For those of you that have used the Audette or Ladder method of load developement, what were your results? Were you able to determine a shot cluster that would give a reliable load?

What range did you use? 100, 200, 300?

Hey Ray, I've used Mr. Audette's Method for many years and always had excellent results(once the appropriate Load combination is found).

Bullet selection starts with either the Sierra MatchKings or Nosler B-Tips, to "Benchmark" the rifle. I Moly Coat them myself. Once I know what Accuracy Level the rifle is actually capable of, then I move on to the Hunting Bullet(s) I want to use.

Powder selection is made by looking through as many Load Manuals as possible while determining which three Powders appear to give the highest Velocity. And I also rely on past first-hand experience with most of the cartridges I have, since I've shot a bunch of them over the years. (I totally ignore what the Manuals refer to as Accuracy Loads.)

Primer selection begins with a BenchRest Primer of some sort. I use a lot of Feds.

Cases are fully Prepped and Weight Sorted, then selected in Lots of 9, 15 or 18, but mostly 15-18.

The rifle is also prepared by adjusting the trigger, cleaning the barrel until it is spotless, and then burnishing the Bore with Moly Powder dusted onto a Moly Grease. A known good scope is mounted and all screws snugged up.

Then a series of Test Loads is made with the above components, while Seating the MatchKings or B-Tips 0.005" or 0.010" Into-the-Lands.

Now all you need is a long distance, a Target with a Black Square on it, some still air and a few Spotter Rounds to get you on an adjacent Target.
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All the rifles in my Safe will average shooting under 1" with the Loads I have Developed for them. The vast majority average in the 6s(4s-8s) and I feel sure " I " am the limiting factor, not the Loads or the Rifles.

Occasionally a rifle will shoot below the 3s, but I can't count on being able to duplicate that group, so it has no value to even be concerned with them. Basically just Randon Group Dispersion resulted in a nice very small group on occasion and when my concentration was focused extremely well. "Not repeatable on demand" though.
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With those criteria, I prefer 300yds for Mr. Audette's Method. Closer in can make finding the Clusters a bit more difficult if your Shooting Form needs some polishing. And, if you are Developing a Load for a 30-30 or 444Mar, then it isn't appropriate to shoot 300yds.

With a cartridge like a 223Rem, 308Win, etc., I normally find two separate sets of Shot Clusters on the Target.

And I like to focus on getting the one with the most Powder in it Fine Tuned. Needless to say, everyone needs to watch all the Pressure Indicators and STOP when they tell you to. What a specific rifle determines to be a SAFE MAX with a specific Lot of components has little to do with another rifle chambered for the same cartridge.

Once the Final Load is developed, I shoot it at distance to create a Drop Chart. And then the fun shooting begins just getting Trigger Time.
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Developing a Load is a time consuming process for me. It might take a year to get a rifle shooting Hunting Bullets the way I go about it. So, I certainly understand why a lot of folks do not want to commit that kind of time and effort to the task. But, it is my time and my effort, and I enjoy seeing the small groups at the end of the Development Process.

Nothing keeps a person from doing both a Fast Development to get started and then a structured well thought out Load Development to get the very best accuracy possible from their rifles.

I tried it out on a 30-06.
Worked well... quite time consuming, though.

You can't really make a valid (statistically) conclusion from 1-shot at each powder measure.... you gotta do at least 2.... which makes for lots of shots.... then you fool with seating depth within one of the sweet spot weight ranges to really settle things down... It probably took me ~200 rounds to get a load I was comfortable with at that outside temperature for a particular powder and primer.

There were 2-distinct "sweet spots" ... 1 low in the powder range, another higher in the powder range. Seating depth changes showed certain ranges of depths that made things more accurate and vice-versa.

I ended up buying Quickload and using Chris Long's Optimum Barrel Time calcs to predict accurate loads -- which works *extremely* well in my rifle at getting *very* accurate loads the 1st time.... like only needing 25 shots instead of 200, and being able to use Quickload to compensate for temperature on the powder charges.

Best regards

John