BallisticsGuy
Well-Known Member
You don't ever reach the end of the rainbow. This whole thing is just barbie dolls for people with testicles. If you don't want to play barbie then you don't spend on things that take more time, you spend on things that save time: Quality components, quality knowledge, quality tools, quality training.
I built my guns each for a purpose, originally. Each was meant to cover a distance envelope. After a while the notion hit me that what was limiting me was not my reloading equipment, reloading skill or reloading components but my factory barrels and me taking internet advice about things like jump distance which got me always into the weeds. When I stopped even bothering with factory rifle barrels then everything changed. Reloading with factory barrels was always a frustration but when I went to aftermarket barrels and eventually to custom reamers for those then the amount of effort needed to get bughole performance collapsed. Nowadays I use a pretty simple set of strategies.
I use BoxToBenchPrecision.com's load development targets which helped a lot staying out of the weeds. I set up my guns with barrel nuts so I can dial in zero headspace. I select chamberings with really straight body walls and relatively sharp shoulders to combine with the zero headspace and minimize brass growth. I use tight chambers to help with minimizing brass growth. I select powders/bullets/cases/primers before I even buy a barrel. I pick my powders by what delivers the velocity I want without huge pressures and which will fill the case to 90% or more (including bullet intrusion). Once I've found a load that delivers the groups and SD's that I want I don't futz around trying to do better. It usually takes me something around 15-25 rounds to find a load. I also don't continually reset variables so I do things like not deep cleaning my barrel almost ever. On gun setup I bed everything so the rifle rings like a bell when I cycle the action and with very few exceptions I don't buy parts for it that it doesn't need for what I'm doing. Overcomplicating things is what I see as the falling down point for most people in the long range game.
I built my guns each for a purpose, originally. Each was meant to cover a distance envelope. After a while the notion hit me that what was limiting me was not my reloading equipment, reloading skill or reloading components but my factory barrels and me taking internet advice about things like jump distance which got me always into the weeds. When I stopped even bothering with factory rifle barrels then everything changed. Reloading with factory barrels was always a frustration but when I went to aftermarket barrels and eventually to custom reamers for those then the amount of effort needed to get bughole performance collapsed. Nowadays I use a pretty simple set of strategies.
I use BoxToBenchPrecision.com's load development targets which helped a lot staying out of the weeds. I set up my guns with barrel nuts so I can dial in zero headspace. I select chamberings with really straight body walls and relatively sharp shoulders to combine with the zero headspace and minimize brass growth. I use tight chambers to help with minimizing brass growth. I select powders/bullets/cases/primers before I even buy a barrel. I pick my powders by what delivers the velocity I want without huge pressures and which will fill the case to 90% or more (including bullet intrusion). Once I've found a load that delivers the groups and SD's that I want I don't futz around trying to do better. It usually takes me something around 15-25 rounds to find a load. I also don't continually reset variables so I do things like not deep cleaning my barrel almost ever. On gun setup I bed everything so the rifle rings like a bell when I cycle the action and with very few exceptions I don't buy parts for it that it doesn't need for what I'm doing. Overcomplicating things is what I see as the falling down point for most people in the long range game.
