Originally Posted by downwindtracker2
Factory ammo is good.. I've told this many times. Forty years ago, I needed a rifle, and bought a new Remington M700 BDL 30-06. I didn't know how to shoot so I bought boxes of factory, Imperial, Winchester and Remington, one box at a time. .I ended up with some empties. One of my fellow workers father reloaded, A Lee Loader I think. He offered to swap my empties for a box of reloads. The box was measured even. At the garbage dump / range , offhand at a 100 paces I was getting a 5" group with iron sights, an out of the box stock rifle. With the hand loads the group shrunk to half that . Hmmm, there might be something to that. Now you can get a box off the shelf and get a good group. Or at least with my son shooting.


Harsh to judge it on groups shot offhand with irons though.

FWIW I bought a Rem 700 BDL in about 1980 too, in 6mm. A 6x Weaver scope and a couple of boxes of Winchester ammunition with it, and I took it down the back paddock to try it out. The first couple of groups, shot from prone over an improvised rest (rolled blanket I think) went under an inch each for 5 rounds at 100 yards. I was really happy - after various sporterised military rifles this was an absolute revelation. I then shot away all of the remaining ammunition on rabbits and such, being increasingly impressed with my new purchase's ability to reach right on out there and completely dismantle these critters.

That rifle accounted for truckloads of game over the years.