Anyone else frustrated with reloading?

[BryanAustin]

It has taken me a few years to find a sweet load......and it still groups 10" at 250 yards!!!!

 

[Nealm66]

Sure sounds like you’re were doing everything good enough for 1 moa. Looks like the new rifle shoots pretty good. In my first few reloading years, I had some excellent loads that , looking back, they came about with luck and persistence( trigger time). I think it was tougher back then. That 300 win mag with no brake kicked like a mule so I got to where I could feel a bad shot. I’d load 4 shot groups and would only shoot 2-3 but have the 4th for the one I might have pulled. Also helped a lot being at a range where there was some competition guys once in a while and not being shy about asking questions. I remember those guys shooting clay pigeons at 600 yards and then shooting the chips. I finally feel I’ve reached that level myself and its actually feels really rewarding. I guess the best advice I could give is persistence and never stop learning. If you find a load, switch bullets and make them shoot.

 

[Zappaman]

I enjoy the actual reloading process. I get frustrated/ stressed out with the load development more than anything. It seems the only time but I’m able to go out and shoot it’s either 106°, raining, or 15 to 20 mph winds with 25mph gusts.

You must be from Kansas!!! -but the best way to figure the wind is to shoot in it And, this is why I'll take a 243 over a 223 for varmint loads-- as it "bucks the wind" better for sure.

 

[minengr]

When I was reloading on a regular basis, I found it quite calming and peaceful. However, it has been several years since my dies got any use. Mostly because I landed, and since quit, a job at a DOD medium caliber munitions plant. After dealing with projectiles, primers, cases, and propellant 8+ hrs/day, the last thing I wanted to do was look at that stuff when I got home. It being the most unorganized and poorly managed operation I'd ever worked at did help matters. But, it was cool to make those 30mm hei GAU-8 / A-10 rounds.

 

[mvrk28]

You anneal after you size? No judgement, I have just always assumed everyone does it before sizing. Is there a reason for why or just because thats what works for you?

I anneal after every firing and I don't expand the necks until after annealing. In all honesty, my reasoning is mostly cosmetic, I like shiny brass with annealing marks. You can't polish brass and keep annealing marks so I anneal after polishing. Since I anneal after every firing, the brass hasn't been work-hardened too much to size the case and bump the shoulder back.

 

[Vern400]

A good friend of mine had a really good shooting factory 700 in 30-06.

This thread will have little value beside blowing off some steam and seeing if this is typical among other reloader as…

I’ve been reloading for approx 4 years. I’m self taught by reading many different forums, books, asking questions on forums and watching YouTube videos. However I’ve never felt like I’ve really hit the nail on the head with reloading…

I’ve got a browning 270 win that likes about any factory ammo minus a few (nosler 130 accubond to name one). A few years ago I worked up a load that shot decent (around 1 MOA at 100 yrds with an ES of approx 20-30fps, 130 Nosler BT with 58.3 grains of H4831sc). I recently went back to this load and the gun doesn’t like the load at all anymore?? I tried with a clean barrel and a dirty barrel but it was around 1.5-2.0 MOA on several different days. Factory ammo still shoots sub MOA in the rifle.

I have a 308 that is picky but I was able to find a 5 shot under 1 MOA load that it liked (155 Scenar and 41 grains of benchmark) and I shot several different groups over a month to make sure it liked that load… well as it would have it, that load is starting to fall apart on me again and open up just like my 270 did….

I try to keep my reloading process as consistent as possible. I push the should back a few thou with a FL die, trim/chamfer everything regardless of the length of the case, take my time and measure each of my powder charges on a frankford scale, load the batch of ammo to within a few thou of COAL and use high quality brass, primers, powder, bullets, etc. I’ve checked my scale base and scope rings several times on both rifles and there’s never any issue with them. Scopes are high quality $500-$1000 scopes (vortex, Zeiss, leupold).

However, regardless of my efforts, I continually get 1.5-2 moa loads with ES of +-25 with 3-5 shot groups. Any one else in the same boat? Has anyone found the light at the end of the tunnel? Lol


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A good friend had a really good shooting 30-06 in a factory 700 Remington rifle. He had maybe 2,000 rounds through it. Suddenly, the group size is tripled. He tried everything he could think of and finally took it to a gunsmith. The gunsmith looked at it for 2 seconds and said the barrels pitted. My friend argued with him, and said no I keep it oiled and all that stuff. The gunsmith said I can tell you what happened. You got done with deer season last year and decided you're going to needed a good cleaning so you probably cleaned it down to bare metal, oiled it and put it away. When you pulled it out it didn't shoot anymore. My friend said yeah, that's exactly what happened. He said that copper fouling and stuff was filling up the pits, in a superficial cleaning didn't change much because it's been in there for years. But once the pits were open it quickly eroded the accuracy. The gunsmith says he sees a lot of rifles like that. My friend installed a new barrel and the gun is shooting in the .4 to 0.7 range. Sometimes, that happens. I've got a 308 the same way because I hunted the coastal Islands many times in georgia. Even when you oil your rifle everyday it can happen. So even if you've got everything perfect with your reloads there's more than one way for a barrel to go bad. It's worth checking anyway, definitely with a gunsmith that knows what he's doing, and doesn't necessarily want to touch your rifle.

 

[wapitibob]

I was frustrated for many years.
A new barrel, trued action, and Hammer Hunters changed all that.

 

[TheGDog]

When you are shooting, and you report the groups "opening-up". Would you say that it appears as though the impacts are flip-flipping, sometimes at each consecutive shot, sometimes not though, about some invisible vertical axis line that runs thru the bullseye you're holding the crosshairs on?

That's what I had happen when unbeknownst to me I had a single allen screw in the mounting rings strip it's threads a little during assembly.

Was driving me nuts too! You'd be going along and they're printing reasonably within what you perceive your skillset to be... and then... WTH?... why is it over there now!? Then... it might actually stay over on this other side for a few shots before it then flips back over to being centered more on "the other side of the fence".

Just depended of whether or not the recoil of the prior shot cause the scope to shift any within the mounts.

 

[Cutknife]

When you are shooting, and you report the groups "opening-up". Would you say that it appears as though the impacts are flip-flipping, sometimes at each consecutive shot, sometimes not though, about some invisible vertical axis line that runs thru the bullseye you're holding the crosshairs on?

That's what I had happen when unbeknownst to me I had a single allen screw in the mounting rings strip it's threads a little during assembly.

Was driving me nuts too! You'd be going along and they're printing reasonably within what you perceive your skillset to be... and then... WTH?... why is it over there now!? Then... it might actually stay over on this other side for a few shots before it then flips back over to being centered more on "the other side of the fence".

Just depended of whether or not the recoil of the prior shot cause the scope to shift any within the mounts

This thread will have little value beside blowing off some steam and seeing if this is typical among other reloader as…

I’ve been reloading for approx 4 years. I’m self taught by reading many different forums, books, asking questions on forums and watching YouTube videos. However I’ve never felt like I’ve really hit the nail on the head with reloading…

I’ve got a browning 270 win that likes about any factory ammo minus a few (nosler 130 accubond to name one). A few years ago I worked up a load that shot decent (around 1 MOA at 100 yrds with an ES of approx 20-30fps, 130 Nosler BT with 58.3 grains of H4831sc). I recently went back to this load and the gun doesn’t like the load at all anymore?? I tried with a clean barrel and a dirty barrel but it was around 1.5-2.0 MOA on several different days. Factory ammo still shoots sub MOA in the rifle.

I have a 308 that is picky but I was able to find a 5 shot under 1 MOA load that it liked (155 Scenar and 41 grains of benchmark) and I shot several different groups over a month to make sure it liked that load… well as it would have it, that load is starting to fall apart on me again and open up just like my 270 did….

I try to keep my reloading process as consistent as possible. I push the should back a few thou with a FL die, trim/chamfer everything regardless of the length of the case, take my time and measure each of my powder charges on a frankford scale, load the batch of ammo to within a few thou of COAL and use high quality brass, primers, powder, bullets, etc. I’ve checked my scale base and scope rings several times on both rifles and there’s never any issue with them. Scopes are high quality $500-$1000 scopes (vortex, Zeiss, leupold).

However, regardless of my efforts, I continually get 1.5-2 moa loads with ES of +-25 with 3-5 shot groups. Any one else in the same boat? Has anyone found the light at the end of the tunnel? Lol


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Been through this hair pulling exercise a few times.
Get some JB Bore paste and Knoil and scrub the crap out of your barrel.
Shoot the same loads again and smile….