I need opinions and/or criticism of this shooting test I just completed! I am in kind of a time bind right now. I am heading to the big city (170 miles away) tomorrow to attend a meet and while there I need to buy more ammo for my new Ruger 77/17V! No ammo locally this week. I have a Safari planned for next week and need ammo!
My situation is this I have been trying to wait out the wind here in SW Montana (since May 2nd!) so I can fully test the 3 brands of 17 HMR ammo I have a small supply of. The 3 brands are CCI, Hornady & Remington.
Today in an incessant wind I HAD to go to the range for whatever testing I could again try to do before tomorrow. The wind was between 16 and 24 MPH (according to my wind gauge) and never let up during my range session. And it was perpindicular to the line of fire! I sat at the range for a full hour not shooting just watching my wind flags flap very vigourously! I decided I had to take down the 100 yard target and put it up at 50 yards and try to shoot at that distance and shoot each shot when the conditions were the same! First I tried the Remington ammo. The resulting 9 shot group at 50 yards was 1.100" in dispersion by far mostly horizontal! Then I tried the Hornady for a 9 shot group at the 50 yard target. The resulting group was 1.152" again horizontal dispersion mostly! I was just in a blither about the conditions and my pressing need to buy ammo tomorrow! I was so miffed at the wind I loaded up and headed home without even trying (wasting?) the CCI this time at 50 yards!
I came up with this idea though on the way home! How about if I measure the best 5 shots out of each nine shot group and compare those numbers to ascertain which ammo is shooting better in my Rifle. I got home just now and measured the best 5 shots from each group and the results were as follows:
Remington 5 shots = .520"
Hornady 5 shots = .391"
The more I think about it the more I tend to give creedence to this "comparison" and tend to want to shop for the Hornady ammo while on this need to be there trip to Missoula!
What do you guys think? Any valididty to this comparison under these poor conditions?
Thanks in advance!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Better some hard data for evaluation,than none at all.

My guess is that you can't go too far wrong with any of the choices. All 17's I've seen,have done wonderfully with the Hornady offering and I personally would be swayed in that direction,due to that.

The Hummer is a damned nice little cartridge and I'm trying hard to find the 77V myself...............

Varmintguy

First of all I like you handle. Second I agree that the slightest change in wind can change your impact point with such light bullets. My only experience of this is with .223 rem not sure about .17 because of velocity. I also agree with your idea of comparing groups with one exception.
I would compare the worst groups of each. Simply because you can only rely on the worst group that it will do. Meaning that during a hunt on a windy day you cant expect to hit a rate in the head at 50 yards every time . it sound like your shooting skills in the windy conditions are good enough to worry more about what the bullet will do to the target on impact than whether you can hit it or not. just my .02 good luck hope this helped.

VC

I FOOLED THE WIND! I FOOLED THE WIND! Or - what a difference several hours can make in Montana! On a hunch (and being motivated by anger!) I reloaded my gear into the VarmintMobile and headed back to the range at 7:45 PM tonight. I was hoping the wind would calm at sunset. For once in my life I was right! The closer I got to the range the calmer the wind became! I began shooting in nearly calm conditions at 8:05 PM. I fired 4 groups of 5 shots apiece at 100 yards! Finally I had some trustworthy 100 yard data for my new Varminter!
The results were very pleasing to me again although my earlier conjecture was proven wrong by this second testing today!
The Remington 17 HMR ammo shot better in this abbreviated test than the Hornady! I decided not to try the CCI ammo tonight due to small amount of it left on hand.
The Remington ammo gave two 5 shot groups at 100 yards of .646" and .502"! Wow!
The Hornady ammo gave two 5 shot groups at 100 yards of .831" and .721". Still quite acceptable to me!
I did fire a couple of extra shots to verify my sight adjustment to the calmer wind conditions! I am guessing the wind was under 3 MPH! I decided to sight the Rifle in for 1" high at 100 yards! I should be able to remember that. The hill to the west of my shooting position covered the sun and I was shooting in shadows all but the first group (which turned out to be the best one!) but I had enough light I am sure to not interfere much at all with my accuracy tests.
Just as I was locking the gate behind me leaving I saw two doe Antelope on the opposite side of the valley. They were walking in their slow, neck drooped, face moving from side to side pre-birthing posture! I am very familiar with this walk and often spy Coyotes trailing the does when they walk like this. If there were any Coyotes following the Antelope I am sure my shooting scared them away. I bet tomorrow there will be brand new baby Antelope out on that prairie!
Aaahh things are looking up in Montana! Its not often you can outwit the wind here in the Rocky Mountains - but I did tonight! And was well rewarded for my effort.
Now to get a supply (6 to 10 boxes) of the Remington ammo if at all possible.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

VC and Big Stick: I forgot to thank you for your helpful postings! I can now shop with some confidence that I am buying bullets well suited for my Rifle and for which the Rifle is now sighted in with! The Hornady shot VERY close to the same point of impact as the Remington by the way. As I recall the CCI was a couple inches different with its P.O.I. than the Hornady in my previous tests.
Thanks again.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

It still amazes me that the Hummer seems so uniformly accurate,in all the differing rifle makes/models it is chambered in.

Also very good to hear that all ammo seems to give a good accounting of itself. These IS the Good Old Days.

Good luck on your Hunt and fling some pictures around on your return.................

VarmintGuy,

I understand your problems with the wind! I have basically had to rethink the way that I do things around here because of that darn wind!

Luckily, mornings around here tend to be calm to "almost calm." I used to do all my intense range on my way home from work, but I got fed up fighting the wind. And it never fails...I would look out the windows at the office and everything would appear calm and I would get excited. Then I would get to the range and it would be blowin' like a son of a gun!

I have tried shooting in the mornings before work and there definately is an advantage to it, at least concerning the wind. The down side is that the range faces East...so I have a morning sun to deal with. Granted, lighting on the target isn't perfect and facing into the sun doesn't help, but which is the lesser of two evils?

VGuy...given the shooting that you have been able to sqeeze up until now..you better give that tube a good cleaning before you head out for some serious field work. Good Luck

Can anyone varify that some or all .17 HRM ammo is manufactured by one company or is it made by others as well?