400 yard ladder testing?

diderr

The Patch Guy
Full Member
Minuteman
Mar 15, 2013
1,019
127
Gillette, Wyoming
datapatches.com
Normally when I develop new loads I load 5 rounds of each powder weight 2 grains bellow max and go up in .5 grain increments. On my new 308 rig and load for it I'm going to do the round robin ladder testing method. I'm going to load from the min to max in .2 grain increments to find accuracy nodes. and then play with seating depths. Im looking for ultimate accuracy.
My question is 400 yards far enough for this kind of load testing? I'm going to do it on a day with "near perfect" conditions, and have my chrony set up.
Thanks.
 
I've done them at 200 and they worked fine. Also tried it at 200 and did not see consistent results on the paper to see a node... The longer distance should provide more "granularity" to see the nodes as it will accentuate the variations. Only problem whether if you can walk down to the target after every shot to mark it where you are shooting 400 yds? (This is where a target cam would come in handy). I can't see a .308 hole in paper at 400 with my spotter and I can't stop the range after every shot to mark it... So for me 200 yds to 300yds if I use the color changing targets no problem... I'm going to try 200 meters with .223 tomorrow against a bunch of color changing targets and see how it goes.
 
I do it at 300 yards. I use multiple colors of sharpie on the bullet tips in front of the ogive. This shows up on paper to discern the results. I also set up my contour camera on a tripod at the target. This takes any guess work out and is easy to refer back to.