driftrider,

I think that everyone who has loaded for awhile has found a "comfort zone" that they are comfortable with. Some love to tinker and their zone gets pretty demanding. While others are satisfied if a bullet leaves the barrel and strikes pretty close to where it was supposed to. I for one am a pain in the neck nit picker. Everything I list has, to one degree or another, given me improved results in accuracy.

First I'm convinced that attempting to build an accuracy load in a rifle that hasn't been tuned is a waste of time, effort and money. Due to age and being gimpy, I've greatly reduced the number of rifles I now own. All of which are Remington 700s. If I buy a new rifle, the first thing I do is to thoroughly clean it. Then it goes to the gunsmith.I get the action and chamber area of the barrel glass bedded and the rest of the barrel channel is free floated. I, or the gun smith replace the factory firing pin and spring with a Tubb High speed firing pin and spring. While the rifle is at the gunsmiths, I buy or order the necessary components, except cases, needed to load for the rifle. I'll also get a box of the cheapest ammo I can find for the rifle. When the rifle comes home it is cleaned again and we make a short trip to the range. I will fire 8 rounds in order to get the fire formed cases I need to adjust the dies.

Now comes the loading room work. I will use one case and a Sinclair chamber length gage, to determine the exact length of the chamber of the rifle. I measure the diameter of the chamber neck. Next, I use a RCBS precision mic to find the actual headspace measurement of the fired cases. I adjust the full length sizing die so that when a case is sized, the headspace of the sized case is the same as the fireformed case. Since both of us use a .22-250, I'll use it as an example.. The max listed case length of the .22-250 is 1.912". The max neck diameter is .254" with a bullet seated. Were the actual chamber length were within .010" and the neck diameter within .005" of the S.A.A.M.I. specs I would order .22-250 cases whe I ordered brass. Once I recieved the new cases, I culled them by weight after they had had the primer pockets uniformed, inside flash holes deburred and the out side of the case necks turned. However, my chamber was nowhere near the specs. I ordered .243 Win cases and converted them to .22-250. Once I had the cases reformed, I trim them to the actual length of my chamber. and prepped the same way. I then fireformed the cases with a light load.

Now I'm ready to load test loads. A method of determining seating depth. I like to size a fired case just enough to hold a bullet lightly. I mark the bullet with a marking pen and just start it into the case and chamber the case. Then carefully remove the case from the rifle and measure its length. Since all bullets vary in length, the measured bullet must be used in furture test. After cleaning the bullet I'll seat it to a length about .005" to .010" longer than the measured length. From there on it's a matter of trial and error. Smoke the bullet and chamber it. The point I look for is where the lands will mark the soot on the bullet, but will not remove the soot so you have shiny brass showing. Now I load three rounds to a load and start just below the midload shown in the book and work up in half grain steps to one grain over the max book load. During firing, every round is inspected for pressure signs. Once pressure is indicated, STOP. I don't care if the load is less than shown in the book. STOP, and back up half a grain of powder minimum. I take the load that shot the smallest group and load five rounds of that load as well as .3 grains above and below that load.

Most of the time this is enough to result in a good load. I usually go a little deeper running chonograph test and drop test. It may be surprising just how accurate a factory rifle can be, Good luck and God Bless.