Testing loads - Am I doing it wrong?

[Jayjay1]

Hello guys,
finding "the right bullet" for a new rifle.

I´m buying 3 or 4 bullets which fullfill my needs, and then I´m loading and testing them side by side.
That means I shoot 4-round groups with every bullet, one after the other, waiting around 1 minute to let the barrel cool down a bit after every shot.

Do you think that "mixing" the bullets is a bad thing, because of the different materials in the bullet jackets?
Will it cause worse precision and would it be better, to test only one bullet in a row, when finished clean the barrel, and than testing the next bullet?

 

[vh20]

I would not do it that way. I have seen fouling conditions affect impact point of a new bullet when fired from a barrel previously fouled with a different bullet.

 

[Maurygold]

Just buy Berger hybrid in your caliber and call it a day. You don’t need to test bullets

 

[OREGUN]

That seems like a lot of wasted components and time. Just pick a bullet, buy 100, do whatever load development you do and if you have a decent barrel and are using reasonably good reloading techniques, it will work. Doing small samples size tests side by side is likely not showing you anything anyways.

 

[Tugboater]

For me my brain doesn’t work that way. There is just too much going on there to stay focused on one thing. I research the bullet I’m wanting to load, then get after it. Unless the bullet I choose is obviously not going to work,, I don’t normally switch. I may try something later down the road that I want to tinker with, but would never try a bunch of different bullets at the same time.

 

[vh20]

Just buy Berger hybrid in your caliber and call it a day. You don’t need to test bullets

That’s a better answer than mine, and actually what I do as well. I load for only 3 cartridges. In each case I just picked a Berger and ran it: 300PRC (230gr), 300 Norma (245gr), and 338 Norma (300gr). My comment above about differences in impact from a barrel previously fouled with a different bullet comes mostly from when I might shoot some factory ammo occasionally and switch back to my loads. The first round with the new bullet (going either way) will usually impact somewhere a little off from the next rounds of the same bullet (usually low in my case).

 

[3rdfocal]

I gotta keep it simple when doing load development. I pick the bullet and powder I want to shoot, measure chamber and seat the bullet .010 off the lands (or max mag length if I can't reach the lands). Then shoot a ladder over a chrono, 3-5 round groups at increasing charge weights, usually in .3 grain increments (starting safe and moving up through where I expect to see too much pressure), usually around 10-15 total groups. I'm watching for a velocity node, group size, and pressure when doing this. I always find a velocity node or 2 when doing this, typically I will also see group size open and tighten as charge weight changes. I'd bet that 90% of the time, I find a load that I'm happy with at this point. If not, I'll generally go with the best velocity node and test powder charges around that velocity again. If I need to, once I've determined the best powder charge, I'll do a seating depth test and shoot groups working away from the lands in .010 increments. I rarely end up doing seating depth tests though. Not a great method if you're trying to shoot BR records, but finding a 1/2" load isn't very difficult with the quality of rifles and components we have and this quick method gets me there reliably. I will play with a load after I've been shooting it for a little while and am confident in what to expect, I'll load a few rounds to shoot a seating depth test or test charge weights around my node to see if I'm leaving something easy on the table.

With a good bullet, brass, and barrel, it should not be hard to find a load. A good barrel will seem like it just wants to shoot everything well. Research pays off when deciding what caliber/bullet/powder to go with, there are so many good "known loads" that we really don't need to go reinventing the wheel. I would only recommend changing and testing 1 thing at a time. I'd get confused if shooting different bullets at the same time.