Hello all, here is today's article posted on TheArmoryLife.com. It is titled “Why Consistent Ammo is Accurate Ammo” and can be found at https://www.thearmorylife.com/why-consistent-ammo-is-accurate-ammo/.
Why Consistent Ammo is Accurate Ammo
- Thread starter Mike H.
- Start date
Retired Bum
Professional
The first thing I did to new brass was deburr the flash hole. One time operation.
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.
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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KillerFord1977
Emissary
TEXASforLIFE
SAINT
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.
Condition1
Master Class
Well if you made consistent bad ammo it would not be accurate ammo. 
Anchorite
Professional
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.
Anchorite
Professional
Yes, deburr and square the pocket.
Icepick Mike
Operator
Don't reload but should. Have had some wierd stuff happen with store bought ammo. Like the opening lines of this article, high end scope high end bolt action 308 and zeroed to the max iron site and scope. Rounds flying all over the place and I'm like is it me or what! Then figured out it was a bad box of ammo.
Weirdly finding better number from small primers vs large in some cases...
Anchorite
Professional
It's easy to get good cases, bullets, powder and tools to assemble them.
But the hardest thing is getting good, uniform primers. Primers vary
quite a bit across several lots; some much more than others. For ranges
of 200 yards or less, there's not much difference between primers, like
about 1/4 MOA in the groups they can produce for the most part. When
longer ranges are used, primer uniformity becomes more important.
I am blessed. I started reloading several years ago. Since then my wife and I have obtained several custom long range rifles. Reloading for us is relaxing. We Annel our cases, trim to length and develope loads for each gun a tenth of a grain at a time. Yes we probably have a little ocd, but what could be better than having a wife that likes to shoot and reload. The only problem is that she can usually outshoot me.