amokscience

After a few foul ups that I traced to certain headstamps of brass I always cull out the 'bad' brass. I don't sort the good brass, just one big bin.

I like these turning systems for par time standards stages. No overtime penalties!

You answered your own question in your question.

I've tried about 8 different 147gr+ bullets with various profiles and all of them case gauge fine in the Hundo.

If possible, shoot the steel first/early in an array/position so you can glance at it or catch it from your peripheral vision before moving to the next part of the stage. Scout out a secondary position to take the steel if they don't fall at your first position. If you finish up a stage with steel keep your gun on target and scan the final pieces of steel. If you have to reload early to makeup steel don't forget to reload when you planned anyways.

There are many 'feet touching' start positions where it would be impossible to comply with also facing downrange.

USPSA is points per second (hit factor)... not time, not points. On top of that is the stage points thing. You can fubar a short points stage and have a relatively small overall match impact, fubar a big stage and you'll lose a lot of ground. You could win a lot of small stages but do poorly on big stages and do badly at the match.

Be safe, shoot for As, move deliberately. Smile and ask questions. Have fun.

I had to add weight to the brass section to get mine to operate smoothly. Wrapped/taped some lead around it and works flawlessly now.

Hundo, tighter than the Dillon. I put the rounds in as they come off the press.

Once you figure out a good powder charge you may want to play around with COAL and bullet shape, usually in the pursuit of better accuracy. Be cautious as you shrink your COAL as this can dramatically increase pressure.

Finding the exact combination of powder and bullet (and barrel and brass and...) is a fruitless endeavor. You have to guesstimate/extrapolate a starting point (do what Hi-Power Jack wrote), start lower for safety then ramp up a powder load. But first get that chrono, otherwise you're just tossing rocks in the dark.

I'm culling WMA from now on too. Even with a 1050 too many rounds end up like these

If the start position says "hands on marks" then the default start position in 8.2.2 is no longer valid and you can lean, or do almost whatever else you want as long as it complies with the WSB (can't start with hand on gun or mag ever though). I've asked Troy about this, if the WSB says anything about the start position that's different from the default start position in 8.2.2 then ALL of the default start position is thrown out. So if it says "hands on marks" or "toes on X's", etc. then you can lean, face to the side, etc. However, for example, in the classifier d_striker posted above (03-04) the default start position does apply, so I would say you cannot lean. So facing downrange only has to do with your face and shoulders.

I wish there was more consistency. At Production Nationals many shooters were leaning before start on Barricade Drill. Start position was: Standing facing downrange hands on marks. Video

Practice safe gun handling until it's second nature. Finger off trigger unless aiming at a target. It's harder than it sounds, especially when that buzzer goes off.

I wrapped some lead around the dropper in addition to wrapping the spring to be more vertical (used a velcro strap). No more issues with bullets spilling out. The collator works perfectly for me with round nose bullets. With flat nose I get an upside down about once every 100 rounds.

Good start. 5 rounds is useful to test if a load is safe, will cycle, and get a first impression. Now that you know, I would load up 20+ each across 3 different powder loads (and maybe different OALs). Your data across 5 rounds is too small to use with confidence (eg, 4.6gr is slower than 4.7gr) so you need to gather a lot more data. Also I convert standard deviation in terms of power factor instead of fps so that I can compare different bullet weight loads. If the standard deviation looks too big (and I like the load otherwise) I load another batch to see if the spread stays too wide. As noted above, shoot groups when you chrono so you can gauge accuracy and any vertical shift of your point of aim. A nice feeling load that doesn't group worth a crap is worthless for match purposes.

I only take a sight picture for a hard target. The rest of my make ready routine is a result of match screwups by myself or others. If a stage start is weird I'll go through a practice or two.

I toss FM, IMT, Amerc, AUSA, Ammoload, LY (only Berdan I've come across). I can swage so I don't sort for crimped brass. I also run a strong magnet through the brass several times in case something steel gets through.

You care about Standard Deviation if you are loading right at the edge of power factor. I try to have a load where 2 standard deviations is still making power factor. I believe that means that roughly 97.5+% of my rounds will make power factor.

Front pocket. Some loose rounds of ammo in my front pocket as well so I can load to 11 as needed.

After about 20 rounds I decided to order one of the hundred hole case gauges. About 2 cases in a hundred warrant further attention and go to the practice pile. Maybe 1 in a thousand fail secondary inspection and get pulled and trashed. I like the balance between additional visual inspections and reasonable throughput.

I fixed this myself earlier this month. There is too much blue plastic. The manufacturing on this device is complete crap but you can make it work. Take an exacto knife and trim it out until the clear plastic tray will seat in far enough. I also lightly sandpapered the primer hole on the clear plastic tray and use a plain primer tube without the black insert.