Help me decipher my ladder test

[zacii]

I shot my first ladder test, yesterday. And I'm looking for some input on my results.

I'm using 53 grain TSX flat base over H4895. I got my data from Barnes' website. I started at the minimum 24.1 grains, and worked up in .3 grain increments to 25.3 maximum.

I'm shooting a BCM midlength with a 1/7 twist, 16". I figured the 53 grain TSX bullets would be comparable with a 55 grain conventional bullet and, while not optimal for my twist rate, I thought they would be acceptable.

The test was shot at 200 yards, with a 1.5-4X Leupold optic, and a slight wind from left to right.

Disregard the #4 hole identified also with the letter b, as it was fired from a different gun at an earlier target.

I just can't figure out why the odd numbered shots, 1, 3 & 5 are together. It just seems sporadic. I kinda expected them to climb directly vertical in numerical order as the powder charge increased.

I should also mention that I fired the same ladder test, with identical loads in a 1/9, 22" barreled Stevens bolt gun and it made more sense. Maybe my 1/7 simply doesn't like these bullets?

I'll get a pic of the other test here in a minute ...

Here's the results of the bolt gun test:

You can see that the #4 shot is off the paper on this target, and is the #4B shot identified in the first picture. It is horizontally level with #2 on the paper.

So, to me the results are obvious for the bolt gun test, but not the gas gun test.

Any thoughts?


Sent from my Galaxy S2

 

[sharpshooterbr]

If you're confident all of the shots broke good in the 1/7" twist gun, I would definitely try either a different powder or a heavier bullet. The 7 twist is pretty fast for that light of a bullet.

 

[dentout]

If you're confident all of the shots broke good in the 1/7" twist gun, I would definitely try either a different powder or a heavier bullet. The 7 twist is pretty fast for that light of a bullet.

I agree with the heavier bullet.