Spent quite a bit of time at the range today with my somewhat new to me Ruger AR-5.56. Shooting from rock solid sand bags. Gun has a Leupold AR 3x9 scope with Wilson Combat mount. When I bought the gun I picked up 1k rounds of Independence 5.56 55 grain FMJ. This ammo has cycled flawlessly. But shooting 3 shot groups at 100 yds the best group I can shoot is 2-3 inches. The gun only has about 200 rounds through it.I Ireally think I should be able to shoot tighter groups than that. Thinking it must be the ammo from what I have read on this site. Would like to buy a box of quality, accurate ammo if there is such a thing. And try shooting it to see if i can shoot any tighter groups. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Would like to stick with the same 55 grain FMJ. As i still have quite a bit of the Independence left.

Thanks
Marty

That sounds about right for that Independence stuff.


M193 spec ammo can fly well, but don't expect MOA or better results. It's 2-4MOA ammo.




If you want 1.5" or better groups from your rifle, I'd suggest looking into projectiles other than 55gr FMJ.




The most accurate factory .223/5.56mm ammo I've used to date is Australian Outback Ammo's (aka ADI) 55gr BlitzKing load. It shoots better than any other factory ammo I've tried, out of various rifles.




Good luck, and if you're anywhere near NW Ohio, I'd gladly donate a box for you to try.


 

Thanks for the info and offer to try some ammo, Unfortunately I'm in NE Ohio.
Marty

deleted

Picked up a few boxes of ADI ammo. Went out today and shot it. Was able to shoot 1" groups with several holes touching each other. Quite a difference from the Independence ammo. The independence shot the same from 100 yds. to 150 yds. The ADI at 150 yds was about 3" high, still a tight group but high. Must still be climbing at that range.

 
Good to hear.

My 7:1 barreled Core 15 doesn't like that 50g but I get great groups with both PMC Bronze and Xtac as well as 855 lake city. Like many say try a box and see how it does...

3 shot groups are worthless.  5 shot groups are slightly less worthless, but not much.

10 shot groups will tell you a lot more about what's really going on.  I like 9 shots, a reload, then the last round.

I have shot a few boxes of the ADI 55gr Blitz Kings with great accuracy out of a 14.5" BCM BFH barrel.

Check out the CBC 77gr stuff.. bought some from palmetto state armory and  I have been shooting just under 4.5 inches at 400 yards and I am no marksman.

CBC designed this as an alternative to Black Hills Mk262

Ammo doesn't climb. Imagine throwing a football. The bullet does the same thing.

I agree with this.
I had tried PPU 69gr Match, PPU 75gr Match, BH Mk262, IMI 77gr OTM, Federal 55gr Tactical, Federal 50gr Tipped, and CBC 77gr OTM....and CBC performed the best.

With me behind the trigger, with 4x ACOG, with rifle on a stable range bag but no stable rear support, all rifles are 1 MOA to 1.5 MOA all day using the ammo it likes which happens to be CBC 77gr OTM.
The CBC 77gr OTM is relatively cheap at $0.60/rd and it easily will do 1 MOA - 1.5 MOA out of my SR15 Mod1, which has a LW CHF CL 16" 1/7 twist barrel.
20% of the time it will be 1 MOA, the other 80% would be 1.25-1.5 MOA accuracy.

I have 3 complete SR15 Mod1 and 1 Mod1 upper.
All 4 shoots about the same.

Keep in mind, I am no marksman, and the indoor range I go to doesn't have the best shooting table  ....

I disagree.

 


3-shot and 5-shot groups have their place in the world.




3-shot groups are great for walking in a zero, and saving ammo.




Shooting multiple 5-shot groups can still give you a good deal of information about the shooter, rifle, ammo, etc. Look at the 1MOA all day challenge, for example.




10-shot groups offer the statistical advantage. However, unless you're using a machine rest, I feel that they too can be flawed due to shooter's influence, fatigue, etc.




To say 3-shot and 5-shot are worthless is silly.




 

Black Hills 69gr or 77gr HPBT offerings are about as accurate as you can get.

 
How so?

While I highly respect Molon, and have learned a great deal from him, I never quite agreed with him on one subject: the difference between using 5-shot groups vs 10-shot, when the sample size is the same (30 shots total fired).

If you read the original thread where he posted the information you copied and pasted, I asked him about this, and his response doesn't really give you much to go off of. He just says that they (5-shot groups) are inferior, and doesn't give a good explanation as to why. Being that I test ammo to write about it, I'm trying to increase my knowledge continually, and I looked up to Molon and respected his opinion. I was hoping for some type of answer that would educate me on the subject, versus one that would just say I'm wrong; with no supporting evidence to back up that statement.

I'm not misinformed. I use 3-shot, sometimes 2-shot groups to WALK IN A ZERO. I then proceed to shoot several 5-shot groups, or 10-shot groups to actually zero the rifle. I guess wanting to conserve ammo/money makes me sadly misinformed.

As far as precision or accuracy are concerned, shooting five or six 5-shot groups does still give you a good amount of data on a shooter/rifle/ammo combination.

If we are talking about using a machine rest, where no human error is involved, then I agree that there's no reason to not use 10-shot groups.

However, to say that 5-shot groups are worthless is silly. Just like 3-shot groups; they have their place in the world.  So long as you are taking ALL of the data into account when determining the performance of a shooter/rifle/ammo combo, using multiple 5-shot groups, in my opinion, still gives you a good indication of how well a shooter/rifle/ammo combo are doing. The problem is taking only your best 5-shot group, and then saying you have a 1/4" or 1/2" capable rifle, when if you combine the rest of the groups, your average ES is more like 1 and 1/4" at 100 yards.