Friday night reloading

Based on my previous load test results, I loaded up a couple hundred rounds of .260Rem tonight. That should be enough for some load verification this weekend, and for competition for the next two months. I'm low on bullets now, and while rummaging through the Sniper's Hide forums I found a thread about Lapua's new 136 gr Scenar L bullet. Lapua claims it's more consistent than ever, and while one person seemed to have trouble with them past 1,000 yards, most folks are reporting good results with them. They are, however, about $100 more per thousand than the 139 gr bullets. They may be worth it for me eventually if I keep improving, but for now I'll stick with the less expensive ones. Also while reading the 'Hide I came across a fascinating thread with some empirical evidence that annealing your brass before you reload can dramatically reduce your group sizes. This particular person's groups went from 0.8" to 0.35", which is an enormous improvement. Annealing equipment isn't cheap, but if others are able to replicate those accuracy gains then an annealer may be the least expensive way to shrink your group sizes in half.