There's little to say that hasn't been said, but I'm going to add my unqualified opinions.
I came here mostly to post this. I love Cal Zant's work over there.
@Varminterror's thread on his ELR season last year was also top-notch.
Bryan Litz offered this bit in one of his books. I have the book at home, but I shamelessly stole this from the interwebs:
View attachment 1261989
My very unscientific rule of thumb is:
- 0 - 300 yard - It doesn't matter
- 300 - 600 yards - It still doesn't really matter (I'm not shooting itty bitty targets) but I worry about it and control what I can control
- 600 yards + - It and everything else matters but I'm not reallyqualified to talk about this because I don't shoot these distances often enough
When I say I "worry about it and control what I can control," I mean I use brass of the same headstamp and bullets and powder from the same lot, I select an extruded powder and a match bullet, and I measure every powder charge using an RCBS Chargemaster Lite. My 10-shot SDs for bolt-gun ammo probably average about 10.