Im sure after you have purchased your new bang stick that you have tried different brands (talking about C/Fs ) and have discovered which brand it likes best, thats all well and good but there is another trick you can do with factory ammo that will help tighten those groups.
Assuming that everything is ok with the rifle (good bedding, free floated barrel , neat and sharp crown, screws correctly tensioned and trigger properly adjusted for a light crisp let off) and the scope and mounts are securely attached without the objective touching the barrel or the ocular getting bashed by the bolt handle...you might be wondering "why am I getting those bloody fliers that ruin a good group"? :unknown: , well it is probably the ammo.
And when I say ammo Im talking about bullet concentricity or RUNOUT.
I have found that after running every round through a concentricity guage (I normally buy 200rounds at a time) the difference in runout is enough to cause ammo inaccuracies.
I have struck rounds with as little a 0001thou to as much as 5thou all in the same batch, some rounds are so bad that when rolled across a flat surface you can see the bullet tip oscillate which would destroy accuracy and cause group destroying fliers not to mention long range misses on small targets and this is from premium ammo too.
The guage I use is a Hornady lock n load concentricity guage, it is excellent for sorting good rounds from bad and I also use it for testing handloads for the .260...so this is how I sort the ammo for my L/R Bunny popping.
When it comes to L/R pest popping I will group the ammo into 3 lots, from 0-1Thou I will use this for sighting in, group testing and for stretching the calibers capabilities.
From 1-2 thou I use this batch for standard L/R and from 2-3thou i use this batch for barrel fouling, ammo with greater runout than 3thou is normally rejected and used for paddy melon fodder.
Take the .223 for example , the 0-1 thou batch is used for shooting from 400-500yds and the 1-2 thoubatch from 200-400yds, for example I put 200 through today and out of 100 rounds 35 were 0-1, 40 1-2 and 25 2-3 plus a handful of rejects.
These days I do not have the time (or the willpower) to spend half the day in front of a loading press,( except for the .260 which costs around $90.00 for 20) I would rather spend that time out bush besides, the factory ammo after batching is very accurate and suits me for the ranges I shoot.
As Nick Harvey said.. Premium ammo is just as good or if in some cases better than some carefully prepared handloads , after batching I tend to agree with him.
Anyway I hope this helps tighten those groups
cheers ,
Sean.
Elmer
Sergeant
Sergeant
Posts: 316
South Australia
, a pleasure to soak up good advice though, you can never learn too much.
