so it looks like the boys might be interested in shooting High Powered Matches in the future.

I know the basics of reloading rifles. but not experienced in loading hyper accurate rounds.

if I were to look into this what video's or books should I get.

any advice on components?

I assume Sierra Matchking is still a major player.

I use 69 grain SMK's for 200/300. A lot of people are using 75/77's at these distances. 600 yards requires 80 grain match bullets seated close to the rifling.

Forster or Redding seating dies are superior IMO. They are identical in design, the Forster's are cheaper.

Forster allows you to customize their dies for only $12 plus round trip shipping this is a steal. I suggest you buy their match die set (Ultra has .001" micrometer seating hash marks) and have the sizing die honed to .2440". This will resize the necks enough to achieve .003" to .0035" of neck tension without an expander ball. Polishing your expander ball to .221" or .2215" will push any imperfections to the exterior of the case neck and insure plenty of neck tension.

My standard accuracy load with 69 grain SMK's is 24.5 grains of Varget. 2.250" OAL".
Remington 7.5 primers
CCI-BR4 primers
Russian kvb-5,56m primers all work great for me.

Lake City or Winchester brass.

I look at 2750 fps as a velocity goal from 20" barrels. This has been a proven load across a variety of rifles I own.

23.5 grains to 24.0 grains of Varget with 80 grain SMK's seated around 2.470" in Wylde chambers, 2.500 - 2.550" in NATO chambers, load them one at a time.

Start around .020" jump to test. Move closer and further away from the rifling without actually touching it, to find a load that shoots great.

You sure about seating your bullets at 2.470 to 2.550? Jump to the lands in most AR's would be much closers to 2.268 or so.. give or take a few thous

so we would need 2 different loads for the rigs.

1- 200-300 yard
2- 600 yard

are they anywhere close to same POA?

I would prefer 1 single loading for all.

can a 77gr loaded up function in a magazine or is it single load only?

Only with a stubby bullet and short throat, like Hornady 52gr BTHP in a CLE or minimum .223.

Wylde spec is 80gr SMK at 2.475. NATOs can be a little longer.

Wylde chamber 80 grain loads are around 2.470" to jump a little.

NATO chamber rounds are 2.500" to 2.550" depending on rifle. This is also a short jump to the rifling.

I don't know what chamber (.223 maybe?) and what bullet you are referring to, but 80 grain SMK's are in common use at 600 yards and my measurements are considered standards.

You can shoot 77's from magazine length at 600 yards, don't expect to be competitive when doing so. If you shoot reduced courses of fire, say no longer than 300 actual yards, then magazine length rounds will work fine. I know a couple of guys who load 77's so they almost touch the rifling because their rifles don't like 80 grain bullets. They are outliers. Virtually everyone else is shooting 80's and jumping their bullets between .010" to .0250" to the rifling.

Short range reduced courses of fire (100/200 yards) can get hammered with 52/53 grain bullets, even from 1/7 twist barrels. Seriously, if you want small groups inside 200 yards load up Sierra 52/53 grain Match Kings at around 2950 to 3050 fps from a 20" barrel and watch them stack up together on target. Nothing else compares.

75gr class, including maglength, do fine at 600. Time is better used for practice with one load than adjusting tools and developing two. Get above 95% in moderate wind, then worry about wind cheating bullets.

Just about any brass is fine. PMP, GFL, and Starline tend to be heavy and have about 0.5gr less capacity. We haven't found a conclusive correlation yet, but uniforming the flash hole may reduce velocity spread. I recommend the type that stops on the case floor instead of the mouth.

With normal variation in bores and chambers, 2700-2800fps is about right.

24.0gr Varget
23.5gr H4895
23.0gr XBR8208
Are all "good enough" charges, and more often than not work well with shorter bullets for reduced courses.

2.250" is an average; I seat 5-10 to get an idea of the range and have found +/-0.007" to be within normal. Some guys have found good groups to pucker to great ones by seating deeper in 0.005 increments. That's for when the 10-ring becomes boring.

I favor CCI 450s, but Rem 7.5s are equal to me. If you wanna push the limit, I recommend using 400s as another indicator of MAX.

77 gr Sierra Match Kings or Lapua Scenars seated to magazine length will shoot Just Fine at 200, 300, and 600 yards.

Eventually you'll probably want to shoot something heavier (pointier) and loaded long at 600, but 77s will get you 90% of the way there.

gracias.

we are going to a watch a match next weekend to see what we are getting into.

Do some dry firing offhand between now and then. Most people can master the other stages, offhand gives everyone but the best shooters fits.

I agree with what they are saying above.  

My recipes are identical, too.

Short line loads (200, 300 yards, mag length) -
Winchester brass
Winchester SR primer
24.0 gr Varget or TAC
75 gr Hornady HPBT-M bullet seated to 2.240" OAL

Long line load (600 yards, single load only) -
Winchester brass
Winchester SR primer
24.0 gr Varget
80 gr Sierra MK bullet seated 0.020" off the lands.  

If you are shooting reduced courses (the place to start), you can throw all powder charges and need use only the 75 gr bullet.  When they can shoot over ~85-90% move to full course matches.  The ammo will still work at 600 but the longer distance will teach different lessons, like wind doping and the how much difference a better bullet makes (the 80 SMK).

And the magazine that feeds them in an AR is 2.260... so I am not following you. I will get my hornady comparator out and see what the lands are on my .223 wylde rainer match AR barrel. It would be pretty drastic jump for a bullet at .215"

80s are ideally single loaded through the port, so I'm not following you.

At maglength, the 77gr SMK jumps about a 0.10 - 0.12".

Whats the point of single loading an AR thru the port, when you could just go to a bolt action? To shoot a 3 grain heavier bullet, 80 over 77?

I was completely unaware that people were single loading a 556/223 cartridge thru the port... you threw me a bit there. Seems silly, and defies the whole point of shooting a semi auto in the first place. I would think shooters would just prefer to shoot a bolt gun, with easy access to bolt and chamber without moving off the rifle.

for EIC matches and service rifle category in NRA matches; bolt guns would not meet the definition of a service rifle. An 80 has a higher BC than a 77 and at the 600 yd line competitors single load per match rules. The 80 was designed to be used in matches.

The rat gun needed cheater bullets to keep up with the M14.

This was the last time I used such:

One name says it all....Johnny’s Reloading Bench on YouTube. His mk262 playlist is great.

To keep things simple and economic using 75-77's for XTC is a good start for a newbie.

23.5 - 24 gr Varget, RL-15 in LC case and any SR primer.

The rules require single loading every shot during the slow fire stages. You can shoot magazine-length ammo, but you still have to load them singly. Even if you're a masochist and want to compete with some 30 cal old wood gun, you'll load it singly during slow fire.

The difference between the 80 and 77 grain bullet classes isn't just 3 grains. The 80s are longer and pointier, with substantially better ballistic coefficients. As I wrote previously, you can shoot the 77s at 600 yards and do fine, but if you miss a 3 or 5 mph wind shift between shots, the 77 may blow out to the 9 ring when the 80 stays in the 10. This is why you'll see almost every good highpower shooter make the effort to have different loads for the 200/300 and 600 stages. For beginners who shoot a lot of 8s and 9s the 80s aren't going to make a huge difference and the 77s are good enough.

It's not a run 'n' gun tacticool discipline the beardbros at the gun shop like to brag about. It's marksmanship distilled down to fundamentals. Some of the rules are a little bit arbitrary. The equipment and ammo grew from that odd soil.