[Hansam]

Before I started reloading I'd killed plenty of animals with commercial loads.

I also want to make a point that while I do reload I am not primarily a bench shooter nor am I primarily a target shooter. I do enjoy shooting paper to see how accurate the gun is and if I get particularly good groupings I do get excited about it. If that particular load performs well I'll keep it.

That said I also DO load for "just good enough". That means that if I know I can take game with a particular load out to a certain distance but perhaps that grouping isn't better than maybe 3-4" then well I'm keeping that load for hunting. I don't need to have my hunting loads able to shoot .5MOA so I can shoot deer at 100yds.

The primary reason I reload is for cost effectiveness. I don't reload my own ammo because I'm looking for that perfect round. In face I'm not too keen on having a perfect round for every gun. I like a good all around .308 round that will function fairly well in all my .308 rifles. This means that I'm not looking for a load that will work great in one rifle but works like crap in the other two rifles I have in that caliber. I want one that will give me "minute of kill" in medium to large size game in any of the rifles I have. As it is my favorite load works just good enough with all three rifles I have that I can hit vitals out to 300+ yards on a whitetail. That is considerably larger than 1MOA and even 2MOA. Sure I have loads in my books where I COULD shoot 1MOA or better out of a specific rifle but I actually don't have any of those loads on hand or even loaded somewhere. What I DO have is a large quantity of my "just good enough" loads because that's also what I shoot at the range to keep my shooting up to par for hunting.

The same goes for when I shoot my AR-15's. I have recorded loads that were very accurate in particular guns but I actually rarely load anything different than what is required to make basic SAAMI specs OR mil-spec 5.56. I don't use really heavy bullets (aside from my hunting loads then I load to 5.56 pressures with a heavier bullet like a 68gr BTSP). I load what is basically commercial ammo most of the time. Why? Well its because I can shoot a whole lot more for the cost ammo than commercial ammo and that ammo is "just good enough."

So after that long winded rant what I'm trying to say is that my original post about reloading ammo - wasn't about getting the most accurate possible round. It was about getting a good all around loading that would be both effective at most tasks you set it to AND be cost effective. For me meeting those requirements is more important than being able to shoot the eye out of a moose at 500yds out of one specific rifle.

That's why I also recommended a particular type of commercial ammo - because I've killed plenty of deer with cheap Federal Powershok ammo before I started reloading.

My motivation to reload was to stretch my dollar out for more shots per dollar than buying commercial ammo. Being able to get more accurate cartridges is a bonus but not a priority for me. If I can match commercial ammo consistency and accuracy then I'm happy because that means I can shoot it through most of my guns and be accurate enough to take game. Will I win any long distance shooting competitions with it? Most likely not. Will I continue to be able to take game with it year in and year out? Most like yes.