Let's talk about precision reloading

[Anthony.L]

My $.02 as someone who hand loads .308WIN and .338LM for match grade ammo in my bolt-guns.

- Turning case necks

Don't waste your time/money, not at least at this stage. Something reserved for the bench rest guys looking for that .00001 increase in accuracy.

- Using bench rest primers VS standard primers

Don't waste your time/money, not at least at this stage. Something reserved for the bench rest guys looking for that .00001 increase in accuracy.

- Using competition seating dies over standard dies

There is only two advantages to the Competition dies in my eyes. First is they typically come with a micrometer seating head. This doesn't actually increase accuracy of the dies at all, it simply makes changing settings easier and faster. Once the seating depth of the die is set, there is no difference in a die with or without the micrometer. The second advantage is most Competition dies include bushings for the neck portion of the resizing action. The advantage here is your can custom tune the neck sizing to just below your chamber size. That way you are not "over working" the brass.

My honest opinion, you can get same accuracy out of a good standard set of dies as you can from any Competition set. All of my dies are standard RCBS or standard Redding.

- Crimping and not crimping

Always crimp. Crimping increases accuracy as the case mouth pressure on the projectile is the same from round to round. Over crimping can cause issues, so understand the correct use of crimping.

- Loading to be just off the lands or kissing the lands

I've honestly yet to play with this. I bought the Hornady OAL gauge that allows you to measure and set "bullet jump" from the lands, but yet to try it out. I've always heard kissing or touching the lands can be a big issue as it will drastically increase chamber pressure.

- Uniforming primer pockets

I have the RCBS Case Prep Station and do this as one of the steps on all my match grade brass. Does it make a huge difference, no idea but it's easy enough step in the case prep process so I do it.

- Deburring flash holes

Same as above, but don't think it offers much.

- Bumping shoulders VS resizing to factory specs

Bolt-gun vs. semi-auto, two completely different stories on this topic. With semi-auto you want to full-length resize every single time to guarantee reliable round cycling. However with bolt-guns this isn't the case, and you instead want to have the upmost in accuracy while also saving your valuable match brass. For this reason on bolt-guns it's recommended to full-length case size the first time, then fire the round and from that point on only neck size until the round is difficult to drop the bolt. At that point, do a full-length resize, wash, rinse, repeat.