In my experience nodes or whatever you want to call them are a real repeatable thing. YMMV and all that. There are other variables that have a bigger impact (powder lots, or reloading process, etc) that can mask it but it is there. I agree though that doing a ladder with 1 shot per charge isn't going to show you exactly where a node is. A ladder will usually show you areas where velocity is not stable though, even with those single measurements. Increasing the sample size won't make unstable areas more stable. At a certain point you need to decide what your goals are and what's good enough. You can burn up a barrel and spend a fortune on components easy enough chasing statistical significance with large sample sizes and it may not matter for your needs. A ladder test is just another piece of information. Use it or not. That's all part of the fun in figuring this stuff out.
ES first then seating depth?
- Thread starter staffordshires2
- Start date
Certain calibers, with certain bullet weights, with certain barrel lengths, etc will have known accuracy areas within a certain fps. Even between different barrels. Especially when the same barrel and reamers are used. Go look at the latest F class John video on YouTube, he runs his known ammo through a different barrel ( adjusting tuner ) and the results are pretty dang good. Certainly close enough for just a tweak to be spot on. It seems most long range target shooters adjust loads at each event anyway, sometimes its good from the start, other times it’s a quick seating change, ( they load long, to be able to adjust seating.) or a change of powder, or a twist of the tuner. My 6.5 is happy at 2710fps, 140 grain bullets, with 41.4 grains of H4350. Even when I open a new non matching pound of powder. If it eventually stops shooting well, it’s time to adjust seating depth 0.007”, and use the same everything else and it’s back to normal. I don’t shoot 100 shot per charge weight OCW tests and 100 shot per bullet seating change in tests but trends can be found with 3 shot groups and confirmed and often slightly adjusted at distance.
