The lion’s share of Tobin Babcock’s love is showered on his family and friends. He won’t argue, though, that the love that’s left is split between competitive shooting and his career as a police officer in a small, northwest Indiana town.

Ever since he became hooked on the shooting sports during a benefit match about three years ago, Tobin has relied on skills handed down to him from his father to make him a better competitor. “I started reloading with my dad when I was five” he said. Before Tobin could shoot, he also had to learn to clean his guns.

Tobin reloads his pistol ammunition in bulk whenever he can. But the reason he reloads isn’t just about supply or saving money, it is also about the ability to custom-make his ammo for a specific purpose. Loading his own ammo allows him to load 9mm rounds for reduced recoil. That, he said, makes his pistol shooting more accurate. With less felt recoil, a competitor such as Tobin can get his sights on-target faster for a more solidly aimed follow-up shot. This cuts down on costly misses on targets.

Tobin recently set out with his friend, fellow competitor Hayden David, to take the same “purposeful load principle” to the next level. He wanted to make what he hoped would be the perfect 77 grain .223 rifle round for his 3-gun competitions. Even though he shoots .308 in long-range matches, he decided that starting to work with a 77-grain, .223 rifle round would give him the most bang for his time and buck. Creating the recipe for a 77 grain .223 round that is consistent and dependable, he reasoned, would work great in two rifles, and serve two purposes. First of all, it would work when shooting out to 300-400 yards with his 3-gun rifle, which has a barrel with 1:8 rate of twist. Secondly, if done right, this round would also function like a champ in his designated marksman competition rifle, which has a 1:7 rate of twist. “A 77-grain bullet is optimal for my DMR that I routinely shoot out to 1,000 yards in a match; a 77- grain bullet is also less affected by wind”, said Tobin.

Tobin decided to utilize a single-stage press rather than a progressive press in making his rifle ammunition. “When I reload single stage to make long range rounds, I feel more like a craftsman vs. an assembly line worker – which is what I feel like when I reload bulk pistol ammunition.”

A single-stage press is a basic unit that performs a single function with each pull of the handle; the function is determined by which die is being used. Most single stage users such as Tobin will perform various brass tasks in small batches rather than in bulk. A progressive press is different because it can perform multiple tasks at one time with each pull of the handle. As Tobin pointed out, with this increase in capacity, it is generally accepted that accuracy may suffer a small amount. The main reason is that as they are being loaded, the rounds in a progressive press move more than they do in a single stage press; the chances increase for slightly less-accurate ammunition if the measurements are off.

“For my rifle rounds, my process is one thing at a time”, Tobin said. “I hand prime each case. Every powder charge is individually measured and put in the case with a funnel. Then I individually seat each bullet.”

This past weekend, between setting up his bench, cleaning the brass, and making the rounds, Tobin had invested ten hours of his time, and had about ten rounds to show for his work. He wondered as he was headed to test his work, whether the time had been worth it. But as it turned out, the bullets he and his friend sent down range piled-on one another at 100 yards like magic. A photo he proudly displayed showed a grouping of bullet holes smaller than a quarter. He hopes doing the same kind of work for his .308 will yield the same results – and the smiles.