What does it take to make "match" loads?

[Grassman]

What's involved in making match loads? Are the amounts precisely the same across the board? So no powder measure? Special bullet? Am I way off base? Thanks.

 

[ReloaderFred]

It takes quality components and attention to detail, along with quality loading equipment. It also takes working up the proper load that will do what you expect of it, time after time.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[Grassman]

So its consistency mainly?

 

[kb2zya]

from what i have learned is have brass that is very very close to the same weight.some bench shooters say out of 100 they may get 10 or less brass.same for bullets.thier is a few web sites that out thier that can explain better than my 1.5 cents

 

[X-Men]

There are a lot of good articles on this site about reloading for competition. You can drive yourself crazy with some of this stuff. For instance, measuring the bearing surfaces of each bullet, there is a lot that can be done to improve the accuracy of your ammo, only limited by the time and money you are willing to invest.

http://www.6mmbr.com/articles.html

 

[AF_Reloader]

For me, a big area of improvement was concentricity. If your expander ball is creating out-of-round necks, or if your seating die is turning out crooked bullets, your accuracy is affected.

Handloader Magazine issues #207, 208, and 218 have great articles on this.

 

[Afy]

Consistency, sound reloading practises, and being anal about everything.

 

[Dave P]

Don't forget about verifying neck thickness and case wall thickness, and flash hole deburring

 

[Ridgerunner665]

So its consistency mainly?

Yes...that and good bullets.

Any brass can be made to work...but some take more work than others to get ready.
Primers need to be very consistent (I like CCI BR2's)
Powder charges need to be the same.
Neck tension needs to be consistent.
Seating depth is VERY important and needs to be consistent.

And then some...

 

[ranger335v]

That's too broad a question to answer effectively on the web. In fact, it takes a book!

There are several books available and I have most of them. I think the best, most concise is the "Precision Shooting Reloading Guide", and it's not very expensive. I think Sinclair and MidwayUSA both sell it, so do some local dealers. I got mine from Sportsman's Warehouse in Columbia, SC.

Glen Zediker's book, "Handloading for Competition" is good but quite "wordy", you will need a fine sieve to sift out the info from all the words. And it's expensive.

 

[TimRB]

What kind of match? A bench rest shooter will have much different requirements from a high power shooter.

Tim

 

[Len S]

I watched a special on snipers and they were talking about the ammo that is used. IIRC they weighed and measured each piece of brass and each bullet. Each powder charge was measured and finished with with a trickler (sp) one speck of powder at a time. Then they were hand loaded on a single stage press, measured and weighed again. Then they were placed in a plastic box with foam compartments to stop any dings on the bullet. Each plastic box was labeled with the serial number of the rifle it was loaded for.


Len

 

[jjohnson]

Consistency

Grassman, consistency is a huge part of it - but you want to get consistency with high quality results - like holding under MOA, for example.

Some consistency, as measured scientifically, is more important than others.
You may find that your mean deviation in muzzle velocity as measured by a chronograph is disturbing, then find out that some other element was more a problem and the velocity was just a red herring.

But - short answer - consistency is a very large part of it, but not all, by any means. You do want predictable, repeatable results, but getting a grip on isolated variables is either the fun of it - or the worst part. Depends on your perspective.

 

[USSR]

I watched a special on snipers and they were talking about the ammo that is used. IIRC they weighed and measured each piece of brass and each bullet. Each powder charge was measured and finished with with a trickler (sp) one speck of powder at a time. Then they were hand loaded on a single stage press, measured and weighed again. Then they were placed in a plastic box with foam compartments to stop any dings on the bullet. Each plastic box was labeled with the serial number of the rifle it was loaded for.

U.S. snipers DO NOT reload their own ammo for sniping purposes. Army and Marine Corp snipers use Lake City M118LR ammo, and LE snipers use whatever factory ammo their department provides. Not sure what special you saw, but perhaps it was about the AMU (Army Marksmanship Unit).

Don

 

[Ridgerunner665]

It was about the AMU...I saw that show too. He was loading 300 WinMag one at a time and double checking everything. The press he was using resembled a drill press.

 

[Grassman]

Believe me, I'm a long way from match ammo.........but mines fires.........that's a start.

 

[NuJudge]

I believe there should be some consideration of good vibrations. I am not referring to 40 year old popular music, I am referring to whether a load makes a barrel vibrate in preferred modes. Regardless of how consistent you are in assembling ammo, the firearm's barrel may not release the bullet at the same point of its movement.

Here's a website with a discussion about it:
http://www.frfrogspad.com/loaddev.htm

Working up a load for a particular firearm is looking for one that causes the barrel muzzle vibration to be at a node at bullet release.

 

[WNTFW]

Ranger335v.
I got "Precision Shooting Reloading Guide" as my Christmas gift. I have a list of books I want. I figured that was a good one.
It does give you some understanding as to what different matches entail as far as reloading for them. It has a section for 'Highpower Boltguns' and 'Highpower Gas Guns". Other sections include 'Benchrest' and 'Cast Bullets'. I say section because the book has a different auther for each topic.
It does have a straight forward approach on what I have read so far.
Later,
Mike