Ballistic Coefficient vs. Accuracy?

[Distant Thunder]

Brian,

On your suggestion for wads, I just want to make sure I have it correct. You seat a .030 veg wad on top of the powder and then a .030 LDPE wad on top of that?

If I was seeing some change in my brass I would anneal, but since I don't really size my brass once fireformed I don't see a reason to anneal. Brass work hardens from sizing and can over time become brittle and split in the neck area.

Because I shoot bore diameter paper patch bullets I do "size" the case necks in one way or another to hold the bullet in place for handling.
For my .44-77 I only size my necks down about .100" and then only about .008" in diameter. This rifle has the Shiloh standard grease groove chamber. I find their standard chamber to be excellent for paper patching.

With my .45-70 I use a Lee Factory Crimp die to just close up the mouth of the case a couple of thousandths because of the tight paper patch chamber. Fired brass have an ID of only .452" and my bullets are patched to .4505" so it doesn't take much. These bullets are only in the case about .080".

I load my .45-90 the same way as I do my .45-70 except I used one .060" HDPE wad and the bullet is in the case .100". I had Lee make a .45-90 Factory Crimp die for this cartridge.

I load my .40-65 much the same, I use a 2-D PPB in this cartridge and a taper crimp die to tighten up the case mouths. These bullets are barely in the case but actually stay in surprisingly well. The 2-D bullet is because of the very long freebore in my chamber, .400" long! I had this rifle rebarreled many years ago and I had no idea what chamber the gunsmith put in it. I didn't figure out how to load for this rifle until about 5 years ago when I set out to design a paper patch bullet for the chamber. The results shoot very, very well.

I do believe in keeping things very simple. Which is why I stay away from grease groove bullets, they are much too complicated for me to work with.