Thread: Frustrating arvo at the range. Powder charges.

Welcome to Handloading @Snowgrass,
Low extreme spreads do not gaurantee tiny groups as you have discovered, especially at short range. I am not familiar with the Eric Cortina method but do have some knowledge of the Audette ladder tests. Audette shot a series of single shots, with small increments of powder charge, on a target looking for areas where shots were closer together. These nodes showed loads that were likely to have good groups in spite of velocity variations. If you are getting 0.3" groups perhaps you should just test that load at longer range rather than worrying about velocity variations. My experience has been that the .223 does show larger velocity variations than larger cartridges like the .308. Just remember that the aim is accuracy, not low extreme spreads. The latter is not automatically and indication of the former.
Regards Grandpamac.