Today, I opened up my cookbook and pulled out my favorite recipe. Unlike most recipes, my ingredients won’t include salt and pepper; mine call for bullets and gunpowder.

The “Holy Trinity of shooting” refers to a perfect combination of seating depth, powder charge, and primer type. These things being in perfect harmony will help you shoot tight groups at target.

You will not achieve tight groups if those things are lost in the chaos. I’m not speaking about good groups measured in inches, but group sizes in thousandths of an inch. Yes, if done correctly, that is possible.

Discovering the Holly Trinity is achieved during Load Development. Before you begin, you need to spend some quality time doing research. Now is a perfect time to pick up a Reloading Manual.

The companies that write those manuals go through extensive testing to supply the data and get you off on the right foot. Having something blow up in your face is not in their best interest. You have to select the specific components for what you are doing, for example, plinking, hunting, long-range shooting, etc.

Start with a standard powder charge and primer. (Load) You will change the powder weight and primer type later, but we need a baseline.

Buy good bullets

Selecting the correct bullet in the beginning, is crucial. That will dictate everything else. This is no time to get stingy. If you want to shoot small groups, cheap components aren’t going to get you there.

They are cheap for a reason. Seriously, you don’t see race car teams trying to win a race with a $50 set of tires.

Buy good brass

Purchase high-quality brass, and only use it in the rifle you are doing load development for. Like with everything else, you get what you pay for.

Yes, you can buy standard brass, but you probably made some problems for yourself. If you get quality brass, you won’t have problems.

Fire-Form your brass

I recommend fire-forming before testing. Doing this will ensure your brass fits your chamber perfectly and will help you shoot tight groups.

Buy a good chronograph

Purchase a good chronograph. I generally, as a rule, don’t mention products by name but get a Lab Radar. If you don’t have reliable numbers, your results will be crap.

Fight off the temptation to figure out what is going on by what your groups look like on paper. That step will be the end game.

Use the same lot numbers

Be sure to use the same component lot numbers. You would be surprised at the differences from just switching those numbers. Even the same powder in two different lots will perform differently. (Ask me how I know.?)

Have fun

Your goal is to find a combination that gives you single-digit Standard Deviation and Extreme Spread. If you achieve that, you will be happy with the results on paper.

You have other issues if you reach good numbers and your groups are garbage. Chances are, it’s either your rifle or, most likely, your scope. In order for this to work, everything else has to be equal.

I could go into excruciating detail on how to discover the perfect combination to shoot tight groups. (I will most likely someday.)

There is no shortcut to finding the Holy Trinity and shooting tight groups. The whole process is enough to make little bits of your brain fall out of your ears at first.

When you learn how to do it, it is a potent tool. A lot of people and I rather enjoyed the testing process. It’s all a part of the game. It’s one place where mind versus mind enters into the sport.

Mac R.

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