How OCD do you get?

[headednorth]

Curious as to what techniques guys are using. Looking to achieve better accuracy as we all are, without driving myself crazy or wasting time and effort.

How many guys out there are...

1-Cleaning primer pockets
2-uniforming primer pockets
3-reaming flash holes.
4-"double seating" meaning partially seating a bullet, lowering the ram, giving the case a partial turn and then seating the rest of the way.
5-crimping rifle cases.
6-"double crimping", same as above except during the crimp process rather than the seating process.
7-weighing individual cases and bullets and loading similar weight cases with similar weight bullets.
8-cleaning the inside of the neck with a brush.

...anything else anyone has to add.

Especially interested in anyone who has gone out of their way to experiment with differing methods and recorded results. For example, found that crimped rifle rounds perform better/worse than non-crimped rounds.

 

[jaypap]

I only load pistol and none of the above.

 

[mac1911]

I do 123 7 8
Not always though it depends on the platform and my mind set.
I'm not OCD at all. It's a real waste of time.
Basically I don't shoot enough anymore for any of it to matter much. Give my a .25 MOA platform and I'm still going to shoot 1moa at best more like 1.5-2!!! On a good day im happy with keeping them,in the 10 ring of a SR 1 with any rifle.
If im ever going out to 1000 yards and trying to make the Palmer rifle team...maybe some of that stuff will come into play. If I was OCD stricken It would take me months to sort brass.

 

[PatMcD]

I do none of that.

 

[76Too]

Voodoo

 

[dw617]

.

 

[xtry51]

None of the above.

 

[DW357]

None of the above lol

 

[mac1911]

Side note: For the most part I do the primer pocket prep cause I have this machine sitting on the bench and I find myself angry with the purchase if I don't use it. Plus only need to do it once.
If your OCD and you come to my house I might have to pick your mumbling twitching arse up after you collapse on the floor....if you get past the pile of stuff already there.

 

[Picton]

When I think about it, I do #1. 2-8 strike me as completely unnecessary.

Then again, I'm happy hitting anywhere on an e-type silhouette at 300m. My standards are low.

 

[Mountain]

Plinking or pistol reloads? No to all.

Match rifle reloads:

1-Cleaning primer pockets - yes, if gunked up surplus
2-uniforming primer pockets - no, but I will trim crimped pockets if the crimps are big, otherwise I'll just jamb the primers past the crimps
3-reaming flash holes. - Only if clogged with tumble media or if there's a brass defect
4-"double seating" no
5-crimping rifle cases. never
6-"double crimping", never
7-weighing individual cases and bullets and loading similar weight cases with similar weight bullets. no
8-cleaning the inside of the neck with a brush. only if they look dirty

Occasionally I will use benchrest techniques to see what is the absolute best accuracy from a given rifle, or when my club has a intra-club benchrest match. Then yes to 1, 3, 4, 7, 8. I would add to that case trimming to uniform length and neck turning if the rifle is already 1/2 MOA.

 

[headednorth]

For the record, for something beyond plinking ammo, I do 1,2,4 and 7. Otherwise none of the above.

I think the double seat thing is supposed to be a poor man's way of getting better concentricity. It's easy to do so other than plinking ammo I'll do it although I have no idea if it really makes a difference. I've never bothered with flash holes. Started to neck brush but wasn't doing that very long at all. DW makes a.good point.that time spent at the range probably trumps 95% of all but th most basic reloading steps.

 

[DW357]

I don't know if this would be considered OCD, but recently I started resizing, priming, and expanding large amounts of 9mm brass. THEN once I have a good number of cases prepped, I charge, seat bullet, crimp.

I started doing this because of the amount of shaking/jolting on the press when resizing 9mm brass. I didn't feel confident that I would get consistent powder drops as well as consistent OAL when the press was shaking so much. Could be a waste of time but it helps me sleep at night

 

[headednorth]

Side note: For the most part I do the primer pocket prep cause I have this machine sitting on the bench and I find myself angry with the purchase if I don't use it. Plus only need to do it once.
If your OCD and you come to my house I might have to pick your mumbling twitch arse after you collapse on the floor....if you get past the pile of stuff already there.

Same here. Got one of those case prep stations a few years ago. Can't really say I notice any difference in results between using or not using.

 

[PL-52]

I don't know if this would be considered OCD, but recently I started resizing, priming, and expanding large amounts of 9mm brass. THEN once I have a good number of cases prepped, I charge, seat bullet, crimp.

I started doing this because of the amount of shaking/jolting on the press when resizing 9mm brass. I didn't feel confident that I would get consistent powder drops as well as consistent OAL when the press was shaking so much. Could be a waste of time but it helps me sleep at night

I do the same, but only because I have a bullet feeder in the 2 hole on the turret press I like that better than seating 1 bullet by hand on every 3rd pull of the handle.

 

[mac1911]

I don't know if this would be considered OCD, but recently I started resizing, priming, and expanding large amounts of 9mm brass. THEN once I have a good number of cases prepped, I charge, seat bullet, crimp.

I started doing this because of the amount of shaking/jolting on the press when resizing 9mm brass. I didn't feel confident that I would get consistent powder drops as well as consistent OAL when the press was shaking so much. Could be a waste of time but it helps me sleep at night

No OCD for you if you had you would spend 2 weeks adjusting and changing and rebuilding your bench until a egg will balance on top of your press.
My friend has what I call aggressive OCD he will spend much to much time doing something then when it still is not "perfect" he gets a little twitch in his eye and then smashes the shit out of what ever he was working on... it's sad and comical.

 

[DW357]

when it still is not "perfect" he gets a little twitch in his eye and then smashes the shit out of what ever he was working on... it's sad and comical.

Wow

 

[NavelOfficer]

I don't think this is OCD, but I did some casting the other day and loaded up about a hundred rounds with only 20 pieces of brass. If you reload the same brass four or five times a day, is that troublesome? I have plenty of brass, but, in the process of developing a load, I'd load them up, fire them...repeat. FWIW, most of the Blazer aluminum cases finally gave up the ghost (about 8 reloads total, I'm guessing).

 

[mac1911]

I don't think this is OCD, but I did some casting the other day and loaded up about a hundred rounds with only 20 pieces of brass. If you reload the same brass four or five times a day, is that troublesome? I have plenty of brass, but, in the process of developing a load, I'd load them up, fire them...repeat. FWIW, most of the Blazer aluminum cases finally gave up the ghost (about 8 reloads total, I'm guessing).

No that's just normal reloaditis....ocd would cause you not to reload the same case as it was not cleaned sorted measured compared and rechecked 50 times.

 

[efelton]

I don't know if this would be considered OCD, but recently I started resizing, priming, and expanding large amounts of 9mm brass. THEN once I have a good number of cases prepped, I charge, seat bullet, crimp.

I started doing this because of the amount of shaking/jolting on the press when resizing 9mm brass. I didn't feel confident that I would get consistent powder drops as well as consistent OAL when the press was shaking so much. Could be a waste of time but it helps me sleep at night

Andrew, do you have 2 different sets of dies set up?

I have a Lee Pro 1000. I like the idea of doing 2 different stages of "3 things".

I keep seeing the advice that Seating and Crimping should be 2 different stages, but I could not figure out how to accomplish that on my 3-die press. Changing to a 6-stage process allows me to do that.

 

[EddieCoyle]

None of the above, but I do deburr the flash holes in precison rifle cases that need it.

 

[DW357]

Andrew, do you have 2 different sets of dies set up?

I have a Lee Pro 1000. I like the idea of doing 2 different stages of "3 things".

I keep seeing the advice that Seating and Crimping should be 2 different stages, but I could not figure out how to accomplish that on my 3-die press. Changing to a 6-stage process allows me to do that.

I use the Lee 4 die set (with taper crimp die not factory crimp die). I use the Hornady bushings that allows me to set/lock the dies at the adjustment I want so it's just a matter of popping the dies in and out. No readjusting needed.

I prefer to seat and crimp separately as I think you can control seating depth and crimp a little better. I have the Hornady LNL progressive press so I have 5 stations (resize/prime, expand, charge, seat bullet, crimp).

I know nothing about the Lee 1000 but if it has 3 stations available, why can't you do 3 things (resize, prime, expand)? Then setup your powder drop, seating die, and crimp die?

 

[noylj]

None of the above.
For rifles, my best rifle only does 0.75-1.25 MOA. Any of these tricks produce "improvement," if any, below the level of group-to-group variances.
One should always TEST and not just accept the idea that anything that is more consistent must be more accurate.
For example, many push the "consistency" equals accuracy to the point that they trim cases that head space on the case mouth—thus, they are INCREASING the head space slop and LOSING accuracy by my tests.
With handguns, sorting cases by head stamp in .45 Auto and 9x19 has produced NO improvement. In fact, the final averages and std. dev. were smaller for the mixed set; however, student-t test still was to accept the null hypothesis (that the two data sets came from the same data).
All I ask for are a few papers proving that any of these things actually improve accuracy for standard pistols and rifles.
I have read for over 40 years about all the case prep things that benchrest shooters did and in all that time I have never located a single paper showing any test results proving that they actually made a difference. The only two that have been shown time and again to work are minimizing run-out and lightly outside neck-turning. The fact that I can find papers for these two items but not any of the rest tend to make me very doubtful. Not saying any of it is necessarily bad, but even a few more minutes behind the trigger would probably do more for accuracy.

 

[Tackdriver VillenTactical]

When loading for 1/4-1/2 MOA out of an hunting rifle, .223 AR or a .308 sniping rifle I will do #1
When loading 6PPC for benchrest and want 1/100th MOA I will do #1, #2, Sometimes #3, and #7. Also I will neck turn cases, expand the inside of case necks, adjust seating depths, adjust neck tension, perform a rain dance and a few other rituals, and will spend many winter nights ostracized from my wife.

For the most part, 90% of my accuracy gains are by finding the right powder, bullet, primer and case combination. The rest of these other little things, in total, account for the other 10%.

Dave

 

[bigblue]

The 90 grain 5.56 I shoot at 1,015y get none of the above. Pistol rounds get far less than the rifle rounds get.

 

[mac1911]

lee pro 1000 should drive any OCD issues to over load.....you wont get a single round loaded.

 

[Fixxah]

If you leave the necks dirty, you get a better grip on the pill and accuracy as a result assuming all else is equal. EC has done extensive testing and the results speak for themselves.
I tumble with wet stainless and the brass is spotless. I like shiny for most cases but my long gun gets em dirty.

 

[Fixxah]

Didn't see EC's post. Follow the leader.

 

[G-Lo]

I don't know if this would be considered OCD, but recently I started resizing, priming, and expanding large amounts of 9mm brass. THEN once I have a good number of cases prepped, I charge, seat bullet, crimp.

I started doing this because of the amount of shaking/jolting on the press when resizing 9mm brass. I didn't feel confident that I would get consistent powder drops as well as consistent OAL when the press was shaking so much. Could be a waste of time but it helps me sleep at night

This is so weird, I have been thinking about doing that as I have the same issue and I'm afraid I'm not getting my 4.3gr all the time and COL as well. I guess someone else already doing it.

As for the OP I do most of the steps but just for .308 Sierra or Nosler on top of Varget but that's it.