Questions

[cheygriz]

These subjects have generated much heat and little light on the "general purpose" gun forums, so I thought I would ask the real experts.

Do you weigh individual powder charges, or throw from the measure??

Do you anneal case necks regularly, or only when forming brass from another calibre?

I've noticed over the last 10 or so years there is almost a whole new industry devoted to automatic powder tricklers and high production annealing tools.

I've never used either, but the younger reloaders that I know tell me that I'm behind the times and need to come into the 21st century.

 

[dmort]

These subjects have generated much heat and little light on the "general purpose" gun forums, so I thought I would ask the real experts.

Do you weigh individual powder charges, or throw from the measure??

Do you anneal case necks regularly, or only when forming brass from another calibre?

I've noticed over the last 10 or so years there is almost a whole new industry devoted to automatic powder tricklers and high production annealing tools.

I've never used either, but the younger reloaders that I know tell me that I'm behind the times and need to come into the 21st century.

What are you currently doing and are you happy with it.....how much do you shoot?

I don't shoot benchrest but still pursue accuracy....your questions are pretty generic.....let's wait for advice from folk's who are really qualified.

Mort

 

[vtmarmot]

When I was a motorcycle guy.....

I read or heard that "meticulous preparation is the modus operandi of professional motocross." I was not much of a motocrosser, but I did compete in enduros, and the same thing applies there.

I'm not much of a benchrest shooter, but I think you will find highly successful benchrest shooters that only throw charges at the range, and those that auto-trickle and preload. Likewise, there are those that anneal after every shoot and those that never anneal and everything in between.

Whatever they're doing, the successful shooters are doing it consistently and with precision.

 

[alinwa]

These subjects have generated much heat and little light on the "general purpose" gun forums, so I thought I would ask the real experts.

Do you weigh individual powder charges, or throw from the measure??

Do you anneal case necks regularly, or only when forming brass from another calibre?

I've noticed over the last 10 or so years there is almost a whole new industry devoted to automatic powder tricklers and high production annealing tools.

I've never used either, but the younger reloaders that I know tell me that I'm behind the times and need to come into the 21st century.

In the game of Bench Rest there are two disparate fields..... Short-Range (ie group/score out to 300yds) and Long-Range (group/score 600yds and beyond) and the needs are quite different.

In Short-Range games pure raw intrinsic ACCURACY rules the day. Accuracy trumps BC. No long-range setup can possibly be accurate enough to be competitive at 100-200. If Long-Range setups COULD compete at short-range it stands to reason they would rule the day.

But long, high-BC bullets aren't accurate like short ones.....accurate bullets are short..... and fly like pianos, they basically fall apart beyond 300yds.....

Conversely, the long-range high BC bullets just fly better and better with distance.



Annealing and weighing charges are touted as ways to reduce Extreme Spread (velocity spread). ES is generally considered to be unimportant (and easily accommodated for via vibration tuning) at short ranges out to 300yds but at long range when 5fps velocity difference can equal an inch or more of gravity drop-induced vertical, it becomes a factor.


Annealing also works for some to extend case life.


The winning shooters all have opinions and combinations that are working for them, and MANY of them browse here or have browsed thru the years but it's the height of shooting season right now. We can ask, but few will answer

 

[cheygriz]

Thanks alinwa. Guess I'll have to wait for winter!

I've never shot bench rest, but I do load target and varmint to be as accurate as I can get them.

I've had excellent results without weighing charges or annealing, but there is so much heat about this subject on other forums, I started getting curious and decided to ask!

One more question, if I may.

When doing load development, I start with a clean barrel, fire two fouling shots into the backstop, then fire five rounds for group.

I clean the bore, allow at least 5 additional minutes for cooling, then repeat. Average of five, five shot groups is my "group size."

This has worked well for me over the years, but like everything else in life, I wonder, is there a better way???

 

[alinwa]

wind flags.....

if you ever get a really accurate rig you'll need wind flags

If you want to have just one "wind flag" get'cherself a Begg's Wind Probe and a half-dozen 4ft wood stakes with a roll of surveyor's tape