Thread: A superb article on why "node load deveopment" is toast

Good info thks. I sat and watched the podcast. I've definitely been "sucked into" the whole incremental load test thingy, looking for a low and a high node etc.

The journey they talked thru was interesting but the real gold for me is at the end when they discuss real-world applications specific first to competition shooters and then hunters. In a nutshell, the biggest impacting variables they found were change in bullet, change in powder, change in barrel. Seating depth, velocity and primer choice were least including down to inconsequential.

They gave their revised load dev practic for hunting. Define the job you want to do, e.g. humanely harvest red deer large stag to max 300m (they used a diff example), choose calibre and appropriate bullet, define adequate velocity for bullet to do job at 300m, choose 2 different backup bullets, choose 3 powders that will deliver that velocity and pick your preferred. Pick 2-3 charges that will deliver the required velocity at 1 or 1.2gn or larger increments (smaller increments are not statistically differentiated enough), load 5 of each and see how they group. Choose one you like best and do 10 more. If happy do 20 more and you begin to get statistical relevance. Etc.

They would change the bullet first if they could not get acceptable results from the first choice. Then the powder. Finally the barrel..

If you want to understand how little info you get from a small, 3 or 5 shot group, and why the info only starts to get informative above 20 shots, the podcast is worth the watch.

https://youtu.be/QwumAGRmz2I?si=yxhOBY_aMTWdtx6D