Reloading for accuracy (hunting only)

[roninflag]

the bullet does the work . the barrel quality and rifle quality affect the accuracy potential.

 

[Mikecr]

the bullet does the work . the barrel quality and rifle quality affect the accuracy potential.

And not just quality, but quality PLANNING behind that bullet.
You can build a gun with the very best in components, best builder, and it will still shoot no better than your plan summed with a little luck.

 

[16Bore]

Start kissing the lands if possible, run powder charges up to the maximum pressure you wanna work with. Tweak OAL and/or decrease charge if needed to find accuracy. That way you've only 2 directions to go instead of four.

Prep brass in big lots so that its consistant through development and make sure the rifles mechanicals are kosher. Nothing worse than chasing powder/bullets/prep, etc. when the problem lies elsewhere.

 

[Mikecr]

Start kissing the lands if possible, run powder charges up to the maximum pressure you wanna work with. Tweak OAL and/or decrease charge if needed to find accuracy. That way you've only 2 directions to go instead of four.

I don't know how many directions this is in reality, but I know it's tail chasing.
-Start kissing the lands (for no reason)
-run powder charges up to the maximum pressure (for no reason)
-Tweak OAL (from 'kissing the lands' to 'off the lands' will collapse pressure)(2 factors at once)
-and/or decrease charge (means and/or start over)

Prep brass in big lots so that its consistant through development

You want your best field representative brass for load development.
That's ~30 fully prepped and fireformed cases, and you can find best seating during the fireforming of them. With this, you can run an intelligible ladder, group shoot to validate chosen node, and then tweak seating a smidge to shape grouping (if warranted by then).
It should not take a lot of shooting to see that a combination will work or not.

 

[16Bore]

So you find your best depth by starting in the middle and working sideways? If you're at the longest OAL the throat or mag box will allow, you obviously ain't going longer.

 

[Mikecr]

If your seating is pre-established by the gun build, then all you can do is hope for the best.
Otherwise, take a look at Berger's seating depth test(pinned in this forum).

 

[gohring3006]

I prep my fire formed brass...
-neck size with my Fl die and deprime.
-trim and debur
-tumble
-clean primer pockets
-use shop air and blow the cases out.

Then the fun begins, I usually can find my initial load with about 18-20 rounds I start low and work up in .5 increments at mag length. The rifle involved is a sub moa gun so I look for charges that gives the tightest groups. Once if find my best group I load up some behind the the best charge weight usually 1.5-2 grns. And work back up in .3 grns. Past the best charge found in the first load work up depending on if it was a max load or not dictates how far. Then I tweak with seating depth if needed I can seem to always find a sub half moa load with this method. With little or no seating depth adjustment. With the bullets I prefer..

 

[MMERSS]

For the precision hunter why would one not spend just as much time and detail, if not more, with reloading and developing hunting ammunition as they would with the best of their target rifles? Unwanted precision during target practice and shooting is at most lost points. Unwanted precision during hunting may be the beginning of a very bad day. Build the very best ammunition possible as if it means something, because one day it just may.

 

[dkhunt14]

I start with the bullets in 10. Most guns shoot at their best right there and I only have one way to go to change. I take one case and keep reloading it and go up in powder charge to find the max. This way I only ruin one case. The reason is you don't want load at or over max. It will just give you trouble by sticky bolt and trash your brass. Most guns shoot at there best right near max because when pressure is up the powder burns cleaner. The VLD bullet loves it in the rifling. The BT and Hybrid sometimes like a jump. I do all my testing at 400 or 1000 because you need to see vertical and a lot of these bullets don't show much at closer distances. 95 percent of my guns shoot best at close to max charges and in the rifling 10 thousandths. I shoot almost all VLD's though. Then I load up 3 and test. The reason I use 3 is because if it won't shoot 3 there it won't shoot 5 any smaller. Then I will load 3 at touch. Then I will load 3 at 30 off. Then I will load 3 at 80 off. The gun will show you what it likes. This is about about 16 rounds and one of them will shoot better. Then I will take the better one and tweak the powder. First I research and find a powder that works well in my case. There is always one or two powders that really perform. Example is H4350 gives great accuracy in a 300 WSM and Varget shoots great in a Dasher. I would talk to other shooters and match shooters or google loads for my cartridge and read all I can. Matt

 

[ShootnMathews]

For the precision hunter why would one not spend just as much time and detail, if not more, with reloading and developing hunting ammunition as they would with the best of their target rifles? Unwanted precision during target practice and shooting is at most lost points. Unwanted precision during hunting may be the beginning of a very bad day. Build the very best ammunition possible as if it means something, because one day it just may.

Amen. I would rather have less accurate ammo for paper punching than hunting.

 

[gohring3006]

I can't find accurate hunting ammo without punching paper. LoL. I just don't settle on my loading I go for the best the rifle and I can do every time I load up a new load..

 

[16Bore]

If your seating is pre-established by the gun build, then all you can do is hope for the best.
Otherwise, take a look at Berger's seating depth test(pinned in this forum).

COAL can vary, throats don't get shorter..
Which is why I said to find the maximum pressure you wanna work with and start at the lands. If they can't be reached, then the mag box length is all you've got.

I don't think every fella here is slumming a custom.

Builds start with a dummy.

 

[Mikecr]

COAL doesn't matter. Our settings good or bad are based on cartridge base to ogive(CBTO) and this doesn't vary, we set it.
There isn't and never has been a reason to 'start at the lands'.
For many years folklore had it that VLDs had to be in the lands to shoot.. None of that was EVER true.
With a particular bullet you should do full seating testing right off the bat, and with best seating determined & set, you'll never have to mess it again(with that bullet), regardless of throat erosion.

Good builds don't start with dummies. They began with a plan.

 

[16Bore]

You can't change COAL without changing CBTO, or vice versa. Would love to hear your "plan" as there's quite a few fellas jamming lands.

I don't see how you do your "seating test" without starting at a known fixed point, such as the longest point that the chamber will allow, as in the lands (or slightly shorter, if that's your thing)

Same goes for charge weight. Is that just a guess?