50yd load testing

[buckey]

Maybe reading too much Nato Reloading site but am wondering about load testing at 50 yds instead of 100? Aim small ,Miss small, Testing at 50yds does allow for more precise holding thus taking out some old age wobble. All promising loads will then be tested at 100yds. Your thoughts please, Thanks

[stagpanther]

Going to be hard to resolve out center of impacts.

[Savvy_Jack]

This is what I have been dealing with. 50 yards only tells ya what you are doing at 50 yards. 100 yards shows ya what you are really doing...and 200 yards is telling you that you should have listened to yourself at 50 yards!

[buckey]

At 100 yds human error is hard to figure in, at 50yds we can weed out some of the error. I love testing but as the year's tick by the weave and dance on a 100yd target starts to work on the head!

[Nathan]

IMO, at 100 yds, I can load develop just about any group size. It is nice because the wind cannot blow bullets around too much, environmentals have no affect, corrialis and other factors have no impact. So, what I get is good to make decisions with.

At 300 yards, 5mph of wind can really blow out small groups.

Most of the factors you are developing can be seen in 100yd dispersion data and chrono data. The idea that a bullet/powder are 1/4 MOA at 100yds and 3moa at 1000 are visible in the chrono data and multiple group data.

The people that say they need to develop at 500 are generally not shooting enough rounds into groups. 20 plotted.shots tell the story at 100.

At 50yards, it might shoot everything into 1 hole. Then groups are hard to plot. Maybe try it if you are shooting 2 MOA or larger.

[buckey]

One point to make is junk at 50 won't be magic at 100. Second point windless day's are rare. 50 grain bullets are kites with a mere breeze!

[stagpanther]

Just my personal opinion--and I know that longer distances are hard to find for some to have access to--but over the years I've drifted to 200 (or more) yards being the distance I like to test at. It's easier for me to tell impacts from one another and it might reveal stability characteristics of the bullet that are otherwise not obvious at 50 to 100 yards. An exception to this would be cartridges that obviously bleed off their velocity/energy very quickly.

[BJung]

I load develop at 100 yards from the bench but if I can't print a decent enough group to show a pattern, I go to 50 yards to find out what's going on.

[seanc]

I've had some amazing groups at 50 that didn't prove out at 100. The formula I'm sticking with now is consistent from 100 and 200. I'll shoot off-hand at 50, but accuracy testing is done at longer distance.

[tangolima]

It is nothing wrong to test fire at 50yd if that's your intended target distance. Otherwise 50yd is too short, although it may make me feel happy or even invincible.

Group size in moa generally degrades with distance or flight time. However it is not uncommon group in moa gets better before going worse as distance increases. If I have to extrapolate, I assume 10% increase in group size for every additional 100yd.

-TL

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[Metal god]

Bucky , I do load development at 50yds if the rifle has iron sights or 1x red dot . Like you my eyes just can’t see the target well enough at 100yds with no magnification. If I’m really looking to find out what the firearm can do. I’ll put a scope on it do the testing and when I’m done, take the scope off and call it good to go .

I’ll also test there for my 50/200yd zero which all my red dots are zeroed at . I have a 3x prism scope on a rifle and that’s a little tough to aim small past maybe 75 to 100yds

I will add that for me those 1” groups at 50 aren’t 2” groups at 100 . More like 1.5” and is why I’m testing at 50

[Mike / Tx]

For most rifles I load for I am using 100gr or higher weight bullets. As such I usually run load test at 100, then work in the fine tuning at 2-300 depending on the caliber.

Recently however I have been piddling around with a couple of 223's one in a Contender and another a Sig M400-DH3. The latter we have a thermal scope mounted on for night time hog and coyote reduction. I have found that groups at 100 are plenty sufficient and usually do not spread out much more at 200 if the load is decent. I'm using bullets in the 60 - 75gr range for testing and have so far found several really good loads. The biggest distraction is most of the mono metal bullets I REALLY want to use are somewhat cost prohibitive to just sit out and burn up shooting group after group. Like mentioned in the other thread I purchased a goodly quantity of the Speer Fusions in 55 and 75gr as well as some of the 64gr Nosler Solid Base Bonded. Most of the critters we take out are usually within a hundred yards, but sometimes when they break out across an open pasture we get further shots. The 60'ish and 70'ish grain bonded or mono metal bullets seem to put them down with a good hit, even if a follow up might be required.

[Unclenick]

The problem with short ranges, including 100 yards, is that gravity has little time to work on the bullet, so you don't get much indication of how much vertical dispersion is in your load unless you can hold to put every shot in the same hole with perfect ammo. The late Creighton Audette said 200 yards was the minimum for ladder shooting for that reason. The late Randolf Constantine opined that 300 was better, though the wind's work at that distance usually means getting out very early in the morning.

If you have trouble seeing the target at all, make it bigger. All the wobble you have at longer ranges is also there at short range, so you may be making your perception of wobble smaller, but not the actual wobble. If your eye's ability to focus on the target is the issue, get prescription shooting glasses and use an aperture on the glasses to get a long depth of field to sharpen it.

[Savvy_Jack]

With generation after generation of flat trajectory cartridges. seams large trajectory shooting is a lost skill.

Early 1870's NRA targets used an 8" bullseye at 200 yards...and a 22" bullseye at anything over 300 yards.

Vintage Targets Link
https://www.44-40.org/targets

[Sarge]

Handguns I test/zero at 50 yards, rifles at 200 with shooting to 350 for accuracy & POI verification.

[RC20]

I don't see an issue with 50 yards. If its just target shooting, that works.

100 yards is better as its far enough to let variables in but you do not get the larger drops.

200 yards I thought was ideal for a real world sort of shot, but I am talking target not hunting.

300 yards is a challenge and after that it is a major challenge.

Pick what works for you from 50 to 300. After that, the other variables begin to factor in a major way and its not longer pure accuracy as it is sorting out the variables and adjusting for them.

Looking it over, not said well. Basically variables to me are wind, drop and dispersion. So over 300 those all are significant factors and can be past 200, just not as likely sans a really strong side wind.