Your Choice of Rifle Ammunition Components

[Brian Pfleuger]

Thought exercise:

If prices and availability were identical, what ammunition components would you choose for purposes of high-accuracy (1/2 MOA or less) hunting?

Brass
Primers
Powder
Bullets


I'm going to guess that the winner will be, among those who have used the most variety, Lapua brass and VihtaVuori powder. Bullets and primers, not sure.

 

[Farmland]

Brass------ Winchester
Primers---- Winchester
Powder----Winchester or Aliant
Bullets----- Hornady / Nolser

 

[TXGunNut]

I have my preferences on some things (like RP, Starline and someday Lapua brass) but for other stuff I let the rifle do the choosing. Doesn't much matter what I like if I want .5 MOA groups. If the rifle doesn't like it we'll never make it to tiny group land.

 

[steve4102]

Brass-Lapua
Primers- Federal Match in LR, Rem BR in SR
Powder- Norma, VV
Bullet-Sierra

 

[Wildalaska]

Brass is lapua, bullets are Lapua, primers are 210M and powder is whatever shoots the best (usually RLs or VNs)

WildeurotrashguyAlaska ™

 

[William T. Watts]

Brass R-P/Winchester
Primer Federal 210M or CCI Br
Powder IMR4064 or Hodgdon4831
Projectile Nosler Solid Base or Partition

William

 

[wxl]

Primers- no preference
Brass - Winchester
Powder - IMR, Hodgdon
Bullets - Barnes for hunting

 

[woods]

Brass - Nosler, Remington (never used Lapua)
Primers - Fed215M
Powder - RL17, RL22, RL25
Bullets - Accubond, TTSX

 

[mrawesome22]

Brass
Primers
Powder
Bullets

Norma
CCI
Hodgdon/IMR
Hornady

 

[Jim243]

For hunting?

Brass - Remington
Primers - Winchester
Powder - Hodgdon or IMR
Bullets - Hornady

Jim

 

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

Brass: RP (thoroughly prepped [turn down thick/high spots in neck, uniform flash holes, trim as necessary, fireform, etc])
Primers: CCI
Powder: Hodgdon
Bullets: Bergers

 

[Bamashooter]

223 for accuracy...

brass- lake city, remington
primers- remington bench rest, wolf magnum
powder- IMR-4895, W-748
bullets- sierra 60gr. varmiter & 69gr. smk

30-06 for accuracy...

brass- remington, frontier, FC
primers- WLR
powder- IMR-4895
bullets- 155gr. smk

 

[Rifleman1776]

Brass: Winchester
But, I never passed up an opportunity to get a lot of free or very inexpensive military brass. It seems like there is no limit to the number of time mil brass can be resized and reloaded. Hold about one grain less than commercial but that isn't a problem.
Rest, no brand preference.

 

[4runnerman]

In 223 i have found (ok get ready for this).. Brass has made no difference contrare to what mosthave said and will say. CCI 400 primers,h-335 powder,and horandy red tip 55grain. formula= 25.5 gn of H-335,CCI-400 primer and a COL of 2.26 is giving me 1/2 to 3/4 groups at 200 yards with a Savage Edge series gun.

Just my 2cents

 

[COSteve]

Depends greatly upon what caliber you are reloading for and what range in that caliber you're going for. In .223, most find that they get best results in the 100-300yd distances with Laupa brass, Remington BR primers, 69grn Sierra bullets, and Varget powder.

However, my particular 20" AR doesn't like 69grn Sierra bullets and Varget as well as it likes 68grn Hornady bullets and TAC.

For shorter ranges of 50-100yds and longer ranges of 600-1,000yds completely different combinations are better. The same is usually true for every caliber so there isn't a single 'best' combination for everyone.

 

[oldscot3]

for hunting - any decent brass depending on availability for caliber, I like Lapua, Hornady and Winchester.
Nosler bullets, but I've also gotten good results from the other brands.
Federal or CCI primers, but again I've used about all of the brands from time to time. Honestly though, I've only had a couple of weapons in my life that would do 1/2 moa, regardless of ammo.

for target shooting - Lapua is my first choice but I've used some Norma and also some other brands of "match grade" brass.
Sierra or Berger bullets.
Federal match primers.
I'm told if you have the right Berger, it performs well on medium sized, thin skinned game.

 

[briandg]

extra long range, 1/2 MOA groups? Not asking for much, are we?

I guess I would start out with either lapua or norma brass, weigh and sort, uniform, then probably swift scirocco bullets. Federal primers, I guess. I don't know which powder, that is just going to have to be trial and error once the 3 other components are together.


What sort of cartridge would we all be able to agree on, I wonder?