What did you do in the reloading room today?

[Not_A_Llama]

Ha, I actually thought you were pretty advanced. Chasing SD’s is usually an advanced reloader’s pursuit. Heck, even owning a chronograph is usually an advanced practice.

A “node” mathematically can be thought of as a point along a curve on a chart. An accuracy node is a range of powder charges that produce high accuracy. You’ll find them here and there along the range of possible charge weights.

One approach that has influenced a lot of people’s thoughts on developing loads is “ Optimal charge weight“, or OCW. You can read up on the approach here: http://optimalchargeweight.embarqspa...ons/4529817134

I don’t believe the physics some people ascribe to it, but I do think it’s a sound approach.

While I think minimizing SD is a good practice, I haven’t seen low SDs predict my best groups. The impact of varying velocity can’t be denied, but it tells me that there are more important variables and metrics at play when we’re shooting for groups.

I don’t think you have a stupid pursuit - you’ll be able to exceed 1k in a 16” with discipline and 77gr SMKs.

As you can probably tell I'm still pretty new to all this so I have pretty much no idea what you just said. Not sure what a "node" is. As far as looking at SD it's a number I figure is a case of lower the better. The goal for me may seem silly. One day while shooting with a friend we started asking "how far can we push an AR with a 16" barrel?" and ever since I've been working on loads to answer that question. Not looking at groups at all but just trying to ring steel. Knowing nothing more than consistency in powder and chronograph readings ect must be better that's been a thing I've been keeping track of. I do appreciate any lesson that can be handed down so please do correct me if I'm off base. I know my goal may seem ridiculous but I'm having fun.