New reloader

[Metalocalypse902]

That bullet 50 fps change(shot to shot) is approximately 3" vertical at 500 yards. Shot some rounds at 500 yards, if you have more than 3" vertical dispersion its velocity related, you or the barrel. Probably only you know if you/rifle are capable of sub moa at 500 yards, are you always 1/2 moa or better at 100 yards?

Well the worst group I've shot with it was 3/4 of an inch on average I'm JUST under or at .5 moa

 

[RegionRat]

I guess what I mean was im not sure I understand the SD. And for the ES I understand I want the lowest possible. But at let's say 600 yards or less. Should I even bother with it at all? I've also seen guys talk about doing it without a chronograph but I don't know what I'm not understanding in the process. I'm not super crazy about stuff. Everything i use is manual except my scale. I'm not very picky with brass. I clean and prep it. But I'll shoot any. Usually hornady brass. Cci primers.

If you are getting 0.5 MOA at 500 or 600 yards, then the only things a chronograph will help with is your DOPE during weather changes.

There are too many good resources for understanding what an SD or ES means mathematically that come with good graphics and such to bother with rewriting all that in this thread.

Ballistics applications of the SD and ES are specific, and you can ask all the questions you need here.

The easy way to put this is...
An ES is like talking about only the two most extreme data points of the sample you shot. The SD helps describe how spread out the Bell Curve looks while sitting over your average. You can estimate the future ES by assuming that the SD times four to six would be your long-term ES once you shot enough samples.

A good SD doesn't come from a 3 or 5 shot group. It takes on the order of 15 to 30 shots to get a well developed SD, so try not to abuse those numbers but learn to watch your loads over composite sessions of all your samples.

Just be sure to study how temperature and weather affects internal ballistics and let the chronograph help with the external ballistics. You would still need to know things like station pressure or Density Altitude if you happened to care about what causes shifts in impacts at 600 yards.

I know it can be a lot for folks without the background, but taken slowly and with some study you will get the hang of it. You would benefit by reading this book in order to understand what you are getting into once you start wanting to go out past 300 yards. YMMV