I have never performed a ladder test. Research I found talks about shooting at 300 yards and recording chrony readings and marking each shot. My question is what difference does the distance make if your 1st node is based off of the flat speed readings? Thanks, Mark
Lower velocities maybe. I’ve done a total of 4 ladder tests and they were all at 100 yards. I used muzzle velocity as I have a Magnetospeed. In all but one of my ladder tests, I got a low and a high node. The velocity difference was over a 100 FPS on those as well. Only one though was at or near max load according to the Nosler manual.
Could not have said it any better. The only reason why some folks say use 200 or 300 yards is the difference in drop at those distances are more noticeable. So, for example, w/o a Chronograph you would look for the two rounds that were the closest together and somewhere in between those two would be an accuracy node. Like @Hudge stated, I typically find two nodes that are accurate.
With my chronograph, I will load from min to max; keep the same POA for each shot; and watch as each hits just a little higher. The one difference I have noticed is with each shot the speed keeps going up and at some point one will shoot just a hair slower than the previous or the difference is very small (like a few feet per second). Those shots will also group closer. I will poke and prod around that charge a bit using 3 to 5 round lots. Anyway that how it has worked for me. YMMV
HaYen
