Satterlee 10 Round Load Development

[LRRPF52]

I think the hand-loader/reloader needs to approach how they will do load development relative to their practical goals with the rifle and application. Some examples:

1. Medium game hunter looking for fastest kills within 300yds

2. Recreational target shooter who likes to shoot 1-2 MOA plates from 200-1000yds

3. Competitor who is shooting for X ring count

4. Starship navigator stranded on earth, equipped with lab-grade scales, electromagnetic or radar velocity-measuring systems layered with each other, barometer, latest ballistics program with every variable you could imagine, and a penchant for demanding extreme precision.

I see myself as a hybrid of all of these guys, minus the X ring paper type shooting.

Depending on whether we're shooting an AR or a bolt gun, we might be wasting our time if we ream primer pockets, anneal necks every x number of firings, weigh and sort brass, etc.

It's up to each hand-loader to determine where they are and what realistic goals they have.

For me, I don't have Sartorius scales yet, and I like to find a load that will shoot as quickly as possible without getting too lost in the weeds for maybe a 1/8 to 1/4 MOA improvement, but I still double-seat my tips to reduce concentricity runout, for example.

So for a more accurate TGT load, I use a combination of an initial 100yd ladder test, then measuring my groups if I can at 300yds, with colored projectile tips assigned to each load. The main reason I like to do the initial 10rd ladder with .3gr increments has more to do with safety for me. I want to establish a trend line of what I should expect to see regarding charge weight increase related to velocity increase. Once I see the increases depart that trend line, then I know I've hit a place with case capacity, charge density, and the specific projectile that I don't really want to be in, establishing a top end limit with that component combo.

Then I can go back in and look at nodes as well as what actually happened on paper and fine-tune that area.

I have noticed that sometimes the flat nodes will have larger dispersion on paper, so this is where Klem's point of focusing on accuracy I think is very valid to consider and not just trusting the tight velocity nodes we might see initially.

Where the tight velocity nodes come into play is with vertical separation at long range, which will depend on what size of a target you're shooting if you need to dial that in.

If you can find a tight velocity node where 2-3 charge weights don't seem to deviate much in speed, and they group well, then you're onto a good load for long range.

You won't see much practical value in the tight ES at closer ranges, although there is a consistency in impact speed that some hunters might be looking for if they're frequently on the edge of expansion range characteristics of the hunting bullet they're using.