What does it take to make your ammo "match" grade?

[gunguy]

To make your own match ammo you need to: Trim cases to the same length, match bullets, wiegh the bullets, find the right powder, fire form the case to your chamber, primer pocket depth, and use the same primers. What else is there?

[Baboon]

You talking factory or handloads?
If you ever met someone who is totally into benchrest shooting they do stuff that takes it from a hobby to a science project.
http://www.sinclairintl.com/
Look under reloading. Everything your not familiar with are the things that improves accuracy.

[gunguy]

I'm talking about hand loading. I almost forgot that bullet weight and barrel twist come into play.

[sub-sonic]

runout is a big thing

[Snake-eater 1]

I find that buying Federal "Match Grade" does the trick

[Crosshair]

You talking factory or handloads?
If you ever met someone who is totally into benchrest shooting they do stuff that takes it from a hobby to a science project.
http://www.sinclairintl.com/

"Mental illness" was my choice of words.

For me, "match Grade" means the bullets don't have pull marks on them.

[silencertalk]

Some people sort the case for weight, sort the bullets for weight, weigh each powder charge, uniform the primer pockets, ream the primer holes, turn the necks to a uniform thickness, chamber the mouths. That is typical for benchrest.

[gunguy]

Thanks for all the replies. I used to buy a ton of ammo, but now I just load my own with the exception of 7.62x39. I like trying differnt loads its kinda like tying your own flies for fly fishing, sure you can buy a fly at the store ,but when you catch a fish on a fly you tied your self it puts a big smile on my face.

[johndoe3]

I find that precisely weighing the powder for each round gives a good low ES and SD. To go to a more precise level, you need to bevel the inside of the primer hole.

The reason is that most brass (except Lapua) use a press to make the primer hole when they make the brass and it leaves a ridge on one side or a small lip on one side. When you bevel the inside of the primer hole it makes a consistant burn of 360 degrees. When I started doing this, I saw my SD go from 10-15 fps down to low single digits (providing you are precisely measuring the powder for each load). You only have to bevel the inside of the primer hole once, and the tool is only about $10 and it is very quick and easy to do with the hand tool.

I never worry about runout because I use quality Forster and Redding dies and full size the brass every load. (except for subsonic 308 and 338 Federal where I just neck size the brass).

I never weigh brass, but use the same brand of brass all the time. I do weigh my long distance bullets when I get a new box of 500, but mostly to separate out the high and low outliers to use for practice.

If I get a looser primer pocket, it goes into my subsonic brass coffee can where a looser primer doesn't matter at all.

[silencertalk]

I now believe in always full length sizing. Neck sizing is for competitive bench-rest shooters only (in my opinion).

I also believe in loading to SAAMI specs as if I was making factory ammo. For example, I don't load .308 over 2.8 inches long.

I want my ammo to work in any gun.

And I am against allowing HiPower competitors load ARs over mag length. They are making 'illegal' (by SAAMI specs) ammo. They should have just kept the rules at mag length.

[no4mk1t]

The short answer is consistency. You are the manufacturer.
All the brass from the same manufacturer/lot.
Thorough case prep. Trim, chamfer, deburr, primer pocket recut.
Weigh charges for extruded powder. Ball powder can be measure dispensed if the person doing the loading is consistent in its operation.
Match quality bullets. Not military FMJ's or bulk grade. Sierra MK are held to a .2gr. tolerance.
FL resize for most applications. Neck size or partial FL resize for certain uses such as varmint hunting with a rifle that is bench rest accurate.
Competition type seater die for minimum bullet runout.

All of the above will produce ammo easily capable of sub minute accuracy in a good rifle. Tweaking the load to the individual rifle can get you down around a half minute in a match quality rifle.

I agree with Robert on OAL if you want the ammo to function thru any rifle. For some uses, deviating from SAMMI specs such as when using VLD bullets for long range competition is a necessary evil. VLD's typically work best .020" off the lands or less, and this requires they be seated longer than 2.80 in .308, and 2.25" in .223. The primary advantage to VLD's is less wind drift. If you don't compete, this is a non-issue.

Another trick the Palma shooters use is weighing the complete cartridge. Palma competitors are required to shoot the ammo provided by the host country. Palma is shot at 800, 900, and 1000yds. Somebody figured out that if they weighed the cartridges and grouped them by weight, they had fewer fliers. Probably not worth the effort for ordinary shooting at less than 300yds.

[creophus]

I agree with the coment on consistency. Sometimes that looks very different depending upon what kind of "match" you're using as a reference.

In the very short amount of time that I shot IPSC, my "match grade" (.40 s&w) loads were super accurate, made minor and I could crank them out without little fuss. I didn't sort cases by headstamp let alone weigh them. I just put the same amount of powder under the same make of bullet.

Were I shooting a rifle competition my criteria would have been very different.

[Bowen1911]

I remember reading about a sonar type machine that gave you a profile of if the jacket was completely concentric. Yea it was about $800, but it would make sure you didnt have flyers.

I personally like to do use the FL sizer just enough to apply pressure to the shoulder, but not move it more than a couple thousandths. This is the point where the case will chamber with no resistance. Just neck sizing on a round for a gun with a fairly loose chamber seems to need extra pressure to close the bolt. However, my .204 and .25-06 have nice tight chambers, and neck sizing produces 1/2 MOA groups when FL sizing shoots about 1 MOA.

These are shot from a lead sled, and in no wind, and on multiple occasions.

I wish I had the skills to shoot like that without all that help though

[TypeR632]

http://www.neconos.com/details.htm


My dad purchased one of these awhile back. He is EXTREMELY OCD. He does everything mentioned in the thread. He also polishes the inside of the cases.

He usually uses Lapua cartridges, but recently bought some Norma. He said it averaged .001 on wall thickness, with several pieces being uniform. I don't know if this is the usual but he was impressed.

P.S. This was in .338

[Artful]

Yep all of the above can improve the ammo to "match" quality but you have to have a gun that can show the difference and a shooter who can shoot good enough to see the difference. example shooting 1/4 or 1/2 MOA if the gun is capable of with other shooters but you can only shoot 1-2 MOA - you won't see any difference if you improve your ammo by 1/4 MOA because you are not consistant enough - If you have the capability to shoot 1/2 MOA but the gun in your hands and others who are also match quality shooters only gets 1-2 MOA and your change to the load results in 3/4 MOA groups then it may be noticed.

[silencertalk]

Well, if you are shooting offhand then you probably only need 1/2 MOA ammo but if you can use a rest then you want 1/10 or better MOA ammo.

[Bowen1911]

Well, if you are shooting offhand then you probably only need 1/2 MOA ammo but if you can use a rest then you want 1/10 or better MOA ammo.

I think if you use a lee loader, 1/10th MOA is pretty obtainable

[gunguy]

Do you guys have the die touch the shell holder? I was told that you want to be able to see a tiny bit a light through the shell holder and the die? Does it really matter?

[Bowen1911]

Do you guys have the die touch the shell holder? I was told that you want to be able to see a tiny bit a light through the shell holder and the die? Does it really matter?

That depends-
RCBS dies say screw it down enough that the ram has to cam on each stroke. This eliminates the space. I personally like to use the full length sizer and back it off to the point it barely pushes on the shoulder. This leaves some space between the shell holder and die. You just have to find what works for your rifle