1/2moa is a nice place to be, but everything has to work together.
You have to be able to drive the rifle 1/2moa. A nice 2 lb trigger is much easier to control than a factory 4 lb. The stereotypical cast iron front rest and little owl ear front leather bag combined with rear bunny ear leather bag will get you to 1/2 moa faster than a different setup you have to struggle with - it’s a historical sure bet because it works. Boring, but it works. Bipods off the bench will often not shoot as well - test it if you must use a bipod. You can’t drive the rifle if you can’t see - I see guys struggle to get a small group using a 12” gong with bullet holes all over - no wonder.
Your barrel has to shoot 1/2moa. A $2k rifle doesn’t guarantee it - $1000 in reloading components won’t make a 1 moa rifle shoot 1/2 moa. Many guns in that price range can shoot that good, but just as many won’t. Learn how to clean the barrel and remove all copper fouling. You have to use a bore guide and one piece cleaning rod. I just run a copper remover on a patch over an undersized plastic brush. Just run it through once, turn it over & run it through again, wait 5 minutes and repeat until no copper green comes out, then two patches with oil and two patches to remove most of the oil. Use a 45 cal brush and larger dry patch to clean the chamber. A bore scope lets you see if things are clean - if a carbon ring or carbon fouling near the chamber develops use a bronze brush enough to break it up.
A new barrel is slick and pressures don’t develop as quickly for the first 100 rounds or so and velocities will be down, so shoot it 100 rounds then work up a load.
If you want an accurate load, follow someone who already has a 1/2 moa rifle and do what they do - don’t pick and choose a little from everyone’s techniques.
This is my method:
All brass is not the same - it’s not the exact same metal recipe. Lapua is harder brass and takes pressures better, and is well used by benchrest guys. Nosler brass or Hornady brass isn’t seen as much in benchrest, but you’re a mile away from benchrest so it probably doesn’t matter much, but buy the Lapua anyway.
Turn the necks so they are even - doesn’t matter what the number is, they just need to be even. Anneal case necks with a simple propane torch every reload, even new cases. Uniform the primer pockets each load. Case trimming for length doesn’t matter unless it’s past maximum - commonly accepted that his makes no difference in accuracy. Use a vld chamfer tool on new cases. Just wipe cases clean before sizing and again after to remove lube. Don’t touch the inside of the neck with lube and don’t brush out the carbon.
Prime with handheld tool. Don’t use old primers from your grandpa for accuracy loads.
Use a full length die that has bushings for adjusting neck tension. The neck bushing should leave the neck .003” smaller than the diameter after a bullet is seated. There is no expander needed. The shoulder should get set back just enough so there’s no pressure on the bolt as he cartridge is chambered - normally .001” to .002” setback from fired case.
Use a wilson straight line seating die and a small press made for that type of die.
Find the max seating depth your magazine can handle and still feed correctly. Darken a bullet with a sharpie and chamber the round - as long as the bullet isn’t into the lands with this seating, this is your max length.
Then get starting load from a manual and gradually increase until high pressure signs are obvious. That’s shows your max load at the max length.
Use the max load and adjust seating depth down in .003” increments for 3 shot groups - do this with 7 loads. This is adjusting barrel vibrations slightly to find the harmonics that produce the best groups. If none of them will shoot 1/2 moa that powder is out. If none of your powders will shoot then you either need to change bullets or get a new barrel.
If the rifle won’t shoot your first group out of the first powder and first bullet to under 1 moa I’d predict nothing will get it to 1/2 moa. Three shot groups will show what doesn’t shoot well, not what shoots the best - a 1 moa three-shot group can never shrink in size by putting more holes in the paper. If 1/2 moa is the goal, you don’t care if one load would shoot better, just eliminate the ones that shoot worse.
Get a log book, even if it’s just a $.49 spiral paper pad, and record everything you load and how it shoots.
I never mentioned a chronograph - it can’t help you go faster than a max load. The velocity sd doesn’t matter if it won’t shoot a tight group.
Best of luck - it’s a lot of fun.
, yup.
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