precision firearms ammo

[Piggly Wiggly]

I have a 20" HB Howa I purchased this spring that I stocked in a Boyds laminate stock topped with a Leupold vx3 6.5x20x40mm scope and I have only shot factory ammo primarily Hornady. The most accurate is the 123Amax that they have discontinued. I get decent groups with the Hornady Black but the SST's are terrible. The Amax Match load Hornady discontinued shoots one ragged hole at100yds and I am interested in trying some of the Precision Firearms loads but they are much price'er than other factory offerings and I am curious if anyone has tried any of the Precision Firearms offerings. They list a wide variety of bullet brand and grain weight. I like the Barnes bullets for hunting but I will primarily continue to punch paper with this rifle. I am obsessed with accuracy and enjoy shooting groups at 100,200,and300yds but I would enjoy taking it deer hunting this fall. I would like to think that there may be a compromise in that they offer a combination that is accurate for bench rest and is suitable for hunting as well. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[Drillboss]

How terrible are your SST groups?

I showed my neighbor a group of targets last year where I was shooting various powders under the Hornady 123 gr SST's. The groups varied from 0.625" to 1.25". His comment was, "Those will all kill a deer".

That comment gave me a different perspective on my load development efforts.

[grayfox]

I'm getting similar (not great) results with hornady factory sst's, 2" or larger at 100 yds. This especially notable b/c my AR does 0.75 or better. I did some chronos of the bolt action to compare with my AR, and first of all, the AR is a FAST barrel but a good one at 18", 2508 or so.
The Howa - still under 100 rds fired - shoots about the same 2505 but it's 2" longer (20") so it's off-node I think. To match the AR I need to load sst's 0.3-0.4 gr heavier of powder (I have a handload for the AR that mimics the factory load). So I think its sweet spot is a bit different than my AR; not a problem just an adjustment.
May be the same issue with the Black.

[acourvil]

When I got my first Grendel a few years back, I tried a bunch of different Prcision Firearms loads and got uniformly very good results; IIRC, both the AMAX and SST were easily sub-MOA. I also used their loads as data for my first reloading for the Grendel.

I still have a bunch of Precision Firearms ammo in my safe, but mostly use my owns loads now. If you do your own reloading, the Precision Firearms stuff is actually a very good value, as it is done with Lapua brass, which is one of the best for reloading.

[LRRPF52]

The Precision Firearms ammo I have shot includes:

123gr Scenar Moly (super low SDs and excellent accuracy from my original 16" Grendel)
123gr SMKs (bughole groupers from Bartlein 20" barrels, like 8rds into a tiny ragged hole)
120gr Scenar-Ls (very accurate from my Lilja, light-recoiling and 2511fps average speed from 17.6" barrel)
123gr Nosler Custom Competition (great target ammo again)

I'm still using the brass from all the PF ammo I shot since it's Lapua, even dating back to 2010 brass from the original box of 123gr Scenar I had. I have at least 4 boxes still of 123gr SMK, 123gr Scenar, and 120gr Scenar-L on my ammo shelves.

It's actually one of the most economical deals on the market currently whether you hand load or not. Go look in the EE and see how long 1x Lapua brass lasts. Might as well be a precious metal. I hold onto mine and get seemingly endless reloads on it.

From what I've seen of the PF ammo over the years, I can recommend it very favorably.