Reloading is like making your bed. Everyone sleeps, but some of us sleep better than others.
Reference accuracy, if you are shooting off hand, you will be hard pressed to see a difference unless you are awesome or a robot. The other factor is your gun. Some guns are capable of a certain accuracy level and that's it. Others can be tuned with handloads. For example, a Glock will never shoot 1" groups at 25 yards, but a custom 1911 can, with some handloads... some handloads, not all handloads. However, if you were to shoot both with some cheap factory ammo, they would prolly shoot the same. You cannot just slap a load together, even though it is published in a manual, and expect it to shoot like a laser.
I test for accuracy by shooting off a bench rest. This eliminates shooter error and enables me to see what the gun is capable of. My handloads often shoot better than factory, but not always. If my handload is not significantly better than factory, I change the components. Primers, powder, bullet case- they all matter.
A Ha! moments? I still have them twenty years later. For example, I finally figured out why once-fired rifle brass shoots different than new rifle brass and requires a powder charge adjustment to stay inside the sweet-spot. This was as obvious as day and night but I discounted it for some reason: Once-fired brass is not returned to original dinensions by the sizing die, hence it has a higher capacity, therefore pressures are lower and so is the velocity. That is often enough to take you out of the sweet-spot.
Another A HA! moment is shooting HBWC too slow. For years I thought you should keep the velocity to around 700 FPS to reduce the risk of their skirts blowing off and lodging in the bore. Most recently I decided to be brave and up the velocity to around 800 FPS and my groups shrunk by 50%. That's right, 50%. Reading a Speer reloading manual shows they recommed a max chaqrge of 3.8 grains of 231 in a 357 case. I now use 3.7. For years I used 3.4 and the accuracy suffered.
I'll give you one last A Ha! My Sig P210 has a .357" bore. Most 9mm bullets mike .355" You do the math.
Handloading enables you to get your gun to shoot it's best. If that's not good enough for you, consider you are saving 50% on ammo. If that's still not good enough, let us have your primers.
Reference accuracy, if you are shooting off hand, you will be hard pressed to see a difference unless you are awesome or a robot. The other factor is your gun. Some guns are capable of a certain accuracy level and that's it. Others can be tuned with handloads. For example, a Glock will never shoot 1" groups at 25 yards, but a custom 1911 can, with some handloads... some handloads, not all handloads. However, if you were to shoot both with some cheap factory ammo, they would prolly shoot the same. You cannot just slap a load together, even though it is published in a manual, and expect it to shoot like a laser.
I test for accuracy by shooting off a bench rest. This eliminates shooter error and enables me to see what the gun is capable of. My handloads often shoot better than factory, but not always. If my handload is not significantly better than factory, I change the components. Primers, powder, bullet case- they all matter.
A Ha! moments? I still have them twenty years later. For example, I finally figured out why once-fired rifle brass shoots different than new rifle brass and requires a powder charge adjustment to stay inside the sweet-spot. This was as obvious as day and night but I discounted it for some reason: Once-fired brass is not returned to original dinensions by the sizing die, hence it has a higher capacity, therefore pressures are lower and so is the velocity. That is often enough to take you out of the sweet-spot.
Another A HA! moment is shooting HBWC too slow. For years I thought you should keep the velocity to around 700 FPS to reduce the risk of their skirts blowing off and lodging in the bore. Most recently I decided to be brave and up the velocity to around 800 FPS and my groups shrunk by 50%. That's right, 50%. Reading a Speer reloading manual shows they recommed a max chaqrge of 3.8 grains of 231 in a 357 case. I now use 3.7. For years I used 3.4 and the accuracy suffered.
I'll give you one last A Ha! My Sig P210 has a .357" bore. Most 9mm bullets mike .355" You do the math.
Handloading enables you to get your gun to shoot it's best. If that's not good enough for you, consider you are saving 50% on ammo. If that's still not good enough, let us have your primers.
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