flat bottomed benchrest stock isn't going to be carried very far into the woods. For similar reasons, I know guys that will only hunt with once fired brass. Personally I usually hunt with my 20x fired brass. After all that case prep, I'd like to get some use out of it before I get excited and eject it onto the ground. On other forms you might get flamed for choosing one brass option over the other, but here, we recognize that both idea's have value.

Some of the ideas i the guide will hold try to life. if you have 6 inches of parallax in your scope, a new set of competition dies is not going to help your groups! So If I've helped a few folks be a little more effiecent with their gun money, and have a little more quality time at the range, then I'm happy.

 

[barthowes]

Love the different grades of shooters. seems I'm all over the levels
I use an out of box savage 110 weather warior accu stock/trigger adjusted so a loud fart will set it off :lol: with a nikon monarch 2.5-10x42 on top ,Use only nosler brass once fired then neck sized with Lee collet type, either barnes 168TTSX or Nosler 168BT, standard rem 9.5 primers,RCBS competition seater to find that sweet spot,RCBS precision MIC for headspace, hand wiegh every load with a balance,and shoot everything over a chrony. Get .25-.5 MOA. so what level am I

 

[Antelope_Sniper]

so what level am I

You are at the: "I'm getting everything I can our of my equipment without spending too much money.", level. It's one of my favorites.

 

[hubcap]

I propose a waiver to level 3 based on sub moa for barthowes. :wink:

 

[Desert Fox]

As an example, one of the reasons that I haven't tried Berger bullets is because they recommend that they be seated just into the lands for best accuracy. I interpret this as a potential disaster waiting to happen while getting the shot of a lifetime during a rain, mud, snow, wind, hail. sleet dust and rust fest.

I don't think this is still the case. If you go to Berger website, they have an article there about seating the bullet farther away from the land. What they found out was that the VLD bullet will shoot just as well away from the land.

 

[bullet]

WOW!!! Guess I need to start over!!!! Just think what my accuracy would be since all my rifles after looking back in my records, and my average group size for my accurate loads across all calibers and rifles is .7689" (28 rifles in this number). If I just hadn't used those low to medium priced scopes on half of these rifles, and then there are those out of the box hunting rifles that have dominated my attention for all these years, WOW!! JUST THINK!!! I would have really had a good average. HEY!!!! I don't know about all that fine specialized reloading techniques unless you are shooting competition, and using a fine target rifle for that competition, I JUST HAVE FUN AND STILL HAVE GOOD ENOUGH RESULTS FOR ME!!! YES, IT IS ABOUT HAVING FUN AND HITTING WHAT I SHOOT WHEN HUNTING (of course unless I am trying to take a doe at 90yds with my muzzle loading pistol - now that was truly bad - I missed).

Now you want to talk precision when it comes to hand loading, GB300wm is one of the best and most meticulous, taking extreme care with his loads that I have ever known. He is good, that man can get it right. I can't wait for him to begin competition with his new rifle in the not to far future. I would never go to the extent he does but I don't and won't compete in competition either.

 

[Mountain Goat]

As an example, one of the reasons that I haven't tried Berger bullets is because they recommend that they be seated just into the lands for best accuracy. I interpret this as a potential disaster waiting to happen while getting the shot of a lifetime during a rain, mud, snow, wind, hail. sleet dust and rust fest.

I don't think this is still the case. If you go to Berger website, they have an article there about seating the bullet farther away from the land. What they found out was that the VLD bullet will shoot just as well away from the land.

I might check out their site, but it probably won't sway me to purchase. Isn't it funny how things always change, and sometimes the more they change, the more they stay the same.

This really is a great thread.

 

[Antelope_Sniper]

THe Bergers can certaily do the job with a jump to the lands. Big Squeeze says he's been killing pigs all over Kalifornia iwth Bergers and a Jump tothe lands. I haven't had very good luck with them yet, but that's just me. When it comes to bullet design, often, simple is better. The Berger with their 12-14 ogive, and exagerated boattail is a complicated design that introduces alot of it's own encentricities to the shooting equation. The .224 53gr open tip, flat base Sierra Match kings remains on of the most consistently accurate bullets just for that reason. I also believe that's why the BT's are such a consistent performer on paper. It's a simple design. It's and (almost) flat base, open tip design. The open tip is just closed around a plastic insert. Again, simple works. But if you are shooting long distance, say 600 yards+, it's no longer a simple task, and the gains may outweigh the eccentricities of the long strange bullets. It's just one more time as shooter we need to decide on simple vs a complex solution.