In an effort to find the best ammo for my Norinco SKS I went back to the range today and tried 5 different types of factory ammo.

Unmodified matching numbers Norinco SKS
5-shot groups at 100M. Iron sights. leaning my elbows on the bench as a rest.


From best to worst:
Lapua Mega Spire Point 2.64"
Klimovsk JHP 4.56"
Yugo FMJ 4.76"
Wolf Military Classic JHP 7.00"
Hornady VMAX 8.36"

Not surprisingly the Lapua ammo shot the best. Wish I could get more of it. This SKS shot horrible with the Hornady load.

Other shooters may have shot this same rifle and ammo better or worse. But it definately shows the benifit of trying different ammo to find what works the best for your gun.

Damn, I hate to hear the Hornady did so poorly.  I had assumed that it would be held to a higher manufacturing standard and be more consistant, round to round.  I wonder if it's something about the bullet, or the loading itself that your rifle didn't like.

I'd think it would be the steel case. But what's the Klimovsk cased in, steel right & is that the maker of brown bear? Anyone done better with a v-max handload?

The Wolf, Klimovsk & Hornady are all steel cased.

The Lapua & Yugo are both brass cased.

I've got some Georgia Arms Ballistic Tip and Winchester JSP to test at another time.

I am not here to criticize your shooting, but I suspect that elbows on the bench is not the most stable platform for testing the inherent accuracy of ammunition.  The variance in those groups could be due to a number of things ... including but certainly not limited to the performance of the ammunition.

I think what you are trying to do is really cool.
I hope it doesn't offend you to ask if you have ever shot a 5+ shot group under 1" at 100 yards in any rifle before?
The reason I ask this is that anyone who has done it know's that there are things you have to do with the gun to get that kind of precision that have nothing to do with the ammo.
To eliminate the shooter and focus on the accuracy potential of the gun/ammo combination, some way of locking down the rifle is critical.
Assuming you are running a 30 round mag, I don't see how you can get any kind of locked down shooting position with your elbows. Basically, the mag acts as an unstable mono-pod in the middle of the system.

Magnified optics would be a big help too.

They're right. This throws your data into the realm of 'anecdotal' evidence, not scientific. However, there's a silver lining - all things being equal, meaning your shooting position, the rifle, the conditions, etc., the relative groups sizes still are meaningful. If you tighten up your methods, I think you can shoot some astounding groups. 2.64" at 100 yds with iron sights and 'elbows' is damn good shooting if you can repeat it at will. So this does throw some legitimacy back onto your data. I know for a fact that Wolf generally is so inconsistent that its really hard to use it to sight in. The last time I shot my AK I was getting 4"-5" groups with it but not in the same place. I basically spent the afternoon with front sight tools chasing the 'patterns' around the target. I have plenty of Yugo and I'll try that next time.

That was the point. Find the best load for this one specific SKS.

Hornady v-max  groups by far worse than anything in my SGL21(7.62x39)