Went to the range to find the best ammo for my precision build, here are the results. Each target was for a particular ammo with 10 shot groups @ 100 yards. The winner is pretty obvious the Federal Gold Medal Match. I may try the Federal GMM in 175gr to see if its any better than 168gr. I’m still working on my technique, pretty new to precision builds so theres gonna be a couple flyers.
Is it safe to assume that here since the GMM was the best out of this 168grain test that it will be the best if this test was repeated with 175grain version? Or is it possible that one of the non Federal GMM ammo tested would be better than GMM when switched to175gr?
Im surprised at the Prvi Partizan Match also, it is by far the cheapest match ammo out of the match ammo tested at around $15-16 a box, the other ammo brands were $20-25
Test it out further to get a better indication, and if you plan on shooting long range ditch the 168smks, if you dont plan on shooting long range the 168smks will do just fine.
Anythings possible in regards to what 175gr will perform best, theres no way to know other than go shoot it. Also it might not be that it doesnt like the bullet per say as much as a combintion of powder/charge/seating depth etc etc, which is why reloading is a must if you want to get the best load for your rifle.
For example when l was toying with 155grn scenars at normal pressure levels l was getting 2800fps and terrible accuracy. When l got up to 2925ish fps accuracy was was great but l had definite pressure issue signs with varget so l had to give it up altogether. So the same exact bullet shot anywhere from terrible to great just depending on the charge.
I agree. Run it out to at least 200 yards if you can. I run no more than 5 shot groups on a .308. I know 10 is the golden rule… but even some of the champions go no more than 5 to keep fatigue or flinching out of the test.
The PRVI is no surprise. It’s 2MOA “match” ammo all day long. :rolleyes:
I don’t know how Black Hills gets away with the crap they produce. I mean… now that I’ve gotten into Precision loading, I have the tools to look at factory ammo.
Black Hills 168 gr SMKs had NO LESS than .007" runout on EVERY ROUND in the box I checked. .004" being the max before accuracy suffers.
It looks like you’re stringing a bit on the vertical side. How’s your breathing?
I keep seeing Fiocchi ammunition produce good groups. By chance did you chronograph any of these rounds? I suspect their Exacta line isn’t as hot (velocity) as some of the others.
Thanks for the tips, I need to work on breathing a bit. I started the day on the two prvis in the first picture. I started getting more into the groove on the hornady to the gold medal.
ill do the test with the 175gr versions sometime. I plan to shoot at longer ranges when I get better. Next thing I want to do is move my zero to 200 yards. My range has 200/300/400/600 yard ranges as well
I saw the same thing on some of my targets in regards to vertical stringing. If you fire on respiratory pause, and not a forced exhale or on a hold, the vertical goes away. Watch your reticle as you breath, you can watch it move up and down. The trick is to always fire at the lowest, which will coincide with repriatory pause. Always firing at pause will ensure its repeatable. Consistency gives you groups.
I’ve noticed my heartbeat in a scope too, but that was a horizontal movement and very slight.
With precision rifle fire I’ve found I need to work on my natural point of aim. Any muscle you put into the hold will effect your group. Being tall, I find getting a good cheek weld is hard to do.
I do the same factory load testing for my deer rifles. When I find the most accurate make, I go buy a few hundred rounds of the one I like with the same Lot #.
My wife thinks I’m nuts because I weigh each loaded cartridge and write the weight on the side of the brass with a Sharpie. Then, I sort them by weigh from heaviest to lightest.
I have found some large weight variances amongst the Lot but sorting them has given me some fantastic groups for my dumb deer rifles. I went from a “good” 1-1/4" group while shooting to find a make that shot well, to 3/4" group after I weighed and sorted them.
I’ve never been that interested in disproving my “theory” with a deer rifle but with an match accurate rifle I’d think it would be easy to do. Randomly pick 5 rounds out of a box and shoot them, then sort the remaining rounds by weight and shoot 5 that are close weights??
I will be trying out the following on the next outing, but it wont be for a couple weeks.
HSM 168gr BTHP
HSM 175gr BTHP
Hornady Match Superformance 178gr HPBT
Federal Gold Medal Match 175gr
Federal OTM 168gr
Fiocchi 175gr Matchking
Prvi Partizan 175gr HPBT
Black Hills 175gr HPBT
I also still have 10 rounds left of each the ammo tested in the OP
I’ve had very good luck with weighing & sorting the ammo on two different rifles - 7mm-08 & 308. I narrowed down the best ammo using a 24X Leupold and the improved groups with the weighed/sorted ammo was shot with 4X Leupolds. Might have been even better if I kept using the 24X??
I bought 10 boxes of each caliber and found a large amount weighed out in a bell curve. These mid-range bullets I use to hunt and sight-in with. I use the extreme low/high weight bullets for fouling shots, letting kids shoot, etc.
I thought it was pretty interesting. If you have any questions, fell free to PM me.
Not crapping on the weight sort notion at all… but I’d never sort by weight. Runout is more practical.
OAL depends on the bullet. Meplats vary on SMKs for example… so you’d need a bullet comparitor to make that worth while. When seating VLDs or SMKs with competition dies, I’ll still get 10 thou variances in OAL just because of meplat differences.
And on Tangant ogive bullets… who cares? They’re not very depth sensative. Secant ogive bullets would make sense to sort by length though.
The meplats of the 5.56mm T2 rounds are shockingly consistent. But you can still see a slight variance in OAL. I can see how sorting based on OAL could have an effect.
Weight makes sense, if there are any differences in powder in an assembled cartridge this would be the only way to know.
I’ve been wanting to try my hand at reloading, so some of the tools involved are on my list of things to buy. It’s a hobby within a hobby…and thus the line between mental illness and hobby blurs even more.
It’s like openning a whole can of worms. I spend no less than two hours per evening burried in some part of the reloading process. I like to do everything by hand… anneal, trim brass, scale powder charges…
Took me two evenings to get 50 rounds of .308 done this week.
oops missed it in your list. Let us know how it works out.
Also the Hornady SP 178BTHP. It popped primers in my guns and many others. I had a conversation with Jason Hornady about it, and they were supposed to start staking the primers. I haven’t bought any since, though. Be sure to check the bolt face, too, and make sure they are not leaking gas out which can corrode the bolt face quickly.
