New to the Ladder test. I'm a believer

[TD-Max]

My 22-250 just hasn't come into it's own yet so I had it pillar bedded, lugs lapped, and recut the crown.

Cleaned both the Sako 204 and 22-250 VERY thoroughly with Sweets. Looks like I need to get some Bore Tech proof Positive jags though as the Sweets is pretty aggressive and shows copper like mad. Also probably a female thread rod to lose the brass collar.

On to the range. The range is a neighbors field road that is pretty decent for shooting 200 yds. I used my BR Pivot bench and Caldwell "The rock" front rest. Hardly a concrete bench, but it serves the purpose and is what I use for shooting in the field.


22-250
Nosler 55 Ballistic tips
Vihtavouri N140 powder
Ladder 32.6-36.4 in 20 steps of .2gr ea. This is WAY over Nosler's published max of 34.0 for this powder, but coincides with Sierras max of 36.6

Sierra 55 Blitzking
Vihtavouri N140
Ladder 32.8-36.6 in 20 steps of .2gr ea


Ran the ladder for the Noslers at 200 yds after a couple of fouling rounds. I was tempted to do 100yds, but in the end I am glad I did 200yds.

At first I was thinking how in the heck is this going to work? The darn gun is still all over the place. I used a target on my bench to map out my hits as best I could until it got too crowded and then I went and marked up the paper. Rounds 10-13 started to show me a node and give me some encouragement. Shooting continued. Round 14 and 15 were higher and round 16 went left. Round 17 was a bit high then 18-20 grouped just about under a nickel. OK so NOW I'm getting somewhere. Previously I had thought that 35.5gr was a good load, but in the ladder this fell between rds 15 and 16 which were about the most wild of the latter rounds. Unfortunately I made 200rds of this load in anticipation. I also saw 35.8gr as a decent group in previous testing and it's looking like that was right on. 35.8-36.4 group in quite nicely. I chose 36.0 as my go to load for my upcoming trip. We'll hope that I made the right choice. Loads in this range were right at 3600-3650fps.


Between ladders I brought out the Sako 204 so Glen (brother-in-law) could practice as he'll be shooting my gun(s) on our outing. He is a self proclaimed poor shot and has had very little practice. We started out with a fresh, clean, cold barrel at 100yds. I had him shoot 10rds at the same target. By Rd 5 he was asking for a different target as he could not tell where the bullets were hitting any more. In the end he put 9 rds through the same hole that would cover with a dime. One flier was about a .20" away. This was a good indicator that conditions were not impacting my testing.



While Glen was shooting I did a solid "range clean" on the 22-250 to get ready to move on to the Sierra 55 BK's. I definitely need some Boretech "proof positive" jags. I made the switch to Sweets at the suggestion of my gunsmith and while the stuff works awesome it falses quite readily off of the brass jags. Anyhow, the Sierras were the big letdown of the day. Odd that this would be the case knowing the reputation of the green box guys, but they were all over the place. I did notice in my earlier pre ladder trials that they did not group like the Noslers and this did verify. I might put 2 shots very close together, but the distance between these "groups" was sickening. I'd have to review the data, but I don't think any successive shots grouped.

[BabaOriley]

I haven't done any load development this year yet, but last fall I tried a ladder for the first time. Seems to be pretty productive. Should be able to find a sweet spot firing way fewer rounds than I was. I used to load 5 or 10 rounds each .2 grains apart. Maybe 60 rounds for one power/bullet combination! And 50 of them shot terrible! I decided I needed to investigate this ladder thing before my barrel is shot out and I have to start load development all over with a new one.

[TD-Max]

Wish I had the time to hone it a bit further, but I think I'll be in decent shape. We'll see. I now have 800 rds ready to go and about 800 for the 204 as well. I also did about 150 in .260 Rem to see how that does.