Testing Ammo Brands

A tutorial on testing a variety of ammo brands in a precision rifle. Do a controlled test. This one consists of three-shot groups at 100 yards with ammo of the same weight from three different manufacturers: Remington, Winchester and Federal. Split-screen video shows the shooter firing and the target as it is impacted by the rounds. Comparative results are shown after firing is completed. What does this kind of test tell you about the rifle? The ammunition? The shooter?

One Response to “Testing Ammo Brands”

1. Olzapper October 26th, 2012

   I did a test like this years ago with .22 amunition. I used the same rifle and 10 rounds of ammo per target. The ammunition I used was CCI, Federal, Winchester, and Remmington at 100 yards. I was amazed a the difference. The CCI Stingers I shot first and was all over the paper. The next group was with the Federal ammo. The ammo shot much better, but was still spread out a little. Winchester was third and there was a remarkable tightening of the group. I found the Remmington shot the best group and use that ammunition the most in my .22s. One could say that I might have started shooting better as time went, but then I didn’t clean the gun any between firing the different ammunitions. One could also say that the first fired rounds could have had an unfair advantage by being fired in a weapon that coul have been fouled be bad ammunition.

   A short time after that, one of my brothers chronagraphed a few different primers in ammunition he was loading for a handgun. He found the principal reason that it is the ammo. All the rounds were handloaded the same, with the difference being the primers. He used CCI, Winchester, and Remmington primers. He used five or ten shots with each of the primers and found similar results as to what I had. The CCI primers shot +- 50 ft/sec difference from the middle result. Both the Remmingon and Winchester were somthing like +- 5 ft/sec difference. This only confirmed my findings. The primers were the main difference. If you don’t have a consistant shooting primer, it will start affecting your accuracy. There are also guns that may fire certain ammunition better than others. But a consistant firing ammunition does work better. 

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