Btw... you can get much less expensive match ammo....lol


ultimately.... imho,  you are paying for better quality control, better materials , and tighter production tolerances.

Remember, there are other things you don't see.... primers that produce smaller groups, a more uniform neck tension, etc.

Molon did a write up on this. I think the bottom line was a thirty shot group with a mean radius of 0.29" at 100 yards  - corrected, Mean Radius of 0.32"

Ps, I'm happy to get a MR of 0.5 with my handloads

From Molon here


“MATCH GRADE” 


Unlike caliber .30 and caliber 7.62mm ammunition, there has never been a National Match standard for caliber 5.56mm/223 Remington ammunition. 

In 1965, the caliber 7.62mm Match ammunition was standardized as M118. The 1965 lot of 7.62mm M118 National Match ammunition had an acceptance testing mean radius of 1.9” for 10-shot groups fired at 600 yards. At that time, this was the smallest acceptance mean radius ever achieved for National Match ammunition since records were kept, starting in the year 1919. Naturally, the ammunition was tested from machine-rested, bolt-actioned, heavy test barrels. 

The composite target pictured below shows the twenty-seven, 10-shot acceptance groups (that’s 270 rounds!) of the 1965, M118 National Match ammunition fired from the test barrels at 600 yards. The small circle has a diameter of 6” and the large circle has a diameter of 12”. 

 
From American Rifleman, September 1965 

 
From American Rifleman, August 1962 

Everything else being equal, (which of course, it seldom is) a mean radius of 1.9” at 600 yards would have a mathematical equivalent of 0.32” at 100 yards. Now, 100 yards is not 600 yards, but then, a semi-automatic AR-15 is not a machine-rested, bolt-actioned, heavy test barrel either. For those reasons, I like to use the mean radius of 0.32” for three 10-shot groups fired in a row (30-shot composite group) at 100 yards as the benchmark for 5.56mm/223 Remington match-grade ammunition, when fired from a semi-automatic AR-15. 

The pic below demonstrates jut how far the AR-15 and its ammunition have come since their introduction. On the left side of the pic is a 30-shot composite group obtained from over-laying three 10-shot groups that were fired in a row off my bench-rest set-up from an AR-15 with a free-floated 20” Colt M16A1 barrel (chrome-lined, 5.56mm chamber, 1:12” twist) using IMI M193 ammunition. The 30-shot composite group has a mean radius of 1.09”. 

The 30-shot composite group pictured on the right was obtained from over-laying three 10-shot groups that were fired in a row off my bench-rest set-up from an AR-15 with a free-floated 20” Lothar-Walther barrel (stainless steel, 223 Wylde chamber, 1:8” twist) using factory loaded Barnes Precision Match 5.56mm 85 grain OTM ammunition (magazine length). That 30-shot composite group has a mean radius of 0.22”.