One Fools Attempt at Ammo Testing

[meestermeetch]

A number of you have seen my posting all over the T1X forum. I recently bought a Tikka T1x and promptly tricked it out with a KRG Bravo, an Area 419 Rail, Vortex 1.26” height 30MM rings and a Vortex Viper PST Gen2 3-15x44, I have a can on the end of it and have been pretty tickled with my new toy.

Over the last three days I have been at the range twice testing ammo. A lot of ammo. 1275 rounds over 21 manufacturers. I figure some of you may find this interesting so I will post my results.

My testing was shoot one ten round fouler group, shoot 4 ten round groups with the remaining ammo, then boresnake the gun. Repeat for the next ammo. Before you crucify me, I wanted each ammo to have a similar starting point, plus rack grade rifles get rack grade treatment. All shooting was done at 50 yards, outdoor, in ambient temps between 50 and 65.

I will have a few questions at the end of if you read all this, and have some insights chime in. otherwise, sorry for the long post!

To make it easier to digest below is a list of the ammo fired, in order of firing. Then (-) followed by the size of a coin corresponding to the size of the groups and another (-) if there are any notes. Remember 10 round groups at 50 yards. Shooting 600 rounds over 3 hours, even with all the boresnaking by the end the rifle was warm.

American Eagle HV – Quarter - super sonic – really dirty
Winchester Super Suppressed – Quarter
Remington Subsonic – quarter
CCI Green Tag – Nickel
CCI Subsonic – Nickel
CCI Clean Long Rifle – Quarter
CCI Pistol Match – Nickel – Super sonic – clean
CCI Quiet 22 – COMICALLY Bad groups, like more than a 50 cent piece - comically quiet, hitting the paper at 50 yards was louder, not joking.
CCI Standard Velocity – Penny
Aguila Super Estra – quarter – fliers lot of them.
Federal Gold Medal Target – Dime – as it got colder this started to crackle at supersonic
Federal Hunter Match – Penny – super sonic
Eley Club – Dime
SK Flatnose Match – Penny
SK Standard Plus – Penny
SK Rifle Match – Dime
SK Long Range Match – Penny - Super Sonic
SK Biathlon – Penny
Lapua Pistol King – Dime
Lapua Pistol OSP – Quarter
Lapua CenterX – Dime
Wolf – Dime

I intend to test a lot of the Eley flavors of ammo shortly. Also given how good it shoots I might try some of the Gucci ammo like R50, Midas and Tenex. I intend to shoot a match or two this weekend with the federal ammo this weekend. I also intend to do further test the CCI standard velocity, Federal Match, SK Rifle Match, Lapua Pistol King and CenterX. I intend to temp test the ammo. I have the Federal and CCI on hand so some of that is in the freezer waiting for the next range day. If anything stands out I will post it here.I intend to test it the ammos that prove to be the best at 100, just to see groups. I have been told that lot testing is best done at 100 since a dime size ten round group at 50 can mean a ½” gun at 100 or a 1” gun at 100 you won’t know until you try. Is this true?

I did notice groups open up slightly after each boresnaking, unclear if that was the “clean” bore or the change in ammo. However by 10 rounds it did settle in. I also noticed that colder bores (cease fires to change targets) the first round was more likely to be a flier, by how much varied.

This makes me pretty happy, I feel like with many varieties of ammo I can be pretty confident that it will be NRL22 accurate enough. However I have a few questions:

• What can be extrapolated from the data above?
• What else should I be testing? (Ammo variables…)
• How should I do lot testing? The same, different? Why? If the manufacture is the same but the lot isn’t, don’t boresnake or ? (mostly for the sake of time more than anything)
• How different will the lots really shoot? I can’t imagine its that different lot to lot, POI, group size and MV but I guess I have to test it.
• Can I get lucky and find that it shoots most lots of a certain ammo well? Is it worth trying to find out? How many lots would I need to test to safely say “all Lapua pistol king shoots dime size group out of the gun”? IE if I test 5 lots of federal and they all shoot the same should I not worry about buying 10K of one lot and just buy what I can/need when its in stock at Academy, or if it gets used as a loaner NRL rifle and I say buy Federal match at Academy to the loanee, can I be confident that they aren’t getting set up for failure because the ammo they bought sucks… My real goal with this is does lot testing matter? I have a lot of HV 22 on hand and want a lot of subs, however I don’t really want to repeat this test annually as I shoot through a particular lot, I want to be able to just order a few thousand and call it a plan without worrying that I am going to be wasting my money.

 

[cab0154]

Here are some of the things i do:

When it comes to eley, sk/lapua, rws ect; they will all usually shoot well. I do have stuff that doesnt like eley and does sk, ect. but once you figure out overall which bullet the barrel likes, what i do have about a half dozen bricks of different lot numbers. i do this because we get so many different weather fronts here. anyway, what i do is just grab a couple boxes of each lot and see which lot is shooting in that air on that day. even great lots of match ammo will have their bad days. so i have started just buying the intermediate priced cheaper stuff (eley club, sk rifle match, pistol match, lapua pistol when its on sale, sk magazine), rather than match grade higher end stuff.

also, best advise i ever got when it came to eley, was start with a clean bore. in a rifle that shoots well with eley, it will help a lot. eley lube does not lay down well on other fouling like sk/lapua, rws ect does. other than eley, i usually dont even patch my stuff when changing ammo. i just shoot some foulers.

sounds like it will shoot pretty much anything in eley/sk/rws stuff. i would just go to the range with a clean bore, test eley first and if its shooting up to par let it eat. if not switch to other stuff.

i have done the whole buy a bunch of a magic lot the rifle loves stuff, and while it works, more days than not around here it wont shoot its best groups compared to other lots all the time. i even went so far as buying stuff from the eley batch selector, after doing a ton of comparison shopping. and while it is not a horrible lot, even though it shot very well in all of eley's test barrels, i expect tenex to shoot better than my magic lot of eley team that i have left over from 8 years ago. thats my $.02 hope that helps

 

[meestermeetch]

sounds like if you find it likes a lot of different ammo it shouldn't be that lot sensitive within a given type. I intend to test more types of Eley soon as well as more lots of SK Rifle Match, CCI SV, Federal Target, Lapua Pistol and Lapua Center X. I will keep my same testing procedure just for consistency. then after I have tested 4 or 5 lots of each can make a call. figure out best price per performance and availability and go from there.

 

[AGrizz]

I realize your enthusiasm and your desire to find the proper ammunition and get started.

First off I would advise you to pick up a dial caliper for about $50 or less and actually measure the group size.

A quarter, nickle, penny and dime really tells you nothing. Where the actual dimensions such as .500 or .375 will say a great deal.

Most people are not familiar with this type of calculation to start with so there should be absolutely no embarrassment factor here.
Should you not be able to use a dial caliper you can find this information on the internet or come back here and we will gladly help you with it. I for one would certainly be willing to assist you with that information. Just send a private message.

 

[littlepod]

Here's my group sizes at 100 yards with my factory T1X. Lot testing does help too. I tested 4 lots of C-X, and 2 of them averaged .9" and 2 of them averaged .7". SK+, had 4 lots all averaging around 1.1", and 1 lot averaging .85". Ended up buying a case of each of those lots.

 

[AGrizz]

I have viewed this in the past and a number of others and they are fantastic. Great Graphs.

I happen to be in love with Lapua Center X and SK Pistol Match Special for matches and SK Standard Plus for practice. I have a couple of cases of the Lapua loaded Wolf Match Extra that I run in K22 Kimbers.

 

[littlepod]

I have viewed this in the past and a number of others and they are fantastic. Great Graphs.

I happen to be in love with Lapua Center X and SK Pistol Match Special for matches and SK Standard Plus for practice. I have a couple of cases of the Lapua loaded Wolf Match Extra that I run in K22 Kimbers.

Yeh my safe only has 3 ammo in it now

7000 rounds of SK+, 3000 rounds of Pistol Match Special, and 2000 rounds of Center-X. 3 lot #'s total. I hope this will last me through the year...

 

[Booner1334]

From my experience, I will make a few suggestions.

1. I don't have a problem with using a bore snake at the range, but I prefer a one piece cleaning rod so I can run a patch down the barrel. And I always look at every patch that come out of my guns-every one. I don't know how many times I've noticed little tiny silver looking particles on my patches, which tells me my barrel has leaded, and a rimfire can lead up, especially when it's new. After the barrel has a few 1000 rounds through it, it can still lead, but it's a rare occurrence. When all of a sudden your tack driver goes bad, run a patch through it and look for lead on the patch. I also used a solvent solution on my wet patches that's half Hoppes #9 and half Kroil. They also have bore scopes now under $80 and I think that's a good investment.

2. I'm 67 years old, so I like a higher magnification on my scopes- even for 50 yard shooting. And I like small targets; it's sort of my version of "aim small miss small." I use a target backer made up of 1/4 inch grid paper, then put an "x" in one of the grids and shoot for the center of the x. I an also primarily a target shooter, so another reason for high magnification.

3. Get a chronograph. Since I was such a good boy this year, I purchased a Lab Radar and am still learning how to use it. What I have found out so far is that most of the reasons for my larger groups are due to the variations in velocity of the rounds. If nothing else, the chronograph has answered one the most asked questions in .22 rf shooting, "did I pull that shot or is it the ammo." It will also help you find that magic lot of ammo without shooting most of the brick. I have a RPR, a CZ455, and a Tikka T1. They all like SK Rifle Match, and I normally don't buy anything more expensive than that as I found that the more expensive stuff doesn't shrink my groups enough to justify the additional expense, but that may be something to do with my 67 year old eyes. They all like one particular lot number of Sk Rifle Match much better than other lots of the same because the standard deviation of that particular lot is less than 10fps when shot out of each of my rifles. The chronograph confirmed what my targets were telling me, so I got 3 bricks of that particular lot and put them aside. If I hadn't seen what the standard deviation was, I would have shot that brick up and when I got around to buying another, they would have been gone. And rest assured that the quality of ammo varies from lot to lo within each brand. The nice thing about the Tikka is that it shoots all ammo pretty good, and from your test you know which brands of ammo are worth investigating further. So narrow the search down to a few types, then look for the magic lot and buy as much of that as you can.

 

[meestermeetch]

Thanks for the flood of information!

I own calipers but don't know how to accurately measure the group size. The groups that are one hole are pretty easy, (dime) however there are others that are notably more difficult because of fliers or a very oblong shape (usually on the vertical axis showing MV variation). I end up measuring all the groups on both the X and Y axis and noting both down on the targets. Can you point me the the right direction for how to measure more effectively?

I will start testing lots. If most lots of XYZ shoot about the same I won't go overboard and will buy what is available in fairly large quantities. And know that the next time I need ammo to just start with that brand and variety.

 

[meestermeetch]

As for the Chrono, I know I need one. I am waiting to get my ARCA rail installed on the T1X so I can mount a magneto speed to the gun and not induce POI shift. However I wanted to get my ammo types narrowed down since chronoing every shot for 1200 shots would be a lot.

 

[Near miss]

You could use target papers and scoring app like TargetScan or just shoot anything and use Range Buddy.

Both will let you archive groups for evaluation.

 

[Rover31]

Lots of great suggestions and info here.

One thing I would add. Do your ammo test at 100yds/m.
For me I find it really shows the difference in the ammos. 50 just doesn’t show the errors as well.

 

[Kadams1563]

100 yards or more for sure in ammo testing. We are pushing rim fire farther then ever before and that’s what all the ammo testing is for. See how it groups farther out.

next chrono to see what ammo has the best numbers.

I shoot at a hundred then usually straight to 300 for steel to have fun.

 

[Robbi]

I have not been able to try it at more than 100 comes spring i will do some tests , very interesting info

 

[wonderdogroscoe]

I like your nickle, dime, quarter group sizing.

 

[TreeGuy201]

If I might add some thoughts from some exhaustive experimentation with a Savage Mark 2.

1) If your rifle is sensitive to the torque on the stock screws, which it probably is, then you should find this out before you blow through your ammo. I would suggest a Wheeler Fat Wrench for torquing your screws. I have ammo tested the Savage at least 3 major times, and multiple minor tests, and I found that I can make any ammo good or bad by changing torque of the stock screws. I wasted a lot of good ammo figuring this out. I figured out that Wolf, Eley, SK, RWS, CCI SV, Aguila SV, Fed Gold Medal, etc can all shoot really good or really bad. But with a pillar bedded action, free float barrel, shortened chamber, and 35 in-lb front and rear torque, I can average just over 1" at 100 yd with unsorted CCI SV with a flyer here and there. Sorted to .1 grains, the results are the same, but flyers are less common. Once there, I can shoot Eley Club, Eley Target, and Wolf at those same torques at get 1" or under with minimal flyers. The Eley Target and sorted CCI are almost identical. At 10-15 in-lb stock torque, the same ammo selection will give wildly different results. I know a guy shooting an Anschutz 54 that has seen the same thing with his torque settings. I have taken that knowledge over to shooting springer airguns, and my springers can compete with some PCPs shooting silohuette.
2) Batch testing. I can take one batch of CCI SV, optimize torque, then change to another batch, change torque slightly, and get virtually identical results.
3) Rest placement. This can seriously affect results on harmonically challenged rifles, like sporters. Rest it and hold it exactly the same.
4) Wind has major affect at 100. It can make a great ammo look like a dog.
5) I found Vibratite VC3 to be awesome stuff for keeping your screws from loosening.
6) I also found a correlation with COAL, just like in centerfire, but I have not had time to test much. For my Mark 2, the longer the COAL, the better. I shortened my chamber until CCI SV engages the lands.

Here are some targets I did with CCI SV at different torque settings. Just ignore the bulls before the line where it says "chamber cut". Each bull is a 10 shot group. Hope this saves you some time.

 

[Gee Kay]

If I might add some thoughts from some exhaustive experimentation with a Savage Mark 2.

have you had any experience with the b-series rifles?
i've found the savage b-series stocks to be an absolute POS.
stock comes bent from the factory (possibly made in someones backyard on a 3d printer) where i had to pull the fancy cover plate off the stock so the barrel was free floating.
cant even torque the action screws to what the manual states, not even close. if i torque to what savage recommends the action binds and i cant run the bolt.

wonder if there is anyone from savage on the hide?

 

[meestermeetch]

I guess I need a torque wrench. At its current level it shoots good with a number of ammos. It will be interesting to see if I can induce the same results.

 

[TreeGuy201]

have you had any experience with the b-series rifles?

I have not messed the B-series. The Mark 2 sporter in solid wood is nothing to write home about either as far as stock. The Mark 2 in laminate felt really good though when I shot it - solid.

if i torque to what savage recommends the action binds and i cant run the bolt.

I ran across that on a friends synthetic stock centerfire, FPV maybe. Bolt wouldn't close and stock wasn't torqued very much. Bedding would cure it though. I don't own a rifle that is still at factory condition using factory specs. I gave up the possibility of warranty repairs, but they all shoot now. Grind that bolt down, lol.

 

[TreeGuy201]

I guess I need a torque wrench. At its current level it shoots good with a number of ammos. It will be interesting to see if I can induce the same results.

Your rifle is shooter for sure. I don't think you have anything to fret over batch changes. Just tweak the torques from batch to batch and see if you can't get the new batch to cooperate. With the torques, mostly what you're doing is messing with the harmonics of the rifle to alter the barrel movement curve to find good spot. Going from Wolf to Aguila, that's a lot of variable changes. Going from Wolf lot A to lot B, is minimal variable changes. If someone gets noticeable group changes from lot to lot on the same quality ammo, that's a pretty good sign that rifle might need to be tuned up some. Basically, we're having to do with torque, what the hand-loaders are doing with load development.

This is from a break-barrel airgun I was torque testing at 20 yards. This rifle had been tuned pretty extensively - it was a dog when I got it. Notice how the POI AND the shape of group changes. That's pretty typical during torque testing. The groups move smoothly, but the direction of movement is largely unpredictable for any given variable. I've had 10gr pellets have a POI HIGHER than 7.4gr pellets. It's all about the harmonics. Have fun with it bro' and hope you get that Tikka shoot one hole.

EDIT: Those shots that are marked out with black X's weren't my flyers. They were from another shooter that chucked the targets and I reused them.

 

[R0man]

Is Tikka T1x barrel free floated?

 

[meestermeetch]

The Tikka is free floated now that it's in a KRG Bravo.

Those groups are impressive with am airgun.

I have gotten calipers and should have group sizes posted in the next day or two.

I got my last shipment of ammo to test yesterday and hope to shoot another few hundred rounds by the end of the week to verify what it likes then pick one top shelf ammo for matches and one mid tier for practicing.

I shot my first NRL match this weekend and was humbled, I don't think it the ammo helped. However the larger problem was having no idea what my wind holds would be. My geo ballistics was a bit aggressive in quoted holds. At least I know for next time.

 

[TreeGuy201]

I shot my first NRL match this weekend and was humbled

I did the same for 50yd benchrest (sporter class) at my club. You think you got it all ready to shoot 235, then you turn in 210 and feel you worked your butt off for that. That's what really got me looking at a bunch of stuff, and torques ended up helping me tremendously. Just wait until you get into figuring out what torque at what temperature. I was at a match one day and one of the guys asked me what I what doing, and told him I was setting the torques on my stock. He said, yeah I got mine set at 30 rear and 40 front (or something like that). Before the conversation ended, he had mentioned that "Joe" had his torques set at whatever it was. "Joe" is our best shooter and has a $6,000 setup. Even the big rigs have their pet torques. Funny they never mentioned it before that day

 

[meestermeetch]

Alrighty guys I have gotten the calipers out and done a bit more in depth measuring. My methodology was measure the widest points on the group regardless of what axis they where on and then subtract .222.

Below are all the ammos listed, in the order in which they where fired, followed by 4 or 5 numbers separated by a comma. The first number is the fouler group of ten rounds, the next three groups are each 10 round groups. If there is a number in ( ) then there was an obvious flier and the number within the ( ) discards it. Any place it says ROUND 2, I bore snaked the rifle and fired another 4 ten round groups only occurred in ammo with that came in 100 round boxes. I boresnaked the gun between each type of ammo as well. All groups where fired in fairly rapid succession.

American Eagle HV – .488, .56, .738 (.398), ROUND 2 .338, 498, .488, .488
Winchester Super Suppressed – .898, .898, 1.198 (.648), .648, ROUND 2 .838, 1.028, .678, .918
Remington Subsonic – .888, .298, .628, .818, ROUND 2 .598, .578, .448, .598
CCI Green Tag – .648, .768, .848,.568 (.338) ROUND 2 .538 (.278), .578 (.298), .758 (.288)
CCI Subsonic – .908 (.618) .598, .538, .518, ROUND 2 .318, .318, .428
CCI Clean Long Rifle – 1.136, .778, .748, .578 ROUND 2 .878 (.518), .778, .858, .498
CCI Pistol Match – .478, .828,.688 (.298), .718 ( .458)
CCI Quiet 22 – COMICALLY BAD 1.818, 2.98, 1.498, 2.028
CCI Standard Velocity – .458, .438, .658 (.358), .458
Aguila Super Estra – .658, .658, 1.498 (.538), 1.648 (.488)
Federal Gold Medal Target – .448, .448, .588, .358, .358 ROUND 2 .358, .268, .358, .518
Federal Hunter Match – .878, .478, .492, .508
Eley Club –.268, .468, .358, .298, .378
SK Flatnose Match – .568, .318,.428, .468,
SK Standard Plus – .498, .378, .378, .378, .48
SK Rifle Match – .488, .438, .338, .268,
SK Long Range Match – .798, .448, .658, .458, .448
SK Biathlon – . .568 (.338), .598 (.228), .438, .318, .618
Lapua Pistol King – .608, .308, .278, .328, .338
Lapua Pistol OSP – .628, .928, .728, 1.118,
Lapua CenterX – .538, .228, .378, .298,
Wolf – .168, .188, .308, .498, .258,

I need to do a bit more analysis on this, particularly average group size, and size to cost analysis.

The next testing I will be doing is with
Eley Club, Eley Target, Eley Sub Sonic Hollow, Eley Match Pistol, Eley Contact, RWS Rifle Match, RWS Target Rifle.

Ammos I will be testing additional lots of based on the performance above are:
SK Rifle Match, Lapua Center X (x2) Lapua Pistol King, Federal Target (x2) CCI Standard Velocity (x2)

That should get me through the next range day. After that I hope to have it dialed down to just a few types of ammo and do some final testing on those at 100. When I have the final ammo I want selected I will test it like crazy, including:

Freezing ammo to see how much POI and group size differs, I will do this with ammo freshly out of the freezer, ammo that is warming up after coming out of freezer, ammo that is ambient temp, and ammo that I have heated up further with hand warmers. (testing necessity of keeping ammo at a nice temp)

Testing how quickly ammo settles in to good groups when I mix in an additional group of something else. (testing the necessity of cleaning between lots/types or not)

Testing zero with dot torture at 50

Testing for height over bore

Testing for correct dope in 2 yard increments at a local indoor range where I can verify this.

If there is anything else you think I should test, verify dial in, let me know. I enjoy range time, and stats and limiting variables. I have just never gotten to do it where it was not expensive (ammo or barrel life) or difficult (other .22s older guns) or obvious like this is proving to be. As I learn more I will post more.

Then I when I go shoot I wont have any excuses, and I will know its me screwing up. And then when I go shooting I will do more positional practice and not so many groups. lol.

 

[AGrizz]

meestermeetch You have done some very extensive testing here and that is fantastic. Looking this over it appears that the Wolf is your go to with that rifle at this time.

Looking forward to your additional information.

 

[meestermeetch]

I had a few minutes and plugged everything into an excel file and did a bit of analysis. Again, listed are all the ammos in the order they were fired. The first number is the average group size, if there is a number in ( ) it excludes any obvious fliers, the next number is excluding the fouler group, which didn’t shrink the average much in most cases. ROUND 2 is the same deal for ammos that I had 100 rounds of, and total is an aggregation of both groups. At the end of this post there will be some of my take aways. If you have any please chime in.

American Eagle HV – .5953, .0649 ROUND 2 - .453, .491 TOTAL .514, .5544
Winchester Super Suppressed – .912, .914 ROUND 2 .865, .876 TOTAL .888, .894
Remington Subsonic - .656, .581 ROUND 2 .555, .541 TOTAL .605, .561
CCI Green Tag – .708, .728 ROUND 2 .624, .668 Total ? I realized I did the math wrong on a different computer.
CCI Subsonic – .604, .5513 ROUND 2 .354, .373 TOTAL .518, .48
CCI Clean Long Rifle – .81, .701, ROUND 2 .753, .711 TOTAL .7815, .706
CCI Pistol Match – .673, (.5155), .738 (.6XXX)
CCI Quiet 22 – COMICALLY BAD 2.081, 2.168
CCI Standard Velocity – .503, .518
Aguila Super Estra – 1.115, 1.268
Federal Gold Medal Target – .4605, .4646 ROUND 2 .3755, .3813, TOTAL .418, .437
Federal Hunter Match – .589, .492
Eley Club –.354, .374
SK Flatnose Match – .4455, .404
SK Standard Plus – .4224, .387
SK Rifle Match – .3955, .3646
SK Long Range Match – .562, .521
SK Biathlon – .508, (.388), .451 (.4005)
Lapua Pistol King – .372, .304
Lapua Pistol OSP – .8505, .9246
Lapua CenterX – .3605, .3013
Wolf – .269, .308

Here is what I see: my rifle likes a lot of the stuff that is “pistol”, it also likes most SK and Eley. My theory for NRL matches is 1 MOA is accurate enough. It doesn’t like Federal or CCI SV as much as I thought that it did relative to a few other offerings, however they will work in a pinch, lot testing with those will prove interesting.

Excluding the fliers only significantly positively impacts the SK biatholon, however since .22 fliers are more often the ammo than the shooter, I think that it a useless statistic. I know I didn’t throw those shots.

Excluding the fouler group only significantly helps the ammos that shot pretty well already, like SK and Lapua, it did help a few flavors of CCI but not enough to make me want to test them again. Because the barrel will be fouled whenever I am shooting a match this is also a probably useless statistic. I was surprised how often that exclusion opened up the group size, a lot of the CCI ammo had this occur, it must like a cleaner barrel.

Including more groups didn’t seem to significantly change things however the trend seemed to be shrinking the groups overtime, like the CCI Subs, I found this interesting. This finding may inspire me to test group size over 100 rounds not just 50 once I really settle in to a few ammo types

Stack Ranking Ammo Average Group Size (100 rounders using TOTAL number)
Wolf – .269,
Eley Club –.354,
Lapua CenterX – .3605,
Lapua Pistol King – .372, (SK BIATHOLON IF FLIERS EXCLUDED)
SK Rifle Match – .3955,
Federal Gold Medal Target – .4605, Round 2 .3755, TOTAL .418,
SK Standard Plus – .4224,
SK Flatnose Match – .4455,
CCI Standard Velocity – .503,
SK Biathlon – .508, (CCI PISTOL MATCH IF FLIERS EXCLUDED)
CCI Subsonic – .604, ROUND 2 .354, TOTAL .518,
American Eagle HV – .5953, ROUND 2 - .453, TOTAL .514,
SK Long Range Match – .562,
Federal Hunter Match – .589,
Remington Subsonic - .656, ROUND 2 .555 TOTAL .605,
CCI Pistol Match – .673, .
CCI Green Tag – .708, ROUND 2 .624, Total ?
CCI Clean Long Rifle – .81, ROUND 2 .753, TOTAL .7815,
Lapua Pistol OSP – .8505, .9246
Winchester Super Suppressed – .912, ROUND 2 .865, TOTAL .888,
Aguila Super Estra – 1.115,
CCI Quiet 22 – COMICALLY BAD 2.081,

Stack Ranking average group size ex foulers (100 rounders using TOTAL number)
Lapua CenterX – .3013
Lapua Pistol King – .304
Wolf –.308
SK Rifle Match – .3646
SK Standard Plus – .387
Eley Club –.374 (SK BIATHOLON IF FLIERS EXCLUDED)
SK Flatnose Match – .404
Federal Gold Medal Target – .4646 ROUND 2 .3813, TOTAL .437
SK Biathlon – .451
CCI Subsonic – .5513 ROUND 2 .373 TOTAL .48
Federal Hunter Match – .492
CCI Standard Velocity – ..518
SK Long Range Match – .521 - (CCI PISTOL MATCH IF FLIERS EXCLUDED)
American Eagle HV – .0649 ROUND 2 - .491 TOTAL .5544
Remington Subsonic - .581 ROUND 2 .541 TOTAL .561
CCI Clean Long Rifle – .701, ROUND 2 .711 TOTAL .706
CCI Green Tag – .728 ROUND 2 .668 Total ?
CCI Pistol Match – .738 (.6XXX)
Winchester Super Suppressed – ..914 ROUND 2 .876 TOTAL .894
Lapua Pistol OSP – .9246
Aguila Super Estra –1.268
CCI Quiet 22 – COMICALLY BAD 2.168

When stack ranking two ways there is movement as to which ammo is “best”, however each ammo stays fairly range bound, ie, most don’t move very far, or fall out of their current performance band.

Here is how they move around from foulers included to no foulers included. –X means it moved down in the stack ranking by that many positions, +X means it moved up the stack ranking. 0 means it did not move in the stack ranking.

Wolf -2 (to third)
Eley Club -4
Lapua CenterX, +2 (to top position)
Lapua Pistol King +2 (to second)
SK Rifle Match, +1 (to fourth)
Federal Gold Medal Target -2
SK Standard Plus +2 (moved from the sub .5 tier to the sub)
SK Flatnose Match +1
CCI Standard Velocity -3
SK Biathlon +1 (to the sub .6 tier)
CCI Subsonic +1
American Eagle HV -2
SK Long Range Match 0
Federal Hunter Match +3
Remington Subsonic 0 to the sub .7 tier
CCI Pistol Match -2
CCI Green Tag 0
CCI Clean Long Rifle +2
Lapua Pistol OSP -1
Winchester Super Suppressed +1
Aguila Super Estra 0
CCI Quiet 22 – COMICALLY BAD 0

 

[justin amateur]

A few comments from another OCD rimfire ammo tester.

When testing ammo, fail to fires and fliers count.
They point to problems with production line quality control.
Record that information, add it to the database.

Visually inspect each cartridge before chambering.
Note type and location of defects found.
Dents, dings, chips, scratches, damaged drive bands, bullet material compressed over the crimp onto the brass,
irregular brass dimensions, bullet length...
Add as a comment to the mv's and group dimensions.
Compare inspection comments to results for an interesting correlation.

Record atmospheric conditions for each box tested.
Correlate conditions to results.

I'm running out of rimfire brands to test, so I'll be watching your results and comparing to mine.

 

[meestermeetch]

I am prepped for my next range day, plan is to test out a few additional types of ammo at 50 yards (eley) and test a few different lots of ammo that has already proven to be a good shooter at 100. (Lapua CenterX, Pistol King, Federal, CCI SV and SK Rifle Match.).

My intend is to shoot those ammo types I have not yet tested at 50, then test with the lots of ammo I have already utilized at 100.

My hope is that whichever ammo's have shoot well at 50, (CenterX, Pistol King, SK Rifle match) will shoot well at 100 even with a lot change. I can prove which ammo/lot shoot well at 100 and then buy a bit larger quantities. I figure I won't see much difference in lot to lot at 50 yards, if I do that ammo is probably not something I want to be buying a large quantities of anyway. Please let me know if my thought process is off on this one.

if any of the Eley stuff appears to be really good I will start buying larger lots of each manufacturers best performance stuff ((Lapua, Eley, SK, Federal and CCI (only since I can buy them in person locally) (500+ rounds) )for some of the more idiosyncratic testing around temperature, how quick it settles in and so forth, then I can really pick what it likes. I never realized how therapeutic shooting groups would prove to be for someone who typically prefers field style shooting.

Price to performance I figured the best way to calculate it was price per round/group size. I will be putting this info in here shortly but had a few other things that I have been working on. again, if this is not the correct way to think about it please let me know before I do my basic math.

 

[Kisssofdeath]

Just wanted to chime in and say this is a good read. Thanks meestermeetch for taking the time to present all this information.