The ORA runs a fun match -Sporting Rifle - which is shot at 100, 200 and 300 yards, with 10 shots deliberate, 10 shots at a pop up and 10 shots at a moving target. 100 is shot standing.
The ideal rifle is not too heavy (100 is shot standing) and a zoom scope is good so you can crank it up for the 200 and 300 yard prone. And a 10 shot mag is handy, too.
And with 90 shots on score, plus the practice session at each distance, cheap ammo is nice.
The best rifle on my rack for this is the Mossberg MVP.
I have done a bit of load development this week. The 62 Hornady soft point loaded in the Dillon shoots quite well at 100 yards. The brass of the same lot groups at 1 inch or better. (300 is good, too. Never tried it any further.)
This ammo is made with a single lot of Remington brass. I have several buckets of range pick up brass and was wondering if I could make ammo for Sporting Rifle that would be “good enough” using mixed brass. So without changing anything on the Dillon, I fed it a handful of mixed brass. (IWI, Winchester, Remington, Federal, PPU, Norinco)
It had one flyer.
So then I decided to try some match bullets. I have a lot of the Berger 73 gr, the Sierra 77matchKing and also the 77MK in boxes of seconds.
I usually load 223 match ammo with an extruded powder like RL-15 or N-140 or N150. This powder gets measure in my Chargemaster. Extruded powder is not so good in a powder thrower (like in the Dillon).
I have tested BLC2 with the match bullets and it groups around 0.9” to 1.0”. Not bad, but I think the match bullet can do better in the Mossberg, with a better powder.
I did some load development, measuring N-140 in a ChargeMaster and settled on 23.5 gr for the 73 Berger and 24.5 gr for the 77 MK. No idea what the velocity is. The Berger shot best, with 10 shot groups running 0.4” to 0.8”. The 77Sierra was a bit bigger, but always under 1.0”
At this point I should point out that I am shooting a Mossberg with what must be the worst interior finish I have ever seen. Not exactly match quality. But it shoots well. I clean it well after each day.
So I had three good loads for the rifle. 62gr SP with BLC2 in the Dillon for cheap, high volume ammo.
And the Berger and Sierra match bullet with measured charges of N-140.
Being lazy and cheap, I wondered if I could use the Dillon to load the Bergers. Would it throw good charges of N-140? And I wondered if I could use the Sierra “seconds”. They are cheap.
So I loaded 10 each of the Berger and the 77gr seconds using the ChargeMaster to make the best ammo possible. And then I used the Dillon to load both bullets with the same powder charges as the ChargeMaster test.
The Berger grouped better with the measured powder charges. The Dillon group had a flyer, low.
The 77gr Sierra MatchKing seconds showed the same deterioration when loaded in the Dillon, and the Chargemaster seconds were much poorer than the green box flavour.
I have heard that some Sierra seconds shoot well, but have cosmetic issues. And some seconds failed to pass accuracy standards. This box obviously failed the accuracy standard. I will use them for the 100 yard shoot. Grouping quality is not my concern when shooting season.
BTW, I use 10 shot groups (occasionally 20 shots) to test rifles and ammo. I have shot thousands of groups and through my scope I have seen a lot of bug hole 5 shot groups that became ordinary groups after 10. For my purposes, 5 shot groups to not give me any useful information.
The ideal rifle is not too heavy (100 is shot standing) and a zoom scope is good so you can crank it up for the 200 and 300 yard prone. And a 10 shot mag is handy, too.
And with 90 shots on score, plus the practice session at each distance, cheap ammo is nice.
The best rifle on my rack for this is the Mossberg MVP.
I have done a bit of load development this week. The 62 Hornady soft point loaded in the Dillon shoots quite well at 100 yards. The brass of the same lot groups at 1 inch or better. (300 is good, too. Never tried it any further.)
This ammo is made with a single lot of Remington brass. I have several buckets of range pick up brass and was wondering if I could make ammo for Sporting Rifle that would be “good enough” using mixed brass. So without changing anything on the Dillon, I fed it a handful of mixed brass. (IWI, Winchester, Remington, Federal, PPU, Norinco)
It had one flyer.
So then I decided to try some match bullets. I have a lot of the Berger 73 gr, the Sierra 77matchKing and also the 77MK in boxes of seconds.
I usually load 223 match ammo with an extruded powder like RL-15 or N-140 or N150. This powder gets measure in my Chargemaster. Extruded powder is not so good in a powder thrower (like in the Dillon).
I have tested BLC2 with the match bullets and it groups around 0.9” to 1.0”. Not bad, but I think the match bullet can do better in the Mossberg, with a better powder.
I did some load development, measuring N-140 in a ChargeMaster and settled on 23.5 gr for the 73 Berger and 24.5 gr for the 77 MK. No idea what the velocity is. The Berger shot best, with 10 shot groups running 0.4” to 0.8”. The 77Sierra was a bit bigger, but always under 1.0”
At this point I should point out that I am shooting a Mossberg with what must be the worst interior finish I have ever seen. Not exactly match quality. But it shoots well. I clean it well after each day.
So I had three good loads for the rifle. 62gr SP with BLC2 in the Dillon for cheap, high volume ammo.
And the Berger and Sierra match bullet with measured charges of N-140.
Being lazy and cheap, I wondered if I could use the Dillon to load the Bergers. Would it throw good charges of N-140? And I wondered if I could use the Sierra “seconds”. They are cheap.
So I loaded 10 each of the Berger and the 77gr seconds using the ChargeMaster to make the best ammo possible. And then I used the Dillon to load both bullets with the same powder charges as the ChargeMaster test.
The Berger grouped better with the measured powder charges. The Dillon group had a flyer, low.
The 77gr Sierra MatchKing seconds showed the same deterioration when loaded in the Dillon, and the Chargemaster seconds were much poorer than the green box flavour.
I have heard that some Sierra seconds shoot well, but have cosmetic issues. And some seconds failed to pass accuracy standards. This box obviously failed the accuracy standard. I will use them for the 100 yard shoot. Grouping quality is not my concern when shooting season.
BTW, I use 10 shot groups (occasionally 20 shots) to test rifles and ammo. I have shot thousands of groups and through my scope I have seen a lot of bug hole 5 shot groups that became ordinary groups after 10. For my purposes, 5 shot groups to not give me any useful information.
