Went to the range today with two of my favorite loads. Load 1 AA2015BR 50gr bullet Rem 71/2 primer. Load 2 H4198 50gr bullet Rem 71/2 primer. Load 1 shot 2" higher than load 2 so I came to the conclusion that load 1 was faster. If you go by Speer #13 manual load 1 should be faster. I don't have a cronagraph so I am just Guessing. Is this a fair way to test velocity?
The gun 222 Rem yardage 100yd. Buy the way load 1 also shot a little better.

In my 30 some odd years of reloading, I've found just the opposite. A higher velocity load will leave the barrel lower in the recoil cycle, thereby printing lower on the target. Others may have differing opinions, but I also read that this is the case, although I don't remember where .

bowhuntr

I guesstimated velocity a couple times by zeroing at known range, then shooting at another known distance and measuring the drop. If you know (exactly) your scope's height above the bore and the environmental & meteorological data of the range, you can plug all the data into some of the ballistic software programs and get real close.

Obviously requires an exterior ballistics program.

Redial

The barrel will go through a number of vibration cycles before the bullet exits the barrel, so it is entirely possible that the slower bullet could end up higher on the target than the slower. Mostly I've found that increasing powder charges (whilst keeping everything else the same) causes the bullets to go higher, but, if you change to another powder (and even if the velocity is the same), then it could go almost anywhere.

Some rifle seem far more prone to this than others too. I've got a rebarrelled Ruger in 243, that puts very different loads, onto almost the same spot at 100 metres (within an inch for loads from 3600 fps to 3000 fps and bullets from 65 to 87 gr). On the other hand, a heavy barrelled Sako in 308, has a POI change that is large enough to move it off the paper, (with load changes of the same magnitude).

First,
Pay $69 bucks for a chrony, and be VERY happy.

Second, a SLOWER bullet will hit HIGHER from an arbitrary zero, and a FASTER bullet will hit LOWER.. I've done this over a chrono

jeffe

I've had a chronograph since the late 70's. If you don't have one the best way to estimate velocity is to take a wild guess and add 100 fps. That's the way a lot of my buddies have been doing it for years and it works for them. If I shot them over the chronograph, they'd probably lose all their confidence in their favorite rifle.