Load development and The Beginner's Guide

[inthebeech]

I wanted to make sure this question wasn't already answered so I read through some old posts as well as the Beginner's Guide (funny, I've been reloading for twenty years and still haven't figured it all out. You never stop learning as long as you're humble enough to keep trying with an open mind). I don't think the comprehensive answer that I am looking for is anywhere in existing posts so may be safe in diving in with this question.

Does one first choose a powder?
How about choosing a moderate charge?
Maybe you choose the bullet first?

These are representative questions that I suspect really frustrates cast bullet shooters, young and old (like myself). After twenty years of reloading with good, bad, and great results; but always tollerable groups after minimal experimenting, I would like to truly understand the relationships between them and the order of process steps, involved in developing the best load for one gun (a revolver). And after reading literally all of the reloading manuals including Lyman's Cast Bullet Manual, this information is missing I believe.

Maybe there is no truely "right" process because no one variable is "independant" of all others and the only way is to shoot every permutation of the pertinent variables.

Here is another way to wrap your head around the dilemma;

I have before me three lead bullet candidates, all historically good performers and I have large quantities of each, all unsized and all larger than my cylinder throat diameter. I eliminate one variable, sizing diameter, because past experience tells me that the popular method of matching diameter to throats works well. So I size them all to .0005 under throat diameter.

I've also made sure that all throats are consistent among themselves and universally over groove diameter by .001. This then eliminates another variable and locks in the generally accepted relationship among these three features.

I then choose a historically good powder and moderate charge for my cartridge, which seem to give good results at all places in the pressure spectrum. Here I may be making a mistake but I am tryiing to eliminate two more variables; powder type and charge. So I hover somewher in the middle. Now, we will come back to this decision later as I am not done just yet determining the optimum charge. I am just done for now.

I shoot multiple groups (machine rest and consistent conditions) with this one charge, and with each of the three bullet candidates (I have also chosen and standardized things like crimp severity, seating depth and lube which I am hoping are not going to impact my results as long as I, once again, stick with reasonable reloading practice), and collect and summarize the data.

Here's the meat of the question;

If the resultant groups, from worst to best, are bullets c, then b, then a, and I then change one of the above mentioned variables like reducing or bumping the charge or going with a similar chamber pressure load but from a different powder, will the resultant accuracy data still likely be in the same order for these three bullets? i.e bullet "a" is still most accurate. This it the heart of the missing information that I can not find and if true, would allow one to finally step through methodically and with confidence his accurate load development; otherwise we are left with no other choice but to literally shoot thousands of rounds with all possible "reasonable" combinations of powder, charge, and bullet. Here again I am assuming that sound cast bullet making and loading proceedures are followed which should eliminate most of the remaining variables as long as we are staying with moderate loads. So in my original example, may I continue with only bullet "a" and NOW start playing with powders and charges (I told you I would come back to this.)?
I hope I haven't just confused everyone andI appreciate in advance your comments.
Ed

[Blammer]

I would only continue with bullet "a" for the time being with that particular fire arm.

It will likely produce better results after being tinkered with more.

As far as the same "order". NO, it will change. (yes I understand it's contrary to the statement above) I'd not worry about that though, because in the above I'd have just picked the "best bullet for the moment" and tried it further. If I don't get satisfactory results with bullet 'a', then I'd change bullets.

In my limited experience, as a whole, with handgun bullets, I have found that round flat nose, or round nose bullets or trun cone, or LFN designs tend to be more accurate for me than the SWC, style.

To elaborate a bit and come back to the first part of your 3 questions. I usually choose a bullet and then make everything else try to work with it. Thus I don't have to track 3 different bullets performances and make a decision. I tried it once, I got terribly confused on what was what and then could not make up my mind on what to do or try or use next. Too much for me.

[HammerMTB]

My thought is you need to begin with the end in mind.
That is, each component has a range within which it is optimal. Once you press the component outside its optimum range, it becomes less accurate (or a secondary choice, if you'd rather)
So, among boolit choics you may find 200gr SWC .44's to be a great choice at moderate vels, but not as good a choice for deep penetration on heavy game, or too low a BC for long range.
I can make most boolits perform as long as I don't ask of them what they don't have to deliver. The same can be said of most powders.

[subsonic]

Start with a goal in mind and work toward it, avoiding getting sidetracked with experiments that are not goal oriented. Usually you boolit will be chosen by your goal. In general, heavier boolits are more accurate until they become unstable (not enough twist) or are so heavy that they can't be driven fast enough to accomplish your goal and/or stabilize. There's always an exception to the rule.

[runfiverun]

i done a full work up once when i was teaching my b.i.l. how to find a load for a gun.
we started with red-dot,went to tightgroup, then unique,herco,800-x,sr-4756,2400,h-110 and finally aa-1680.
this was all in the 45 colt with a 255 rnfp boolit sized to 452.
we then went back and sized them at 453, and done the whole test over.
we then changed lubes and done it again.
two guys at 50,75,100 yds.
identical rifles.
45 colt 24" bbl'd leverguns.
pretty much all it proved was i could shoot better than him.
but he did learn about the effects of sizing, differences between soft and hard lubes.
and how to find a load that corresponded with the sights.
we were gonna do it again with different alloys but life pretty much got in the way and i started on some lube testing in my 308.