Rifles Fussy Or Not

[elkhunter11]

Having developed loads for several dozen rifles of my own, and at least as many for friends, it seems that some rifles will shoot most loads quite well, and some are very fussy. I just finished working with a friends new 7mmremmag rifle, and two factory loads, and a handload that a friend uses, all produced 2" plus three shot groups at 100m, with the rifle. Then I made up a new load with components that I had on hand, and five rounds went into an inch. The new load actually uses the same bullet as the other handload, but a different powder. Another friends rifle in 6.5CM shot several loads so-so, but it took seven loads to find a really accurate load.
With several rifles, the very first bullet/powder combination that I tried, did so well, that it was the only combination that I really spent any time developing. I only bothered with one powder for all of my 7mmstw and 6.5x55 rifles, because they all shot well with that powder. Other loads shot well, but after fine tuning the first load, there was no point wasting components developing another load. My 6.5 PRC likes a couple of bullets, with multiple powders, but it isn't fond of some bullets at all. Most of those rifles wore heavier contour barrels, and only a few were lightweight rifles.
With some rifles, it took me 5-6 loads to come up with a load that I was satisfied with, and none of those rifles wore heavier contour barrels. All of my heavier contour barrels shot at least okay with most loads, although some loads did noticeably better than others. The few pencil barrels that I have worked with all ended up producing good accuracy once I found the right load, but they tended to be much more fussy, than the rifles with heavier contour barrels.

[32-40win]

Had a couple of guns that made me wonder on initial testing, then it was a case of I'm not wasting any more loot on factory ammo, most of them have shot MOA with the first try. Last couple got tried with the same brands of ammo, pretty much the same result in both. First try with a handload on the one was .6, other was just sub MOA again. Which is OK, not usually something difficult to work out a fix in that case, two of the factory rounds were sub MOA in both.
Cortina just dropped a vid on trying factory ammo in the Needmore guns again, pretty illustrative as to the variances in the two guns and the ammo. Bit of a haywire test, but, it is fun to watch.