Load Testing for TR?

[higginsdj]

So how does one go about load testing for TR? Is it a matter of just fitting a scope and leaving the TR front sight in place and shooting off a rest?

Cheers

David

[johnk]

David,

Bert Bowden used to ladder test loads each time he had an equipment or component change at 800 yards. He would load three rounds each of 7 different loads & box them up 1 to 7, 1 to 7, 1 to 7. Then he would shoot them & have somebody else plot each shot, which he would later refine into seven three shot plots across an elevation line & judge group coincidences after that. The reason for the packaging arrangement & the use of an independent plotter was to avoid or minimise conscious or unconscious preferment on his part. He said that as long as conditions were minimal, it wasn't worth chasing the wind too much.

I have an inkling that he wrote this up way back in an ATR magazine.

You might consider using a firmer position, by for example, resting your front hand on a sandbag & possibly one in the armpit, as long as they didn't change your normal recoil characteristics. Setting your rifle up with extra (the scope) weight might also change the recoil characteristics, though more than one have used that option.

John