This all does get me a bit interested. But, I will have to up my game a bit. I can see my crosshairs drift when shooting so not sure I could see a 1/4MOA difference. And if you don't see 1/2MOA groups on a regular basis then it might not make a difference.
The problem is errors accumulate. We can control some easier than others, and frequently see 'big' gains. 1/2MOA is what I consider the beginning of the rabbit hole. After that the differences are all small. Sometimes you might have to improve several things to see a difference on the target.
It's better to shoot for the moon and hit the fencepost than to shoot for the fencepost and hit the ground!
Yep, heartbeat is one. Another is just accurately placing the crosshairs. Getting them on the exact spot every time. I am an impatient person, so I sometimes have a shot go off when I am not exactly on. Also, when I dry fire I can see the shift from the firing pin fall (std front rest and rear bag). Not sure how to get rid of that one.
Never had a problem with brass life (except for .223/5.56 primer pockets). I figure 20 reloads is good enough. The ones I use for cast loads are over 30 and the mouth is worked more on those than standard loads (size, flare, seat, remove the flare). Every now and then I'll see a case neck crack, but, it's one or two out of 50 and usually happens early on.
For wildcats I mostly used new brass. The exception was reforming surplus 7.62 NATO brass to something like a 7mm-08. Most of that stuff I didn't reload much but still never had a split.
That was why I liked the one case, 20 shot test. It showed long term effect of both anneal and not. If you are down the rabbit hole then proper annealing would be a good step to follow.
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