One brand of ammo for scoped rifles?

[Subotai]

I heard that there is enough variation in one box of ammo, that trying to stick with one brand is pretty useless. I'm not talking precision shooting, I'm talking minute of cantalope at, say, 300 yds. What do you think? Buy pretty much any brand? Or try to stick with one?

[MongooseV8]

Buy a bunch of the same ammo and same lot number. Thats the best you can do with factory ammo. But most modern rifles can easily hit a melon at 300 yards. If you are switching back and forth between different factory loads then you could easily miss your next shot though.

[FourT6and2]

I heard that there is enough variation in one box of ammo, that trying to stick with one brand is pretty useless. I'm not talking precision shooting, I'm talking minute of cantalope at, say, 300 yds. What do you think? Buy pretty much any brand? Or try to stick with one?

Depends on the brand and ammo. I shoot 100% factory Hornady 140gr ELDM 6.5 Creedmoor ammo at $23/box. And it has been fantastically consistent WITHIN THE SAME LOT. From box to box within the same lot, it shoots great. Change to a new lot and I have to re-zero. And I do precision shooting. 1,000 yards. Sometimes farther. No problems hitting a 66% IPSC target at 1,000 on the first shot.

[NorCalFocus]

I heard that there is enough variation in one box of ammo, that trying to stick with one brand is pretty useless. I'm not talking precision shooting, I'm talking minute of cantalope at, say, 300 yds. What do you think? Buy pretty much any brand? Or try to stick with one?

You heard wrong.

Switching factory ammo, means different bullets, powder, primers, and even brass. If you were reloading you wouldn't change all of those at one time and expect the same results.

One factory ammo in your gun may shoot minute of melon at 300 yards, but try another and it can be minute of VW.

[Wren1911]

Buy a few boxes of different ammo.Try them out and figure out which your rifle likes.Then stick with one.

[JackEllis]

Accuracy isn't the only reason to try out different types of ammo. My .223 and .243 are made by Tikka. The .243 won't chamber cheap, brass cased ammo made by PPU. The .223 won't chamber Aguila's cheap, brass cased ammo. A friend's Kimber in .30-06 wouldn't set off primers on Remington Core-Lokts that I've NEVER had trouble with on my Winchester.

[Subotai]

I had bought some American Eagle 308 because "according to ballistics" I've read, they have close trajectories to my Core-Lokts. Maybe my logic here is faulty and it doesn't matter that much for a non-precision guy.

I'm wondering if I should buy some bulk 7.62x51 before 1-1-18 or stick with AE.

[baih777]

You should try different weight ammo also. Find what shoots out of your rifle with the smallest grouping.
147 gr, 150 gr, 168gr, 175gr.

[Subotai]

Maybe my question should be:

Can I shoot any brand 308 ammo at 300 yards and hit a cantalope every time without having to zero in again? Meaning, for any given ammo, could the difference in POI be >8" @ 300 yds.

[russ69]

Maybe my question should be:

Can I shoot any brand 308 ammo at 300 yards and hit a cantalope every time without having to zero in again? Meaning, for any given ammo, could the difference in POI be >8" @ 300 yds.

Yes it can.

[Subotai]

Yes it can.

Dang. I was hoping I could do like with an AR, shoot any 5.56 cause I only care about minute of man.

[NapalmCheese]

Dang. I was hoping I could do like with an AR, shoot any 5.56 cause I only care about minute of man.

Well, people are bigger than cantaloupes.

[Subotai]

Well, people are bigger than cantaloupes.

Well, if you're insinuating head shots, I don't know what you're talking about.

[JackEllis]

Can I shoot any brand 308 ammo at 300 yards and hit a cantalope every time without having to zero in again? Meaning, for any given ammo, could the difference in POI be >8" @ 300 yds

Yes. In fact, I shoot three different types of factory ammunition in my .30-06 and the POIs are within an inch or two. I've had similar results with different types of rimfire ammo.

Generally speaking, though, you want to check the zero if the bullet weight or type changes from the same manufacturer, or if you use a different manufacturer's ammo.

[Subotai]

Yeah, having a hard time stocking up on 308. Thought I might be able to just pick up a bunch of cheap milspec and increase my round count.