A friend of mine has been wanting to go hunting with me for for two seasons now and he bought himself a Tikka T3 stainless synthetic in 300 WSM and I gave him a 3200 3-9x40 I had I wasn't using. He doesn't want to reload at this time and I'm too busy to take that on for him at this point, so he's been buying various "cheap" (no such thing in a wsm) cup and core brands of ammo for the upcoming white tail hunt. He's been doing a good job practicing and he's taking it serious and he's settled on the 180gr Federal powershock ammo as his ammo of choice and I watched him shoot 4 different 3 shot groups at 100m that were all under 1.5". He's happy with that and it's plenty good for the 100m shot or less he will be taking this fall.
So he goes to various shops and picks up a box of 180gr powershock here and there, whenever he has the chance and ends up with 10 boxes and he's happy with that and set for years to come. To make a long story short, he's shot up 80 rounds, from various boxes, and he's going crazy. Good group one day, not good the next day with the "same" ammo from a different box. He starts doubting his shooting ability and then his equipment. Scope must be bad cause it was used when I gave it to him so he buys a 3500 elite and nothing changes. Two piece bases must be bad so he gets talley lw. Rifle must be dirty so he's cleaning it furiously (I dyna bore coated it when he got it and he's been using wipe out so no damage actually being done to the bore). He did all this crazy stuff without telling me about it and when he did the first thing I said was let's check the ammo.
Runout is so bad you can see the bullets wobble on a piece of glass on some rounds. Seating depth base to ogive varies by 20 thou. And here is the best bit. I pulled some bullets with the intention of checking to make sure they are 180gr bullets and to weigh some cases and it turns out there are THREE different types of powder being used. Charge weights averaged 67.5gr, 69gr and 72gr respectively for each different type of powder. Brass weight had a spread of up to 8gr for cases.
I'm glad I don't buy factory ammo for anything other than cheap brass or curing dyna bore coat etc. I would love to know how many rabbit holes were chased by people or animals wounded or missed because even though you think you're buying the same box of ammo year after year the powder inside is actually different.
He did learn his lesson and is keeping all his brass and get reloading after santa brings him what he needs this christmas.
So he goes to various shops and picks up a box of 180gr powershock here and there, whenever he has the chance and ends up with 10 boxes and he's happy with that and set for years to come. To make a long story short, he's shot up 80 rounds, from various boxes, and he's going crazy. Good group one day, not good the next day with the "same" ammo from a different box. He starts doubting his shooting ability and then his equipment. Scope must be bad cause it was used when I gave it to him so he buys a 3500 elite and nothing changes. Two piece bases must be bad so he gets talley lw. Rifle must be dirty so he's cleaning it furiously (I dyna bore coated it when he got it and he's been using wipe out so no damage actually being done to the bore). He did all this crazy stuff without telling me about it and when he did the first thing I said was let's check the ammo.
Runout is so bad you can see the bullets wobble on a piece of glass on some rounds. Seating depth base to ogive varies by 20 thou. And here is the best bit. I pulled some bullets with the intention of checking to make sure they are 180gr bullets and to weigh some cases and it turns out there are THREE different types of powder being used. Charge weights averaged 67.5gr, 69gr and 72gr respectively for each different type of powder. Brass weight had a spread of up to 8gr for cases.
I'm glad I don't buy factory ammo for anything other than cheap brass or curing dyna bore coat etc. I would love to know how many rabbit holes were chased by people or animals wounded or missed because even though you think you're buying the same box of ammo year after year the powder inside is actually different.
He did learn his lesson and is keeping all his brass and get reloading after santa brings him what he needs this christmas.
