It doesn't matter how good any ammo Is , if the rifle doesn't like it. That's the reason we work up loads to find the ammo that "IT" likes. If the rifle likes any load, at some point if you keep looking, you may/will always find something that the rifle likes better.
I learned this on my 7/08 factory ammo struggled to produce 1/2 moa results. After working up different loads I reduced the MOA from a .500 average to a .072 thousandths 5 shot group and it would consistently stay under .100 thousandths if I was on my game. (Can't blame the rifle or the ammo If I don't do my part).
Obviously, I was very happy with it's performance and stuck with this load for 4 or 5 years. Having very little ability to leave well enough alone, I thought I would change one thing based on experiences with different primers and switched primers only in the load. it reduced the first group size so I continued shooting groups with this ammo to get an average.
The best 5 shot group ended up being .053 and the worst was .081 (Better than some of the old faithful load accuracy). This was an improvement of .019 thousandths in accuracy. I know this doesn't sound like much of an improvement but Percentage wise it is huge especially at 600 to 1000 yards. Bench rest guys measure accuracy improvements by one or two thousandths, not moa.
The point I am trying to make is that if the ammo is the best for your rifle, It doesn't matter if it is factory or hand loaded, but how are you going to find this out if you don't try some hand loads along with some factory loads.
If I could find a factory load that could beat the best hand load I had for the rifle, I would stop re loading for it and switch to the factory loading but so far factory ammo has just not done that and by a margin that is to great for me to except. 1/2 moa Is very good accuracy for most, but 1/10th moa is better in my opinion and if it can be achieved worth the trouble.
I raised 3 kids, and loaded the entire time they lived at home and at a much greater savings then but always took time to hand load after everything settled down. (It was my quiet time) and looked forward to the results and the time.
I am happy that the ammo makers are taking the time to do a better job, and this helps those that don't re load. But whatever anyone's belief is the undeniable truth is that a round Tailored for an
individual rifle will always be more accurate. and to some that is important and the main reason they re load
J E CUSTOM