So, a post I just made inspired this. We were talking about how you can get away without much load development in PRS. As well as how performing load development is also not a bad thing or won’t hurt at least. Over time I’ve gone from both extremes to test both sides out. I’ve done a ton of development and I’ve done none. Both worked for PRS due to the nature of the target size as well as the quality of modern components.
I have settled on a middle ground I call “casual load development.” Basically, this is a way that you don’t need to have dedicated range trips solely for load development, but you also don’t disregard it altogether.
So, we all make range trips for a few reasons:
Practice
Matches
Load Development
Usually load development is first and is the sole reason for the trip. My “casual” method does away with this. This is especially nice if you have to drive an hour or more. It sucks to do that just for a few rounds of load development.
So, what I will do is (using dasher for example) load 30.0 varget and a 109 .020 off lands. I’ll load 1-200 to get the barrel sped up. I’ll either do a practice range trips or shoot a club match.
I’ll then load my powder charge testing rounds. The same seating depth. Along with another batch of practice/match 30.0 varget.
I’ll go to range (match or practice) with a cleaned barrel. Shoot a couple foulers/zero. Then run the powder charge test rounds. Record data. Then shoot the match or practice with the 30.0
I’ll then clean barrel again. Load more 30.0 practice/match ammo. Then load my powder charge weight I chose from last test with varying seating depths.
Shoot foulers/zero, then shoot the seating test. Then shoot the match or practice.
Now, I have the data I needed for load development that most people do one to three dedicated range trips to perform. But, I did it without needing to make trips that aren’t productive for training or matches.
I’ll then stop loading the 30.0 and start loading the developed load. Which should be performing better than the 30.0 I’ve been running. The 30.0 won’t hinder me too bad at matches. But maybe with the new load dialed in, I’ll pick up a point or two on the small kyl or other targets. And there was no diminishing returns with load development only trips just to add a couple points here and there.
In a perfect world, you’ll have two rifles. One with the barrel that the developed load and is your main match rifle. And the other which is in the development cycle. If you keep this rotation, always a match rifle and always a rifle in development, you still go for your practice/match trips. But instead of running the 30.0, you run the main comp rifle with the developed load and you take 20 min to shoot the developing rifle to get your data. Break it down the same way. Do some powder testing at one match/practice and then seating at the other. Again, you make zero dedicated load development trips (unless you insist or range is close by).
But if you only have one rifle, the above method of shooting the not developed load for a few trips while developing a better load will work just fine. You won’t be losing any high level matches because of it. If you’re competitive enough to be losing a big match by a point or two, you’ll likely have two or more rifles and can do the second method.
Basically in a nut shell......you don’t need to spend a ton of dedicated time getting a load figured out for a barrel if you don’t want to or don’t have time.
You can use the good enough non developed load while you casually develop a better performing load.
For my dasher, I’d basically have somewhere around 400 good enough rounds down the barrel by the time I developed the better load. The other 1600-2000 rounds of barrel life will be the new load (with possible occasional tweaks of seating depth). The good enough load kept me shooting while I’m perfecting a better load.
(cleaning barrel between range trips is fairly necessary so your data is a bit more accurate)
I have settled on a middle ground I call “casual load development.” Basically, this is a way that you don’t need to have dedicated range trips solely for load development, but you also don’t disregard it altogether.
So, we all make range trips for a few reasons:
Practice
Matches
Load Development
Usually load development is first and is the sole reason for the trip. My “casual” method does away with this. This is especially nice if you have to drive an hour or more. It sucks to do that just for a few rounds of load development.
So, what I will do is (using dasher for example) load 30.0 varget and a 109 .020 off lands. I’ll load 1-200 to get the barrel sped up. I’ll either do a practice range trips or shoot a club match.
I’ll then load my powder charge testing rounds. The same seating depth. Along with another batch of practice/match 30.0 varget.
I’ll go to range (match or practice) with a cleaned barrel. Shoot a couple foulers/zero. Then run the powder charge test rounds. Record data. Then shoot the match or practice with the 30.0
I’ll then clean barrel again. Load more 30.0 practice/match ammo. Then load my powder charge weight I chose from last test with varying seating depths.
Shoot foulers/zero, then shoot the seating test. Then shoot the match or practice.
Now, I have the data I needed for load development that most people do one to three dedicated range trips to perform. But, I did it without needing to make trips that aren’t productive for training or matches.
I’ll then stop loading the 30.0 and start loading the developed load. Which should be performing better than the 30.0 I’ve been running. The 30.0 won’t hinder me too bad at matches. But maybe with the new load dialed in, I’ll pick up a point or two on the small kyl or other targets. And there was no diminishing returns with load development only trips just to add a couple points here and there.
In a perfect world, you’ll have two rifles. One with the barrel that the developed load and is your main match rifle. And the other which is in the development cycle. If you keep this rotation, always a match rifle and always a rifle in development, you still go for your practice/match trips. But instead of running the 30.0, you run the main comp rifle with the developed load and you take 20 min to shoot the developing rifle to get your data. Break it down the same way. Do some powder testing at one match/practice and then seating at the other. Again, you make zero dedicated load development trips (unless you insist or range is close by).
But if you only have one rifle, the above method of shooting the not developed load for a few trips while developing a better load will work just fine. You won’t be losing any high level matches because of it. If you’re competitive enough to be losing a big match by a point or two, you’ll likely have two or more rifles and can do the second method.
Basically in a nut shell......you don’t need to spend a ton of dedicated time getting a load figured out for a barrel if you don’t want to or don’t have time.
You can use the good enough non developed load while you casually develop a better performing load.
For my dasher, I’d basically have somewhere around 400 good enough rounds down the barrel by the time I developed the better load. The other 1600-2000 rounds of barrel life will be the new load (with possible occasional tweaks of seating depth). The good enough load kept me shooting while I’m perfecting a better load.
(cleaning barrel between range trips is fairly necessary so your data is a bit more accurate)
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