FYI, check your factory ammo

So hopefully many/most of you have tested your chosen factory ammo extensively and know exactly what you have. I personally never or very rarely shoot factory ammo, but did so yesterday for barrel break-in on a new rifle. Didn't want to waste my good components cleaning a barrel up, so I bought some ammo at an Academy Sports locally to do the break-in with. I set up my radar on the bench and started shooting. This was an eye-opening experience. These were Remington's Tipped Core-Lokts for the 243 Winchester. If I had bought these to hunt out to 500 yards or beyond, I would have been very angry. Check out the discrepancy between the reported velocity printed on the box and that measured by the raday. That's a LARGE discrepancy!!

Yup that's pretty common in my experience anyway. Never know what the manufacturer used for testing to get those results unless they include the info.

I tried that ammo out of my Tikka. Would not group. The only Rem ammo that is accurate are the cheap coreloks.

There is very few factory ammo loadings that match the numbers, some are low by 200fps+ and others are faster by 100fps.
Who hunts without verifying drop first?
Your thread sounds peculiar to me.
Would you shoot unverified reloads and expect the manual to be correct?

Cheers.

MagnumManiac said:

There is very few factory ammo loadings that match the numbers, some are low by 200fps+ and others are faster by 100fps.
Who hunts without verifying drop first?
Your thread sounds peculiar to me.
Would you shoot unverified reloads and expect the manual to be correct?

Cheers.

Click to expand...

Completely agree, but I can't tell you how many guys I come across every year at the range that take those numbers as gospel as they prep to go out west. They have no tools (chronograph, windmeter, rangefinder...), and think they will be able to pull of a 3-500+ yard shot. And most of these guys won't listen to the people right beside them that are doing it and doing it well.

.300 Dakota said:

So hopefully many/most of you have tested your chosen factory ammo extensively and know exactly what you have. I personally never or very rarely shoot factory ammo, but did so yesterday for barrel break-in on a new rifle. Didn't want to waste my good components cleaning a barrel up, so I bought some ammo at an Academy Sports locally to do the break-in with. I set up my radar on the bench and started shooting. This was an eye-opening experience. These were Remington's Tipped Core-Lokts for the 243 Winchester. If I had bought these to hunt out to 500 yards or beyond, I would have been very angry. Check out the discrepancy between the reported velocity printed on the box and that measured by the raday. That's a LARGE discrepancy!!

Click to expand...

Contact Remington directly and express your concern. Make sure you provide your findings along with your rifle set-up (e.g., barrel length) and Chrono set-up. I would be interested in their explanation.

There's no way to duplicate results even with well-made reloads in most rifles. Sure, there will be a few that are close, but my current project is a 7PRC with a 22" barrel. I'm not going to get near the velocity as a 26" barrel with the same twist using the same ammo. I bought sixty rounds of factory for the same purpose mentioned in the opening. I hate wasting components anymore, used to not give it a second thought, but we all know things aren't like they used to be, yet, lol. A call to Remington would possibly be beneficial if you could convince them to include the barrel they recorded their data with, and then if they are saying they're getting 200 fps more than you are out of the same barrel length questions certainly begin to arise. Anyone that would go hunting without checking their dope if they're shooting long range is asking for trouble. We were shooting 500 yards yesterday with known ammo, checking and rechecking our numbers.

It would also seem important to tell them that your rifle has an 8" barrel!

Just kidding. This post is further proof and reason to reload. As others have said, it is common to see people at the public ranges, and to deer camp with a mish-mash of different brands/types/ages of ammo.....some people just don't get it.

Thanks for the warning.

Federal blue box .308 is the only factory ammo I ever tested that had good velocity and accuracy. My .308 does however, have a 24" barrel. Nothing else ever matched hsndloads.

FEENIX said:

Contact Remington directly and express your concern. Make sure you provide your findings along with your rifle set-up (e.g., barrel length) and Chrono set-up. I would be interested in their explanation.

Click to expand...

What's the over/under on them blaming his equipment?

I would ask Remington if you can send the rest of the box back to them for testing. At a minimum, you might get back one of those 'were weren't able to replicate your issue' type responses, but here is 6 boxes of ammo for your trouble.

Federal premium gold medal match is very consistent but obviously not good for Hunting but my number one choice if I'm choosing factory ammo is Barnes loaded ammo, accurate, and consistent as in the velocity is not exaggerated. Accuracy in your rifle obviously has to be determined by shooting it in your own rifle.

I have found that with friends that I help that I don't load for and they shoot factory is that you need to buy the top of the line amo from chosen manufacturer to get any kind of consistency.
I am sure that the manufacturer's are not expecting people to use their amo to shoot over 500yds even though some do.
My friends do not

Last time I was at the range with my lab radar, I had 3 different people ask me if I could "see the bullets hit my target with that big orange camera"---- and these are supposedly enthusiasts who pay annually for membership and drive 45 min to an hour to get to this range----- I've also seen guys before ml season shoot a 24x24 target at 50 yards and the 2 shot group was about 6" spread and way low right--- then here the comment "that will kill an elk at 200 yards" ,,, some guys just don't get it
And I was shooting at the 700y range, the guy next to me was shooting at 200yards--- he saw my target from 700 yards and said "that group is pretty large, mine is much better" ( I was printing a .38moa group that day at 700y)-- but he felt because his 200 yard target was physically smaller in size he was better than me.
People are stupid and I usually don't talk much to other people at the range unless I find someone like minded