Ok, before I get hammered with negativity, this is only my method. So my ladder test consists of five rounds each charge weight in 0.3gr increments. One of each charge weight is frozen in the deep freeze for at least 48 hours to ensure a deep freeze of the propellant. The others are put in hot pocket type hand warmers or on the dash to cook the rounds on high defrost heat. If you have dry ice or a pile of frozen water bottles you can transport the frozen rounds in a cooler for quite a long ways before they will start to thaw. Next I a use some burner rounds to verify zero a shoot a quick group to see if the’ll group at least half a minute or less. Next attach your chrono and get your writing material out and be ready to document many things to mainstream your results. I shoot very long range so my care is this, can I shoot half or 1 moa target at any distance while doing load d, the answer is yes. The reason I do this is to observe the effects of bullet tracking capabilities at long ranges. Usually 500meters up to 1300m. If indeed the test proves the bullets start tumbling past transonic and are way off I do not continue. I’ll scrap it because it doesn’t meet the expectations in which I am looking for. Next I use a flir industrial thermal imager model to check temperature of my rounds to test the effects of temp stability of the powder. A traditional laser temp gun has proven to me that it doesn’t work as brass is shiny thus records temps of objects around the brass and not of the actual case itself. I’ll document the data and observe the shot. When you reach that tight node, you’ll have a very clear image of what the temy stability of that powder really is. So to sum this up, I’m testing temp stability, bullet tracking, velocity, accuracy and most importantly just fun shooting. This has proven to work very well for me and for what I am looking for. Could I tighten my group up? Yes But under a new complete test repeating the above. Anyone want to discuss their ”non mainstream“load d? I’m all ears as there is many good ways and others perspective is welcome.
Dan
I can tell you I tested n565 in my creed and it has not moved from either extreme. May I make a slight suggestion, try to always pick your best node with the lowest extreme spread. The second reload with that same charge is gonna change. It will still be in the node but because the brass has released the bullet differently it will have a larger extreme spread. H1000 and retumble are great loads also. Any powder that you compress your load is very good
Extreme temperature spreads interests me. I’m curious what results you’ve gotten. I want to load development for my 7mm rm with 190 gr Hornady A-Tip with N565 and 175gr Nosler ABLR with either H1000 or Retumbo. I usually start with the min load out a reloading manual and work .3 grains up til I see pressure signs. I’ll load 5 rounds per charge weight also but I like to graph the data to easily identify where all the nodes are at and then pick the one I see best fit and confirm the OCW with 10 rounds by using the middle charge weight of the node. I use a magneto speed v3 for recording Velocity but I haven’t messed with different temperature spreads yet but I do want to.
You know mine ;) haha. Great post Dano!!