CigarStone
For once, knowledge is making me poor!
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2007
- Messages
- 10,999
This ammo shortage is such a pain in the butt!
All rifles have a certain ammo they like and if you can't find it you are screwed!
Today I went to a couple ammo stores because I am low on ammo for several of my rifles. I was able to find 1 box of ammo for one of my rifles. This means I can only hunt with one or two of my rifles because I can't find the ammo for the others. Sometimes I hunt where I need a long distance flat shooting rifle, sometimes I need to hunt with a brush busting rifle, sometimes there are restrictions on what guns are legal.
I can't change ammo without test firing several different types of ammo to see what the gun likes and even if I could afford $250 to buy five different boxes, once I am done test firing, I am left with just a few bullets of the one my gun likes and can't find any more.
This sucks!
For example, when I bought my .223 sniper rifle, I went to the range with 6 different boxes of ammo and shot five-shot groups. The four different groupings you see below were the best of the 6. These were shot at 200 yards with a perfect bench rest, the orange dots are 1.5" in diameter. You can clearly see that the top left grouping was by far the best, all I needed to do was come up and right a few clicks. I went out and bought a case of that ammo and boy am I glad I did!
At 600 yards, the ammo associated to those bad groupings could not be assured of hitting a paper plate, the good one will hit a grapefruit.
Imagine trying to zero a new rifle? It would cost hundreds of dollars just to find out which ammo works best and then you can't find it!
All rifles have a certain ammo they like and if you can't find it you are screwed!
Today I went to a couple ammo stores because I am low on ammo for several of my rifles. I was able to find 1 box of ammo for one of my rifles. This means I can only hunt with one or two of my rifles because I can't find the ammo for the others. Sometimes I hunt where I need a long distance flat shooting rifle, sometimes I need to hunt with a brush busting rifle, sometimes there are restrictions on what guns are legal.
I can't change ammo without test firing several different types of ammo to see what the gun likes and even if I could afford $250 to buy five different boxes, once I am done test firing, I am left with just a few bullets of the one my gun likes and can't find any more.
This sucks!
For example, when I bought my .223 sniper rifle, I went to the range with 6 different boxes of ammo and shot five-shot groups. The four different groupings you see below were the best of the 6. These were shot at 200 yards with a perfect bench rest, the orange dots are 1.5" in diameter. You can clearly see that the top left grouping was by far the best, all I needed to do was come up and right a few clicks. I went out and bought a case of that ammo and boy am I glad I did!
At 600 yards, the ammo associated to those bad groupings could not be assured of hitting a paper plate, the good one will hit a grapefruit.
Imagine trying to zero a new rifle? It would cost hundreds of dollars just to find out which ammo works best and then you can't find it!
I got set up to reload all the stuff I shoot, plus inherited all his reloads and reloading gear. Pretty much set in the ammo department unless I decide to go hogwild at the range.