ammo testing

[Brocolt]

I thought I would put this out there as CGN has new members / shooters every week joining.

As lots of you know I have been in the building stages and reformatting my shooting goals & habits. I have built 2 rifles which are close to being finished other then pillar bedding these stock. Along with this will be ammo testing. These rifles will be used between target matches, Gophers & 22 Marksman Challenge which can be seen on You-Tube I had posted a few links on CGN before but didn't get too much interest this sh!t is fun.

Questions:

So is it better to test indoors or outdoors? as indoors has no wind issues.
How many groups/rounds do you fire with a certain brand before moving onto to another and deciding the rifle doesn't like that ammo?

Is WayUpNorth ever going to find the time to test his riffles for group size? and is he going to shoot a 22 Marksman Challenge match for fun?
stay tuned I'm sure he will answer that question soon. waiting for the answer all in fun buddy

 

[Brocolt]

what no replies??? are you all in bed tonight ???

 

[RabidM4U5]

So is it better to test indoors or outdoors? as indoors has no wind issues.
How many groups/rounds do you fire with a certain brand before moving onto to another and deciding the rifle doesn't like that ammo?

Test indoors if that's available to you for sure! Testing is all about minimizing external influences to see best compatibility between ammo and rifle. Don't wanna be thinking "did I pull that shot?" "Did a puff of wind blow that one out?" etc...

I shoot a full box of 50 per ammo type, 10 5-shot groups. I don't give much consideration to the first couple groups shot as the lube needs to distribute throughout the barrel, though I can usually tell by 5 groups shot if the ammo is working well and the rest of the groups confirm consistency. 7-9/10 groups under 1/2" gets my seal of approval (those first couple groups seasoning the barrel with lube tend to go over 1/2") 5-6/10 < 1/2" warrants further testing on another day (did you screw up a couple shots? weather wasn't ideal?)

what no replies??? are you all in bed tonight ???

Battlefield 1 took priority, bruh!

 

[Brocolt]

Test indoors if that's available to you for sure! Testing is all about minimizing external influences to see best compatibility between ammo and rifle. Don't wanna be thinking "did I pull that shot?" "Did a puff of wind blow that one out?" etc...

I shoot a full box of 50 per ammo type, 10 5-shot groups. I don't give much consideration to the first couple groups shot as the lube needs to distribute throughout the barrel, though I can usually tell by 5 groups shot if the ammo is working well and the rest of the groups confirm consistency. 7-9/10 groups under 1/2" gets my seal of approval (those first couple groups seasoning the barrel with lube tend to go over 1/2") 5-6/10 < 1/2" warrants further testing on another day (did you screw up a couple shots? weather wasn't ideal?)



Battlefield 1 took priority, bruh!

Battlefield 1 I'm not even wasting my time. I might go back and try some MODs for Fallout 4 or keep playing BF4 I need a new keyboard and the model I have been using for the last 8yrs of gaming is on the way out key not responding well,
They no longer make it & I don't see a replacement that is even close to what I use.

 

[Ron AKA]

I have tested 34 different ammo types over the past 8 years, and most of it, 8 years ago when my current gun was new. I have become fairly cynical about commonly held beliefs about rimfire ammo testing. I don't really believe in each gun liking different types of ammo. Yes, if you are shooting in the Olympics and are trying to do 0.100" groups instead of 0.105", then Eley Tenex might be better than Lapua X-Act, or vice versa, or batch xyz might be a touch better than zyx. But, you are not going to reach for a box of MiniMags because your gun "likes them", and get a gold medal. Not going to happen.

Basically I believe that if you have a decent gun, you are really just validating the quality of the ammo, and you can pretty much do that with the price on the box, after you have thrown out everything that isn't subsonic target ammo.

In any case I test by buying a box of 50 rounds. I use two for fouling the barrel, and then shoot 24 two shot groups at 40 yards indoors to eliminate the wind. I don't believe the requirement to shoot 1 fouling shot for each 1" of barrel rule. I tested it by plotting the group size vs the group number (1 to 24). What I found was that there was no statistical difference in the last group size compared to the first. There was no trend to indicate group size reduced as the barrel fouled up.

When I am done, I measure the groups, calculate average group size, and standard deviation of group size using Excel. I have a formula that I use base on average and standard deviation that I use to estimate 50 yard group size. And that is it. If there are two types that are close and I want to find out if the difference between the two is statistically valid, I use the T-Test or Teacher Test. Some use that method to evaluate different batches of the same ammo.

A university professor in the US that is a shooting enthusiast has document this process and written a short article on line that you can read. Don't worry about the heavy math up front. Excel can do it all for you.

Here is my latest version of the testing I have done. If you look at it, you can see that all the crap HV and very HV goes to the bottom. In general the subsonic stuff, and target ammo come to the top, and within that they pretty much sort by price. I have not shot RWS R-50, but if I did, I would expect it to come right to the top, just under the best Eley and Lapua stuff.