I've been struggling to do an evaluation on the factory Hornady Match 6.5 CM ammo, 140gr. vs 147gr. I started out this new gun (26 in. Krieger Rem. Heavy Varmint, 1:8 twist) back in March with the 140s, working the distance back. It did great at 1000, really good at 1200, and pretty fair at 1400. Then they came out with the 147gr. version. I put their figures into my Kestrel AB and sure enough it theoretically outperformed the 140. In terms of real world drops, this has born itself out (for instance, at 1330, DA around 2700, Elev. is 13.5mil for the 140, and 13.1 for the 147). So I stocked up on 147s and started shooting them exclusively. They did great up to 1000 as well, fair at 1200, but have been giving me a lot of trouble at 1330. I kept thinking it was me, then it dawned on me - I don't remember having this kind of trouble with the 140s... So, I switched back to the 140s and it seemed my hit ratio improved. I hung two IPSCs side by side together at 1330 and tried doing head to head comparisons, but with this crazy weather this summer (it rains every day) it seems the wind always changes before I can get switched over from one to the other, then I'm poking around again trying to find the target. Today I started with the 140s, fired two center-mass hits on the 1000 target to confirm my wind call, then went straight to 1330. I went 5 for 5 on the left target, group measured 13 inches vertically, and only 5 inches horizontally (which is outstanding because the ES on the Hornady stuff is like 50s and 60s). Weather was dead calm so I hurriedly switched over to the 147s and re-indexed the scope elevation for what I know is correct for that load, and left the windage alone because there's very little difference in windage between them. So, I fired 5 rounds at the right target, and didn't TOUCH it. Couldn't spot a single miss either (green, wet vegetation everywhere). Reloaded and started poking around - holding 0.2 left, then 0.2 right, then added another 0.2 UP, etc. Never touched it. Got really frustrated, so I loaded up single round of 140, re-indexed and went back to the left target. It hit a little low and right, made the now 6-round group grow to 14.5 inches, but basically still solid dope. Went back to the right target and 147s, poked around and scored ONE hit, up high on the neck region. Next shot I saw miss just high. Brought it down a couple clicks, kept windage the same, and missed several more before giving up. I managed ONE hit out of about 14 rounds vs. 6/6 with the 140s on the target right next to it! The 147s have NEVER shot that bad (and I've had "enough" consistency to establish known good dope at that range)! And the 140s were shooting exceptionally well. Finally, it was quitting time and I happened to wonder about maybe the semi-hot barrel walking off zero, so I put two more rounds into the 1000 target and confirmed it still shoots to POA with a hot barrel, so that's not it. It isn't my shooting because the 140s prove that, but I can't figure out what's going on. It sure would be great if we could spot misses here like they can out west. I'm kind of wondering if the 1:8 twist that works so well with the 140s might be a little slow for the 147s. I don't know why that wouldn't show up until 1330, but they shoot sub-1/2 MOA consistently at 100 and sub-MOA at 1000. Interesting conundrum. Anyway, here's the 140gr target. The five shot group excludes the one hit that is low-right. As I said, the group is 13 inches. The single low-right hit was the one I fired about a half-hour later to confirm I hadn't lost my mind after missing the other target with the 147s every time. Although wind was minimal, it had probably changed just enough to account for the slight shift to the right.
By contrast, I can't seem to put 5 rounds of the 147 on target at 1330 to give you a picture, but here's what it will do at 1000:
...and at 100:
Any thoughts on what might be going on? By the way, I forgot to mention that I tried to do a test yesterday, and with the DA and conditions virtually identical to today, I think I put 4 out of 5 of the 140s on the first target, then went 2 for 2 on the 147s before the downdraft from a nearby T-Storm swept in instantly, and made shooting the rest of the test invalid. Those two hits were slightly low, but only 6 inches apart. I used the same dope today for elevation.
A wise, fellow member here suggested to me to just shoot the 140s and don't look back. Solid advice for sure. The reason I want to pursue it a little more is: a) to understand and learn a little more about what's going on, and especially: b) according to the Kestrel AB, the 147 factory load "should" be capable of more distance than the 140, and I've got the space to stretch it out farther if I could get it to cooperate.
By contrast, I can't seem to put 5 rounds of the 147 on target at 1330 to give you a picture, but here's what it will do at 1000:
...and at 100:
Any thoughts on what might be going on? By the way, I forgot to mention that I tried to do a test yesterday, and with the DA and conditions virtually identical to today, I think I put 4 out of 5 of the 140s on the first target, then went 2 for 2 on the 147s before the downdraft from a nearby T-Storm swept in instantly, and made shooting the rest of the test invalid. Those two hits were slightly low, but only 6 inches apart. I used the same dope today for elevation.
A wise, fellow member here suggested to me to just shoot the 140s and don't look back. Solid advice for sure. The reason I want to pursue it a little more is: a) to understand and learn a little more about what's going on, and especially: b) according to the Kestrel AB, the 147 factory load "should" be capable of more distance than the 140, and I've got the space to stretch it out farther if I could get it to cooperate.
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