Reloading for accuracy (hunting only)

[Bigeclipse]

Hey all you reloaders out there. I wanted to come here with a kind of weird question. I know EVERYTHING in reloading can effect accuracy but if you had to rank the following for importance how would you do it...I think this could be an interesting thread and hopefully I include everything in the list below:

1. Powder charge accuracy (how close do you really need to be)
2. Bullet (do you weigh all your bullets and check ogive lengths and such)
3. Dies (brand types)...are high end expensive ones needed?
4. Bullet comparators and other tools for bullet seating
5. Case preparation... Now for this one, we all do some sort of preparation but how extreme is needed to obtain great hunting accuracy but not competition accuracy. For example...tumbling/ultrasonic cleaning, resizing, trimming length of cases to be identical within .002 of each other, primer pocket depth reaming, flashhole deburring...etc what is really needed to try and achieve say .5-.75MOA accuracy from a rifle that will do it with the right load.

anything else I missed...again, I know for everyone this can be a different story (some people want all the accuracy they can get and do not care the time it takes or money, others are only shooting 200-300 yards so are happy with 1.5 MOA) but if you were trying to work a load for a hunting rifle out to medium distances such as 500 yards (where .5-.75 MOA accuracy is desired)...what would be your process for working those loads?

 

[matemike]

I'd put primers in there as #2 and move everything else down one.
Then I'd put a good micrometer as #3 because it is such a valuable tool. Checking lengths, especially COAL and ensuring they are correct will greatly affect accuracy as well as proper feeding.

 

[g0rd0]

first, the powder charge. I weigh every charge. I set my measure .2grn low and trickle up
As for weighing bullets I weigh all cast bullets, but, when I open a new box of jacket bullets I weigh 5 if they come in at the same weight good, if not I weigh all of them noteing down the weights model of scale and lot number on the box then let the manufacturer know. (in almost 50 years of reloading this only happened once).

Bullet comparitors, nice expensive tool but unless you are into long distance target shooting not needed. What I do with each lot number I take 1 and using a resized case lube the inside of the neck and chamber that 1 (as you chamber this dummy the rifle will seat the bullet on the groves) . You now know the max length for your rifle with that bullet load 5 (using sudgested start load of course) at 30"thou shorter, 5 at 25thou shorter, then 20thou, 15thou,10thou. Shoot them and you will have your best seat depth for that recipe, now tweek the charge for the best results. Hint once you know what your rifle likes take the dummy and seat the bullet to the favorite oal and keep it for setup reference until your supply of that lot number of bullets

 

[g0rd0]

case prep, I resize, clean primer pockets, trim, champher then tumble every time. Every 5th load I anneal. I also neck size only (except after annealing I then FL size)
I hope this helps

 

[Lefty7mmstw]

1. bullet
2. bullet
3. bullet
4. primer- is it enough for the intended charge
5. powder and charge
6. case- are they safe to load and are they rather uniform

If your barrel doesn't like the bullet no matter what you do with the rest you will still have a crappy load.

Your dies matter in the fact that you need safe and square brass/ reloads; any of the known die brands will work but people have their preferences.

 

[Bigeclipse]

1. bullet
2. bullet
3. bullet
4. primer- is it enough for the intended charge
5. powder and charge
6. case- are they safe to load and are they rather uniform

If your barrel doesn't like the bullet no matter what you do with the rest you will still have a crappy load.

Your dies matter in the fact that you need safe and square brass/ reloads; any of the known die brands will work but people have their preferences.

How do you determine if your rifle simply hates a particular bullet? As in at what point in the developing a load process do you say ok its not the load, powder, primer combo but the bullet choice? Lets say you have a brand new rifle that you want to load for. You pick a bullet, powder combo that "should" work. You, check pressure load of book values and all are safe (you test 1 round in .5 grain increments up to max) Now what is you next steps? Do you load 3-5 rounds of different powder charges pick the most accurate and then mess with bullet seating depth?

 

[Bigeclipse]

1. bullet
2. bullet
3. bullet
4. primer- is it enough for the intended charge
5. powder and charge
6. case- are they safe to load and are they rather uniform

If your barrel doesn't like the bullet no matter what you do with the rest you will still have a crappy load.

Your dies matter in the fact that you need safe and square brass/ reloads; any of the known die brands will work but people have their preferences.

first, the powder charge. I weigh every charge. I set my measure .2grn low and trickle up
As for weighing bullets I weigh all cast bullets, but, when I open a new box of jacket bullets I weigh 5 if they come in at the same weight good, if not I weigh all of them noteing down the weights model of scale and lot number on the box then let the manufacturer know. (in almost 50 years of reloading this only happened once).

Bullet comparitors, nice expensive tool but unless you are into long distance target shooting not needed. What I do with each lot number I take 1 and using a resized case lube the inside of the neck and chamber that 1 (as you chamber this dummy the rifle will seat the bullet on the groves) . You now know the max length for your rifle with that bullet load 5 (using sudgested start load of course) at 30"thou shorter, 5 at 25thou shorter, then 20thou, 15thou,10thou. Shoot them and you will have your best seat depth for that recipe, now tweek the charge for the best results. Hint once you know what your rifle likes take the dummy and seat the bullet to the favorite oal and keep it for setup reference until your supply of that lot number of bullets

So lets say book value min is 52grains and max is 56grains. You will do all your different seating depths around 52 grains...pick most accurate then start upping the charge (assuming your charge is safe)? Doesnt this mean you will typically have a lower end loads for velocity? I thought best way was to shoot groups of different powders at same seating depth. Which ever is most accurate...use that and then mess with seating depths to go for even better accuracy...

 

[g0rd0]

if you wish to have a shelf full of different powders by all means drive yourself nuts. But, for hunting you might want to go with a popular powder for that cal add a good bullet and work up a single load.
Example, 7mm rm likes IMR7828, IMR7828ssc, RL22 and RL25.
I choose IMR7828, a 150 grn ETIP and CCI mag primer find my max OAL reduce by 30 thou add primer and 61.5 grn powder, then follow the 005thou inc. until I have the best group with that load.
Lets say it is 15thou off the groves, I now load 5 x 62.0, 5x 62.5, 5x63.0, ect, up to 67.0 all to 15thou off the groves.
Go to the range and shoot some paper. As I progress up in charge I am of course looking for signs of high preasure, there where no signs and 67.0grn shot the best group at 3/4" 5 shot group. The bullets that I loaded had no problem cycleing through the mag or feeding issues, why would I look any further for a 150grn bullet?
Now if I was to go to 175 grn bullet I would choose RL22 and repeat the process.
By the way the powder load I gave you may or may not be a good load, so if you choose to try this powder and weight confirm it first, I just pulled it out of the air

 

[Lefty7mmstw]

I'll usually shoot a given bullet with both a single base and a double base powder and play with seating depth a bit to see whether it likes a jump or jamb. If I can't find sub moa grouping after two powders and load run ups with a jump and a jamb, I'll move on to another bullet.
Another thing I do before I decide a load is good is to shoot it in multiple temperatures to make sure something isn't funky. This is more important with powders with more temp. variability, but even with the more temp. uniform powders things can change with other variables such as barrel stiffness. An example is my 7rum with 171 barnes and retumbo. In freezing temps it is a 1/2 moa load, but at 70 degrees it barely holds moa.

 

[Mikecr]

4 things I believe here;
-A good plan is most important, and this always begins with the bullet.
-Best seating depth is very important for normal pressure cartridges.
-Pressure is very important for underbore cartridges.
-ACCURACY is more important for hunters than competitors.

Underestimate neither great resources nor the luck invested in an accurate hunting gun
(I've seen a sickening amount of both)

 

[Kansaswoodguy]

Tumble brass till it shines
Resize/ deprime
Trim to length/debur
Sort brass by manufacturer do not mix brass, manufacturer does not matter
Clean primer pockets/flash holes maybe if you feel like it unless bench rest shooting not sure it worth the time.
Reload using common powder/ primers for caliber your loading
Very COL by a .01" increments try and find the sweet spot if not found change something like primer,powder, powder charge , bullet ect...

Remember changing anything in reloading changes everything in reloading

 

[pods8]

The easy/cheap things I certainly control.
Powder charge: no reason to be sloppy here, if loading alot I use a powder thrower to toss the majority of the powder (if just a couple I spoon it out) but then trickle the final charge in with it measured on a balance scale.

Bullet: For hunting I buy decent bullets and get a few boxes so I'll have the same lot number for a while to use. For the ranges I shoot I don't take the time to weight sort.

Dies: I'm just running RCBS and Hornady stuff currently.

Comparator: I use dowel rod with a bushing I can screw down on it to measure COAL on my gun for a given bullet and I measure a couple. It certainly isn't as good as measuring the ogive directly but works for now for me (something to upgrade later).

Cases: I sort by headstamp and also verify the weight is in the same ballpark (I have some old FC brass that is 20-30gr different than the new stuff so I segregate those two). Initially I ream the flash holes but that only needs to be done once for a group of brass. I full length resize since this is hunting and I want clean feeds (and I can loan ammo out too depending on what seating depth I used). I do have a tumbler now, mainly for cleaning easily. I just use the basic lee trimmer each time if there is material that needs to be removed it does it. I brush the primer pocket just to make sure its clean.

Using the above WITH PROPER LOAD DEVELOPEMENT, I just shot dime groups this weekend from 2 different guns at 100yds with some Barnes (LRX & TTSX), I'll go ahead a call the great for practical hunting accuracy until I step into the 500+yd game.

How do you determine if your rifle simply hates a particular bullet? As in at what point in the developing a load process do you say ok its not the load, powder, primer combo but the bullet choice? Lets say you have a brand new rifle that you want to load for. You pick a bullet, powder combo that "should" work. You, check pressure load of book values and all are safe (you test 1 round in .5 grain increments up to max) Now what is you next steps? Do you load 3-5 rounds of different powder charges pick the most accurate and then mess with bullet seating depth?

I run a .5gr single shot ladder just looking for a max charge. Then I back off of that and load a .2gr ladder for '06 cases and a .1gr ladder for '08cases across 10-15 single loads. I then shoot these down range at the same type of target, usually 3 per target (I can log each hit individually through the scope usually with 3 or less). I record velocity along the way too. In the end I look for a band of charges that had good velocity signs and point of impact similarity (you can look between aim points if that group was split between two). With it I have a bunch of "like charge" 3 shot data to look at. From there I'll grab some of the charges that looked like a sweet spot and load up 3-5shot groups depending on how strong I feel the load is (why shoot 5 on a whim group, I can always load more of them later to verify if it turns out better than expected). That usually get a load a bulk of the way there. Then its messing around with seating depth and shooting it enough to verify its consistent.

Some bullets never really settle in with the powder or two I try (IE have) and lately bullets are easier to get than powder so I've walked from a given bullet versus looking for a different powder.

 

[pods8]

Sort brass by manufacturer do not mix brass, manufacturer does not matter

See above, it certainly can depending on era. So if you get once fired brass form an unknown origin you need to give them a quick weight check (I just set each quickly on the digital scale and make sure nothing is notably different). But once that is weeded out yeah I don't weight sort brass down to the gnats ***.

 

[Power]

Once you have a load or two you like shoot at the longest range you expect to shoot at game. For me this is 300 yards. I've seen more than one of my pet loads just go to crap at 300 yards and I've seen loads that shoot 1/2" groups at 200 yards shoot worse at 100 yards. So best to punch paper as far as you can to be sure your load is up to the task you might ask of it.

Most of my accuracy differences have been tied to different powders. COAL and bullet are easy enough to determine after a number of shots but finding the right powder for your gun takes time and money. I've tried RL 22, IMR4830, RL17, H380, and IMR4350 and the last one is finally doing well in my 300 WSM from 100 - 300 yards.