What ammo are you using for long range?

[MarkCZ]

I am trying most of the match ammo. Most all of them shoot great from 50 to 150 yds, but at 200 yds, I am seeing a lot of vertical. I have tried SK to Lapua top ammo, Eley target to Tennex, and wolf. What ammo are using? And how vertical do you see at 200?

Mark

 

[quickdraw]

If you want the short answer then it is any upper end ammo to 200y, SK Rifle match, Lapua Center X, Midas+, X-Act or Eley Tenex out to 200y depending on the rifle used. Out to 300y it narrows down to Midas+, X-Act and Tenex. Out to 400 and beyond it's only Tenex. This is all considering what is grouping and not stringing.

 

[justin amateur]

Which rimfire ammo?
All of them.
Seriously, my current hobby is 50 shots at 200 yards
across a chronograph with 22lr, 22wmr, 17hmr and 17 wsm.
Target results and chrony numbers recorded as a reference.
I plan to shoot all the flavors and types I can get my hands on.
It satisfies my OCD quite well. Very therapeutic.

It's an ongoing project, at least 4 months more to complete.
Ammo quality is everything at extended range.
Cartridge defects and mv variations produce serious spread
due to time of flight differences, gravity and aerodynamics.

Link to the results...50 shots at 200 yards

 

[MarkCZ]

Which rimfire ammo?
All of them.
Seriously, my current hobby is 50 shots at 200 yards
across a chronograph with 22lr, 22wmr, 17hmr and 17 wsm.
Target results and chrony numbers recorded as a reference.
I plan to shoot all the flavors and types I can get my hands on.
It satisfies my OCD quite well. Very therapeutic.

It's an ongoing project, at least 4 months more to complete.
Ammo quality is everything at extended range.
Cartridge defects and mv variations produce serious spread
due to time of flight differences, gravity and aerodynamics.

Link to the results...50 shots at 200 yards

Justin,
I have seen your post. It looks like Eley Tennex is the best, in your test.

Mark

 

[45cal4life]

Center-X

 

[Hoser]

Lot tested Eley TenX and Edge. At 200 yards, maybe 2 inch vertical on a bad day.

 

[justin amateur]

At 200 yards 1 fps difference between shots with match 22lr produces 1/10 inch of vertical difference in poi.
Here's 50 shots with SK Biathlon Sport, 37 fps ES, Vertical spread about 3.5 inches.
That's actually better than my results with Tenex.

The 50 at 200 works out quite nicely for when you need a comparison of ammo quality.
Chrony numbers, wind speed and direction, results on target for 50 shots with no cherry picking.
Hard to argue with that information when it's available as a reference.

 

[quickdraw]

I've been going through testing the higher end ammo lately as well. Shooting everything through a LabRadar. While I've found the various strings of Lapua Midas +, X-Act and Eley Tenex to have very similar ES and SD numbers through various strings I did see a noticeable difference on group sizes between the 3 types after the shots went out past 200y. By 300y and beyond Eley Tenex grouped much better. The other factor that is usually left out of the 22lr ammo testing is that there is a difference in the external ballistics of some manufacturers bullets.

Many use the same of very similar bullet designs and with most you really can't see any variation with the usual distances people are shooting. The reason that we are testing beyond 200 yards is that we are getting into ELR22. We are preparing for a new ELR22 match in Las Vegas the Saturday before SHOT 2019. By then we'll have a much broader base of ammo and rifles to compare.

 

[tansinator]

I shoot at 209 yards at my hunting camp every time I go. With Sk Standard I always have the same vertical of about 3.5 inches. Several shots may hit in exactly the same spot, but still 3.5 inches vertically over 10 shots or 30.

 

[justin amateur]

I wish I had your luck with rimfire ammo purchases.
My results with SK Standard Plus were a minus...

200 yards 11 inches of vertical
100 yards would see 3.6 inches
50 yards and 1.2 inches
25 yards 0.4 inches using the half-third rule.

 

[tansinator]

My Sk standard is probably 8 years old, seems to shoot better than the newer stuff.

 

[Rover31]

@justin amateur could you Please! do me a favor? Get a hold of some of the new Lapua Biathlon Extreme and do your test. I would love to see the results of that.
Then @quickdraw I would like to see the same. I am very curious about that bullets shape and the external ballistics of it.
Ok so I'm holding my breath now!

 

[justin amateur]

Wasn't even in stock yet at Champschoice last week.
However, it will end up being purchased.

 

[quickdraw]

I'd love to help you out there but I have finally decided what ammo I'm using and I'm so glad to finally get there. Now I have about 10,000 rounds of 6 different kinds of ammo to sell off. I'll probably keep 100 to 150 rounds of some of that stuff probably to give to friends for their testing. We all share.

 

[300ATT]

Here is a 200 yard Ammo test on a reasonably calm day. I held center and did not try to adjust for wind in the light puffs. The goal was to see how well each type of ammo would hold elevation. Eley Tenex held 5/8” elevation, Eley match held 1” elevation and Eley edge held 1.25”. Notice how the Federal Ammo fell apart at distance. I had high hopes as it shoots as good as the Tenex at 100 yards -1/2-3/4”. Moral of the story you have to test at 50,100, 200 and beyond.

Note once I was shooting the Tenex in the wind 10-18mph from behind) at 200 and the berms/gusts introduced 6” of vertical in the Tenex which I know is capable of much better precision. I learned a valuable lesson that day ...

 

[justin amateur]

5 shots is a start.
If you are going to test ammunition,
at least 50 is needed, 100 would be better.
Shoot the entire box to determine
what to expect from that type of ammo.
Competition with rimfire is usually 25 shots per target.
All it takes is a couple of bad cartridges to lose a match.

 

[300ATT]

Ammo requirements will vary based on the type of competition. For “tactical” matches on steel sometimes you get 2 shots on target sometimes just one, never 25 - different game.

But for testing out Ammo 5 shots is a start and as Justin amateur states 50 is better and beware the lot to lot differences

 

[Hookturnr]

I shoot practical rimfire challenge 30 to 300 yds on steel. A bunch of us have found eley force to perform equally or better than tenex from 200 to 405. At half the price of tenex and typical target sizes of 2moa, Eley Force wins for us.

Now don't buy it up...I'm looking for a new lot?

 

[Jettheterror]