Does your rifle have a hate on for certain ammo/bullets?

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Brappp306

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So I bought a bunch of 162gr Hornady SP SST ammunition for my 7mm Rem Mag since it was a pretty good price. What a mistake that was, never seen a rifle differentiate so much between ammo. The groupings were absolutely TERRIBLE! Like I'm talking 2.3 - 6 MOA at 100 yards. I have had this rifle(Rem 700 LR) perform .5 MOA at 100, so I thought maybe it was just me having a really bad day, but then I threw down two more 3 round groups with different ammo and rifle performed beautifully as usual. The Hornady Precision Hunter ELX-D 162gr went .761" and the cheap Rem CORE even threw down a .855"

I understand every rifle has a specific dope it likes, but never thought it would perform so poorly with some. So is it just my rifle or is this SST bullet really that terrible?
 
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My .308 hates the expensive Hornady Superformance match ammo, with the stock and with a custom barrel, yet it loves the cheap Hornady steel case match ammo.
 
I've learned to change bullets before trying powder or primer test. It's an expensive test but yes, some rifle hate some bullets and if it's the one you'd like to hunt with, than you'll have to think of something else!
 
Phat Eagle said:
It's totally random... Try handloading and you'll see how much difference even a tiny bit of powder, different primers, etc. can make in the same rifle...
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This ^^^^

A bit of experience can make just about any load shoot good, although some bullets do fly better than others. There are so many variables un-mentioned in the OP; barrel length, twist, wear and tear, shooting base (bags, rest, free-hand...) . Some guns like boat tails and others like a flat base.

Commercial ammo is the makers attempt at One-size-fits-all.... and sometimes it does not fit all.
 
It seems like 7mm seems to be pickier than other calibers from my limited experience. I have two friends who hunt with 7mm rem and both had to try quite a few different combinations to get something that worked for them.

One rifle wouldn't shoot anything with a boat tail consistently, had to be a flat based bullet for it to work.

The other rifle would shoot shotgun patterns with anything but 150 grain bullets, it didn't like heavier or lighter bullets at all.
 
I have a 20 Vartarg that doesn't think much of Blitz kings or Nosler ballistictips no matter what I tried I couldn't get them to shoot underr 3/4" at 100 yds. On the bright side the rifle will consistanly shoot the cheep Hornady Z-maxx and Nosler Varmageddon bullets consistanly in the .2 to .4" range and will shoot just a tad better than that with the 35gr Bergers.
 
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My 204 doesn't shoot at all with Hornady 39 gr. factory ammo, more like a pattern. I've not had much luck with any brand of 39 or 40 gr. bullet but Sierra 32 gr bullets are accurate. If I do my part 3/4 in or less with 32 gr, 1.5-3 for the heavier bullets. That is the only rifle I have that is real fussy although I once owned a Parker Hale 243 that wouldn't shoot 100 gr bullets of any kind.
 
Yes.

My Savage LRPV will shoot 68 grain flat base Berger Target bullets under 0.2" at 100 meters. But, a 62 grain Berger flat base Target Bullet struggles to make 2.0" at 100 meters! My gun has told me about 90 times now that it doesn't like them. 10 more and I can throw the box out...
 
dand883 said:
It seems like 7mm seems to be pickier than other calibers from my limited experience. I have two friends who hunt with 7mm rem and both had to try quite a few different combinations to get something that worked for them.

One rifle wouldn't shoot anything with a boat tail consistently, had to be a flat based bullet for it to work.

The other rifle would shoot shotgun patterns with anything but 150 grain bullets, it didn't like heavier or lighter bullets at all.
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As a 7mm Mag shooter and reloader, I have to agree with everything you said. Then you also have powders that fluctuate with temperature - and you are back to the drawing board. I have one of those 150g bullets only models. :)
 
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