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Cheap ammo accuracy

What's your gun like? Barrel length (material, profile), and twist rate would be a good start. Is the gun known to be accurate with *good* ammo so you'll know whether it's the steel cased ammo or not? You'll probably have to re-zero your optic, assuming you have one. Or just use the same hold position throughout, and see if the groupings are consistent.

I had decent luck with some of the Russian (Wolf, I think) 62gr steel case in my 20" 1:8 twist rifle. It's pretty accurate with most all ammo though
 
peterk123 said:
Specifically the AR15 shooting 223, steel case and shooting 200 yards and out. Trying to hit within a few inches of the one inch dot. Braced. Will the ammo matter?
Click to expand...

If your goal is to sink several into an 8" X 11" zone, then no. A hits a hit.
If you want a baseball sized group at 200+, then yes, ammo matters.

You might get minuets of pie plate with the cheap stuff.
 
StevieP said:
What's your gun like? Barrel length (material, profile), and twist rate would be a good start. Is the gun known to be accurate with *good* ammo so you'll know whether it's the steel cased ammo or not? You'll probably have to re-zero your optic, assuming you have one. Or just use the same hold position throughout, and see if the groupings are consistent.

I had decent luck with some of the Russian (Wolf, I think) 62gr steel case in my 20" 1:8 twist rifle. It's pretty accurate with most all ammo though
Click to expand...
I thought they had bi metal brass that was 62 their steel is 55?
 
peterk123 said:
Specifically the AR15 shooting 223, steel case and shooting 200 yards and out. Trying to hit within a few inches of the one inch dot. Braced. Will the ammo matter?
Click to expand...

Shooting at 200+ with the goal being accuracy? Yes the ammo will matter. Especially if you are shooting with a goal of ~3 MOA at 200+yd. Accuracy aside, Tula steel case .223 is generally regarded as some of the worst .223 ammo out there. Dirty, inconsistently charged, rough case surface, etc are all factors as to why some ARs choke on the stuff.

You mention "braced" so I assume a pistol type AR, which w/ a pistol length shorty gas system are even more prone to ammo pickiness then normal sized ARs.

Shooting for groups at 200yds and beyond is not what Tula is marketed for, it's inexpensive range fodder/practice ammo.

I'd be hesitant to run steel tula in a short AR, and if I did I would not expect great accuracy.
 
I used to shoot some Hornady match grade steel cased ammo. Very precise, haven’t seen it around lately.

I shoot golden tiger steel all the time....not bad but velocity varies too much to be really precise, but no issue hitting steel at 200 yards.... just won’t group like good stuff....it’s not the steel that’s the issue....
 
Some guns are picky as to ammunition, some are not as much. If you reload, you can find multiple "sweet spots" using varying amounts of powder but all the other components remain the same. I find being as constant as possible is key when reloading. When I buy a new .22, I use as many different brands as I have on hand to see which works best. The variables are endless of a particular firearm + a particular loading = what kind of results.

As it seems like most are running with steel case in their responses as the bottom feeder, I only use steel cased ammunition in my AKM, not AR's as your posting asks so that's the only one I can reference. With wolf black box, I get a 4MOA. When I switch up a little higher to Federal brass case, it'll tighten up to a 2MOA. Is it because Federal is more consistent from one round to another? Maybe more than anything.
 
peterk123 said:
It's Wolf. Gun is is S&W Volunteer with 20 inch barrel. I'm trying to figure out if I have issues with my scope (vortex) or the ammo. Going to pick up some different ammo tomorrow to figure out what's going on.
Click to expand...
Wolf can still be made by Tula, Wolf is just the branding/importer. I'd say if you are zeroing at 200+yds with Tula, it might suck, because Tula can suck. Try some name brand brass cased stuff. Federal, Remington, etc
 
peterk123 said:
It's Wolf. Gun is is S&W Volunteer with 20 inch barrel. I'm trying to figure out if I have issues with my scope (vortex) or the ammo. Going to pick up some different ammo tomorrow to figure out what's going on.
Click to expand...
If you can’t get decent groups with any run of the mill 55 grain (all from same box) then you have some other issue. Even good ammo, there are fliers here and there, sometimes it’s you, sometimes it’s something else.

What does it do at 100 yards? 50 yards? Not looking for bullseye, looking at group.
 
puška m70 said:
Wolf can still be made by Tula, Wolf is just the branding/importer. I'd say if you are zeroing at 200+yds with Tula, it might suck, because Tula can suck. Try some name brand brass cased stuff. Federal, Remington, etc
Click to expand...
Yup!!

I’m a big fan of shooting cheap steel. I would never zero with it.

It may have a different point of impact than a decent brand you zero with, but you can deal with that AFTER you zero with something decent.
 

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