We're having a good discussion now. I've been an advocate of the ladder method for almost 20 years and never had disappointing results. That said, I mainly use it on my LR/Palma/XTC competition rifles and my varmint rifles where precise accuracy is most important. Doesn't make sense for a lever action .35 Rem that will only be used inside 200 yards. For my deer rifles (.280/30-06 class) I will usually pick the bullet and powder I want to use, seat .030 off the lands, load five in increments of .5 grain starting 2gr below max and shoot groups and measure velocity at 200yds. I'm looking for sub-moa and respectable velocity and when I find it I load more and confirm that recipe. It's difficult for me to find a place to shoot past 200 to yield best results from the ladder, so this modified ladder works pretty well for me and I usually quickly find a hunting accuracy load. Twice, it hasn't worked as well and I did the full ladder work up, plus varying seating depth and found 3/4 MOA loads. On all my competition rifles I verify the node with two or three ten shot groups shot at the pace I would in a match, which is usually as quickly as the wind will allow. Hunting rifles use 3-5 shot groups fired in a minute or two, as I would in the field if I missed :-(

The confidence I've been able to build into my loads helped me quickly get to Master class in LR and XTC as well as win the Wisconsin State LR title for my class a few years back. Unfortunately, my shooting activity has been sidelined a bit due to family duties with kids getting older, but they are getting close to the age of being able to start themselves, so it will pickup.