Barrel heat and ladder test

[Solaction]

i was watching some YouTube videos and some show a ladder test being done all at once with no regard to barrel temperatures and some show cool down breaks.
Was wondering what y'alls thought are on this. Do you think it matters being the ladder test shows harmonics or do you think barrel heat changes harmonics?

David

 

[Snyper708]

Barrel heating can cause the POI to shift.
Every variable affects harmonics.

It's foolish to rush testing.

 

[BallisticsGuy]

^^^ Precisely, 100%, indisputable fact. DO NOT RUSH.

As an aside, the only time I advocate burning through ammo in a hurry is for chronograph testing and that's only to avoid cooking rounds in a hot chamber and inducing MV variation.

 

[FURMAN]

While I do not "rush" my testing I do not wait for barrel cool down. Part of what I am testing for is a wide node that includes barrel heat up. I have not run into a problem during a ladder or OCW by not waiting.

 

[Barrelnut]

Shoot it the way you use it. But I would keep things cool just for the barrels sake.

 

[BallisticsGuy]

While I do not "rush" my testing I do not wait for barrel cool down. Part of what I am testing for is a wide node that includes barrel heat up. I have not run into a problem during a ladder or OCW by not waiting.

There's a logic there. Someday it'd be interesting to have a more thorough debate on the subject. I wonder if it might not actually be a better idea specific to hunting applications where barrel heat is a real factor thanks to light barrel configurations but I don't know if that's actually realistic to LR hunting. I don't shoot much meat anymore so I'm not in a good position to say. Basically all of my hunting time has been very sparse on the shooting and the distances. One maybe 2 shots where a rifle is involved. My comp rifles have heavy barrels that don't heat up that bad in a string of 10 shots. That'd seriously affect my old hunting rifles though.

 

[Bbear]

I have rifle barrels mostly in the 'standard' diameter of off-the-shelf rifles - say a #3 or #4. I have two with smaller diameter barrels. Those two I will only shoot one or maybe two shots then let it cool down. My thought is that if I haven't killed the critter by the second shot I need to spend more time at the range.
The rest I will usually put two to three rounds down range before allowing them to cool off. Only time I don't is when I'm shooting in the summer and it's 100+ outside. Then I'm just trying to get them to cool off to some temp below 90 degrees.

 

[Mikecr]

For any barrel, temperature-wise, there is a stable shot rate, and an unstable shot rate.
I ladder test at a stable shot rate. This leads me to a load of best precision.
But hunting is not precision, it's accuracy, and cold bore accuracy at that.

So after finding my best hot load, I roll into cold bore accuracy testing. This usually means adding to the charge to reach hot load timing, which then provides cold bore precision.
That is, today I can hit my mark with one cold shot, and tomorrow I can pull out the gun and put a bullet into yesterday's hole, etc. Zero the scope, ready for hunting.
Takes me weeks to do this..

It is one of my rules that [if I miss, it lives another day]. I do not shoot twice.

 

[Rich Coyle]

I am a hunter. Therefore I am only interested in cold bore shots. I expect to hit on the first shot. But it the prey does not go down I fire again. One time I had one entrance hole with two exits with two shots. The deer moved slightly so I fired again. Ladder and sighting in are with a lot of time between shots.

 

[jrock]

Sporter barrels, 3 to 4 min between shots.

 

[FURMAN]

This OCW was shot without any cooling between shots. I always feel the barrel to make sure it is not getting too hot but no long waiting. In my opinion if you are seeing the barrel "walk" bullets on target something is wrong with the firearm, most likely the barrel or bedding. This was a Tikka 6.5 Creedmoor. I know not every rifle will shoot like this but I have always been able to find the node without extensive cooling. This picture is also the reason I don't like the OCW as much as the ladder. All shots were within .6 of each other center to center. It proved nothing except the rifle is accurate. I had to take it out to 700 and 900 yards to find the load.

 

[Mikecr]

OCW doesn't get you best precision. It gets you most forgiving.

 

[FURMAN]

Absolutely agreed. My point is it was not this forgiving long range.

 

[therifleman556]

Can I chime in here and ask a couple questions? Are ladder testing and optimal charge weight testing accomplishing the same thing? I'm guessing with ocw testing you shoot over the chrony and look for the lowest variation in speed between 0.1 or so charge variation?

What do you guys think is the best way of going about finding a good load for a sporter weight, looking for cold bore accuracy. This rifle would shoot probably 3-6 shots a couple days a week for practice and then be used for hunting.