Ammo test results - PIC HEAVY

[Phat Eagle]

Hi all,

My shooting partner has recently started to have poor results using commercial and surplus ammo. We shot from the bench at 50 meters.

We SWAPPED guns after to control for one of us being a better marksman, and results weren't appreciably different.

We tested six types of ammo in the same order: PMC, Malaysian Surplus, Norinco, Wolf 62 grain, Wolf 55 grain, and Federal Tactical Black.

He's running a 14.5 inch Stag, mine is a 16 inch Palmetto State. Both have free float handguards, and we're both running EoTech RDS with 3x magnifiers.

Here's my results:
PMC

Malay surplus

Norinco

Wolf 62

Wolf 55

Federal Tactical Black Box


Here's his results:
PMC:

Malay

Norinco

Wolf 62

Wolf 55

Federal Tactical Black Box


As you see my groups are FAAAAR better than his. Interestingly, handloads work equally well in both.

PMC, Federal Black and Norinco all shoot pretty well out of mine, though they are vastly inferior to the handloads I've cooked up. The Malaysian surplus, and both weight Wolf are pretty much garbage in my books.

His Stag is almost 10 years old, and a LOT of rounds through it. Mine is only a year old with about 4000 rounds through it. We're thinking maybe the barrel is "shot out"??

Any advice or ideas??

 

[Longshot]

Good stuff! Love to see that Norinco stuff shoot well. How many rds is a lot for your buddies rifle?

 

[Phat Eagle]

Best guess is maybe 45-50k over the past ten years. He ran it hard on a few tactical carbine courses over the years...

 

[canthitathing]

Where can I get a pie plate that looks like a Canadian quarter like you have? LOL.

Seriously, I've shot nothing but Norc 5.56 out of two AR15's, a DPMS and a DA556. I get around 2 - 2 1/2 MOA and I'm using a cheap Chinese knock-off Eotech style holographic with a Chinese knock-off 5X flip-to-side magnifier. Surprisingly, my groups don't change much even when using the magnifier and I expected better for my old eyes when using the magnifier. The center dot seems to be a 6MOA dot as it completely covers the Canada Ammo 6" diameter orange target, so precision isn't to be expected anyway without a crosshair. I did recently find that using a lower reticle brightness helped by not obliterating the orange target completely but actually allows the orange target to brighten the lower-power observed dot when aligned on target. I also found that using the green dot option was better in the winter when snow covered the range. I'm still experimenting but I am quite pleased with the Norc 5.56 ammo. A few spent casings showed pin holes or minor cracks and must be tossed but I'll likely reload some casings down the road for sport .223 loads.

 

[Longshot]

Yeah with that many through the barrel he's probably losing accuracy. Throat is probably way out there by now.

 

[Phat Eagle]

Turns out his upper was shot out. He sold the whole thing (cheap; didn't BS but sold it as a project for the new buyer) and bought one of those sweet DD deals Wolverine had. He's back tight too!

 

[SA85M1]

Good choice with the DD set up....the Norc ball I have used seems to be decent, zero issues with it so far...

 

[Ganderite]

I also tested rifles and ammo at 50 yards. Because I wanted to zero the flip up sights at 50 yards, I did all shooting at 50. I usually shoot at 100.

One of the rifles was similar to the OP's, a new 16.5" PSA with a floated barrel. The only "factory" ammo tested was IVI 62gr ball. I wish I had included some other factory offerings, for reference. All scoped groups were around 3/4". With irons, group was 1.4"

The PSA has a 2-7 Burris, set to 7X. I was on a bench, using sandbags.

Group with irons. Ammo was 55 Hornady FMJ, 24.5gr 3031

Same ammo, 55 Hornady FMJ, 24.5gr 3031, with scope

IVI 62 gr. FMJ Ball

55gr Hornady Soft Point, 26 gr WW748 (max load)

Correction. Picture is incorrectly labeled 55gr FMJ. It is a 62 gr FMJ, with 24.0 gr BLC2. This is my plinking load

 

[Phat Eagle]

Nice job working the hand loads up Ganderite! Makes a biiiiiiig difference when you're trying to go tight!