Look what just showed up on my door *100/200 YRD Results*

Stephen1546

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250 rounds of Black Hills 77gr Factory Ammo. Not the cheapest ammo around (I paid $1.20 per round plus tax), but still considerably less then Federal GMM which is $1.70 per round from WSS.

Can't wait to try it out at the range on Monday.


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Ok, range report:

I headed out to shoot today expecting to test these out at 100 and 200 yards, but every range over 50 yards was being used for police training (lucky me). So instead I mostly shot my 9mm, but I still did six 5-shot groups at 50 yards to get a baseline. I am a new shooter to percision rifles, so I'm sure someone with more skill could tighten these up a bit.

The rifle was a stock Tikka T3 Sporter shooting from a bench with a MPOD bipod and a read sandbag.

Remember, this is at 50 yards so take it for what it's worth. Wind was not a factor at this distance, so I can't say how they buck the wind down range.

My smallest group was 5 shots into 0.231" and my largest group was 0.520" with the average group being 0.343" based on 6 groups. The largest group had one flyer that I knew as soon as I pulled the trigger was shooter-error. Taking that one single shot out of the equation, my largest group would be 0.387" for an average of 0.313".

Based on this, I would say that this is some pretty decent ammo. Extrapolate this out to 100 yards, and it looks like it should be capable of 1/2 MOA with a little bit more effort from me. Not bad for factory ammo out of a factory rifle with a rookie shooter. I will head back out later this week to test at 100 and 200 yards, and hopefully out to 600 yards in the near future.
 
Results from today. It was pretty gusty today, but I got a few decent groups. These two groups actually had some of the most vertical stringing of all the ones I shot. I had quite a few groups at 100 yards that had well less than 0.25" vertical spread.

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I wanted to make sure that my rifle liked the ammo before I dropped $1100 on a case of it. I buy bulk ammo by the case on a regular basis for my other rifles.
 
1546, you really need to start reloading for yourself.

That Tikka T3 you're shooting, will shoot groups tighter than that with cheap Walmart White Box Ammo with the 45 grain hollow points.

I'm not knocking you in the least here by the way. That is very expensive ammo and even then, it may not be the best match for your particular rifle.

For $1100, you can pick up a very decent reloading set up, 1000 rounds of brass/bullets/primers and powder and tune the lot to suit your rifle.

Something to consider, as the leade wears in your rifle, you should be slightly increasing the OAL of your cartridges by not seating the bullets as deep. This may not seem like a big deal at first but it will soon get to be after 500 or so rounds, maybe even less.

If you are "time challenged" or "space challenged", there isn't much else you can do and I fully understand but in my experience, each rifle is an entity unto itself. Black Hills is trying to load their ammo to suit a lot of different platforms, all in one package. From your pics, they did a great job. IMHO, I believe that you could do better.

There is another factor at play here. That vertical group could have been caused by several different factors, other than the ammo or wind.

At 50 yards, if you don't have adjustable paralax on your scope, it will definitely be a factor as far as groupings go. Most fixed objective scopes are paralax free between 150 and 200 yards. It's very hard to shoot consistently at 50 yds with a long range set up.

Personally, I think you shot very well and the combination you're shooting if just fine for factory loaded ammo.

IMHO, you really need to start reloading to wring the potential out of that rifle. I have two T3s, one in 6.5x55 and one in 25-06. Both of them will consistently shoot under 1/2 moa with selected hand loads. Both will shoot factory produced match loads into slightly less than 1 moa consistently. Funny thing though both like the Hornady offerings and will shoot them in less than 3/4 moa.

It looks like you're doing your part though and when you settle down to consistent positioning behind the trigger, the rifle performs.
 
Thanks for all the advice bearhunter.

Reloading right now is tough due to limited space in my townhouse, not to mention time. Basically I'm stuck with factory loads for now, but that will change. You mentioned that you get better than 1/2 MOA from your reloads and about 1 MOA from factory. My best groups with factory loads were approaching 1/2 MOA, and my worst groups were still under 1 MOA. I know I could squeak out a bit more from my rifle with reloads, but for now I am happy if i can get consistant 1" groups at 200 yards. When I have the ability to start reloading, I will be able to reach the rifles potential.
 
I just reread your OP. Your rifle is shooting that ammo very well. How does the rifle do with the cheap Walmart Whitebox stuff in the 40 round boxes????
 
I just reread your OP. Your rifle is shooting that ammo very well. How does the rifle do with the cheap Walmart Whitebox stuff in the 40 round boxes????

Not really sure. I was shooting some cheap stuff before, but I had an issue with my rear rest so I don't know exactly how it shoots. I'm going shooting tomorrow, and I might put a few groups of Winchester white box downrange just to see.
 
I just reread your OP. Your rifle is shooting that ammo very well. How does the rifle do with the cheap Walmart Whitebox stuff in the 40 round boxes????

I went shooting today and did a bunch of groups with the Black Hills ammo as well as one 9-Shot group with Winchester White Box.

Here is the Black Hills. Most groups were between 0.4"-0.6"
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This was the Win White box. To say it shot weird would be an understatement. All points of aim were in the centre of the red circle:
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Those top 5 in the upper left are sweet.
The other 4 shots are dismal, and not sure what caused them.
Im curious which group was fired first.... Or did they print randomly into each group?.

Im just trying to be a bullet hole detective here..lol.
 
It was weird. The first shot went dead center in the red. The 2nd went into the group at the top left, the 3rd went bottom left, the 4th and 5th went back into the top left group. 6th went centre red, and then a combo of the rest.

All the points of aim were the same, and my worst group with the good ammo was 0.7" and that one was my fault. There was a bit of wind, but no where near enough to move the group more then a quarter inchon so.

My idea is that the point of impact changed when I changed ammo (to be expected), and the new zero is that cluster in the upper left. The rest of the holes are the flyers from ####ty ammo. It just weird that some shots would group so well, while the rest were complete ####.
 
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