In what may very well be the smallest niche in the Marine Corps with a membership of five Marine ammunition technicians specially trained as ammunition reloaders, the WTBn. Loading Facility produces all hand-loaded ammunition for the Marine Corps Competition in Arms Program. Loading facility ammunition reloaders also work closely with the WTBn. Testing Facility and competition shooters to research and develop new loads and loading techniques.

Ammunition reloaders measure their success in minutes of angle, a standard for gauging a weapon's accuracy. Commercially produced ammunition fired from a nearly perfect rifle can be expected to shoot groups of 1 MOA, roughly equal to about 1 inch per 100 yards. This equates to 3 inches at 300 yards, 6 inches at 600 yards and so on. Mass-produced weapons can shoot about 2 MOA groups, and most competitive shooters experience a variance in their sight alignment of one-quarter to one-half MOA. When added together, this will produce a total error of 3 and one-quarter to 3 and one-half MOA.

Marine Corps Rifle and Pistol Team shooters strive to maintain less than 1 MOA total error. Beginning with a Precision Weapons Section-crafted weapon with about one-quarter MOA, and a Marine competitor maintaining one-quarter to one-half MOA, there remains a slim one-quarter MOA margin of error allowed for ammunition, making the reloader's task of critical importance to maintaining the competitor's edge.

Veteran reloader Staff Sgt. Wilson H. Hatter Jr. says finding such precision ammunition off-the-shelf is impossible, and to pay a contractor to build each round would be prohibitively expensive for the Marine Corps. In fact, Hatter maintains that the WTBn. Loading Facility saves the Corps approximately 86 percent of the projected commercial cost of the team's ammunition by crafting nearly 70,000 rounds each year.

While being cost-effective for the Marine Corps, as well as highly valuable to the rifle and pistol teams, the task of the ammunition reloader is surprisingly labor intensive. Each cartridge requires 15 minutes to prepare, weigh, prime, charge and seat, with some tolerances as fine as five-ten-thousandths of 1 inch.

While there are signs that the Marine Corps is interested in cycling more ammunition technicians through the WTBn. Loading Facility to learn the skill of reloading, Hatter says there are two specific changes he would like to see take place at his shop. The first would be the creation of a new military occupational specialty for the ammunition reloaders who are trained at the loading facility, much like the precision weapons armorer MOS gained by armorers who successfully complete training at the WTBn. Precision Weapons Section. The second improvement would be to add one career civilian ammunition reloader to provide continuity and stability to the shop, a problem experienced in the past when talented reloaders received permanent change of station orders to other duty stations, leaving Quantico's loading facility short-handed.

In addition to making precision ammunition for the Marine Corps Competition in Arms Program, Hatter and his fellow ammunition reloaders have also been entrusted with researching and developing new ammunition for use by the Fleet Marine Forces. While the details of ongoing projects remain classified, Hatter can reveal that he has at least one patent pending for a revolutionary design of his own conception.

"I love what I do," said Hatter who plans to continue crafting precision ammunition after his Marine Corps career. "It amazes me, the things we can do to improve a cartridge. Every day you can come up with something different."