Load Development - 'or not...'

[AJMD429]

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Load development and reloading degrees of meticulousness seem to vary so much - here's another one that seems to say that much of the stuff we do is 'overkill'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfBAIM95fCM

Personally, I load with a level of meticulousness that is proportionate to the potential of the firearm/cartridge in question, capped by my own potential shooting ability. (That last factor is nearly always the limiting factor)

For a light-recoiling, heavy rifle, chambered in a cartridge that is 'inherently accurate' - I may get really picky.
For a heavy 44 Magnum load from a handgun, my (lack of) skill level is such that any load capable of shooting 60 minutes of angle (...is that an 'hour of angle'...???) is probably ok...

I've only had a couple of guns that really were so inaccurate that the GUN was the limiting factor.

[Griff]

For myself... I completely agree. when I load for target shooting I tend to pay closer attention to how consistent my components are: brass, bullets, primers, charge weights, and that they're assembled with meticulous attention to both process and measurements. For plinking, (and I include my cowboy action competition in this category), I am going for quantity vs. quality... so I don't do things like individually weigh bullets or powder charges... I might check powder charges every hundred rounds, and rarely check bullet weights... This also coincides with the fact it is loaded on a progressive machine vs. a single stage press. Hunting rounds are typically somewhere between the two. Before the electronic scale broke, I'd weigh individual bullets as it was quick and easy... now, I probably only weigh every 5th one. But, again, every powder charge is weighed, although I'm not as concerned if the scale tips to one side of the line or the other... unlike my target ammo. That gets dumped close to the target weight, then trickled up to the line. (Except for my BP target ammo... I've read and my experience is that a couple of tenths of a grain isn't that crucial in large volume BP rounds. I'm a little more careful with my .32-40 ammo tho', it gets precision weighed).

[Wolfshead]

I load the same for all my cartridges.
Probably not as meticulous as others, but I try and keep what I do as consistent as possible.
I don’t however weigh brass, bullets, and such. Maybe I should?
I clean all my brass by hand, and use a beam scale and weigh out each powder load by hand, on a Lee single stage press.

[Scott Tschirhart]

This was very interesting and informative. This guy is also a very accomplished shooter.

I don’t shoot long distances and I am mainly a hunter.

I used to handload to get better accuracy but factory ammo is much better today than it was back in the 1970s and 1980s. So I buy a box of .308 Remington 150 gr Cor Loct for my .308 and call it good.

Now I load for economy and I mostly load for cartridges that I really can’t purchase over the counter.

My current project is to get a really good thumper load for a .480 Ruger double rifle so it’s been fun and a little frustrating to try to get the barrels to group together. That’s what I do for fun these days.

[LeverGunner]

For rifles, I generally find a decent load and stop. I don't worry about fine tuning it because I almost never shoot from the bench. I most always shoot from various field positions. I do a lot of standing off hand shooting. So the level of accuracy of my loads out performs the level of accuracy I am able to obtain while shooting. From the bench, if I get less than 2" from a rifle at 100 yards I am satisfied. Sometimes I'll go farther, sometimes not, but I don't generally push for accuracy.

For handgun cartridges though, I take more care than most. I normally trim cases for consistent crimp. I try to keep cases of all the same lot as well. I can shoot a handgun pretty decent both standing and from a rest. I can hit 4" at 50 yards, and 8" at 100 with a handgun, and if your loads aren't up to snuff, they won't hold that.