Order of Importance to Accuracy?

[searcher]

The tune is 99% of it. That means the powder, bullet, neck tension, and primer the barrel wants and the right charge and seating depth of those components. The sorting and weighing are the last little bits. But in my experiance the thing that holds most people back is not being in tune, especially at 1k. We put new shooters on our club gun for a couple years. Guys that never shot 1k, and they were competitive because the rifle was tuned well. I remember a 2" 50 score by a guy that had never shot 1k, he won his relay. When a rifle is really humming it almost shoots itself. Tune tune tune.

No doubt. Writer was asking the order of these things -

 

[searcher]

Most of the items the OP lists you could ignore and still compete very well. I just shot 596/600-31X at our 600 yard state championship and took third place; abd I’ve NEVER measured primer seating depth on a single piece of brass in my ENTIRE LIFE. LOL.

I agree. There were a number of years where I shot three full days a week, testing and practicing, firing around 3,500 to 4,000 rounds a month from my target rifles. I got a lot of first-hand experience as to what makes a difference in respect to all aspects of brass prep and loading technique. I went deep into the rabbit hole. I found that for short range, a lot of that was unnecessary to attain great accuracy. Shooting beyond 600 was another story altogether to maintain solid vertical

 

[jelenko]

3,500 to 4,000 rounds a month

Now we're talking!

 

[searcher]

Now we're talking!

Yeah. Those were fun days I look forward to again, if I can. I had a buddy over who saw ten 1,000-count boxes of Scenar L bullets stacked in a corner. He said I could never shoot all those in a lifetime. At the rate I shoot target bullets now - he may be right. (I prefer squirrels and coyotes these days) To think I shot that many in 3 months, on average for years. Lotsa lead flyin' out of that rabbit hole! I should probably unload a bunch of stuff I'll likely not get back into. Seems there are a lot of guys out there needing this stuff.

 

[jelenko]

I also go through thousands in a season and keep 2-3 year's supply of components.
I love it when there's a news story about a bad guy and he had hundreds of rounds in the home.

 

[BCBRAD]

I use Quick Load to tune powder charge to an OBT.
Must have a low ES as well and that speaks to techniques in assembling the loaded cartridge.

So there are 3 things that improved my groups, out to 1 000 + yards, are Learning the QL program, LabRadar for accurate velocities and a very good lab grade scale that resolves repeatedly to 0.02 grains.

 

[ToddKS]

PRS shooter, not BR so my outlook may be a little different

1. Bullet
2. Powder (select a powder that is known to work in your cartridge of choice)
3. Consistent powder charge
4. Neck tension (achieved with the appropriate bushing/mandrel combo)

Those are the only items I worry about. I do keep different lots of brass separated, but I do not do any weight sorting or other extra case prep.

 

[One Eye Pete]

Taking the shooters ability out of the equation and assuming the gun and scope themselves are generally functioning correctly then I 100% agree with Alex Wheeler, the most important thing is that the gun has to be in tune.
A gun that is in tune not only shoots tight groups but is generally more forgiving of a reloading error.
The reason I try to hold all of my tolerances (headspace, BTO, neck tension, neck chamfer, interior neck finish, powder charge etc.) very tight and consistent is that a tiny mistake in any one may not be detrimental for any one round but when out of tolerances stack up that's when bad things happen. The main reason for selecting the proper powder and bullets is to make the gun easier to get and keep in tune.
In general I have usually done my best with plain old tangent ogive bullets rather than chasing the last bit of BC with the latest and greatest bullet to hit the market. Why? because to me they make it easier to get the gun in tune and keep it there. ( I am not saying that VLDs dont work but I have found them harder to work with) Its the same thing with constantly trying to chase the "high node" to get the least effect from the wind even though that node may be much narrower than a lower node. In my experience the little bit of advantage you get normally isn't worth it if it makes the gun more finicky and harder to keep in tune. Generally I find that testing to find the right powder charge / bullet seating depth combination (tune) is what its all about and that's where I try to spend most of my effort. Believe me I have fallen down enough "rabbit holes" now I'm trying to stick with the basics.

Check out the excellent video series by Jack Neary on YouTube.
It is geared to short range benchrest but an awful lot of what he talks about as far as reloading and tuning is totally applicable to other shooting disciplines.

Jack's VV Reloading Class​

 

[dcali]

My take:

You can't really rank them. It's a system where one depends on the next. That said, there are some rules of thumb/things to consider:

powder - this is very important in that you need to optimize combustion for your cartridge and barrel. The wrong powder will not shoot well.

powder charge - it matters, and is somewhat important. Especially when trying to tune for positive compensation at long range. But acceptable charge ranges tend to be wide.

primer - usually only matters a little if you're using something in the right ballpark. But sometimes it can surprise. Worth testing if you're not totally dialed in.

primer seating depth - I've never tested. I just seat until they contact. I'm not one to ask about this, but I do know that ignition details matter. Things like firing pin drag, protrusion, etc. So I get why people worry about it.

bullet - you cannot shoot good groups with bad bullets. They're basically the ceiling for your rilfe's potential. But good bullets won't shoot well on their own. The rest has to be right.

bullet seating depth - this matters a lot. I still haven't heard a compelling reason, but it clearly matters, and I think it's probably the most important factor.

neck tension - sort of like primers. It matters a surprising amount... sometimes.

brass - not a huge deal. But there are reasons beyond accuracy to buy good brass. It's easier to prep, the primer pockets are more consistent, and lasts longer. At the end of the day, cheap brass is a false economy for high end accuracy, but you can make it work.

case weight - a proxy for case volume. I've seen data both ways on that. More often than not, it's not meaningful. But I have seen cases where it is a small factor. I suspect it has somethign to do with case size and how well your powder matches your setup.

case volume - done properly, better than case weight. Same caveats. A huge pain in the ass.

neck turning - Not a big deal, but it's one of those good hygiene sort of things. It's not going to hurt, and it can be helpful in ways that aren't necessarily directly impacting accuracy - like noticing when a case feels "off" during sizing. And it will clean up the one in 100 cases where hte neck is eccentric by a significant amount, which can't be a bad thing. Overall, way down on the list.

 

[dcali]

Controversial opinion: I totally disagree on the whole "if you can't read wind it's pointless" comments.

If you can't read wind, you're not going to win nationals, sure. That said, how many times have you seen a newbie get behind a good gun and shoot some competitive scores at a club match?

I let two guys shoot my rifle at the conclusion of the last 1,000 yard match. They had never shot F-Class before, and never shot at 1,000. I told them for the first shot to hold two right (where my last point of aim was), and then proceeded to watch both of them shoot a clean with zero additional coaching after the first round.

I'm not discounting reading wind, but having a "great" gun makes a *huge* difference.

I've noticed that you can usually tell who got a new rifle in the off-season by looking at the scores in the first match of the year and noting the improvement. People discount equipment because they don't want to be "that guy". But it matters. A lot. The other guy you don't want to be is the guy who languishes year after year blaming himself when what's really wrong is that he has a bad or improperly set up rifle.

 

[20PPC]

Wind/flags trump all of the above.

" says the guy that makes and sells windflags "
Mike you do still sell windflags don't you ?
Lol...

 

[Lefty Trigger]

Maybe list in order to obtain optimal load,... not really for any specific type of shooting.
Here's my rating...placed in order to my type of loading and the reason behind the choice.

2) powder
3) powder charge (rifle dependent)
4) primer (kinda powder dependent)
11) primer seating depth
1) bullet (got to start with something, may change)
6) bullet seating depth (bullet/barrel dependent)
5) neck tension (every bullet is different)
7) brass (for me a brand preference)
10) case weight (I tried this with no notable results, for me)
8) case volume (kinda depends on the brass)
9) neck turning (if required by the chamber this moves up on the list)

 

[gunsandgunsmithing]

" says the guy that makes and sells windflags "
Mike you do still sell windflags don't you ?
Lol...

I do...and I learned not to even bother wasting components and barrel life without them a long time ago. Frankly, it seems that the ones that say the wind doesn't matter, yada, yada, are also the ones that don't have flags.

Your custom order is finally done, btw. I'll call

 

[Old Navy]

I’m going to throw my hat in the ring here and craft an answer that tries to get at what I think you are asking. Regardless of what your precision shooting discipline is, you should always follow the holy trinity of precision drivers.
1. find a powder with the correct burn rate for your cartridge and Bullet weight (this is easy, just shoot what the pros do and you will be fine)
1A. Charge weight (find a nice node with very little poi change on either side of the charge weight)
2. Conduct extensive seating depth tests to determine proper seating (will likely be somewhere between jammed 0.015” and jumped 0.055”)
3. And a distance third place is neck tension, conduct testing to see what neck tension gives you the best accuracy and most consistent velocities (will be somewhere between 0.0015” and 0.005”)

dave

Great answer. Just what the OP asked for.

 

[dcali]

I do...and I learned not to even bother wasting components and barrel life without them a long time ago. Frankly, it seems that the ones that say the wind doesn't matter, yada, yada, are also the ones that don't have flags.

A simple look at a ballistics calculator will tell you how much 1 mph will push a bullet at 100 yards. It's a lot. So yeah, you better have wind flags (and probably a very calm day) if you want to work up a load for an accurate rifle!

If you're cool with 1/2 MOA no need. I think most eveyrone reading this aspires to more. Get some good BR style wind flags for load development at 100. Even one or two is a major win. Funny how much we'll spend on chronographs, and how resistant we are to wind flags.

 

[Ken Dickerman]

wondering how you would rank the importance (1,2,3, etc) of the following items to accuracy at 1000yd:

powder
powder charge
primer
primer seating depth
bullet
bullet seating depth
neck tension
brass
case weight
case volume
neck turning

Neck tension. After charge and depth are established.

 

[ken158]

Wind/flags trump all of the above.

Yep - when you are shooting that distance, there are so many external things that affect bullet flight that primer depth or something similar mean just about nothing…

 

[searcher]

I've noticed that you can usually tell who got a new rifle in the off-season by looking at the scores in the first match of the year and noting the improvement. People discount equipment because they don't want to be "that guy". But it matters. A lot. The other guy you don't want to be is the guy who languishes year after year blaming himself when what's really wrong is that he has a bad or improperly set up rifle.

Those are true words. I shot with a buddy a lot of years back and he was a really good shot - shooting substandard equipment and seldom beat the guys he wanted to beat. He seldom beat me - but I know it was because of his equipment and not me. He had that attitude and I never understood it. It was like if he got good equipment (which he could afford), it would eliminate the excuse of performing at the level he did. Good equipment and loading skills are everything. Everyone entering their first bench rest match gets a good taste of that. I sure did.

 

[Hohn]

Maybe, since most testing takes place at 100yds where it is easier to get quantitative data.

I thought that the 1000yd criterion would make handloading techniques more onerous.

It’s actually the opposite in many ways. At 1000y the shooter and conditions matter so much more that it makes the load far less important.

 

[Colnagotex]

Controversial opinion: I totally disagree on the whole "if you can't read wind it's pointless" comments.

If you can't read wind, you're not going to win nationals, sure. That said, how many times have you seen a newbie get behind a good gun and shoot some competitive scores at a club match?

I let two guys shoot my rifle at the conclusion of the last 1,000 yard match. They had never shot F-Class before, and never shot at 1,000. I told them for the first shot to hold two right (where my last point of aim was), and then proceeded to watch both of them shoot a clean with zero additional coaching after the first round.

I'm not discounting reading wind, but having a "great" gun makes a *huge* difference.

What is this "wind reading" you speak of??