Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Doing a ladder test to find the node...300 or 600 yards????

Wondering if 600 yards is too far to do a ladder test to determine the accuracy node for a 260 or 264 win mag? I have a range that has those two specific range options (300 or 600). Which would range would you choose if only checking one? What say you?

I would go with the 600 yard range if you have a way to record the shots. Otherwise I would use the 300 yard range.

Lately I have been going with 410 yards. I can easily see the bullet holes at that range with any of the three hunting scopes I have.

At 600yds wind (if the wind is on your back bullets will be high, gusting winds from varying directions, even at 3 or 4 mph) and sighting error may skew the results. ~300yds negates allot of it. Shooting groups of 5 in a round robin style works as well.

+1

600 may be to far but 300 aint far enough

With your two choices I'd go with 300 yards, but I've had great success at 100.

Great success with ladder tests at 100 yards?

Sure. All I need is a precise way to measure POI. Why not?

A lot depends on the shooter and rifle. If your groups at 600 tend to look like patterns i suggest you back off to whatever you or your rifles capabilities are. ED K

Because you're looking for vertical spread and it's not very pronounced at 100. Shooting at 100 vs 3-400 makes it harder to see what's going on.

In my load development work I look at both vertical and horizontal spread. But I still maintain that all I need to do the work at 100 yards is a precise way to measure POI. It works for me.

I'm not telling you how to do your load development. I'm telling you that the ladder test was designed to see "nodes" of consecutive shots that are close together vertically, not horizontally. And that shooting ladders at 100 yards vs 300, 400, or 500 means you'll have less vertical separation, making it harder to pick out the nodes.

How you want to run your test makes no difference, except in answering the OP's question.

Seems someone needs a refresher in the ladder test.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/4191070/Hand_Loading_for_Long_Range_4:#Post4191070

300 works and 600 works, if you know how to read the results.












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