There is a lot of great information in this site that I have enjoyed reading and participating in. Every one must have a goal of some sort in mind when making minor adjustments in reloading. Is it for hunting or for competition or just see how far you can go before you feel like you are wasting your time.
The reason that I started this discussion is that today I was fireforming some brass that I had loaded down to minimize wear on my rifle and wasted powder. When I was done I kind of felt like I had wasted my time except for the pleasure of trigger time. I shot 23 rounds in a 1/2" group. Add 3 fliers for a total of 26 and the group was 1".
So for hunting purposes loading new brass is all you need to do. Fireforming to get better accuracy later is a waste of components.
For the competitive shooter I guess the sky is the limit on tricks to try to improve.

Anyone care to throw in your 2 cents worth?

For a hunting rifle I consider myself wasting time after I reach an honest 1.25" 5-shot group.

For a varmint rifle I'm very happy with an honest 3/4" group and I don't have a target (per se) rifle.

If my 30-06 shoots a 1/2" group then I'm delighted but if I can only get 1.25" I'm equally happy as it's as good as it needs to be.

There has never in my life been a time I missed a game animal because the gun wasn't accurate.
enough.

Further I've personally witnessed some folks that shoot these 1/2" groups totally unable to show me a 3" group when asked to prove their claim.

Don't get me wrong....I love reloading but there comes a time when I'm satisfied and from there I'd rather go hunting.....or fishing maybe.

Most of it isn't really necessary, but it does provide a challenge.

But I must agree with Vapodog - don't let reloading time interfere with hunting time!

quote:

Originally posted by Dwight:
... Every one must have a goal of some sort in mind when making minor adjustments in reloading. Is it for hunting or for competition or just see how far you can go before you feel like you are wasting your time.... For the competitive shooter I guess the sky is the limit on tricks to try to improve...

Hey Dwight, I understand your thoughts and believe nearly everyone goes through the same mental process of deciding when one of the Reloading Steps is not worth the effort for what they want to accomplish.

Some of the steps are absolutely necessary, like Developing Loads from below rather than just randomly selecting a MAX Manual Load and starting with it. Time will show anyone who continues to reload, why that old bit of wisdom passed down from those who went before us, is true.

But, I do lots of extra steps to my rifles and cartridges that many folks never use, and they get along just fine. I do many of the things simply to build Confidence in the Final Load. In my situation if a Flier does occurr, it is normally due to a lack of Focus and Concentration while practicing - not a rifle or cartridge issue.

So, it does have a double edge - Plus being increased Confidence with the Final Load and Minus being decreased excuses for a larger than expected group being rifle or cartridge related.

I only shoot "competition" to see who buys the BBQ for Supper. But I still use the same routine when Developing a Hunting Load that I did when Developing the BBQ Loads. That doesn't mean everyone else should do the same things I do. It is my time to spend and I choose to go the longer, confidence building way.

Best of luck to you.

Thanks for your realism. I am really not interested in competitive shooting but have been looking for a stopping point in my reloading processes that I can live with. There are two things I will not do again and that is weigh brass and fireform. New Remington brass just shoots too good to mess with. They need to be sized to straighten shipping dents and and the mouth deburred and load and shoot. I was finishing up a bag of 100 on the fireforming so they would all match. I felt like it was a waste of time when I shot the others since they just made a big hole in the target. None of them would have missed a squirrel at a 100yds much less a deer.
I don't know about you guys but I enjoy loading when the weather is lousy and my wife is studying. I just get in my own little world and have fun. Beats the heck out of the TV.

For my big game rifles, I'm happy w/ honest 1moa for 3 rds. In my varmint/target rifle, I strive for 1/2moa for 5. I'm willing to try something new just to see if I can do better. It gives me trigger time & a reason to go shoot.

Dwight, I've been an avid BR shooter for 18 years. One of the biggest puzzles I've ever dealt with is the fact that fireforming brass produces some phenominal groups. I've seen this mostly in the PPC. I have been very tempted to fireform brass in a match but those few fliers always wake me up to reality. I hope someday, one of the resident experts will explain this phenominon to me.

I truly understand that in competitive shooting a flier that went off 1/2" is important. In a hunting rifle it means nothing. After 23 of 26 were in a 1/2" group I knew I was wasting time with fireforming thinking I would gain some accuracy on the resize process. I know you competition guys have to do what ever it takes but not me. If I hit within an inch of where I aim my hairy targets will die.