Filling in a checklist of reloading components needed for each rifle eliminates the possibility of arriving at the range only to discover that you left something behind.

Developing a load for a rifle can be accomplished in either of two ways. The more time-consuming way is to load the ammo at home and transport it to a range where it is tested for accuracy. The routine goes something like this:

For each bullet/powder combination, we begin with the recommended starting load and work toward maximum--if top velocity is one of the goals. Let us say we want to develop a load for one of my favorite rifles, a Cooper Model 22 in 6.5-284. We start the program by loading three rounds with 51.0 grains of Reloder 22 behind a Nosler 125-grain Partition bullet and then raise the powder charge in 1-grain increments, load another three rounds, and so on until a maximum charge of 55.0 grains is reached. That gives us 15 rounds of ammo to test. We also want to try three other powders with the same bullet, and that increases our necessary round count to 60.

The load-development plan also includes trying the same four powders with five other bullets, bringing the round count to 360. If we have that much brass on hand, we load them up and head to the range. Once we get there, we discover that some of our starting loads are much too low, so we skip the first two or three trios in several batches. Or we discover that 2 grains up from the starting load is hot enough for a particular combination, so the remainder of the ammo in those batches is left unfired.

In other words, when we get back home, a lot of bullets have to be pulled from ammo we spent a lot of time reloading. And we aren’t even done yet.

Having determined a maximum load with each of the 24 powder/bullet combinations, we next choose the top five for further accuracy evaluation. So we load 25 rounds each (for shooting five, five-shot groups) for a total of 125 rounds.

We also want to try each combination with three different bullet-seating depths, and that brings it to 375 rounds. We crank up the family jalopy, head back to the range, and after firing two or three groups with several of the bullets, we decide accuracy is not good enough to shoot additional groups with them, so we end up with more surplus test ammo.

At this point we have burned a lot of expensive gasoline. And we’ve spent a lot of time loading a whole lot of ammunition. And for various reasons we have ended up pulling bullets from quite a few cartridges. On top of that, there is probably still a bit more load-tweaking to be done before we are completely convinced that we have come up with the best load for the rifle, so it’s back to the range another time or two. There is a method that works better and expends a lot less time and components.

A Better Way
Quite a few years ago, soon after I started shooting in registered benchrest competition, I started developing loads at the range rather than at home. In that game, competitors usually have no more than a couple dozen carefully prepared cases for each rifle, and those cases are loaded during the match, not at home. All loading components and the necessary loading equipment are commonly brought to the match in a multiple-drawer toolbox.

Developing a load for a rifle rather than simply loading a predetermined recipe for it requires bringing a few more items to the range, but the idea is the same.