The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - What 3 reloading factors most affect accuracy...?

Sevens · August 8, 2012, 12:26 PM

A few things that I believe:

What makes for accuracy at the bench differs in rifle than in pistol, and I'm almost entirely a handgun guy. Though I do a bit of handloading for rifles, I pretty much stick to handguns and I currently reload for more than a dozen handgun calibers.

If you want my opinion of the top 3 things to shoot for in making quality, accurate HANDGUN ammo, my list will look like this:

1) Bullet. Pick a quality, consistent bullet, and the more surface area you have that is being gripped by the barrel, the better off you'll be. The bullets should be extremely close to each other in weight and their construction makes a difference in how well you can group them together on a target.

2) Brass. Use quality brass and sort them by headstamp. This is not foolproof because some brass with the same headstamp can come from wildly different lots and in some cases -- even come from different facilities in different places. Even still, sorting your brass gives you the best chance, IMO, at using the most similar brass you can use. What you are looking to avoid is having differing case capacities and varying levels of case thickness which affects the grip the brass case has on the bullet.

3) Powder charge. In handgun especially, where charge weights are low, having a consistent powder charge is essential to producing similar results. This becomes more difficult when you use SOME powders with SOME equipment, and the smaller the charge weight, the more difficult this is to remain consistent.

3) Technique at the bench. If you work single stage and you tool up to do 50 pieces of brass in each of the stages to finish with 50 loaded rounds -- you have probably made 50 fairly consistent rounds. However, those 50 rounds may not be quite as similar to the next 50 rounds you make as they would have been had you worked in larger batches and made 500 of them. Every time you change out a flare or seat/crimp die, you are making small adjustments.

I listed two number 3's because I couldn't decide between the two.

I still believe bullet selection is the number one key to making accurate ammo in handguns.

August 8, 2012, 12:26 PM	#25
Sevens Senior Member Join Date: July 28, 2007 Location: Ohio Posts: 11,756	A few things that I believe: What makes for accuracy at the bench differs in rifle than in pistol, and I'm almost entirely a handgun guy. Though I do a bit of handloading for rifles, I pretty much stick to handguns and I currently reload for more than a dozen handgun calibers. If you want my opinion of the top 3 things to shoot for in making quality, accurate HANDGUN ammo, my list will look like this: 1) Bullet. Pick a quality, consistent bullet, and the more surface area you have that is being gripped by the barrel, the better off you'll be. The bullets should be extremely close to each other in weight and their construction makes a difference in how well you can group them together on a target. 2) Brass. Use quality brass and sort them by headstamp. This is not foolproof because some brass with the same headstamp can come from wildly different lots and in some cases -- even come from different facilities in different places. Even still, sorting your brass gives you the best chance, IMO, at using the most similar brass you can use. What you are looking to avoid is having differing case capacities and varying levels of case thickness which affects the grip the brass case has on the bullet. 3) Powder charge. In handgun especially, where charge weights are low, having a consistent powder charge is essential to producing similar results. This becomes more difficult when you use SOME powders with SOME equipment, and the smaller the charge weight, the more difficult this is to remain consistent. 3) Technique at the bench. If you work single stage and you tool up to do 50 pieces of brass in each of the stages to finish with 50 loaded rounds -- you have probably made 50 fairly consistent rounds. However, those 50 rounds may not be quite as similar to the next 50 rounds you make as they would have been had you worked in larger batches and made 500 of them. Every time you change out a flare or seat/crimp die, you are making small adjustments. I listed two number 3's because I couldn't decide between the two. I still believe bullet selection is the number one key to making accurate ammo in handguns. __________________ *Attention Brass rats and other reloaders:* I really need .327 Federal Magnum brass, no lot size too small. Tell me what caliber you need and I'll see what I have to swap. PM me and we'll discuss.