Reloading - Start to Finish

fruitnut said:

This article agrees. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crim...S&cvid=9af54efac6ab4349d188fa53423798e0&ei=51. Find the right combination of powder and bullet, and your 90% of the way home. Seating depth and all the other variables don't make much difference.

I'm also glad that people are beginning to realize that it takes about 7-10 three shot groups to really know how accurate any load combo or rifle really is. Selecting a seating depth for instance based one three shot group is a waste of components.

Those half MOA hunting rifles are mostly an illusion based on small group size.

Click to expand...

1. I start with a pressure ladder at 600yds with 2rds/chg wt to determine both max chg and to find the powder node (all at -0.015" off).
2. Using that node chg wt, I then do a course seating depth test at 200yds via 3rds/depth usually 0.015" increments.
3. Using that powder node and seating depth, will shoot 4-shot groups at 300yds (or sometimes 600yds) while testing 2 powder steps on each side of node (ie…if initially ladder showed promise at 60.0g I'll test 57.4, 57.7, 60.0, 60.3, 60.6). At this point I've usually confirmed my node and have an idea of sensitivity on each side of node as to confidence in stability (velocity & POI).
4. Then do a final fine-tuning of seating depth in 0.003" increments for 2 steps on each side of course seating depth found in step 2 (usually at 300yds). I now know window of seating depth and set my final load on the longest end of OAL so I have some room to still stay in seating depth window even as throat begins to erode a bit.