Savagehawg
New member
when you guys are working up a new load, at what distances are you doing it at, i usally do mine at 100 yards, just curious about what other people do!
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load work up question
- Thread starter Savagehawg
- Start date
50 shooter
New member
Most people use 100 yards as it's easy to translate that to 1000 yards, if you understand the adjustments on your scope. Whether those are mil/mil or moa/moa, people still need to know how much each click affects the impact of the bullet.
From there you can punch in any load to an online ballistic calculator and know how many clicks you'll need or the hold over/under. Then all you need to do is learn to read the wind, and you’ll almost be there.
From there you can punch in any load to an online ballistic calculator and know how many clicks you'll need or the hold over/under. Then all you need to do is learn to read the wind, and you’ll almost be there.
jetinteriorguy
New member
I prefer 100 yds, mainly because it often can take that much distance for a bullet to stabilize for an accurate picture of what your load is capable of.
It depends on what you are trying to do. Hatcher's Notebook (1961 ed, PP 406 and 407) has an example of a 150-grain M2 ball bullet fired into an oak target at 15 yards turning sideways and hooking in the wood and penetrating just under a foot with that added sideways drag while another M2 round fired at the same wood target at 200 yards penetrates about 32 inches in a straight line. This comports well with most of the computer plots of high-power rifle bullet initial yaw damping generated by 6 DOF programs. They show it takes about 200 yards to lose 80% or more of the yaw. This could explain the very occasional reports you hear of a rifle shooting into fewer MOA at 200 than it does at 100, but these reports are uncommon. Also, they are not usually machine rest groups, so you can't really tell if the shooter was actually just holding tighter at 200 than at 100. It's not uncommon when the same size target is used at both ranges, that, subconsciously, we tend to tighten our hold some when a target looks smaller.
Even if a gun and load combination did have its best precision at 200 yards, accuracy (finding the group center for your sight adjustment) would work just as well at 100 because the scatter you get at 100 is going to average to the right center location regardless of precision.
Obviously, if you are just working up for muzzle velocity and pressure, the range doesn't really matter. SAAMI standards run those tests with just 15 feet of distance at the chronograph center between screens.
If you are trying to see how velocity variation causes stringing that affects POI, 100 is really too short to get enough time of flight (TOF) to see it clearly if you are not shooting at competitive benchrest levels. And even then, the late Creighton Audette himself used 200 yards for his ladders, and, writing about Audette's approach, the late Randolf Constantine advised 300 yards was really better for seeing bullets string vertically due to velocity and barrel deflection under recoil (commonly called vibration or barrel harmonics, though those descriptions are not accurate for technical reasons). Of course, 100 and 200 don't let small wind gusts do much, whereas 300 lets the wind start to show pretty clearly, so these factors have to be considered and balanced in your testing.
Even if a gun and load combination did have its best precision at 200 yards, accuracy (finding the group center for your sight adjustment) would work just as well at 100 because the scatter you get at 100 is going to average to the right center location regardless of precision.
Obviously, if you are just working up for muzzle velocity and pressure, the range doesn't really matter. SAAMI standards run those tests with just 15 feet of distance at the chronograph center between screens.
If you are trying to see how velocity variation causes stringing that affects POI, 100 is really too short to get enough time of flight (TOF) to see it clearly if you are not shooting at competitive benchrest levels. And even then, the late Creighton Audette himself used 200 yards for his ladders, and, writing about Audette's approach, the late Randolf Constantine advised 300 yards was really better for seeing bullets string vertically due to velocity and barrel deflection under recoil (commonly called vibration or barrel harmonics, though those descriptions are not accurate for technical reasons). Of course, 100 and 200 don't let small wind gusts do much, whereas 300 lets the wind start to show pretty clearly, so these factors have to be considered and balanced in your testing.
Eh, I don't care for the first part. Satterlee 1.0 and 2.0 are over the chrono. I've used a 25 yard berm, 100, 200 and 300 yards. When I go to verify my data and adjust my BC, etc. I will shoot a 5 shot group at 100, 300 and then use Truing bars at 500 and (for some calibers) 1000.
jetinteriorguy
New member
Yes, I also do this. One more thing to add, once I’m sighted at 100 yds I’ll get a nice still day and move to 300 to fine tune. It always seems to tighten my 100 yd POI just a little better. Unfortunately these days I no longer have access to a range where I can shoot past 50 yds so I confine my rifle practice to shooting offhand to at least keep this skill as sharp as being older and shakier with poor eyesight allows.For rifles, first few shots are at 25yds or so, just to ensure the bullets are somewhere on the target. Then I move to 100 for sighting in and testing.
For rifles, first few shots are at 25yds or so, just to ensure the bullets are somewhere on the target. Then I move to 100 for sighting in and testing.
This is what I do after mounting a new scope or shooting a new rifle for the first time.
When working up loads, my rifles are usually already sighted in and I begin my group testing at 100 yards.