Load Development

Austin Orgain, a two-time PRS champion, shares an exclusive behind-the-scenes look into his reloading process, revealing the components, equipment, and techniques that have helped contribute to his success. He shares complete load data for his 6 Dasher, 25 GT, and 25x47, plus his full reloading workflow and load development process. Additionally, he mentions collaborating with Clay Blackketter, another PRS champion, to streamline their ammunition for consistent performance. If you’re looking to improve your precision rifle shooting, Austin Orgain’s insights and techniques provide valuable guidance for loading match ammo.

I interviewed the reigning PRS Champion, Austin Buschman, and he shared every detail of his current match ammo load and entire reloading process. Austin has a very pragmatic approach to reloading that I promise will surprise (and challenge) you! Clearly, his ammo is capable of precision that can win on the biggest stage – so get a behind-the-scenes view of how he makes it and hear about all the reloading steps that are on his long “list of things that don’t matter!”

This is the final article in my Statistics for Shooters series, and it focuses on the application of statistics when it comes to quantifying precision and group size. It provides practical answers to some age-old questions: How many shots per group do I need? Should I exclude fliers? Is extreme spread the best way to measure my groups? What is the most effective and accurate way to compare groups between two loads? I spent more time writing this article than any other single post I’ve ever written! It challenges some common beliefs held by some in the shooting community, so I tried to carefully present the reasoning behind that in a way that was approachable to shooters who aren’t math nerds. It also contains a lot of practical tips. I firmly believe these concepts will help a TON of people in the long-range community.

Part 2 in my Statistics for Shooters 3-part series focuses on how to analyze muzzle velocity consistency, which is critical for us as long-range shooters. This article shows how to apply the concepts from Part 1 to get more insight and make better decisions related to muzzle velocity. It provides practical answers to some age-old questions: Should we look at ES or SD? How many shots do we need to fire in a string? How do we get the most value from the shots we fire at the range? I spent an absurd amount of time arduously crafting this article and creating visuals so it was approachable by shooters who aren’t math nerds because I firmly believe these concepts can help a TON of people in the long-range community.

Many shooters have an uncomfortable relationship with math and aren’t impressed with fancy formulas. However, statistics and probability are insanely applicable when it comes to rifles and long-range shooting in particular. I have literally spent months crafting this 3-part series of articles specifically with the math-averse shooter in mind. I invested all that time because I strongly believe that understanding just a few basics can help us gain actionable insight, make better decisions, and put more rounds on target.

This is the last post in a series of articles focused on bullet jump research that has been conducted more than two years by Mark Gordon of Short Action Customs (Who is Mark Gordon?). In this post, I’ll provide an executive summary of what we covered and provide a few tips for how to apply this new knowledge in our load development. The first article provided a comprehensive overview of what 10+ of the most respected books and reloading manuals had to see about bullet jump and laid the foundation of what bullet jump is, along with other concepts like ...

Are you one of those guys who has been reading this series of posts on bullet jump, and thinking to yourself, “Well, my 0.020” bullet jump sure seems to be working fine. Doubt this would be any improvement over what I’ve already got!” This is the post for you! As Mark started sharing some of his bullet jump findings with a few shooters, he met some skepticism – even from sponsored shooters on his Short Action Customs team. Here is how Mark tells one of those stories:  “After we’d already done most of this bullet research, we had Solomon from ...

This post shares more of Mark Gordon’s research on bullet jump, which is very interesting, original research – and has everyone talking! This post looks at research data on the Hornady’s 6.5mm 147 gr. ELD-M and Tubb’s 6mm 115 gr. DTAC RBT bullets. Check it out!

This landmark article shares new, primary research that Mark Gordon from Short Action Customs has compiled over the past 2 years. He tested a wide range of bullet jumps in several rifle/load configurations, and this post shares the analysis of that data. Mark used a similar approach to the Audette Ladder Test and OCW method, but the goal was to not find the most forgiving powder charge weight, but the most forgiving bullet jump. He wasn’t looking for the specific bullet jump that grouped the best, but the largest window of bullet jumps that provided a similar point of impact. That means the rifle would be more consistent from the start of the match to the end of it or could shoot a particular kind of match-grade factory ammo really well for a longer period of time. Mark’s findings may seem counter to conventional wisdom when it comes to bullet jump, but a few national-level precision rifle competitors also support the idea, which I highlight in this post as well.

The 6XC has been a popular choice among top-ranked precision rifle shooters since they first started having long range precision rifle matches. This past year there were 3 shooters using a 6XC in the top 25 in the PRS, and 4 in the top 25 in the NRL. It’s clearly a very capable round in the hands of a good shooter. This article shares the 6XC load data these top-ranked shooters are reloading in their match ammo.