R
RayfromTX
Guest
I've been dabbling in this for 4 years now so I'm no expert but I will share my thoughts and current strategy.
I've never enjoyed the pressure to get back to the line on time when loading at the match. It takes a lot of the fun out of it for me, especially at a one relay club match where I always seem to be in a rush and last back to the line. This year I tried something different. I've only shot a couple matches so the jury is way out. As a lark I prepped 100 pcs. of new brass and loaded them all up for fireforming and went to the Bluebonnet where I had a great time and came in near the middle of the pack. There were some great groups and some groups with a hurtful flier which is what I have come to expect from fireforming loads.
I went home happy.
I found myself able to attend a club match so I shot the whole batch of brass at home to find a load I liked and what happened on either side of it including with different seating depths. All the brass then got cleaned in the primer pockets and necks and flash holes. In being able to take that kind of time I also noticed a couple with burned powder kernels in the flash holes that would have surely gone unnoticed if I had been in a hurry. I loaded them all up with the same load and seated the bullets out .010 further than my best load. I figured I could reseat them at the bench easily enough so that was the only tool I took with me to the range other than cleaning stuff. I also left my flags at home and just watched the others at the range.
In the first match I shot a group with a little vertical so I reseated to my preferred length with the time remaining after shooting my group. My thought was that if conditions changed I could try the longer preloaded length to try to get an improvement or go even shorter if that didn't work. The reseat worked and I ended up in second place overall. The extra time I had as a result of being preloaded was spent socializing and watching wind flags. I had no expectation that I would finish that well nor the need.
The benefits to coming preloaded were that I was able to do all the little nuance things that I had left out when loading between matches such as cleaning necks and pockets and weighing charges with a trickler. It also means that all the brass gets shot the same number of times with the same pressures. When I'm seating at home, I sort the rounds by the pressure required to seat the bullet so that any one group will be shot with rounds of similar seating pressure. It may not get me in the hall of fame but working my butt off at the matches isn't going to either and this is a lot more fun for me. I guess I also enjoy being a contrarian.
I've never enjoyed the pressure to get back to the line on time when loading at the match. It takes a lot of the fun out of it for me, especially at a one relay club match where I always seem to be in a rush and last back to the line. This year I tried something different. I've only shot a couple matches so the jury is way out. As a lark I prepped 100 pcs. of new brass and loaded them all up for fireforming and went to the Bluebonnet where I had a great time and came in near the middle of the pack. There were some great groups and some groups with a hurtful flier which is what I have come to expect from fireforming loads.
I went home happy.
I found myself able to attend a club match so I shot the whole batch of brass at home to find a load I liked and what happened on either side of it including with different seating depths. All the brass then got cleaned in the primer pockets and necks and flash holes. In being able to take that kind of time I also noticed a couple with burned powder kernels in the flash holes that would have surely gone unnoticed if I had been in a hurry. I loaded them all up with the same load and seated the bullets out .010 further than my best load. I figured I could reseat them at the bench easily enough so that was the only tool I took with me to the range other than cleaning stuff. I also left my flags at home and just watched the others at the range.
In the first match I shot a group with a little vertical so I reseated to my preferred length with the time remaining after shooting my group. My thought was that if conditions changed I could try the longer preloaded length to try to get an improvement or go even shorter if that didn't work. The reseat worked and I ended up in second place overall. The extra time I had as a result of being preloaded was spent socializing and watching wind flags. I had no expectation that I would finish that well nor the need.
The benefits to coming preloaded were that I was able to do all the little nuance things that I had left out when loading between matches such as cleaning necks and pockets and weighing charges with a trickler. It also means that all the brass gets shot the same number of times with the same pressures. When I'm seating at home, I sort the rounds by the pressure required to seat the bullet so that any one group will be shot with rounds of similar seating pressure. It may not get me in the hall of fame but working my butt off at the matches isn't going to either and this is a lot more fun for me. I guess I also enjoy being a contrarian.
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