Originally Posted by Jordan Smith


I'll repeat this for BH:


"I really like the idea of ladder tests, but I have two problems with how they are traditionally done:

1) every barrel and load is subject to some random variation in POI. Only firing 1 shot per charge weight does not adequately take into account this variation

2) wind can and does often have a vertical component in anything but perfectly flat terrain. At any distance much beyond about 200 yards this begins to impact POI

These two sources of variation can skew results and prevent them from being repeatable with a given barrel/load combination. If using a method like this, I prefer the OCW method (which I have used successfully, in addition to the traditional ladder method), as it tends to mitigate these sources of error better, but I usually find excellent results simply by kissing, mashing the pedal, and loading straight ammo.

These were all shot using the kiss/mash pedal method...



Jordan,

I agree 100% on the wind affecting vertical. Its a known affect in external ballistics but it just gets brushed aside by ladderers. To be fair, I haven't seen Rost comment on how he handles horizontal (wind) in his ladders (ignores it, compensates for it, etc.). It seems like he does his best to shoot in windless conditions.

I did see a ladder posted very early in this thread that had considerable horizontal, but the target read "no wind"!

Jason