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Why Consistent Ammo is Accurate Ammo

Yep, started reloading a few years ago as the Obiden Administration told the Lake City Facility they will no longer be making ammunition getting into civilian hands. Despite the fact it was only doing it between contracts for manufacturers like Winchester and Hornady to keep the workers and equipment running. Decided how hard can it be as knowing some pistol reloaders back in the day, it wasn't rocket science...
Well, I was wrong it is "rocket science" for a victim of OCD, as the shelves filled with equipment and powders, primers and bullets and such. Neck tension, seating depth for the jump, proper primer for the 160+ powders, the weight of the case and the effect on volume, trimming, annealing before sizing. Progressive reloader or not, dry tumblers ultrasonic cleaners, wet tumblers, proper measures...
In the end a good way to educate oneself over what it takes to make that arrow fly true. Then there is the archer.
 
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Retired Bum said:
The first thing I did to new brass was deburr the flash hole. One time operation.
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While i don't reload like a religion or religiously 1 does have to respect it like electricity! I don't go or have been full blown OCD about it yet, but have tried other methods just for a learning curve. Started with the Dillon 550B in '84 then added the 550C in 15 or 16. When I make room on the reloading bench I'll add an arbor press. Most of the way i reload is less than conventional compared to many others but it works for me.
 
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Shibadog said:
Serious rifle competitors for long range work measure every charge to the fraction of a grain, match bullets precisely by weight, etc. Doint this gives the best/most consistent ammo possible. The great the variability the less consistency you receive.
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I don’t know about serious long range shooters today, but I shot competitive benchrest for a number of years back in the 90s. If it was a match no one loaded beforehand, you loaded at the match because conditions always changed and you had to adapt. And we loaded with an arbor press and hand dies.

We bought bullets by the thousands and powder in 8lb kegs with the same lot number.

We didn’t measure every bullet or weigh every charge. Brass and primers were the “unknown” back then. That’s where we had to work. To this day I still hate turning necks. But brass has really improved as have chambering and machining. Tight necks are not as popular anymore.

The consensus was changing a component may or may not open up groups. Remember that a given rifling twist rate produces best accuracy for a given bullet within a fairly narrow velocity range. As a competitive shooter you had your specific barrel that was used with only one to perhaps three different bullet weights, that was about the extent of it.

And there were typically only one or two powder types that produced lowest velocity spreads that keep vertical stringing to a minimum in the PPC. Varying the powder charge weight a few tenths of a grain didn’t have much effect on accuracy. And I used a click measure and weighed once to get my clicks and set it and rarely ever weighed that powder again for that lot of powder.

Primers were probably the biggest contributor to poor accuracy in a properly built match rifle. If they were too hot and not very uniform in their seating, the ignition could be affected and the powder wasn’t burned uniformly from shot to shot. Primer mildness and uniformity were more important at the longer ranges of 200 and 300 yards in Sporter and HV. Good bullets and good barrels and good technique made a rifle competitive. A shooter that could read and adapt to conditions would clean everyone’s clock, every time.

In order of priority: seating depth, neck tension, powder choice and charge was how we rolled.
 
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