Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire What ammo is best in your rifle; loads or factory ?

I hear ever so often that factory ammo is hard to beat but I have shot nothing but handloads for so long that I can say that I don't have any idea of how good factory stuff is.

What has been your experience?

i roll my own better accuracy

I've found Winchester Supreme 130 grain Ballistic Tips to be every bit as accurate as my best 130 grain BT handloads in several rifles. I can still load them for less money, but not much less.

My experience tells me my handloads shoot groups 60 to under 40% of what factory loads have done in my guns.

I bought my first box of factory ammo in many years this year,remington 243 100 gr corelokt.Shot 10 rounds , averaged about an 1 1/4" for 3 3 shot groups.I would expect to do better with handloads.

Depends on the rifle.. I think I've only had one rifle that liked all factory ammo that I fed it, but lots of rifles that liked one factory load.

Can be a lot more expensive to try a large variety of factory loads, lot cheaper to roll your own.


The one rifle I had that liked anything was a 1996 mfr'd Mauser 96 in 270.

I have never owned a rifle of Contender that shot factory stuff anyway bear as well as my handloads.

Depends on the rifle.

I have a Dakota 7mm Remmy that will only shoot Federal 160 TSX's. Shoots a three-round one hole group at 100 yards. The best I've done with anything else in it is about 1 1/2", and I have tried myriad factory and handloaded combinations.

OTOH, a Mod 70 375 shoots factory Remington 300 grain A Frames to 1", as it does hand loaded 300 A Frames and Hornady Interlocks.

My A Bolt 7mm Rem will not shoot TSX's any tighter that two inches, yet shoots the now-discontinued Remington 160 A Frame and Federal 140 TBBC to less than an inch. There seem to be no hard and fast rules. Just gotta find the load a rifle handles best and stick with it. That can be quite expensive.

for the short ranges I hunt, extreme accuracy has never been a requirement.
I hand load for my .44 mag rifle, my .30-30s, my Ackley Improved rifles. I have been loading hunting and home defense ammo for my 5.56 rifles.
The rest get factory fodder.

I have seen Factory loads equal hand loads for accuracy. But, you can't always (or even maybe not at all) get what you want. I load so I can have anything I want. I can always get as good and almost always better accuracy. I can get any bullet in any caliber, and I can make that load accurate. If I get even a little picky about loads and bullets in factory ammo I have to accept the poor availability and more often than not worse accuracy.

I have several rifles that have never seen a factory loaded round, and they all shoot nicely. Factory ammo for me is a good source of once fired brass.

I think it is totally dependent on the rifle. In general[based on my experience], bolt actions definately improve with handloads, most of the time. With my leverguns, my .45-70 handloads and certain factory loads are about equal. On my 44 mage levergun, my factory loads out perform all of the handloads I have tried thus far. I think it is hard to make a blanket statement about handloads vs. factory loads, in this day and age. JMHO.

maddog

I handload for all my other rifles, but my .358 shoots factory ammo. When I got my first .358 Winchester I bought a box of the 200 grain Silvertip to go and shoot it. It put three into an inch, and not long after that I discovered that it performs on game extremely well. I bought a bunch of it. I now have a different .358 and it likes this ammo even better than the first one.

I've had my Wby for 25 year and never fired a factory round in it so I guess I don't know if factory is better than my concoctions....but I doubt it.

Courts frown on handloads for self defense. Keep a box or two of factory loads on hand.

In my rifles, factory ammo gets MOA. Handloads achieve sub moa.

Didn't know that, and all I have is handloads too (for the handguns).

Have almost always had better accuracy with my handloads.
This, with about 12 different calibers and 15? different rifles.

Couldn't know as I haven't bought a factory round for any of the cartridges that I load for.........these last 40 years.

I do know that several friends who have the bug "less bad" than I have purchased factory stuff when time didn't allow them to reload and they say that it is oftentimes just as accurate as hand rolled.

I'd guess that handloaded ammo will still most oftentimes "out-shoot" factory stuff, but it's not a given anymore as it once was. Seems I'd have to search long and hard to find a factory round that fit my chamber any better than what my handloaded ammo does. Not a small consideration in making accurate ammo........IMHO.

That is exactly what a friend found in his .358. They never did get a handload to shoot as well as the Silvertips.
Some of my rifles shoot factory loads very well but I can match or better with handloads. Several demand handloads. Walley World quit carring .219Donaladson Wasp ammo.

until someone can show me several actual law suits where what you shot someone with made any difference, I'll continue to call 'bs' on that old canard.