I recently did a test comparing three different brands of factory ammunition versus some preliminary hand loads. The rifle was a Colt HBAR, MT6700 with a 1 in 9 twist barrel.It has a BSA TMD624x44-30sp scope mounted on it and still has the factory trigger assembly. The tests were run from a benchrest at 100 Yards.
First the factory loads;

American Eagle, 5.56 FMJBT, 62 gr
10 shot group 2.150"

Winchester, 5.56,FMJ, 55 gr
10 shot group 3.225"

Fiocchi, .223, PSP, 55 gr
10 shot group 2.560"

Now for the handloads. All brass was trimmed, full length sized, ID and OD chamfered. All loads used RL-15 powder with Sierra 69 gr Match King FMJBT projectiles. O'all length of all cartridges was 2.260".

23.3 gr charge
5 shot group 0.905"

23.3 gr charge
5 shot group 0.830"

23.5 gr charge
5 shot group 0.777"

23.8 gr charge
5 shot group 0.995"

24.2 gr charge
5 shot group 0.795"

24.2 gr charge
5 shot group 0.905"

I still have some work to do on the rifle and a few other bullets to experiment with, but why, unless you are plinking, would you use factory ammo?

Agreed, 23.5 of A2230 puts me in the .750 5 shot group area. PMC factory is about 2 inches.

Point well taken.

However, ten shot groups will average at least 1.6 times the average of five shot groups.

That according to Bench Rest folks.

I have an AR I use for DMR matches that generally shoots factory stuff around 1.5 MoA if I'm shooting plinking ammo just working 200yds alts on small targets. With hand loaded 69gn it will shoot in the .2-3s and with 75gn and 77gn a little less precise with groups coming in at .5-.6MoA for 5-shots. I ran these two ten shot groups back to back as fast as I could reacquire target and do the mag change:

good shooting, to say the least...

pretty much what I would expect from a match bullet against 6 cent fmj.

Had this argument with some one a while ago. He did not believe that reloads would outshoot factory ammo.

He brought a Remington 700 PSS in 223.

He had an assortment of military ammo to shoot.

I told him to go ahead and shoot groups with his assortment of ammo, and give me the empties.

I set the powder measure to drop fill up the case with Varget - about 27 grains.

I loaded all his fired brass with the same load, and topped them with Bill Brawand 52 grain match bullets.

Every group he originally shot was over 1.5 inches, some over 2 inches.

Every group he shot with the reloads was under 1/2 an inch.

I think that if one would load similar bullets one would get similar group sizes as shown.

Good bullets make big different