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Mossberg MVP Bolt Action - Ammo Reviews

All your other groups are tight, I'd let the Federal green tips ammo go and spend the time fine tuning that which already works. IMHO it's not worth spending too much time on something when others are obviously better from the get go.


Nice shooting WM!!
 
I agree the federal green tips are out. Good for hitting man sized targets but honestly suck the fattest hog with any type of precision. I'm wondering if it's the green coating that's making it spin half retarded when it leaves the barrel?
 
The green paint doesn't touch the bore, its the weight/length of the bullet that doesn't agree with your barrel. The tip of the bullet actually doesn't affect flight near as much as the tail. The Bullet is quite long for 62gr due to the steel core. The steel doesn't weigh as much as lead so in order to make weight the bullet has to be long. Steel core needs to be spun up fast and still its far from a precision round M855 is a light armor/armored personnel projectile .

If you want a heavy bullet 1:9 twist is not the twist for you. However 75gr Hornady HPBT Match is said to work well in 1:9 due to the forward ogive and the bearing surface that rides the rifling favors a slower twist. Some say it was designed to work well with 1:9......My rifle doesn't soot them any better than 1.5 moa. I am about to load a couple more with zero crimp to see if it helps before I totally give up on them

if you want tack drive, try something with the 52 gr Sierra
 
Great thanks for the info!

I was looking for something that will be consistent at 300 yards. So far I'm impressed with the vmax bullet at 200 yards. But at 55gr I'm wondering how the flight will be effected past 200 yards.

I'm going to work out the zero on the prvi and pmc 5.56 NATO plinking rounds next session and stretch it out to 200 yards again. And see if the freedom munitions are staying consistent.

At 100 I'm hearing 40-50gr vmax is tight.

The only thing I wish is a lighter trigger pull. I lightened it up the best I could. But it isn't terrible.
 
Water Monkey said:
Great thanks for the info!

I was looking for something that will be consistent at 300 yards. So far I'm impressed with the vmax bullet at 200 yards. But at 55gr I'm wondering how the flight will be effected past 200 yards.
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Past 200 or so the wind really pushes around the smaller 223's 55 an below. With little breeze or the ability to read wind and knowing your round I hear really good thinks about the 52gr Speer and Sierra in 1:9. People use them for matches with excellent results out to 500 or so. The reason the heavier projo's are nice in the wind is the shape and length, not really the weight.

Also try some Horady 55gr soft point flat base. I find them equal to fmj boat tail but the flat base shoots for a lot of people better than the boat tail in 1:9 for some reason......the bearing surface might engage the rifling better ?

Water Monkey said:
The only thing I wish is a lighter trigger pull. I lightened it up the best I could. But it isn't terrible.
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its a big deal when looking for precision
 
oli700 said:
Past 200 or so the wind really pushes around the smaller 223's 55 an below. With little breeze or the ability to read wind and knowing your round I hear really good thinks about the 52gr Speer and Sierra in 1:9. People use them for matches with excellent results out to 500 or so. The reason the heavier projo's are nice in the wind is the shape and length, not really the weight.

Also try some Horady 55gr soft point flat base. I find them equal to fmj boat tail but the flat base shoots for a lot of people better than the boat tail in 1:9 for some reason......the bearing surface might engage the rifling better ?


its a big deal when looking for precision
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Excellent thanks.

As far as the trigger it breaks nice but id prefer it in the 2lbs range. I think it's sitting around 3.5lbs range. No trigger kit avail yet but it's a budget bolt. And for that it's performing well for only dumping in a total of $750 into the whole system
 
Water Monkey said:
I agree the federal green tips are out. Good for hitting man sized targets but honestly suck the fattest hog with any type of precision. I'm wondering if it's the green coating that's making it spin half retarded when it leaves the barrel?
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It's the design and construction of the M855 bullet itself that makes it shoot ho-hum.

The core is two part. The front part has a tiny cone shaped bit of steel and the rest is lead. The steel part is impossible to align dead center and dead concentric with the rest of the bullet. Specification tolerances for weight, diameter and run out are pretty loose too.

The best thing I can say for it is in a 1-10 twist barrel it is analogous to the the old M-193 round 1-12 twist as made famous by the M16 in Viet Nam.
 
Hit the range yesterday to verify some 100 yard zeros:

Hornady zmax 55gr
Freedom Munitions vmax 55gr
PMC Xtac 5.56 55gr
Prvi Partizan 5.56 55gr
Black Hills Sierra Match 68gr hollow point

Hornady, Freedom, Black Hills I verified zero

PMC & Prvi was still not consistent with any zero I thought I had verified… One more shot next time to verify it.

Some notes:

Hornady consistently gives me 1.5 - 2 MOA at 100 yards

Freedom Munitions has been consistent the past 2 sessions with 1 MOA at 100 yards which has been the shocker.

Black Hills has been consistent with 1.5 - 2 MOA at 100 yards which surprises me…. I'm not happy with this higher grain bullet and I feel MY barrel doesn't like it

200 Yards:

14694661131_b4bf1e96ff.jpg


I took the Hornady Zmax, Freedom Munitions Vmax and BH Sierra Match out to 200 yards for 5 shots slow fire (min 2 min between shots) to have a fairly cool barrel with each shot.

Results:

Hornady Z Max

14511184738_a808403c9b.jpg


Seems consistent in the 2 MOA category as previously tested. Using the BDC on my scope at 200 yards. The bdc just covers the entire orange at 200 yards.


Freedom Munitions

14695445054_2fe1469b9c.jpg


I continue to be surprised with Freedom Munition's 55gr Vmax new production ammo. Shooting SUB MOA at 200 yards blew my mind as well as having 3 shots so close at the established bullseye. I will be putting in ample stock of this ammo which literally costs less than half of that from Hornady.

Blackhills 68gr Sierra - it literally doesn't deserve a picture. It grouped for the second time the WORST out of the bunch with the exception of the M855 ammo (which I'm surprised hits paper at 200 yards). 3.8" or almost 3 MOA for something that should be more consistent from other people's ammo posting on the internet. My barrel hates it. I will be destroying the ammo calculation pages I have in my book and sending a pink slip to the ammo's cubical come Monday morning.

I will be focusing on 55gr and lower for my tests with the exception of the Barnes 62gr TSX bullet which I will be testing out for future hunting endeavors. I hear 50gr Vmax Fiocchi shoots like a beast so I will be testing that out in a month or so once I get my hands on it.


Water Monkey
 
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Oh another mention for the FM Vmax.... my buddy found a hunk of metal out at 100 yards seems someone was plinking it a day before. We strung it up at 100 yards and first shot no sand bag... PING knocked it off the string. Damn good feeling knowing your rifle's capabilities and accuracy has been proven.
 
Nicely done WM.

Finding ammo your rifle likes and that puts up consistent, tight patterns is a beautiful thing...
 
LAZY EYED SNIPER said:
Nicely done WM.

Finding ammo your rifle likes and that puts up consistent, tight patterns is a beautiful thing...
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Yes sir.

Placed an ammo order and scored a deal on some 50 gr fiocchi vmax and found some Barnes TSX 62 gr.

Ahh the testing never ends does it?
 
It does eventually.

Once I find a round my rifle really likes I just buy a crap load of that and train with it...
 
I agree with giving the Hornady 55grain soft point a try, they seem to have shot well out of a couple of guns I've owned, also Ultramax remanufactured ammo has been solid MOA loads out of the same guns. Looks like you are finding out some of what you have tried is doing decent.

One little trick I learned from a gunsmith friend that always out shoots me is your aim point, I like square targets, pick a corner and line your crosshairs up with it on a vertical and horizontal line, no aiming at dots or trying to center crosshairs in a 100 yard target, once you find the ammo you like, zero it and have fun. Hopefully that makes sense lol
 
Nevernoluck said:
I like square targets, pick a corner and line your crosshairs up with it on a vertical and horizontal line, no aiming at dots or trying to center crosshairs in a 100 yard target, once you find the ammo you like, zero it and have fun. Hopefully that makes sense lol
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Same here.

My favorite for sight-in are these Birchwood Casey Shoot 'n See grid targets...



There are bulls, but the grid extends beyond them and it's very easy to line up your shots on the horizontal and vertical. Each small grid square is 1", so adjustments are easier as well.

Doesn't have to be store bought either. You could make your own 100yd 1" grid on a sheet of paper, either on the computer or hand drawn. Move to 200yd and switch to a 2" grid, 3" for 300yd, etc. Takes a LOT of the guess work out of the equation...
 
quit it with the 3 round groups, that could have been five 5 round groups !.......3 round group = ignore :p
 
I used to think 3 was good until I got serious about grouping and looked into it deep. I ran across the 5 round group theory, thought it was BS, it’s not …..it’s realz.
10 really is the way to go and I would do if powder wasn’t so short. Folks that take themselves way too serious won’t consider less than 10 rounds when in load development.10 really tells you a lot and it can be easier to tell what might be generally affecting your group, wind, trigger pull etc.
Since WM takes a smoke break between each shot it would take a half hour to shoot a 10 round group lol
 
Good thing I don't take myself too seriously.

Takes me a couple hours as is to pull a target like that together...
 
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