I'm curious if the folks who post here - and not in the Armory/Reloading forum - use any more detailed, more precise, more "picky" loading techniques than those of us who are in that other forum.

Expensive scales?  High end dies?  Sorting brass by the 1/10 grain weight?  Sorting bullets by weight and length?

I'm honestly interested, so please enlighten me.

It's been a long time since I've done it, hell  I don't even hand load anymore, but I used to shoot benchrest.  6PPC. Yes, I sorted my brass by weight, turned necks, and used Wilson hand dies with an arbor press. I shot Berger bullets and always requested "old die" bullets. I used a Redding powder measure and checked it often. I was lucky enough my rifle liked really light loads so I shot the same brass almost indefinitely. At least until it could no longer hold a primer.

Like I said, it was a long time ago and I'm sure I've forgotten much and just as sure a lot has changed.

I shoot bench rest. All my ammo is as perfect as i can get it.
All my cleaning is precisely done.
Weighing to the kernal on a sartorius, bullets are custom made.
FL sizing, sholder is exact, case mouth is exact.
Single stage rcbs & inline bullet seater.

6bra, 6ppc, 30br, 13.5 lb, 55x scope & 10lb hunter w/6x scope
I didn't shoot long range this season (600/1k)

I shot 1,2 & 300 IBS. I'm in top 5 SOY. Wall full of fake wood.
I shot some UBR 100, got a couple of the fake woods.

I shoot palma with a 223.

I sort mixed cases by the grain.

I use one of the nice AutoTricklers. It is a lot faster than my charge master was.

I shoot mostly NRA/CMP high power with a little bit of long range.

I use a V4 for throwing powder for anything 600 yards and beyond. Before I had a V4, I used a beam scale and trickled them up.

I do not weigh cases or projectiles but do sort by headstamps. I have a Tubb bearing surface comparator, which may get some use at some point but I don't currently use it.

For 600 yard shooting I'm not a case snob. LC, WCC or commercial cases. For 1K I have a bunch of Lapua cases that I use in my Palam rifle. When I'm shooting 600 yard or shorter, I'll use military cases even though the case capacity is not as great as the Lapua. It simply does not make a lot of difference for the closer distances. I do neck turn those LC cases necks as I have found that the X counts are higher with consistent neck tension.

All I use for a press is a rock chucker and a smattering of Forster/RCBS/Reading dies. All the seating dies are bench rest dies, since they tend to do a better job aligning the projectile for seating.

If I'm shooting virgin brass, I'll neck size them or run them over a carbide mandrel to make sure everything is consistent.

B

Not shooting comps so don't got extreme. Anneal every firing, fl size and trim every time.

Waiting on my autotrickler setup to come in, chargemaster is too slow.

Use a micrometer seater die and recently started using expander mandrels over neck bushings.

I do the least amount possible to get the accuracy I need. For example, high power I bump shoulders to fit the chamber but load match bullets using the powder thrower on my Dillion for 200 and 300 yards. That is good enough to clean rapids. For 600 I weigh charges. All cases are trimmed short to eliminate trimming. I keep cases segregated by # of firings and head stamp. Load development is non existent. I steal the loads others are winning with.

For hunting, under 1 moa at 200 yards is the target. A good rifle and bullet will normally do that easily so I don’t do anything special that wastes my time to get better accuracy. I hardly develop and test loads. I use bullets and powders that are known to work good by others and check to ensure my rifle will meet the accuracy requirement with them.

Anyone use an arbor press versus a seating die?

I did a thread way back when just to show what can be done..

https://www.ar15.com/forums/precision-rifles/My-long-range-reloading-process-/10-8957/?

That's an awesome write up.  For a "2000 yard" rifle/round combination, I  think ALL of your steps are important, and the rationale of each is extra clear.

I'm happy to see that you like the GemPro 250.  I have used mine for a long time.  I found that, like a lot of "lab grade" equipment, it's important to verify your calibration before using the scale, even if it's been sitting there "on" for months.  A "fresh" calibration is important when you're using the Tare function, too.

I learned a lot from your linked post about what can be done to improve hand load precision.  I've already been working on incorporating some of those steps into my own processes, so more useful stuff to do goes on the list of "what to do next".  

The great thing about this forum is that there are so many people with such a broad range of experiences and skills, that you can ask a simple question and wind up learning volumes from even "simple" replies.  Thanks for your input!

I hear you, I used to be like trollslayer and keep everything as basic as possible, but once I really started stretching the distance I felt things could be better, And things have improved, not much, and hard to point at targets and say "see, its better" but I do feel its helped..but most of my work has been with neck tension and consistency...


ETA: Yep love the 250, its always been dead nuts accurate, of course so has the charge master lite..