Measuring growth as a hand loader

[AJC]

Just as a point of knowledge how do you evaluate knowledge or growth as a hand loader. I have a few ideas but most interested in your opinion. Here are the metrics I came up with.
1. How many cartridges you have mastered.
2. How many rounds you have loaded.
3. How many pounds of powder you have gone through.
4. Your kidding if your not designing your own wildcats your still a rookie.

The nub hand loader.

 

[Pwc]

More to the point, who cares? If I become better at what I do; more efficient use of my time, knowledgable of why and what nd how I do what I do, I'm happy. My "mid terms" and "finals" come with each trigger pull.

 

[joshb]

This is easy. You can measure your growth by reading the threads here. When you start, you don’t understand a frigin thing they’re talking about. After a few years of hard study and practice, you start to understand most of what’s being discussed. You graduate when you can answer any question correctly and give sound advice to a new guy that doesn’t understand a friggin thing you’re talking about!

 

[Medic505]

1. Working on mastering the .308, .223 still eludes me.
2. No idea, but I've shot them all.
3. No idea either, but I have a stack of shot out barrels.
4. Yep, I'm a rookie.

 

[BoydAllen]

You can do something a lot, for a long time and never be better than mediocre. For me, progress is measured at the target, and by the consistency of results. I know lots of guys, who have lots of guns, in many calibers, that they have loaded for for years, and not one of them is really accurate...not one.

 

[Rustytigwire]

You can select a goal.
You can not select your own individual capacity to grasp the concepts or perform the tasks.
Challenge yourself, enjoy your time.
Serious is good just not too serious.

 

[Rust]

"Mastering reloading"? Seriously?

I've been reloading for fifty years because in some instances it's just plain less expensive, in some cases commercial loadings I want just aren't available, and finally accuracy loads tuned to a specific rifle. There are no secrets, no big reveals, no wonder powders and no magic bullets. It's just a matter of following basic principles and refining parameters. Select brass, powder, primer, bullet and a seating depth. Load in appropriate powder increments. Test fire. Select best charge weight from test results. Load that charge weight and vary seating depths in increments appropriate. Test fire. Select best result. Best result determination should include chrono data for minimizing ES/SD.

Of course there are plenty of folks more anal retentive than I am, I know a few who go way past that. Weighing primers, sifting powder for uniform grain size, weighing bullets and batching by weight, measuring bullets and batching by bearing surface length and so on. Past a certain point being able to read conditions makes more of a difference though.

But the perfect load won't make up for not being able to read conditions.

 

[cptjack]

dont care what you think

 

[Richard Coody]

Well for the first 40 years of my reloading experience i was perfectly happy reloading for my hunting and plinking rifles

It wasn't till the last 10 years that i got into precision reloading after getting a couple of rifles that were actually precise enough to see the difference. Went deeply down the rabbit hole. With the help of this forum i have learned a lot. Spent thousands of dollars on equipment. Tried just about everything i read about and found what works for me. It has been a great learning experience.

That said since i am not a competitive shooter. Just enjoy shooting. I am begining to regress in most of my reloading. It is the law of diminishing returns. Is that process really worth another 10th or half a 10th in reduced group size. What does it really take to get consistent groups with this rifle.

Another thing i will say that i have learned. A truely precise rifle will get the job done even with mediocre reloads. Not saying meticulously prepared cartridges won't shoot better. Just saying if you aren't competing they will more than satisfy most shooters. Now let me define mediocre. Top quality components, well prepped brass, accurate powder charges, good load development, quality sizing and seating dies, attention to neck tension and bullet seating consistency. Maybe not bullet sorting, neck turning, obsessing with concentricity and a myriad of other OCD reloading techniques.

 

[Keith Glasscock]

I see two steps to mastering reloading:

1) Get the mechanical stuff squared away. That means having a cleaning, sizing, priming, charging, bullet seating, and QA process that provides consistent results.

2) Learning how to determine what is important. It is one thing to follow the crowd and buy every gadget known to man. It is something totally different to be able to look at your results and determine if a change is needed.

 

[Damfino]

Just as a point of knowledge how do you evaluate knowledge or growth as a hand loader. I have a few ideas but most interested in your opinion. Here are the metrics I came up with.
1. How many cartridges you have mastered.
2. How many rounds you have loaded.
3. How many pounds of powder you have gone through.
4. Your kidding if your not designing your own wildcats your still a rookie.

The nub hand loader.

Arguably, the best metric will always be your target. It usually tells the truth and rarely rewards poor hand loading technique. Not counting smallbore, I don't know any successful competitive shooter that isn't a meticulous and accomplished handloader. Consistent, positive results with no surprises or flyers that conditions or shooting technique can't explain is one indication of achieving a high level of expertise. Reloading for different cartridges is just applying the same principles with some trial and error over component selection. But, as someone told me many, many years ago; reloading is a 12 step process, but 2 are unnecessary...

 

[nso123]

I measure my growth as a loader through the consistent shrinking of my groups.

 

[LGKLAS]

My answer(s) is found in most of the above comments. I'm new to reloading, into my second year. Only reload one caliber (6.5mm CM). I don't really think of measuring progress, rather meeting a goal(s). I'm progressing when I learn something and especially something I can use or distinguish things that won't help me get to where I want. Consistency is my current goal. When I started I wanted to build cartridges that are at least as accurate as what I can buy. I'm wanting to lower my SDs/ESs at this time.

Reloading was something my shooting buddy got me into. I did not think I would like it at all as it seemed tedious. Now it is a fun hobby and I enjoy the challenge of most every aspect of it. Tongue and Grooves real nice with my shooting. I'll never be the among the most knowledgeable or skilled but that is not on my goal list.. If I got a question I can come here. I'll learn something new, fix an issue, and be better than before. Good enough for me. I'm on the left side of a bell curve and will be for a long time.

 

[K22]

I will try to be polite but I'm biting my tongue.

A competent reloader = one who reloads: safe, accurate, and functional cartridges.

PS: I've been reloading since the late 60's and I'm still a rookie and always will be according to you because I absolutely have never seen or never will see the need for wildcats when the vast selection of standard cartridges will fill every conceivable need.

That's not to say that there isn't value in designing and testing wildcat cartridges since a lot of standard cartridges have their origin in wildcats. For most of us that just want to hunt or target shoot, standard cartridges due just fine - it's more about the skill of the shooter than the cartridge.

 

[ebb]

When the groups get smaller you are growing. PERIOD

 

[AJC]

I will try to be polite but I'm biting my tongue.

A competent reloader = one who reloads: safe, accurate, and functional cartridges.

PS: I've been reloading since the late 60's and I'm still a rookie and always will be according to you because I absolutely have never seen or never will see the need for wildcats when the vast selection of standard cartridges will fill every conceivable need.

That's not to say that there isn't value in designing and testing wildcat cartridges since a lot of standard cartridges have their origin in wildcats. For most of us that just want to hunt or target shoot, standard cartridges due just fine - it's more about the skill of the shooter than the cartridge.

Originally I thought people were going to select one of the choices and expound. I have only hand loaded about 1k rounds of 9nm and 45. Still working on my first pound 4 grains of tight group at a time means it will last forever. Dont believe in any standard at this point, I was just looking for a good way to track progress. What would be the best is to find a local mentor, but it is a real struggle.

 

[Enosiophobia]

I enjoy it immensely, and cannot yet explain why. In life, how many things can you say that about?

 

[1611]

When the groups get smaller you are growing. PERIOD

That’s about how I figured it up. Tight consistent groups and low es and I’m happy with my progress lol

 

[ebb]

Low ES is an indicator not the final exam. I had a load with a 7RUM that was single digits ES that you could not hit a barn with distance.

 

[Sniper338]

You graduate when you can answer any question correctly and give sound advice to a new guy that doesn’t understand a friggin thing you’re talking about!

Well said lol