I'll start with the first range report

[ONE-TEN]

My RCBS 1500 was a workhorse; I replaced it with a Hornady Autocharge pro and recently upgraded to an AutoTrickler and a A&D FX-123 scale.

View attachment 1008

Are ya reloading or MINCING VEGGIES? That thing looks like dang food processor! Whats that, a Cuisinart?

Tell me I’m lying!


Seriously though, that’s a fine setup you got there. Very nice reloading toys!

 

[CoalCrackerAl]

Nice shooting Fjold.

 

[CoalCrackerAl]

Dave your making me hungry!!

 

[IndianHead]

You all are serious about this stuff. About the only things that I measure are group size, velocity and standard deviation.

One of my best groups, I never measured. I was shooting my 6.5x284 (Not Norma, a wildcat) and shot two targets in a row. I keep the photos together to show that they were five shot groups.

Darn nice group!

 

[CFJunkie]

That lower one is a great group.
If you tell me the width of the orange sticker, I'll calculate it for you.

 

[CFJunkie]

Range Results - Aug 3, 2026

Shot two loads of 80 gr Berger VLDs - this rifle's favorite bullet by a slight bit.

The first load was only 0.001 OAL different than the second load.

Yet the first load averaged 0.245 because of a horrendous 0.351 group - without the one bad group, it averaged 0.219 - still not anything to write home about.
The best groups were 0.210 and 0.217.

The second load averaged 0.195 with one poor group of 0.248 and two groups of 0.143 and 0.162, and one not so good group of 0.226. Without that 0.248 mess up, the remaining three groups averaged 0.177.

I can't explain why I had such strange results today.
I did have some problems keeping my aim point stable while pulling the trigger for some reason - it always seems to be something that I screw up.
The one really bad group in the first load was an enormous screw up. The 0.248 in the second load was more like my normal mess ups.

Temps were between 76 and 79 degrees and the winds were from 6 to 9 mph. No excuses there.
I guess I must not have been fully in the zone today.

 

[Alan]

ChargeMaster 1500 (2008 vintage) and it has thrown more than 82,000 rounds.

Thanks for the compliment, but those small SDs really mean that I had a mediocre day with no really small groups.

Since most reloaders are only familiar with SD being used for velocities measured by chronographs, I thought I better clarify what I was measuring.
My SDs are a measure of the deviation between the group sizes, not velocity. That gives me a statistical picture of my group consistency for a load. Normally, my group SDs for a load are in the 0.020 to 0.030s, and one really tight group or one really sloppy group might raise it to the 0.040s. At my age, I have given up any expectations of being consistently accurate, and shooting only great groups.

The SDs of the velocity variations with my very best reloads rarely manage to get down to 5 fps. The variations in primer/powder burn interactions and barrel temperature changes just can't seem to produce better than that.

82,000 rounds through the same ChargeMaster since 2008 and it's still going. That thing earned its keep.

 

[IndianHead]

Range Results - Aug 3, 2026

Shot two loads of 80 gr Berger VLDs - this rifle's favorite bullet by a slight bit.

The first load was only 0.001 OAL different than the second load.

Yet the first load averaged 0.245 because of a horrendous 0.351 group - without the one bad group, it averaged 0.219 - still not anything to write home about.
The best groups were 0.210 and 0.217.

The second load averaged 0.195 with one poor group of 0.248 and two groups of 0.143 and 0.162, and one not so good group of 0.226. Without that 0.248 mess up, the remaining three groups averaged 0.177.

I can't explain why I had such strange results today.
I did have some problems keeping my aim point stable while pulling the trigger for some reason - it always seems to be something that I screw up.
The one really bad group in the first load was an enormous screw up. The 0.248 in the second load was more like my normal mess ups.

Temps were between 76 and 79 degrees and the winds were from 6 to 9 mph. No excuses there.
I guess I must not have been fully in the zone today.

Do you have, or have you considered using a Triggercam? I find it a really great aid in diagnosing why a shot was off. Spoiler alert .. 95 % of the time it was something silly I did.