Thread: Test load temps

Originally Posted by rusl

I will just add so you get an idea of where I am at, I can hit a 5 inch plate at 350y but I can't do it every time, like you say you expect to hit it now every time, I am not surprised when I miss it happens often enough. This is where I'm starting to look at other things more seriously, is it me or some other variable I'm not noticing.

The advice i got was

When you can hit your plate consistently at range "x" then get a smaller plate and keep going. when you can hit that plate move it back 50 or 100m and keep going till you are happy

Originally Posted by mikee

The advice i got was

You know thats not true, there is always; more yards, smaller plates , bigger guns and more money to spend so there is no "happy"

Originally Posted by sneeze

Mate I think your questions are a little scattered. You're worried about temp induced velocity change which is a small part of a big picture, yet seem to be at the very beginning of load development. Talking about a 1 inch drop at 500yds yet the group from your test is a touch over 1 MOA so it would at best print a 5 inch group at 500yd in perfect conditions with perfect shooting.
This can be a long process from a cold start. Small steps ,from the beginning, no point getting ahead of yourself.
Shoot a lot of paper?steel, it dosnt lie , work on the load with the OCW process or something similar. I personally use a basic 3 shot group test for powder, looking for group size and ES ,SD, followed by seating depth if needed. maybe neck tension and primer change if I need further tweaking.
Theres little point in sweating the small stuff till you've got the big stuff sorted.

For the record, with temp sensitivity, once I have a proven accurate load ( more than 3 consecutive groups on different days ) with a good ES and SD in single figures(hopefully) I will shoot it in the temps I think are relevant and note the speed and drops. This used to be a slow process but the accuracy of the labradar is proving a great time saver. Once I have the change in fps per deg of temp change I can enter it into the ballistic app on my phone.

Cheers mate that last bit is great info, that's pretty much what I'm looking for, you are testing your load on 3 different days, your looking for an es of single digits, and then looking at temps once that's sorted, that's all I'm really after, trying to figure out the order to look at different things and how well you prove your load is a good load. And that yes you are actually looking at temp sensitivity way down the track but once your happy with every thing else it is some thing worth testing and recording. Hope that makes sense.

I was just curious if people were doing it or not. And how you were going about it and using the info in the field.

Also that group I put up in the testing, that wasn't shot from a bench it was over a back pack, I was mostly interested in the velocity so I was more practicing my field position shooting.

Cheers for your input.

Originally Posted by mikee

The advice i got was

Cheers mate I will have to get some more plates, I guess alot of its just confidence in my equipment and practice, atleast practice is fun

Originally Posted by rusl

Cheers mate that last bit is great info, that's pretty much what I'm looking for, you are testing your load on 3 different days, your looking for an es of single digits, and then looking at temps once that's sorted, that's all I'm really after, trying to figure out the order to look at different things and how well you prove your load is a good load. And that yes you are actually looking at temp sensitivity way down the track but once your happy with every thing else it is some thing worth testing and recording. Hope that makes sense.

I was just curious if people were doing it or not. And how you were going about it and using the info in the field.

Also that group I put up in the testing, that wasn't shot from a bench it was over a back pack, I was mostly interested in the velocity so I was more practicing my field position shooting.

Cheers for your input.

No, Im happy with Es in the 20s. Lower is better but chasing it is an exercise in diminishing returns. SD in single figures is good but again it can be futile chasing it. .
And to quantify, I only look at Powder temp for specific applications, general hunting loads to 600 ish I wont bother at all. From 600yds and out Ill check it but its not easy to accurately quantify and getting it wrong could be worse than not doing it at all. Its also not always a linear increase.