Advice on lot testing needed

[545riflefan]

Hello everyone. I’m needing some advice on lot testing for our 2 TikkaT1x

Me and my wife picked up a pair of Tikkas last month. They are all set up now and we are starting to get comfortable behind them. Both rifles have maybe 100 rds thru them.

I picked up some
SK std+
SK RM
Wolf MT
Lapua CenterX
CCI sv

Today we lot tested the SK std+, SK RM, and Lapua CenterX

we didn’t go forward with the CCI or Wolf as it didn’t group well in our first go around.

Today we each shot 5x 5rd groups at 200 (10 sighters to season prior to recording the groups ). No cleaning in between.

interesting thing. My T1x did well with the SK STD+ but not so well with the SK RM

my wife’s T1x was opposite in that hers did better with the SK RM but not so well with the STD+

as I’m trying to get 1 lot that we can both shoot I was lucky in that the Lapua centerX shot well in both of our guns.

targets below.

we are new to .22 and are asking for advice on if we would benefit from lot testing more centerX or is this about as good as it’s going to get??

I’ve been reading a ton on .22 ammo lot variances so would like to get some perspective from more experienced folks with respect to reasonable expectations.

thank you

 

[littlepod]

I tested 16 lots of center-x and there was a big variance between the lots. Luckily I got a lot that works well out of my Vudoo and out of my friend's T1X so we're splitting a few cases of CX.

This was @ 200. I'd say the lot of CX you found is shooting really well out of your T1X.

 

[justin amateur]

Welcome to the rimfire lottery.
Not only does cartridge quality vary batch to batch,
it varies box to box and cartridge to cartridge.
Not only are we dealing with differences in cartridge components
but also variations in tolerances during assembly.
It's not that the rifles had a preference by brand
but that the cartridge quality varied by box.

Find the most consistent cartridges you can, buy them all.

 

[b6graham]

$50 to have lapua test it and get what is actually the best lot for your gun

don't know if 100 through them is enough to get a good idea either

 

[545riflefan]

Thank you b6grahm

I for sure will take advantage of the test center as it’s about an hour and a half drive from me. I’ll have to wait till I get at least 1000 rds thru each gun prior ( Lapua requires this prior to test)

and I agree that the low round count may not lead to any solid conclusions on how the guns will continue to shoot. I’m hoping they improve as the count goes up but I’m not sure.

I was able to track down a case that is very close to the lot of Lapua we were shooting.

our lot is 23555/602191

the closest I could find calling around and emailing a whole bunch of folks was this lot

23555/602184

I’m hoping that since they are so close they will perform similar ( fingers crossed )

mid I understand both these lots have the same velocity at 1059fps

anyone have experience with very close lot # ( with same velocity ) and how they performed ??

another thing I’m worried about is the in our testing of SK std+, SK RM, Wolf MT, and the Lapua centerX is that they all did very well at 100. It was only at 200 that we for sure could tell that the CenterX was superior

the folks who have lot tested Lapua. Was it obvious tat the lots were different at 100??

and did those best lots at 100 also hold their performance at 200 and beyond??

Thank you again for all the help. Every day I’m learning more and more about Rimfire. It’s a hoot for sure

 

[littlepod]

First 2 #'s are the velocity so "23", add a "3" to it, so it means 323 m/s out of their machine. For example I run a lot of 24xxx so it should be 1062, but it chronos out of my rifle at 1090.

Maybe similar #'s means similar performance. In my testing of 16 lots of CX, they all had pretty different lot #'s -