If you're shooting 200-300 rounds a month every month of the year and your loads are close to max, you will also be looking to replace the barrel on that rifle in about 3 years.
There was a recent article in "handloader" magazine about the "rifle ranch" in the US. Mike Venturino did the story and he stated that the fellow that owns/runs the place had a very accurate rifle with about 6000 rounds through it. All were reloads and all were loaded on a manual press, I think it was a "rockchucker". The fellow fully re sized range pick up brass, that was left behind by the students, and only sorted them by headstamp. He full length re sized all of it, used a moderate powder charge that was accurate and seated the bullets to SAMMI specified length. He did nothing else to increase accuracy.
I wish my memory was better. Maybe someone else could chime in here.
To make a long story short, even with a worn throat, the rifle was delivering acceptable accuracy right out to the maximum ranges being shot.
When Mike V borrowed the rifle he was pleasantly surprised by how well the rifle performed, with very little maintenance other than cleaning. I don't recall if the rifle was a custom job or not.
I firmly believe that when we find a load that is accurate in a rifle, we should stick with it. I can understand that different lots of powder and components will have some effect on POI and that's why I am an advocate of buying enough of the needed components to wear out a barrel. Costly, you bet, but bulk pricing will certainly cut costs.
I also used to suffer from the urge to follow the ever elusive "perfect load". I found that if my reloading gear was straight and true and the components were unchanged, that accuracy problems lie elsewhere.
