I started testing factory loads today. No alibis. Shoot groups and measure.

I am using three rifles - Rem Model 788, Tikka T3 Lite and T3 Varmint

I have 4 boxes of factory x 8 different manufacturers. Shoot, average them, and display the best of the four 5 shot groups.

I started today. I fired my T3 Lite and my Rem 788. Like the elections, it's too early to predict any winners, but with the little testing I've managed, it should be said that cost does not determine how well, or poorly they group. For example, Here are some inexpensive Winchester 50 gr. PSPs. My T3 Lite hates them. The 788 likes them. The 20 shot avg for the Winchester factory 50s was 1.64 inches, shot from the T3 Lite. From the Model 788, the avg was 0.713 inches.

I can't wait to see how the Sako, Nosler and Hornady factory stuff does. We don't celebrate the 4th of July here, but I was out shooting.

What are these "factory loads" you speak of?

These are boxes of factory loaded cartridges that ammunition companies claim are as accurate as reloads. That silly claim has already been debunked, and I am not near being finished testing.

There could be a book in this - Myths of New Haven.

The only factory 222 ammo I have used was given to me, several boxes of Winchester 50gr PSP. I shot it in 3 different rifles and never had a group under 1"

surprisingly bad performance !!!! The 222 is so easy to find a good load for I cant see why someone would buy factory ammo

Probably people who do not reload buy factory stuff.

These are the eight that I'm trying.

I've killed a mountain of critters with factory ammo. I do reload but don't always feel like it as I find it about as entertaining as watching paint dry. I have several rifles that will shoot sub MOA groups with one or more brands/weights of factory ammo. I even have a Marlin .30-30 lever gun that will do it.

50gr. V-max load in either the Hornady or Fiocchi shoot lights out.

Fiocchi is cheapest.

I have 20 boxes of White/yellow Winchester 50gr PSP sitting in my ammo can, unsure of date of manufacture, maybe 70’s or 80’s. Yet to try any in my 222 as it cost me $5 a box about 10 years ago now. That was expensive....lol.
If anyone knows years of production for white/yellow boxes, please chime in.

I rarely shoot factory stuff, although with a few of my AI builds I have used factory rounds to form brass with.
My 22-250AI has amazing accuracy when using Rem 55gr PSP’s, less than half inch clusters during fireforming, admittedly it does better than this with my loads as I use it for short range F-Class.

You got that right- I recently ran some of their crap ammo through a Remington 722 and got 4 pierced primers out of 5 rounds.

I bought a Rem 788 in .222 in the late '80's with the intention of rechambering it to .223. I bought a box of Winchester factory ammo to get a baseline. It would put 5 shots inside a dime at 100 yards with a crappy old Weaver steel tubed scope. After that I abandoned all designs of rechambering and shot the crap out of ground squirrels for a few years. I never should have sold that ugly SOB. I've rarely found a rifle more accurate with so little effort.

The PPU stuff has shot much better than the W-W for me in my tikka. I mostly handload, lots of 4198 squirreled away.

I have owned my 1950s vintage Sako Vixen sporter since the late 1980s and have only shot one box of factory ammo. As others have said, it's so easy to find an accurate load with the 222 why buy factory stuff? My all time favorite powder is IMR 4198, but I am currently using VV-130. RL-7 works great, too. Back when I used my 222 for woodchuck hunting my go-to load was either 20 grains of IMR 4198 or 20.5 grains of RL-7. Either one gave me about 3,250 fps with a 50 grain plastic point bullet. Another favorite load was 24 grains of AA-2200 under a 40 grain bullet. That load gives me about 3,450 fps.

I shot various .222's for years in IBS matches and on woodchucks. 20 or 20.5 grs. of IMR 4198 and a Sierra 52 or 53 gr. match bullet were all I ever shot of out the bench gun. I shot enough groups in the 'teens" with that combination to never feel the need for anything else. A straight factory Rem. 700...albeit rebedded in Devcon... would easily shoot .30" with the Sierra 50 grain Blitz and 20.5 grs of RL7. The .222 is such a great cartridge.

I shoot a .223 now, but none I have ever had would shoot as well as the .222's.

Hi Steve.Rem. 50 gr PLHP will shoot 1/2" for me.Savage 340 and an BSA bolt gun from the 50 's.Factory loads BTW.

I know what you're saying. 50 gr. Rem PSPs best group was 0.51 of an inch for me. It averaged about .75 though.

You know, sometimes you just gotta have fun! I have three 222s. Why not have an informal, factory ammunition shoot off? Please note that these tests aren’t scientific. It was just me trying to make the tiniest group possible using each of my three 222s.

I figured two 5 shot groups fired from the three, using eight brands of factory made ammunition. I did not measure the velocities. It is factory, and you get what you get.

Some people believe that the Remington Model 788 is a magical rifle. A firearm that shot tighter groups than any other production rifle of the day. I have owned several 788s, and can attest that they did not shoot better than any of my other rifles chambered for the same cartridges.

I don’t know when or why this mystique was born. 788s were inexpensive rifles that shot good groups for hunters, but they weren't any better than other rifles of the day.
The Loads

1. Prvi Partizan 50 gr. SP – MV – 3133 fps. Made in Serbia.
2. Winchester 50 gr. PSP – MV – 3140 fps. Made in the USA.
3. Federal 40 gr. Nosler BT – MV – 3450 fps. Made in the USA
4. Remington High Performance 50 gr. PSP – MV – 3140 fps. Made in the USA.
5. Sellier & Bellot 50 gr. SP – MV – 3180 fps. Made in the Czech Republic.
6. Sako Gamehead 50 gr. SP – MV – 3180 fps. Made in Finland.
7. Hornady 50 gr. Superformance VMax – MV – 3345 fps. Made in the USA.
8. Nosler Varmageddon 40 gr. Nosler BT – MV – 3400 fps. Made in the USA.

The rifles. A Remington Model 788. A Tikka T3 Lite. A T3 HB. This last rifle has not been shot with the test ammunition yet.

Here are the results for the 788 and the T3 Lite. Average of two 5 shot groups, rounded to the nearest 1000th of an inch. A 1000th of an inch? Really?

Remington Model 788

1. Nosler – 0.670 inches
2. Winchester – 0.710 inches
3. Sako – 0.800 inches
4. Remington – 0.910 inches
5. Federal – 0.920 inches
6. Hornady – 1.55 inches
7. Prvi Partizan – 2.00 inches
8. Sellier & Bellot – 2.15 inches

Average for eight brands – 1.21 inches

Tikka T3 Lite

1. Federal – 0.770 inches
2. Nosler – 0.795 inches
3. Hornady – 0.800 inches
4. Prvi Partizan – 0.820 inches
5. Sako – 1.600 inches
6. Remington – 1.630 inches
7. Winchester – 1.640 inches
8. Sellier & Bellot – 1.650 inches

Average for eight brands – 1.21 inches

Hmmm. Neither rifle shot magical groups. What conclusions would you draw?

I guess everyone is speechless.

Do you think the HB Tikka T3 is going to shoot tighter groups?

Might need your bolt bushed.

No.

If you're averaging 1.21 for five shot groups from eight different loads I'd stop testing.

Which test is appropriate here?

Student's T test?

ANOVA?

Help Mr mathman.

Geno

PS Oh, conclusions.Right. If one wanted to keep and shoot/hunt with both the rifles tested, and one was limited to factory ammunition, and one could afford Nosler, one might just not have to do any further testing.

That's right. Of the 8, in limited testing, Nosler performed the best. If you were stuck with factory, Nosler won.

Although it is pure coincidence that both rifles, firing the same ammunition, averaged the same size groups, the Rem 788 failed the magic test. But then, the T3 didn't do so well either.

It's always fun to shoot and measure. That's what humans do.

Might be...except it was an isolated incident only occurring with Fiocchi junk.

No issues with any other loads, factory or handloaded.

My conclusion would be if you want to shoot factory ammo then buy a .223, there are enough options I guarantee you could find ammo that would shoot better than 1.21"
If you want a .222 you are better off handloading because you can easily cut the 1.21" in half with not much effort.

interesting. I load for a bdl varmint, a sako varmint, and a sako mannlicher. never fired a factory load. never shot a group over an inch.

I hope that most of you read the 1.21 is an average of 8 different loads and two different rifles. One really bad factory load - S&B specifically - brought the average up. But if you toss out the best and worst group size fired from each rifle, you get this.

Tikka T3 - 1.21 inches
Rem 788 - 1.15 inches

Not really an improvement, but the Rem 788 slid ahead of the Tikka by 0.006 of an inch.
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I'm afraid 223s are a flash in the pan. They won't be around much longer. The only 22 centrefires that will remain after next year will be the 22 Creedmoor and the 222 Remington.

Some other things I leaned were, in no particular order:

S&B didn't shoot well in either rifle. My spidey sense tells me that if I had to buy factory, stay away from this. S&B is cursed.

I must have got one of the bad 788s. It just couldn't beat the Tikka overall. Maybe the magic ran out.

I learned that spending a lot for ammunition doesn't guarantee anything except an empty bank account.

I learned that shooting hand loads groups tighter than any of these factory loads. Even shooting no frills, bulk bullets group better or the same as the top three loads.

(I got blisters on my fingers! Thanks, John!)

I would be interested in how the lapua factory ammo shoots. I use norma brass in one .222 and lapua in the other two. I could not find any norma factory ammo currently.

All loads would take a woodchuck to the 222 Rem’s range ( 250 + yards).

Next question.