Lisa
I try to do all of the tuning with the tuner. Basically, I have two loads, Hot, and Hotter. I am not trying to be trite when I say this, just stating my ideas on how to make N133 agg at a competitive level with the basic Bullet-Barrel-Powder combination that I use.
I look at one basic aspect with N133. That is the humidity. I have no explanation as to why, but there is a strange quirk about 133 that makes it do strange things when the humidity drops into the 40 percent and below.
This has proven through the majority of my experiences. I am not talking about pressure, velocity, or the other aspects that govern a powders reactions to varied conditions. I am talking about the agging capability, something that even the powder manufacturers themselves don't seem to quite grasp.
As to your second question, you must remember that I look at 100-200 yard Benchrest as a 'combination'. To say that one particular item is more important than the other is difficult to pin down, as the "agging chain" is only as affective as it's weakest link.
Of course, a scope that will not hold POA is devestating to a combinations agging capability. And not just the scope that suddenly tosses shots .400 from the group. Equally detramental, (even more so), is the scope that has just enough shift to add .015 to .020 to every group. At the top levels of this game, that simply cannot be tolerated.
Yes, I believe the efforts we have expended in the past couple of years correcting this problem is paramount in achieving success.
Of course, I believe in my Tuner. I jokedly say to shooters who ask, "I sure don't have it on there because it is pretty'. I have spent a lot of time and effort learning what I can, and cannot, expect out of the tuner. It is not a "cure all', but simply an added addition to the combinations capabilities.
It is a given that having dies that produce truly straight ammunition is a must. It does little good to expend hours in a attempt to produce perfect chambers and perfect bullets only to insert a huge variable in the form of a imperfect loaded round.
My dies consitantly produce rounds that will have no more than .001 runnout.
Also, we must not forget the one item that allows us to shoot Bencrest the way we do in 2008. That is the Lapua 220 Russian case. If, for some reaon, that were taken from many of us, we would be back to "square one" in our entire development program concerning the combinations agging capability.
At matches, I always confirm how the Rifle is shooting during the first match, or warm up. The extra time allows me to toss enough three shot groups on the sighter to determine how things look. Many times, I change nothing. But, if things do look ragged, I at least have the option to do something about it right there, when it counts.
Personally, I think that the quest for the 'holy grail" of Benchrest, that being the tune that can be set, and then stay there, is wishfull thinking, perpetrated by some shooters who do not understand the concept, and what it takes, to keep a Rifle agging at a competitive level over the course of an entire event. I shoot a lot of matches. Thousand of rounds are expended each year, and I would like to believe that I learn something every time I shoot a agg. I do not base any of my ideas on conjecture, or hypothesis. I base my ideas on one concept, that being how ideas play out in the real world of Competition, where things are brutally simple. You shoot a group, they measure it. A very simple proccess for separating what works, and what is simply a waste of time, bullets, powder, and barrels........jackie
........jackie