Originally Posted by aalf
Originally Posted by mathman
Originally Posted by rcamuglia
Originally Posted by smokepole

Axtell is also the guy who touts the fact that he weighs his powder charges using a jeweler's scale to the nearest 0.02 grain, and claims that this makes a difference. I have no patience for such claims.
Had a discussion with one of the Nation's top PRS shooters about this very subject. He's been weighing charges to the granule and has seen SD's for strings of 30 rounds reduced to 8

OK, but can any improvement from this be reliably resolved on target?
Yes it can, except most people don't have the ability, equipment, or desire, to do so.

Here's 2.3" 1000 yard BR target:

[Linked Image]


It really comes down to accuracy requirements vs. time/volume of ammo production. For plinking, throwing a good load with my QM can get right around 0.5MOA accuracy or better, as shown in the group pics above. That is with a variety of barrels, ranging from factory to top end. But if I'm going to a LR competition, I'll take the time to weigh each charge with scrutiny. Same with the BR game, the accuracy requirements are higher, and the need to produce ammo in high volumes is lower.

Interestingly, the chrono results Rick quoted above show more meaningful SD values than most. When we start to get 30-50+ shots included in an SD calculation, that increases the confidence in the sample representing the load's performance. I think most guys who claim tiny SD's based on a few shots over the chrono, would be disappointed if they kept shooting until they had 30 rounds measured and factored into the SD value.