Most consistent Factory ammunition

I have had bad factory ammo from Winchester (shoulders not sized properly - would not chamber, 11 out of 20 rounds), Nosler factory ammo in 308 (same as Winchester, 4 rounds, shoulder not sized right failed to chamber). Remington Core-Lokt (before Remington went bankrupt) had two different lots blow the primers out the back of the case, other rounds in the same box had burn marks around the primer after firing. When I called Remington to complain - They knew these were bad lots by the lot #s, but there was no recall. Remington replaced the bolt on my R700 rifle due to damage to the bolt face caused by the one round that exploded the primer out the back end. I got powder burns on my face from that one - Luckily I was wearing safety glasses. A hunting buddy of mine had a Winchester silver-tip factory found that misfired when he shot at a deer: The round went poof and the bullet dribbled out the end of the barrel and fell to ground. Made enough noise to scare the deer away. Moral of the story - Always test chamber ALL rounds in the box on factory ammo. before you go hunting to see if the bolt closes properly. Test fire some to make sure no issues. Accuracy - The belted magnums are typically the hardest ones to find accurate factory ammo. For the 308 use case - Lots of choices. I would agree with Norma - Brass and ammo. are much better quality.

Federal premium or Berger

StoneCold said:

I'm not trying to open a can of worms here. A quick google / youtube search will show multiple people expressing the same thing about Hornady's wild velocity spreads, different primers in the same box, different powders in the cases of the same box etc. Hornady is also the 7mmPRC downloader remember....didn't change the box number, didn't tell anyone until called on it etc. I love Hornady bullets generally. I can't say I'm in love with the way they are handling their business lately though.

Mine had different primers and velocity spread of 125 fps in the same box, same day, same rifle, Hornady 147 Eld-m "Match" 6.5 creedmoor. That same day...140 eld-m "match" had a velocity spread of 75 fps in the same rifle. Magnetto speed chrono.

I just purchased an athlon chrono so I can get a greater sample size of velocities.

There are several brands mentioned multiple times here now. From looking into Norma they may actually get close to the box's stated velocities as well. I don't really care that much what the average velocity actually is, as long as it is reasonably consistent and meets my minimum velocity at the ranges I want to shoot at in my conditions.

Looks like 400 and under for me this year - maybe less. I'm good with that.

Thanks for all the replies!

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I also recently purchased an Athlon chronograph.
It was enlightening. Had some 30 year old Federal Hi Shock 270 Win ammo averaging 3070 fps.
New case of Power Shock ammo is averaging 2080 fps. Same ammo in a different wrapper. Same 24 inch barrel.

FEENIX said:

Winchester Deer Season XP in 6.5 CM and .308 Win.

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I highly recommend NEVER using it on elk. Ask me how I know.

Barnes TSX, or preferably, TTSX.

PaulTDC said:

I highly recommend NEVER using it on elk. Ask me how I know.

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Too late, a friend already harvested a cow elk last year with his .308 Win with a 150. He broke the front shoulders and was DRT at ~150Y. So, no, I do not want to know how you know. Neither one is a choice for elk for me, I have plenty of more suited cartridge for elk.

When I got my Win. mdl 70 7rm 40 years ago, I found that Federal premiums with 160 grn. Nosler partitions were the most accurate that I tryed. That combination has never failed to kill any elk or deer that I shot with it. I have never chronographed it. My main elk rifle these days shoots 325 wsm. I use Fed. Premium 200 grn.partitions in it.

Bondstrike for my 6.5 CM and my 7mm-08 as well. Has shot very consistently for me.

Hornady is consistently bad in all my rifles with one exception. The 22ARC with the 88ELDMs. My two go-to for factory ammo has been Federal Premium in either a Trophy Bonded Tipped or a Nosler Partition. I have not tried the Terminal Ascent yet. The other option is Norma Bondstrike or Whitetail. I do not know if any will be good for 500yds though.

When my GS friend bought my GS business, he supplied several boxes of 7PRC and his rifle to test for him, as he was swamped with my leftover work and his new clients work.
At first, I just started seeing how they grouped, no chrono results or anything, until I tried shooting at 300, which is what I always do.
The Hornady Precision Hunter 175g had 5 shots that ranged from about 4" low of aim to 12" low of aiming point. I was perplexed. Random pieces out of several boxes showed the same thing. Pulled some bullets to discover that in the same box, there was 2 completely different powders being used, and one was a ball powder, the other a stick powder. Never seen that before.
When informed, Graham told me to shelve everything, rifle, ammo and results. He would work out something. At that time, 7PRC was so new, no one else was loading ammo, and load data was scarce.

Cheers.

FEENIX said:

Too late, a friend already harvested a cow elk last year with his .308 Win with a 150. He broke the front shoulders and was DRT at ~150Y. So, no, I do not want to know how you know. Neither one is a choice for elk for me, I have plenty of more suited cartridge for elk.

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I've been complaining for years about Hornady ammo and my complaints seemed to fall on deaf ears. I'm glad to finally be seeing more people complain about it. I was beginning to think I was somehow not testing it properly or that it was the rifles somehow although they seemed to fire other ammo and my handloads quite well.

I've never been a Hornady fan and the few times I had their equipment fail I had to threaten to take my complaints to the forums to get them to honor their warranties.

Nope... Not a Hornady fan and never have been. The only Hornady bullets I've ever handloaded with were their legendary V-Max line and I liked them but some of my varmint hunting buddies kept telling me that Nosler Ballistic Tips were more accurate and I finally checked and in my varmint rifles they were marginally more accurate but the V-Max bullets seem to be a bit more explosive.

I do not think there is one factory ammo manufacturer that will satisfy all. I have yet to have a factory ammo bad enough to complain or badmouth them. But that's just me. That's why I reload, and I only have myself to blame if it does not work out.

I still like the Federal Blue box in my 150 gr 308. But I like my loads in the 9.3 X 62. I use 286 gr RN Bulk from Midway.Not many animals could walk away from a properly placed 9.3. They are PRVI bullets. Nothing special but they work like the 150 gr Blue box Federals in the 308. I have other calibers. Playing at loading some 404 Jeff but it is more a toy as I have no plan to go to Africa. Call me racist but I worked in the MO prison system for 24 years and I have had enough. If that offends you, sorry. Be Well Brothers, Packy.