Custom Load Development Recommendations

I did, I used Haught Rifle Development.
Haughtrifles.com

Taylor is awesome and is very thorough
 
I've known guys that had ammo custom loaded. I've been stuffing ammo a long time. I can't imagine those custom ammo guys know more than the rest of us that been reloading for 40-50 years.

We were planning a hunt in South east Alaska back in the 90's. One of the guys which was my boss had a high dollar custom rifle that came with custom ammo. We shot it at the Carter Country range in North Houston. It shot a tick over MOA at best. He asked me to go back to the builder and talk to him about why it didn't shoot any better than it did. I said I'd save a trip. I'd go home scrub hell out of the barrel and since you don't hand load go by some premium bullets like Federal Premium. He insisted we go see the builder, so we loaded up.

Once we got to the builders shop it was the biggest **** show I'd ever seen. I looked at the ammo, bullets were seated all different OAL. I'd rather not name the builder, they are still in business in North Houston. I don't remember the load but it was barely bottom of the chart, might have been below bottom of chart.

The owner stuck the first Hawkeye borescope down the barrel I'd ever seen and said it's just fine. It was bad copper fouled I could tell that without a bore scope. The owner got smart with me so I pulled my target for my old beater 338 that was well less than 2 inches as I recall at 200 yds with a straight 6 power scope. I looked at the guy and said you can ******** him but you can't ******** me. I said spare me from the PacNor barrel shoots so fast they can be loaded down and don't need to be cleaned. I said all barrels need to be cleaned. I let him know I have rifles with match grade barrels. I pulled the bullets out of the box they had loaded, every other round was 1/8 inches different OAL. I said this is custom ammo, yeah right. I told my boss, let's get out of here and go drink beer.

My boss finally got his head out of his ***, bought some good bore cleaner, got the barrel cleaned up. Bought some premium ammo off the shelf and his rifle shot sub MOA. In fact it shot dang good.

I'm sure some of the custom ammo guys are really good. It makes sense for a guy working with not time or doesn't handload. Probably cheaper in the long run too.
 
droptine said:
I've known guys that had ammo custom loaded. I've been stuffing ammo a long time. I can't imagine those custom ammo guys know more than the rest of us that been reloading for 40-50 years.

We were planning a hunt in South east Alaska back in the 90's. One of the guys which was my boss had a high dollar custom rifle that came with custom ammo. We shot it at the Carter Country range in North Houston. It shot a tick over MOA at best. He asked me to go back to the builder and talk to him about why it didn't shoot any better than it did. I said I'd save a trip. I'd go home scrub hell out of the barrel and since you don't hand load go by some premium bullets like Federal Premium. He insisted we go see the builder, so we loaded up.

Once we got to the builders shop it was the biggest **** show I'd ever seen. I looked at the ammo, bullets were seated all different OAL. I'd rather not name the builder, they are still in business in North Houston. I don't remember the load but it was barely bottom of the chart, might have been below bottom of chart.

The owner stuck the first Hawkeye borescope down the barrel I'd ever seen and said it's just fine. It was bad copper fouled I could tell that without a bore scope. The owner got smart with me so I pulled my target for my old beater 338 that was well less than 2 inches as I recall at 200 yds with a straight 6 power scope. I looked at the guy and said you can ******** him but you can't ******** me. I said spare me from the PacNor barrel shoots so fast they can be loaded down and don't need to be cleaned. I said all barrels need to be cleaned. I let him know I have rifles with match grade barrels. I pulled the bullets out of the box they had loaded, every other round was 1/8 inches different OAL. I said this is custom ammo, yeah right. I told my boss, let's get out of here and go drink beer.

My boss finally got his head out of his ***, bought some good bore cleaner, got the barrel cleaned up. Bought some premium ammo off the shelf and his rifle shot sub MOA. In fact it shot dang good.

I'm sure some of the custom ammo guys are really good. It makes sense for a guy working with not time or doesn't handload. Probably cheaper in the long run too.
Click to expand...
.125" variance in COAL? I don't know if that is even possible.
 
Some people just don't have the time to do load development or even want to.
When I was working ( I'm retired) just over 20 years I worked out of state.
Might have had 2 to 4 days off each month. Staying in my trailer or hotel the rest of the month.
We should be trying to help each other not shame or put people down.We are all better than that.
Everyone lives a different life.
 
Elk Hunter 338 said:
DUDE!!! you would have to try **** hard to get that variance!! wow
Click to expand...
It was worse than that. My boss stood up 5 or 6 rounds up side by side on the counter. Looked at the owner of the shop, pointed at me and said he said this isn't right. Owner looked at him and said, it won't make any difference in the way it shoots. Todd, my boss said I've never loaded anything but shotgun shells but something doesn't seem right.

The part that blew my mind was the guy with a straight face saying how fast match grade barrels shoot and that rifle will shoot just fine like it is. They saying how you don't have to clean his barrels very often. I don't recall how many rounds Todd shot through that 300 win Mag, seems like he got 4 boxes/100 rounds with the rifle. When I shoot it he'd been to the range a time or two and never ran patch through it.

Todd called me a couple of days later and said these patches are coming out really blue. I said keep cleaning it till they aren't blue.
 
Some of the companies in this article will do custom load development and obviously those companies have the support of some serious shooters.
https://precisionrifleblog.com/2025/07/05/best-long-range-ammo-for-those-not-reloading/

My GAP rifles all came with information on Copper Creek Cartridge Company so GAP obviously thought they were capable of supporting the level of precision expected from their rifles.

Personally I prefer to roll my own and have found the experience gained from the effort over the years to be helpful but I can appreciate why some people's circumstances might not allow for handloading.
 
I get requests every summer for (Custom) ammo. Just as other's have said, these guys are super involved in work/ family, etc and don't have time to load, or the skills. I don't advertise any of this, the local GS owner gives out my number, or its friends of hunting buddies.
I tell them straight up exactly what I will and will not do. Tell them my fee and explain why its as high. Its thirty five miles to the nearest range where I can shoot without disturbing the peace of my neighbors.
The amount of time involved and the prep work.Working on their brass, annealing,ect,etc. Including completely cleaning their rifles of all carbon and copper.
Just about all are surprised by the time it takes to find the truly best load for their rifles.
I have a good idea of what's going to work best for X cartridge and bullet, but that's something they are paying for also.
Usual time frame for a good loading job is two or three days. Some of you younger guys may he able to do it faster, but I really pay attention to details.
 

Similar threads

Ingwe
Load Development Service.....Recommendations?
2
Replies
18
Views
2K
RockyMtnMT
RockyMtnMT
L
Custom Load Development
2
Replies
16
Views
8K
bigngreen
B
M
Custom load development suggestions
Replies
4
Views
631
Phil Rizzo
Phil Rizzo
GuroChris
load development
2
Replies
15
Views
2K
nealm66
nealm66
thaught
Load development
Replies
5
Views
2K
thaught
thaught

Recent Posts

Back
Top