Stop loading large batches of ammunition

crazyhorse said:
I can attest to not loading large batches. The guy I shoot with shows up with 200+ loaded rounds each time we shoot and inevitably always leaves with about 1/2 of it unfired. The next time we go he spends the first 30 minutes cussing and chasing the data that worked last time with the same ammo. It seems to show up when ranges exceed 600yds (300WM and 215 Berger).

Ill also say that I learned to listen to Alex when I tried his 100yd tuning method and in one range session I fixed a problem Id been chasing for weeks on a 7RM. To shoot out to 1200yds I have to travel a couple of hours but have a 100yd range 5 minutes from the house. I was experiencing good accuracy but wild ES swings and knew that I needed to reduce the ES before getting out to distance. After trying his method (the one recommended if you can only shoot 100yds) I now have a load with the same great accuracy and single digit ES!
Click to expand...
Would you care to share what his fix was.
 
I have a lot of "varmint" rifles/pistols I use to shoot Prairie Dogs, coyotes and other critters. There are 6 different calibers. Normally load about 1200 to 1500 rounds up for each during the winter and replenish during the "season" as needed. Granted I am only shooting out to about 400 yards. Weather can change in a heartbeat where I hunt (NE SD and WY). But it is not really precision long range hunting/shooting. Now my Deer/Antelope rifles I try to work up the best load that I can and maybe load 20 rounds up to carry with me. As I can only harvest one Antelope and 2 Deer, I really don't need a lot for that year. I will use what is remaining the next year as a start point for my new load development.
Only real long range shooting I do (out to 1200 yards) in BPCR. For most competition you need a minimum 40 rounds. So I load up 100 rounds - 40 for the match and the rest for "sight in". That will be sufficient for what I do. I will carry extra brass, bullets, primers and powder along with my reloading gear with me for that in case something changes or I need to make some modification.
Also Keep Good Records about your load, weather, altitude, barometric pressure, wind, sight settings and other data. I carry a tablet computer with me to store this data for each match so I always have the data close at hand.
I am an amateur and in no way consider myself a "crack" shot like most people here. But I am trying and pick up a lot of good information from this forum.
 
Last edited:
460 magnum said:
Would you care to share what his fix was.
Click to expand...


Its been a minute but Ill try to remember. Hopefully he will chime in and correct anything I get wrong. I already knew my max charge which helped cut some steps.

Using a horizontal line across a target @ 100yds (I used a Sharpie and a ruler) draw a line with aiming points. I loaded in .5gr increments and fired each round at a different dot progressively across the line (Think I had 7rds starting at the bottom til max).
Note the impact points from lowest to highest across the line and pick the one as close to the middle as possible. After identifying the "middle" using .5 increments, I used that particular load and went in .2gr increments for a couple of rounds on both sides of the number and repeated the process on a new line. After firing the second round across the line, take the "middle" and check for ES/SD. I already had a seating depth the rifle seemed to like so I used it consistently so as not to add other confusing variables. The result for me was an ES of 9!
 
I guess it depends on how you shoot and what caliber. One may stay"tuned" for the coarse of hundreds or thousands of rounds, others are almost always gonna be chased. My entire collection of rifles now consists of cartridges that are known for longer barrel life and easy shooting. I'll load 2-3 thousand rounds at a time over the winter for my varmint guns. 3-4 hundred for my fun guns, I always have 100 ready for my hunting rifles, but I usually will burn that up in a year or so. I like to shoot,
 
crazyhorse said:
I can attest to not loading large batches. The guy I shoot with shows up with 200+ loaded rounds each time we shoot and inevitably always leaves with about 1/2 of it unfired. The next time we go he spends the first 30 minutes cussing and chasing the data that worked last time with the same ammo. It seems to show up when ranges exceed 600yds (300WM and 215 Berger).

Ill also say that I learned to listen to Alex when I tried his 100yd tuning method and in one range session I fixed a problem Id been chasing for weeks on a 7RM. To shoot out to 1200yds I have to travel a couple of hours but have a 100yd range 5 minutes from the house. I was experiencing good accuracy but wild ES swings and knew that I needed to reduce the ES before getting out to distance. After trying his method (the one recommended if you can only shoot 100yds) I now have a load with the same great accuracy and single digit ES!
Click to expand...
Where can I find this method from Alex? Doing some load development right now and a lot of my shooting is limited to 100y, 600y but it's not very often I can get out that far.
 
crazyhorse said:
I typed it out as best I can remember a few posts above. Hopefully Alex will chime in if I screwed it up.
Click to expand...
Ah I missed it up there. Thanks for posting that, i'll give it a try.

My problem with tests like that is that it relies on my shooting ability which I don't think is good enough yet to rely on for things like this. If I'm shooting dots along a line and looking for the closest result to the line, i'm not confident that it's the charge throwing rounds high or low because it very well could be me. That's one reason I just switched to the saterlee method because you can just shoot each round into the dirt if you really wanted to because you're using velocity data to find your node. I'll still try this though and see what I get, if nothing else it'd be interesting to see if the results match the saterlee method.
 
For a super quick tune I use the satterlee method with follow up seating depth test. I load 10 shots in increments. The increments depend on case volume. Mine are typically 2 tenths each. My rounds are 30 to 50 grain capacity. I want the 10th round to be at max. I normally start seating at .010 off. I shoot them through a chrono and at separate dots on the target. I'm looking for a cluster of shots that don't speed up. Normally with 10 shots I find 2 nodes. Now here is where I differ from most. Say shots 1234 were the biggest node. Some would load between 2 and 3 and say they were in the middle and it will be good. And it will be good but not the best. I would take the bottom half of the node and dump it. Then load in the middle of the top half. So on example 1234 I drop 1 and 2 and treat 3 and 4 as my node. So I pick between 3 and 4. I have found the upper part of the node has much better sd/es. So now we have the node I load 3 at the . 010 and 3 at . 005 and 3 at . 015 and 1 shot at anything you like. I shoot these 3 groups and see what seating it likes best. The random shell I shoot before the 3 groups to help warm up the barrel. This method has found a great starting point in every gun I've tried it in. For a hunting gun this is all you really need to do. If it isn't shooting 1/2 at this time then change to a different powder or bullet or primer. It helps to know what works in your cartridge before you start. I always pick what I think is going to shoot. Examples are 300win mag I would do a 215 with h1000. Wsm I would do a 210 with h4350. 6.5 Creed would be a 140 class with h4350. It's not hard to research and find loads that work for many people. Then just do the 20 shot test. After the 20 shot test I do a comprehensive seating test for my match rifles. And when I find the best most tollerant depth I load various powder charges above and below my previous charge weight to find tune even further. Once you have the perfect seating depth you can do a 10 shot satterlee test for any powder or primer combo you want. Now as far as the paper Target goes I'm looking to see that the bullets in the node hit in the same places. If node 1 has all the bullets close to same impact point and node 2 doesn't then I just go with node 1. I know this is a long winded post but really it is a simple way to find a good tune.
Shep
 
okie man said:
I guess it depends on how you shoot and what caliber. One may stay"tuned" for the coarse of hundreds or thousands of rounds, others are almost always gonna be chased. My entire collection of rifles now consists of cartridges that are known for longer barrel life and easy shooting. I'll load 2-3 thousand rounds at a time over the winter for my varmint guns. 3-4 hundred for my fun guns, I always have 100 ready for my hunting rifles, but I usually will burn that up in a year or so. I like to shoot,
Click to expand...

In my case we had one rifle that we had to adjust the load for, all others worked and one still uses the same original load.

For 20 years now we've been using the 7mm-08 for silhouette and our loads are not barrel burners, we focus on accuracy and not velocity, that moght be a reason why. Like I mentioned before we still check the loads regardless. Might depend on the barel brand.
 
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