Did a little ammo testing this past weekend with several different brands. Had two that stuck out the most as far as groups and ES. Lapua X-Act and SK RM. Luck would have it X-Act showed awesome ES (avg 8-12) and shot well at 50 and 100yds. Out of all the ammo I have purchased to test, X-Act is the lease amount I have. I am concerned about groups at 50yds but mainly watching ES’s and seeing how consistent the ammo is because I’ll mainly be shooting 100-300yds with my Vudoo. Going to do some more 10 shot strings this weekend at 100yds to confirm. I am going about this in the right direction correct? Does anyone have a source for X-Act?
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Lapua X-Act
- Thread starter Coyote777
- Start date
Rely on what is seen on target rather than what the chronograph says. A small ES is not necessarily a good predictor of ammo performance. There are factors other than MV variation that can influence performance downrange.
Ten shot strings don't give reliable information. It's more useful to chrony an entire box or at least thirty rounds.
Ten shot strings don't give reliable information. It's more useful to chrony an entire box or at least thirty rounds.
Yeah I’m trying not to get to focused on ES’s but it’s hard. I’ll just believe what the target says and also try running larger strings across the chronograph. Thanks for the info.
When I chono a lot of ammo I do a whole box, but break it into 10 round strings...since that's what my Vudoo mags hold, I have five of them so there's no time wasted and the barrel cooling between mags. Then average the MV for the box, I put all the data in a spreadsheet with conditional formatting on SD and ES so it gives a quick way to go back over the info gathered.
I am wondering how does this help you knowing the SD & ES ? if you see a big difference wouldn't you see it on the target? I mean a lot with say a 30-50-fps spread between rounds I would think wouldn't shoot very good.
Wouldn't it be easier to just shoot the lot and look at the results on the target? based off performance alone to make selections on lots.
Lee
Sounds good so far. If you are going to shoot at 300yds. I would shoot at 200yds and 300yds looking for vertical in the groups. I shoot my groups on steel gongs, and clays on the dirt berms, looking for vertical only, wind always will be in the picture, but I look at the vertical for my long range shooting.
If I have a box with bad SD/ES, it's not going to be any good at distances greater than 25-50 yards. I don't have access to a range longer than 100 yards within an hour drive; knowing what the SD/ES is for a lot saves the trouble of finding out it's trash at longer distances.
I would think it wouldn't be good at any distance. I don't chrono but if a lot doesn't shoot at 50, I know it won't get better at 100 can't imagine anything past that.
Lee
The Chrono is a part of the puzzle but not all. You can have great sd’s and ES’s and if the bullet itself is not made correctly, meaning the actual lead bullets center of gravity is off it won’t matter.. The best way I have found to lot test is buy two boxes of the lot, shoot 5 groups of 10 across the chrono so you have a 50 shot sample, then shoot 5 groups of 5 at a 100, and then 5 groups of 5 at 200.. then look at all the targets, pick the best lot or lots, then let the chrono info be the tie breaker..You really do need to marry the two to get a full picture.
Question, how many times have you seen a wide varying SD & ES lot shoot better based on target results over a lot that had great SD & ES?
Lee
Wide? never.. but I have seen, say a 12 SD out shoot 5 SD.. and when it happens it will look a certain way normally. The 5 SD will have a kickass 50 yard group..the 12 with have a good decent group, but when you try a 100..the 12 will kinda of even out with the 5.Then at 200..you can clearly see it.. So we know that the 12 is not getting more accurate, that is impossible, so what is happening is the 5 is losing accuracy faster than the 12...I believe that can only happen because the lead bullet has a flaw in some way..center of gravity, or something is effecting that bullet in flight to make it do that.
