flatlander
New member
I'm pretty new to fitting/chambering 22RF bbls - have done only five to this point, and they were all for bolt repeaters, not single shot BR rigs. They include 3 Kriegers, one Benchmark 3-groove & one Lilja titebore. Actions included Stiller 2500XR, Rem 40X & 40XB (old rifles sold by CMP), and most recently, a Vudoo Gun Works V-22. These rifles are all used in practical/tactical-style matches, where there's a fair amount of movement, mixed positions, and targets from 25 to 225yds (so far...).
I think the accuracy requirements here are much more relaxed than for 22RF BR shooting, but we all still want all the accuracy our custom actions & bbls can produce, within reasonable cost. So I naturally gravitated towards mid-price range ammo, like SK Rifle and Pistol Match, though I've also bought some more expensive stuff like Lapua Center-X & Polar Biathlon. In dealing with a couple of wholesale distributors (I'm a ffl), I've found that once I was able to explain why I wanted to buy only a couple of boxes of each lot# that they had in quantity, they were cooperative. I tried a dozen lots of Rifle Match before finding one that I felt good enough about to buy in quantity - they had two cases of it, so I bought both of them. Had heard a lot about how well SK Pistol Match shoots, so bought samples of 6 lots - the most impressive thing about it to me was that four of the six lots shot really well out of three different rifles (Krieger, Benchmark, & Lilja bbls). So is this coincidence, or is Pistol Match really that much more consistent than Rifle Match? There wasn't a whole lot more consistency over the chronograph, though I was chronographing only the good lots that I'd picked & purchased in quantity. Center-X had the lowest ES of any of the grades I shot, including Polar Biathlon, which costs twice what Rifle or Pistol Match runs. I've shot some 20rd groups at 200yds with all these grades & brands, and while one excellent lot of Polar Biathlon that a friend gave me was superior to all else, results with another couple of lots of it were not as good as either Rifle or Pistol Match.
The downside to all this is that even the distributor who helped me test & pick lot#s of Rifle & Pistol Match ammo was reluctant to do anything of the sort when it came to the Lapua Polar Biathlon. The salesperson I spoke with told me that organizations & individuals were buying full cases of the stuff as fast as they could get it in stock, so why should he bother to break into full cases to sell someone a couple of boxes? Either that's pure BS, or there are some folks out there with much deeper pockets than I have... Or is that attitude a result of Capstone Precision being in charge of Lapua/SK distribution? Or, are wholesalers tired of being stuck with quantities of the lots that don't test as well as the good lots? Whatever, I don't currently have any intention of buying ammo in quantity w/o testing samples of several lot#s in my rifles - in my not so experienced experience, there's far too much variation in accuracy from lot-to-lot, whether it's the mid-range priced stuff, or the ammo that's $15 & up per box.
I think the accuracy requirements here are much more relaxed than for 22RF BR shooting, but we all still want all the accuracy our custom actions & bbls can produce, within reasonable cost. So I naturally gravitated towards mid-price range ammo, like SK Rifle and Pistol Match, though I've also bought some more expensive stuff like Lapua Center-X & Polar Biathlon. In dealing with a couple of wholesale distributors (I'm a ffl), I've found that once I was able to explain why I wanted to buy only a couple of boxes of each lot# that they had in quantity, they were cooperative. I tried a dozen lots of Rifle Match before finding one that I felt good enough about to buy in quantity - they had two cases of it, so I bought both of them. Had heard a lot about how well SK Pistol Match shoots, so bought samples of 6 lots - the most impressive thing about it to me was that four of the six lots shot really well out of three different rifles (Krieger, Benchmark, & Lilja bbls). So is this coincidence, or is Pistol Match really that much more consistent than Rifle Match? There wasn't a whole lot more consistency over the chronograph, though I was chronographing only the good lots that I'd picked & purchased in quantity. Center-X had the lowest ES of any of the grades I shot, including Polar Biathlon, which costs twice what Rifle or Pistol Match runs. I've shot some 20rd groups at 200yds with all these grades & brands, and while one excellent lot of Polar Biathlon that a friend gave me was superior to all else, results with another couple of lots of it were not as good as either Rifle or Pistol Match.
The downside to all this is that even the distributor who helped me test & pick lot#s of Rifle & Pistol Match ammo was reluctant to do anything of the sort when it came to the Lapua Polar Biathlon. The salesperson I spoke with told me that organizations & individuals were buying full cases of the stuff as fast as they could get it in stock, so why should he bother to break into full cases to sell someone a couple of boxes? Either that's pure BS, or there are some folks out there with much deeper pockets than I have... Or is that attitude a result of Capstone Precision being in charge of Lapua/SK distribution? Or, are wholesalers tired of being stuck with quantities of the lots that don't test as well as the good lots? Whatever, I don't currently have any intention of buying ammo in quantity w/o testing samples of several lot#s in my rifles - in my not so experienced experience, there's far too much variation in accuracy from lot-to-lot, whether it's the mid-range priced stuff, or the ammo that's $15 & up per box.