Learn To Reload Load Development

Are three, five, seven or 10 shots enough to determine a load’s accuracy? These five-shot groups were fired from a Winchester Model 70 Featherweight 7mm-08 Remington loaded with Nosler 140-grain Ballistic Tips and 47.0 grains of Big Game.

- John Haviland

Load development is a general phrase applied to the process of matching cartridge components to perform an intended task in a particular gun. Safety is the foremost objective of all load development, but individual goals vary. Target shooters pursue accuracy at the sacrifice of all other performance. The frugal shooter willingly trades a touch of accuracy and velocity for economy. Hunters require cartridges to dependably function and fire a proper bullet with the necessary accuracy and velocity to cleanly kill game.

Load development could be a nearly ceaseless process considering the vast combinations of bullets and their seating depths, powders and charge weights, primers and cases. At a certain point, however, load refinement reaches a point of diminishing return.

Current handloading manuals help expedite the process. Manuals that sell for about $30 contain handloading information that required years of research and untold thousands of dollars of expense. The manuals discuss the construction and intended uses of projectiles, which is a great aid in choosing bullets. For instances, the Nosler Reloading Guide 8 contains general descriptions of all Nosler bullets and includes the minimum and maximum “optimum performance velocity.” Appropriate bullet choices are listed for each cartridge. In the load data section, powders that provided the best accuracy are highlighted. New bullets and cartridges are continually introduced and many websites, such as load-data.nosler.com, federalpremium.com/reloading and Wolfe Publishing’s LoadData.com contain up-to-date reloading data.