Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Maybe we obsess too much

Mike i agree 100% if I wanna change something I tezt it myself, I consider myself lucky I can lean on a very successful 1,000 BR shooter if have a gun that isn't were I want it all I have to do is text him a pic of my targets and he gives me suggestions after we text or talk about it.
I've also shot with him for a couple years alot when he does his testing which is usually Jan and Feb in Montana winters which aren't very pleasant we always set are targets up and everything ready and are shooting as soon as we can see. He would shoot at 890 and me at 700.
One mourning I watched him test 3 different firing control systems different bolts with different weight springs and pin dia. in his BAT action Light Gun, pretty eye opening at the rests. How many do that? or even measure pinfall, protrusion or change springs? My guess is not many.
I know some dont even own an annealer, couldnt tell you there runout because they don't measure it, use mandrels to open up necks because they don't want to disturb the carbon inside the neck its there lube albeit you have to turn necks for that or clean case only the outside they wipe it down with alcohol to get all the case lube off. Grip on bullet is another big one and only using inline dies to " feel" the seating force you can never do that with the " Competition " seater.
I'm not to the point yet were I use a force pack but if I feel any difference in seating a bullet the round comes apart and I start over. Everything I just mentioned was basically taught me by some really good 1,000 BR shooters because I asked questions and saw the results for myself on target not because some article, computer or number said otherwise.
People can believe this stuff or not it really doesn't matter to me but some just wanna attack you because some 9,10 20 year old article says different.

If you run a 6mm 105 Berger over there ballistics calculator at 2900 then at 2920 to 1,000 yards it should have 5" vertical but I've seen that shoot only 2" vertical.
My 6.5x300wsm waterlines at 2.5 wide x.5 vert at 665 with an E.S at 22fps, I do need to get it to stand up a little.

I do not doubt that. I have had a loads for past barrels (RIP) that seemed pretty immune to velocity spreads and I attributed that to the upward movement of the muzzle interacting with the exit time of the bullet. It is only recently that I have heard of the term "positive compensation". I am glad that I shoot sling (competition) and don't really need to be concerned about a lot of this. As a Professional Engineer I can appreciate it though.

Perhaps a thread on weight sorting primers?

Actually, the estimate of SD is ES/4. And that will be "rough".

Then to get a realistic estimate of the real world variance, you should use at least +/- 3 SD, or to be even more certain, +/- 6 SD.

MM

That would certainly explode some heads lol

Well, this thread has convinced me that some people are obsessive about some things. 😂

Could not have said it better myself.

Had a coworker that lived by the opinion that, if he could hit an 8 inch paper plate at 100 yards, he was good to go.

That entirely depends on your confidence requirement. Assuming a meaningful sample size, ES is well-described by a range of 6*SD (+/- 3 from the mean) that captures approximately 99.7% of the population. Using 4*SD captures 95% of the population, which is still a fairly good estimate of ES.

I think we sometimes forget that "back in the day" an accurate rifle was 1.5moa
and many "well known famous gun guys" were satisfied with 2moa

That particular famous gun guy was only THE Townsend Whelen......who needed/needs no introduction.

Care to venture a guess what a rifleman like him would do with our modern means and methods if he were alive and shooting/handloading/wildcatting today?