Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Competitive Shooting Load Development - when to do?

I've just had a 6x47mm Remington made up on a Rem 600 action with a light varmint taper barrel from Maddco with a 14" twist.
My question is this - when do you do your load development work, whilst fireforming cases, or is it best to fireform them all with a fair load, then do the load development with properly formed cases? Does it make a difference?
Any pet 6x47 loads would also be appreciated.

Thanks,
500J

Some people claim to have had issues w/ having 'found' a good load i.e. sweet spot or 'node' while using virgin brass, only to have to bump the load a bit (as much as 0.5gr) to get back in that 'sweet spot' again w/ fired cases. I don't know that I'd let that deter me, but I'd keep an eye out for it and be ready to deal with it

During my last 1K BR match I decided to fireform a bunch of brass in the Heavy Gun portion (three 10-shot groups plus sighters). I didn't want to "waste" the barrel by pounding bullets through just to fireform brass. Now I had already found a load and knew the unfired brass was shooting well. However, I was very suprised when I shot the smallest heavy gun group, won for agg, won for score, and had the highest single score, all with that unfired brass. Go figure...................................

Blaine,
Yeh, me too, don't seem to think it makes a huge difference, maybe for a pure benchrester who can tell the difference by a few thou in their groups, but for my shooting, which is mainly from field positions, I can't tell either, but thought the question posed could bring some interesting thoughts from out there.
500J

I have had very good luck with unfired but prepared brass with my 6.5x284-------so good in fact that I would rather use it but that is not possible!! Also when fire forming the more radical cases I use bullseye and a cotton wad in the mouth of the case and it has worked perfectly with everything from the big boys all the way to the 6ppc. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

500J,

I think 1000 yd BR is as "pure" as little BR <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Blaine,
Yeh, sorry about that, didn't quite come out how it sounded in my own head! Have never shot 1K b/r, only ever shot 1k with a Sharps 45-70, so can appreciate what you guys go through.
Did not mean to offend anyone here.
500J

No offense at all. You gave me the chance to call 100-300 yd BR "little BR", which I love to do......... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Blaine,

As I'm sure you know, the technical term for 100-300 yard benchrest is "point blank" benchrest. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Dave Rabin, point blank benchtrest shooter

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />