Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting Ladder test, How, why?

If you have to kiss to find accuracy then the chamber is either poorly designed or poorly executed.

just sayin

These days I tend to use QL to find the expected velo at a given pressure, then load up in 0.5-1 gr increments to find the charge that gives the desired speed. Of course if I run into traditional pressure signs along the way I stop there.

I'll post some pictures tomorrow showing why Audettes are repeatable, why you should save them until the lot of powder you have is gone so that you can "chase the throat" to keep your rifle barrel shooting well after it is effectively worn out, and why the highest pressure load may not be the optimum

Burns,

Say something "Proprietary"...like you're going to "tell" a Moderator.

You poor poor Whining Kchunt.

Laffin'!

Which ladder do I need for this O-dat? Werner?

I'm a newb at this compared to a lot of you old farts . I spent a lot of time "working up" loads (days, sometimes weeks) but after 10-12 rifles in the past couple years I'm starting to think that the barrels, bullets, powder, and primers are better than the average-joe on the trigger. Not as much witchcraft or voo-doo as I thought.

I run a pseudo-ladder. And yup, its at 100 yards , maybe 200 yards if I'm feeling daring that day. Not so much a ladder but I load one, maybe a few at the start charge and make sure I'm on paper. Record velocity. I may have some loads pre-rolled, or I make them all at the range clubhouse (my GMC in the forest). Work up to find velocity/pressure. If some loads cluster, great. If not, I'm still loading 3-5 at my chosen velocity. Rounds are loaded as long as the mag will allow (have only shot SAAMI chambers and have not hit lands with anything). Only way I can go is to seat deeper.

If the Chosen One shoots well at 100 yards, I go straight to 500 yards. 500 yards tells me everything I want to know. All this takes place in 10-15 rounds. Maybe just lucky? I don't know but out of those 10-12 rifles I only had one that wouldn't shoot ~1" at 100y, and it was a ~light 375 Ruger. It went 1.25-1.5 MOA and then I sold it for other reasons. It kicked like a mule from prone too! Another was a 760 that would shoot ~1.25 MOA but it had a freaking shotgun trigger.

Before you say 10-15 is too few compared to other methods, I counter that by saying that the average-joe will get fatigued stressing over his loads if he shoots too many. At what point are we collecting good data vs. testing shooter endurance? If you got the wrong powder, you'll see it pretty dang quick. Most guys have a velocity range they want to hit... only so many weights be in this range unless you go down to the tenth of a grain.

I'm not saying that the method I use is sufficient for BR-shooting or that I have the best loads either. They are good enough to hit 8" steel at 500 yards at my "range" in the woods. I had a 270 BAR shooting 1" and it did fine out to 500+. Good enough for me, until I sold that rifle to a buddy. He doesn't reload so I told him to get some Core-Lokts so he'd have cheap and easy ammo. That rifle shot 130gr and 150gr factory ammo into the same hole at 100y .

The last rifle was a not fussy at all. Must have something to do with the heavy barrel and plywood pressure. Good enough for me with a 4x scope. 68-72gr was basically one big hole. 73gr hit higher, and 74gr was higher yet. Went for speed and 74gr.

Jason

Kiss,find pressure and rock on.