Factory ammo has come a long way and handloading is no longer a prerequisite for quality ammunition. Conversely, many devoted hobbyists still load their own ammunition for their hunting pursuits. I have handloaded for my hunting rifles for a long time, and over that time my process has changed greatly. In this article, I’ll share my methods for doing load development for hunting rifles.
Benefits
While factory ammo has improved over the years, there are still many benefits to hunters loading their own ammunition. First of all is increased accuracy. Careful handloading can still produce more consistent velocities than factory ammunition, which translates to smaller groups at extended range.
Another benefit of handloading is component availability. There can be considerable variation between lots of factory ammo. By handloading and buying components in bulk you can avoid this. By handloading you also can guarantee the factory does not load ammo with a different powder during a shortage, affecting accuracy without your knowledge.
Finally, handloading allows the hunter to select the exact bullet that they would like to shoot in a given cartridge. For example, I have had excellent results loading a 130gr Barnes TTSX in my 30-06 Springfield. This is not an offering that Barnes loads from the factory and handloading is the only way to shoot this combination. A handloader can develop loads that simply aren’t available in factory.
Selecting Components
The first order of business is selecting components for a given load. The most important component is typically the bullet. I will research several bullets that I would like to try and pick one to try first. Ensure that the twist rate of your rifle will adequately stabilize the chosen bullet and make sure that you will be able to fit the bullet in your cartridge given magazine constraints.
Next, I will reference a number of different reloading manuals to identify a powder to try first. Consideration is given to which powders will give the velocity that I am looking for. Another consideration is temperature stability. Hunting can involve a wide array of different temperatures and velocity swings in different environments is possible with older powders. My favourites are the Hodgon’s Extreme line of powders and the newer Reloader series powders.
Thirdly, I will pick a primer. The single biggest factor for primers is what is readily available. That said, my preference is for the Federal Match primers or the CCI Benchrest line. These have both given me the most consistent velocities.
Finally, you need to select the brass. For the best accuracy Lapua, Petersen, and Alpha all make excellent brass. Candidly, for hunting purposes Hornady, Federal, Nosler, Starline, and Norma brass all produce adequate results. I typically avoid Winchester and Remington brass as the quality control seems to be to a lesser standard.
Picking a Starting Load
The next step is picking a target load. In the past I have slowly worked my way up to try to eke the most velocity out of a given combination. Nowadays, I stay within book loads as the decrease in brass life is not worth the marginal velocity increases gained by pushing the limits. I select a load near the book maximum and load 10 cartridges at that charge weight. I will load a single cartridge with a half grain less powder than my selected load until my bottom load is about 5 percent less than my target load. Once this is done, I am ready to test.
Testing
At the range, my process is very simple. I fire the reduce loads, checking the brass for pressure signs after each shot until I have worked up to my test load. Next, I fire a ten shot group of the test load. I use mean radius to evaluate the accuracy of my loads as it is a better accuracy measure than group size. If the load meets my accuracy expectations for that system I am done with load development and will load ten more rounds to get velocity data.
Should the load not perform to my satisfaction, I will try again with a different powder. In my experience the powder and the bullet are the two variables that will have a large effect on the performance. Seating depth and charge weight will have minor performances but I have not had a load that is terrible with one charge weight but shoots excellent with a grain or two less powder. As such, my standard process if a load doesn’t shoot is to try a different powder. Should a new powder fail to yield adequate results, I will begin selecting a different bullet that fits my requirements for that system and repeat the process. Below are the results from two separate loads where the only change was the powder used.
Closing Thoughts
For a long time I did a much more traditional load development process, using three shot groups, fine tuning seating depth, and playing with charge weights. What I eventually realized was that three shot groups were not giving me enough information to measure the small changes in accuracy these variables created. To fix this, I began shooting larger sample size groups.
Once I began doing larger sample size load development, I quickly realized that the bullet and the powder were the only variables that had a large enough effect to change a bad load into a good one. It also became apparent that the most of the other reloading variables did not have a significant enough effect to translate into success rate on game. The natural conclusion was to simplify my load development process and focus on the factors that have measurable large effects on practical accuracy. This has led me to my current process.
Like most things, there is no right way and wrong way to do load development. This is the way that I select a load for hunting, if it interests you then give it a try, it might work for you too.