500 Yard Ladder

[mdmp5]

Shot this ladder today sat 500 yards. 338 LM, 300 SMK, H1000 starting at 87 to 94.5. Started seeing a visible ejector mark around 93 or so, but the ladder shows 14-16 pretty close. Anyone have any thoughts?

 

[b6graham]

I've never seen a ladder that sporadic. And your best 'node' would put you in pressure which is kinda eh

Do you have velocities to pair with this data?

How confident are you in your loading process and powder charges?

 

[mdmp5]

No chrony for now. I have utmost confidence in my loading skills. I was thinking 11-13 to stay away from the pressure, or maybe give it a whirl just below 94. Bolt wasn’t sticky until the final charge.

 

[b6graham]

I'd look at 2-3 as well, though may be considerably slower at 5 less grains

What is paper size for reference?

 

[mdmp5]

14-16 vertical is about 0.8”, and 11-13 is about 2.5”. It was a pretty big piece of paper, about the size of a silhouette

 

[Milo 2.5]

You may have a small node between 7 & 8, with maybe some + or -.
I've always been stumped on 1 shot ladders, the shooter is banking on not tanking a single shot, whether at distance or 100 yards.
When I do a ladder at distance, I load 4 rds, 2 for record, a 3rd is there in case I biff a shot, or 2 touching, I'll shoot the 3rd for group if it seems it may produce. I usually know my seat depth with my choice of bullets which is a big plus.
Here's a couple pics, and I realize they are not to scale, but for a floating dot reticle, I use dots, for crosshair, I use a cross as my aimpoint and keep advancing down the paper. The line is measuring point.
If everything goes according to plan, if I have 3 charges holding the same vertical, firing the 4th shot of the 3 charges combined, this should result in vertical bliss.

 

[mdmp5]

Shot a follow up ladder yesterday with 90 gr and varying seating depth. 7 rds seated between max mag length and 60 thou off, the load seems pretty stable. At 500, all rounds held fairly close to one another