Ammo test day

This past Sunday, Jim and I had a rather successful ammo testing day. The last time we shot rifles at 100 yds we both had very poor results. The groupings from before were unpredictably bad. My AR15 was shooting 4″ groupings and Jim’s Savage .22lr was shooting anywhere from 5″ to not being able to reliably hit the target. That outing was a bit upsetting. From there we decided that we needed to do a more controlled experiment.

This weekend we took some 100 yd sight-in targets, a chronograph, and a measuring string and set up a bench-rest test. It turned out that the portable table that we used wasn’t exactly stable, but it did give fairly good results.  I tested 3 different cartridges, and Jim tested a few as well (I’ll have to have him post his as well).

The gun I used for these tests is a S&W M&P15 with a 1:9 twist (all stock). The optic I used is a handle-mounted 3-9×20 scope, which was sighted in as best I could for the UMC ammunition… but you’ll see why I say “as best I could”. The cartridges I tested are listed below:

Remington .223 UMC

Rem .223 UMC

The first cartridge that I tested is also the cheapest ammunition I could find in a store. I got a case of 200 at Bass Pro for $90 in January. I think it goes for about $12/box now.  On inspection you can see that it is crimped in, metal cased (MC), and has a ball nose.

Obviously it is a mass-produced, low quality cartridge, but I thought it should at least shoot a 2″ group at 100 yds. I thought wrong. On the bench this past weekend, it again shot a 4″ group.

The average muzzle velocity was around 2950 FPS but had swings of 100 fps. That equates to about 3% deviation in powder charge. I have an extremely low sample, so this is by no means scientific, but it’s enough for me. Here’s the target:

Rem .223 UMC

As you can see, this is far from a star performance. Though I will say it’s reliable, and perfectly fine for ‘plinking’ at anything less than 50 yds.

This is not exactly what I want to know. I want better. I want something that is better than I am. So on to the next cartridge!

Winchester Supreme Ballistic Silvertip .223 REM

WIN Ballistic Silvertip

This was bought on a whim 10 minutes before we left the Commons on the way to shoot. We stopped in Bass Pro to see if there was any other .22lr that Jim would be interested in. At $25/box it is more than twice the cost of the UMC, but look how pretty it is!

This is also a 55 GR bullet but it is not crimped into the case like the UMC is. The box says that the tip is made of a polycarbonate, which in my research is better because it shifts the CG of the bullet toward the tail. It is also boat-tailed, which also aids in stability at supersonic speeds.

This was actually the last cartridge, but I wanted to put them in order from worst to best. This late in the day the chronograph stopped working all together, so I don’t have muzzle velocities for this, but I did shoot 10 rnds into the same target instead of 5. This grouping was much more satisfactory:

WIN Ballistic Silvertip .223

Except for the flier, that is about a 1.5″ group. That’s getting much closer to the ammo being better than I am. At this point I am satisfied that my gun can shoot much better than this, but since this was later and the gun was a bit on the warm side, I will consider that this cartridge might shoot a hair better than this in a clean, cold gun. Still, 1.5″ group is pretty tight for 100 yds.

But I can do better. As I will show:

Federal Preium Gold Medal

Federal Gold Medal .223

At $33/box I almost passed on getting it, but I had to know. What does $1.65 per cartridge get you? Well I won’t spoil it yet. First let’s look at it in all it’s beauty.

These are not just any bullets. They are Sierra MatchKing 69 GR bullets loaded into brass casings, and secured with what appears to be a hardened resin of some kind. The application of the resin is probably the only thing I didn’t like when I inspected it, but it obviously had little to do with the accuracy.

The biggest difference between these bullets and the previous two is the weight. My AR15 has a 1 in 9 twist, which is much more suited to bullets in the 60-75 GR range. It is slightly fast for the 55 GR, although the Silvertips performed just fine. I definitely would never go lighter than 55 GR though.

If you own an AR15 and have done any research on bullets, you will find that Sierra MatchKing is the bullet to buy. It is a hollow-point, boat-tail bullet and seems to have found a perfect geometry for supersonic stability. The weight also happens to be in the sweet spot for my twist. The chronograph indicated an average velocity of 2582 fps with a deviation of about 10 fps. That is an amazing 0.4% deviation. Talk about consistency!  So without further delay:

Federal Gold Medal .223

That, my friends, is a 1″ group, even with the flier. This is where I know the bullet is better than me. You can actually see how wobbly the table we were using is in this group. The table was a rock vertical, but it was hard to keep it stable left to right, hence the horizontal line of shots. I will be shooting this again from the prone position next outing. I’m betting I can put 5 shots in a dime at 100 yds with this cartridge. Simply amazing.

Obviously the result of this test is, you get what you pay for. At about $0.50 per round, the UMC is just for casual plinking and high volume shooting. Moving up and just over a dollar per shot, the Silvertip is very good for varmint hunting, since you can shoot at a squirrel at 100 yds and expect to hit it. Topping the list at a wallet-busting $1.65 per shot, the MatchKing toting Federal Gold is what you want for serious competition. I am looking forward to testing my own skill on our next rifle outing. Can I really shoot a sub .5″ group at 100 yds on a stock barrel M&P15? I’m thinking yes, but we’ll just have to see.