When do you pull the plug?

[SippyCup]

I rarely change these two components when developing loads.

For me primers have had very little difference in variances of loads. I like stick to the same box I’ve been rock’n and not think twice. This includes all major brands.

Usually, I can find premium brass for the cartridge I’m working and I stick with that brass. And really, load development shouldn’t occur until you’ve fired it in your chamber a couple times. This is a good way to season your barrel as well.

I do alter my bullet or powder selection to make a good combo. First, I pick a known winner combo and try that. If that doesn’t yield great results, I’ll try a different powder first…this usually fixes the problem. Depending on the chamber and throat, I may mess with seating depth. Then I’m done.

It’s easier to fix problems when you mess with one variable at a time.

I’ve never changed primers in load development before. Internet reading showed some chance of hope so I tried it. Not a giant sample size but enough to know it wasn’t the fix. And for the brass it was the same thing. I was using hornady brass from the fired factory offerings. I tired a small sample with the Petersen brass I have to know that wasn’t a solution either.
I’m going use a different bullet. The eld-vt are looking like they’re giving a lot of people headaches.

 

[SippyCup]

I've had very little luck getting the ELD-VT bullets to shoot across multiple calibers.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Sierra has a 69 gr SVK that’s they just announced. I’m going to try those when they hit the shelves. In the mean time maybe try a different powder

 

[Billogna]

It seems like you know very very quick if it’s gonna work or no

This is the beauty of this particular method. A bullet/powder combo either shoots or it doesn't.

 

[mtnbound]

At what point in the process do you guys finally come to the conclusion that a certain combo isn’t going to work?

Here’s what I got going on. Newer 22 arc barreled action dropped in a chassis. All the factory loads I’ve fed it have been less than 1”. I have one solid hand load that give me consistent 3/4” at 100 yards. The guns accurate.
I just gave up on a combo with 62gr. ELD-VT over a bed of Varget. I tried different brass, different primers, after doing ladder loads that’s showed little to no potential. I eventually found a combo that gave me 1.5” group but it was all vertical spacing. Leading up to this point the groups were 2-3 inches with no consistency. I took the 1.5” vertical group combo and tried a seating depth test doing .010” increments from mag length all the way to .100” jump. My starting point was .040” jump.
After the seating depth test I decided to give up on this combo. I’ve never not struck gold with Varget but there’s a first time for everything.

I don’t chase seating depth to get a load to work.
I pick a powder, a bullet, and load to listed COAL or max magazine allowed length. I typically load just below listed max using different sets of reloading data for reference and load 3, drop down .4-.5gr and load 3, drop .4-.5gr again and load 3. I shoot from low to high looking for signs of pressure, velocity and group size.
If I find one load I like, I load 20 and shoot for a group.
If I do not like what I am seeing then I change powder and repeat. If I can’t get a bullet to do what I want with 2 different powders I pick a new bullet.
You can can waste a lot of time chasing BS, if a load is going to work it’s gonna work.

 

[BRTreedogs]

I would of quit when I had the factory ammo that shot under 1”