Factory Fodder?

finnbear270

Well-Known Member
OK, Who has found that factory stuff is the dog's danglers in their rifle/s ? Tikka T3 Lite .25-06, shoots Sako 117 grain stuff one hole, (5p coin) 105 yards.:eek:
 
There is always some factory ammo that works super fine in your rifle. I've said it before but I'll say it again: In my the opinion most factory ammo is extremely good considering it must work in all manners of weapons in that chambering and deliver reasonable accuracy. After years of tailoring each load to each rifle, I have finally caught on to the notion that if I duplicate match grade factory ammunition, I can cut my reloading by quite a bit. Instead of having a different load for my four 308's, I now have two: a 165 grain hunting load, and a 168 grain target load. Both loads are sub MOA in all of these rifles, -and a few that aren't mine. I can use the ammunition interchangeably in all of them. They are Small Base Full Length resized, the cases prepped to an exactitude**, charged, a bullet seated to recommended OAL, and crimped. They function well and safely and deliver very good accuracy. Other than the two 308's owned by others that I alluded to above, I load for only one other person. He has a 280 Remington that is his elk and deer rifle. I recently fixed the bedding on this rifle but other than running a rod down the barrel, I ignored the chamber completely. This week the guy asked if i would load some 150grain Game kings for him. He supplied some Norma brass for the project. I FL resized the brass to uniform it, wasted some time trying to uniform the already uniform primer pockets, and loaded his GK's to recommended OAL over a good charge of IMR 4831. I finished by crimping and delivered the rounds on Thursday. Yesterday he brought me a five shot, 100 yard group shot over his pickup truck using his saddle for a rest: About .6 MOA CTC with three in one hole. Accurate handloads do not require all the voodoo some people seem to think is necessary.~Muir

** cleaned, trimmed to the same length, primer pockets uniformed, burrs removed from the flashholes.
 
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South African .303 PMP. Best factory .303 ammunition I ever used. Unlike the rubbish Greek HXP. 'Cos those that say that HXP was "qwality" clearly never shot PMP!
 
South African .303 PMP. Best factory .303 ammunition I ever used. Unlike the rubbish Greek HXP. 'Cos those that say that HXP was "qwality" clearly never shot PMP!

PMP is great ammo. I remember firing a 2.5" 3 shot group with their .308 150gr SP ammo in our Israeli rebarreled Czech 98K Carbine (open sights that hadn't been adjusted since my dad bought it in '84). The barrel is rather rough looking! I took my first deer (fallow buck) with it some weeks later with a neck shot at 70m or so.
 
South African .303 PMP. Best factory .303 ammunition I ever used. Unlike the rubbish Greek HXP. 'Cos those that say that HXP was "qwality" clearly never shot PMP!

HXP69 shot very well in my 303's but HXP89 was no where near as good. The only PMP 303 I came across was a cuple of boxes of 150 Grain Soft Point but this was before the expanding ammunition farce.
 
There is always some factory ammo that works super fine in your rifle. I've said it before but I'll say it again: In my the opinion most factory ammo is extremely good considering it must work in all manners of weapons in that chambering and deliver reasonable accuracy. After years of tailoring each load to each rifle, I have finally caught on to the notion that if I duplicate match grade factory ammunition, I can cut my reloading by quite a bit. Instead of having a different load for my four 308's, I now have two: a 165 grain hunting load, and a 168 grain target load. Both loads are sub MOA in all of these rifles, -and a few that aren't mine. I can use the ammunition interchangeably in all of them. They are Small Base Full Length resized, the cases prepped to an exactitude**, charged, a bullet seated to recommended OAL, and crimped. They function well and safely and deliver very good accuracy. Other than the two 308's owned by others that I alluded to above, I load for only one other person. He has a 280 Remington that is his elk and deer rifle. I recently fixed the bedding on this rifle but other than running a rod down the barrel, I ignored the chamber completely. This week the guy asked if i would load some 150grain Game kings for him. He supplied some Norma brass for the project. I FL resized the brass to uniform it, wasted some time trying to uniform the already uniform primer pockets, and loaded his GK's to recommended OAL over a good charge of IMR 4831. I finished by crimping and delivered the rounds on Thursday. Yesterday he brought me a five shot, 100 yard group shot over his pickup truck using his saddle for a rest: About .6 MOA CTC with three in one hole. Accurate handloads do not require all the voodoo some people seem to think is necessary.~Muir

** cleaned, trimmed to the same length, primer pockets uniformed, burrs removed from the flashholes.

do you work up a load to test to pressure signs or just go with the book load that shows the velocity equivalent to factory load you are trying to replicate.?
 
do you work up a load to test to pressure signs or just go with the book load that shows the velocity equivalent to factory load you are trying to replicate.?
When I say I load to replicate the best factory ammo, I mean in interchangeability and reliability. I try to do this to match standards.
I load to the speeds I can use. I choose powder carefully to provide those speeds at reasonable pressures. I often do better than factory with the same bullet weights.~Muir
 
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