FYI, check your factory ammo

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.

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.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!!

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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.

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Leaf Litter said:

Tons of people don't check drops, probably over 90% of hunters. The users of this forum tend to skew heavily into that 10% that does, but you shouldn't forget about the crowd that just shoots a couple groups at 100 yards in September and calls it good.

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.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!!

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Critter Picker said:

Factory ammo is OK for the guy in a heated tower with a shooting bench overlooking a food plot that is EXACTLY 100 yards across. AND he has a sighted in rifle and knows how to shoot it.

Me, I use my hand loaded ammo. My last factory ammo other than rimfire was 1975.

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jerry moore said:

i purchase Rem factory 95 gr tipped cor look because its new shot great, cust serv @ rem firearm worse than ever 700 alpha xxxx over priced I got one @ Christmas worst rem I have ever owned I returned it in 1st of jan they sent it back in sept it's operable but a long ways from 2000$ rifle

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baldhunter said:

The velocity doesn't surprise me.The velocity spread is concerning.It would be interesting to break down a few and weigh the powder charge.You might find a grain or two difference.By keeping the pressures lower,factory ammo may get by with a larger + or - charge weight.
I wished I would had done that many years ago when I purchased a 25-06.I was shooting Remington ammo.It shot like crap,more of a spray than a group.You could shake some of the cartridges and you could hear the powder inside the case.Then some you couldn't,those were like a compressed load.It even makes me wonder if it was two different powders.That same rifle was a solid 3/4" shooter with handloads.

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Teri Anne said:

I guess my answer to that is, "To each their own." I use both factory and hand loaded ammo for both target shooting and hunting, whichever is shooting the best at the time. To those who say you can never duplicate factory ammo, mostly who would want to? In most cases, hand loads will outperform factory 90% of the time.

As for the comment about the guy in the heated tower, as some of us age, continuing to climb up and down the hill and valleys and cross the ridge lines becomes more and more difficult. The choice is to either give up hunting or settle into one of those blinds or tower you mention with some disdain. I am currently 77 years old. I have gone deer hunting every year for the past 55 years and have brought home at least one deer per year, in most years as tags would permit, two or more. I donate the meat beyond what I can personally use to local food banks. For the last 8 years I have limited myself to a permanent ground blind. As for limited shooting distances, mine vary between 50 yards and 300+ yards. I limit my shooting at deer to 200 yards although have taken a nice buck at 240 according to my Vortex range finder. My food plot is just a harvested corn field or bean field, crops change from year to year. My blind, which is actually out in the open is a 6' x 6' Redneck and of course it's heated. I may be old but not stupid.

Below you see my hunting stand, the longest shot that I have and a sample target, this one shot with my Tikka T3x 270. Almost all of my shots result in one shot one deer dead in place. By the way, the shot to the left, that many of you like to call fliers is simply exactly where the cross hairs were when the rifle went off, not an issue with ammo or the rifle. It was all my fault. All in all, still a dead deer

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Leaf Litter said:

Tons of people don't check drops, probably over 90% of hunters. The users of this forum tend to skew heavily into that 10% that does, but you shouldn't forget about the crowd that just shoots a couple groups at 100 yards in September and calls it good.

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