Ladder Test??

Remington country

Remington country

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Hey guys

I have my new rifle in the mail I have it planned out how I want to find my right load I planned on start 5 gr less then max and load 5 rounds .5gr different and shoot groups at 200yrds to see the best group does that sound like it should work or should I stretch that out to 400 yrds to see the difference. Is that basically the ladder test or what. Thanks for the help I love reading all the great info on this forum I have learnt so much.
 
Ladder test would entail shooting successively higher loads in sequence at a given distance (the farther the better) to see which loads group together.

Usually loaded in much smaller increments .1-.2gr.

Most I think will do this twice and then compare the 2 targets to see if both give same or close results.

The shots will climb with velocity but somewhere in the test 3 or 4 shots will land on the same horizontal plane, these are the groups you want to look at.

Google "ladder test" and you will see the difference between it and testing 5 shot groups as you described above.
 
Give Dan Newberry,s site a read, I use the OCW method to find my loads, Like Kombayotch says shoot at 100yds 1 target per load and find the 3 or 4 with the closest POI then fine tune from there. You can move it out to 400yd if you like. Both methods use 3 or 4 Loads with the closest similar POI.
 
THanks for all the great Info guys One last question whats your thought about the OAL everyone seems to have a diffrent opinion should i stick with the Book OAL or measure my SPacing and go 2 thou off the land..

THanks guys
 
That really depends on the bullet you are shooting. Some like to be close to or in the lands and some prefer to jump a little. What bullet you shooting?
 
Berger VLD's generally like .015-.020 jam into the lands. There are the exceptions though with this.

If you are loading to fit a magazine then the mag will dictate your OAL, if single loading then you can taylor to your guns liking.
 
Remington country said:
THanks for all the great Info guys One last question whats your thought about the OAL everyone seems to have a diffrent opinion should i stick with the Book OAL or measure my SPacing and go 2 thou off the land..

THanks guys
Click to expand...

My approach is to choose a bullet that isn't fussy about jump... particularly if the rifle is mag fed.
 
Generally (yes this word again....lol) VLD type bullets will prefer a jam where as a BTHP such as Sierra Matchkings, among others, will be jump tolerant.

This is not a hard and fast rule but a guideline at any rate.

Give the bullets you want a try if they don't work for you, try something else.

Let us know how you make out either way.

Give this article a read through as well http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2009/03/berger-tips-for-loading-vld-bullets/
 
I've shot out several barrels with Sierra Matchkings without ever adjusting COAL. You give up BC, but you never have the load go south on you in a match because you forgot to re-adjust things.

That being said, I've been shooting 70 VLDs out of my AR and haven't adjusted anything and there are nearly 3k rounds on the barrel. Its still shooting dime size groups... but, I had started off jumping them a good distance because I needed to keep them mag length.
 
I shoot Berger 120 gr 6.5's right now and for me Jumping .020 is the optimal setup in my rifle. I tried jamming, this gave the best results of the MANY lengths tested.
 
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