I have chronoed a lot of factory ammo as well many handloader's ammo and what I find is about 40% of handloaders can best or equal the standard deviation of "good" factory ammo. Velocity is not the be all end all. If your ammo is not consistent it is junk. When I load match ammo for bullseye competition I work for an SD of 4 or less. Some cartridges just won't get there and that is when I start looking for different brass, bullets, or powder. I have rarely seen any big difference with various primers. With rifle, you also have include bullet alignment, seating depth, case prep and neck pressure along with the aformentioned. Rifle ammo is 50% science and 50% voodoo. You can have a perfect bullet and it won't shoot worth a darn. Change one component and...presto.. the magic happens. That is the reason for handloading. You have control of the tiny changes. Too many folks are not picky enough and lack the patience to really wring all the accuracy out of their guns and ammo. For them factory is probably "good enough".
