"Ladder testing"
I recently took a pair of rifles wearing new scopes to a range in anticipation of drawing a pronghorn tag for this fall. There I had the pleasure of sharing the range with two nice fellows in their mid 20's who bent my ear on various topics related to shooting. These fellows educated me on the virtues of their new Savage rifles, Vortex scopes, and on ladder testing.
They were shooting groups and doing "ladder testing" on the 100 yard targets and shooting the 200 yard gong. They used rolled jackets as rests, checked their targets through their scopes, and were quite satisfied with the results.
Finally they left but did not take their 100 yard targets down, so I took a peek with my spotting scope. The targets looked a bit like someone was patterning a buckshot load. I do not think either one of them could have put three shots into a three inch circle on a bet. It really made me wonder what conclusions these fellows drew from their ladder tests. It must be a term they learned on the internet and decided it must be important. I question the value of ladder testing with a factory sporter rifle in most circumstances anyhow but with these results it just seems silly.