What's REALLY going on during load development?

[secondofangle]

We treat load development as if the reloading process is the only independent variable.

What if, as we improve our load, what's really happening is that changes in barrel (breaking in or fouling pick your poison) or bedding or shooting or neck rather than full length sizing that are also changing as we shoot more and more rounds for development are the real variables that lead to load improvement over time?

Has anybody ever taken a load that shoots really really well and then intentionally deconstructed it - by which I mean work backwards and change all the things one by one that you THOUGHT were making it shoot good (primer powder seating depth neck turning case sorting etc) - to see if it's really so sensitive to those things as you thought? If it's not then it implies that other TEMPORAL factors during load development were key rather than the load itself.

One of these days when components aren't so scarce and I have some time on my hands....

 

[40xs]

Everyone has varying driving forces and levels of satisfaction. Personnaly, once I find a load that satisfys my wants the only thing I consider changing is maybe a better bullet and seating depth dependant on that ogive. I really don't care how I arrived at the sum of all components, just the results that they offer. Just my .02 worth.

 

[secondofangle]

But how many shots does it take to find the load u want?

 

[djskit]

I have 3 barrels in mind - all in 6.5 CR,
1) Brux - load developed over shots 5-30, picked one, never looked back
2) Bartlein 5r - load developed within 50 rounds, after about 300, speeed dropped but stayed tight
3) Brux Load developed within 50 rounds, but had bursts of squirrliness, vertical strining, etc. After 200 rounds, load develop again, same load as before held tighest and took it to a match - now the "most accurate rifle I have ever owned"

 

[40xs]

Early on I asked and listened to successful shooters about what they were using. I tried the same components and similar loads tweeked to my gun. Generally, a load that works well in numerous other guns will work well in yours , when fitted to your chamber. I settled on Varget powder and Berger bullets for my F/tr matches. It's hard to improve on success. I'm not going to say what my load is, mainly because it's a little "warm" and every chamber is different and I only get about 3 loadings on a case due to loose primer pockets.

 

[JoshcBoucher]

I understand your point. Another thought to ponder. I retired and time became less of a constraint. I found myself getting more and more "inquisitive" about my reloading. I started moving up in smaller increments, in charge weights. Played with COL a bit more. Tried different powders ( also due to the shortage}. These days I'm going to the range with about 200 rnds, to try out. A BIG reason is that it gets me out of the house and is good quiet time, away from the wife. One of the reasons why she doesn't like it, when I get a new gun, because I go into "load development mode". It sounds better than" Honey, I'm goin to the range, to jaw with the guys." So I embrace your thought, and may try it.

 

[secondofangle]

Yeah, the idea is, if you have a bullet you wanna shoot and a powder that a lot of guys shoot with that bullet/cartridge, and you load it to the lands and it's 1 MOA, do you say, good enough for now, it will settle in as I shoot/clean over the first 100+ rounds, or do you keep tweaking the COAL and try different powders and primers and neck turn and on and on and on.....if the former path leads to the same place you can save yourself a lot of headache and relax and enjoy the shooting.