Looking into buying another case of ammo for silhouette shooting. For the big matchs I splurge and get the real good stuff but for the local matchs I usally run SK Plus. Does anybody know how Eley Target compares to the SK Plus!? Better, worse, any info you might have!

Thanks,
Pat

Looks like you will have to do some testing....I shoot that cheap eley purple box for practice its the SK standard plus or wolf match extra that shoots the bug holes in my rifle.....but thats my rifle.

BH,

Lots of variables in "what shoots best in my rifle"....No set answer, but the SK shoots very well in every thing we have, and the CenterX shoots as well but seems to have less "fliers" out of the groups....Of course, as you know, we have a dog in this hunt so you know what my recommendation is going to be.....but I have shot both and my observations, FWIW is this: SK seems to be less "lot sensative" as is the CenterX. We have shot several lots of CenterX and Mallory's gun, which is our test mule, shoots them all better than I should publish here. Sk is similiar. The Eley that we have shot, and please understand that I am not knocking Eley, seemed to be more dependent on getting the right lot number. But the only way you will know for sure is to buy representive amounts of all and test them in YOUR gun.

Hope this helps, and doesn't start an ammo war.

Kitty

In my guns, the both shoot about the same. SK or Wolf arn't too bad.

SK shoots better for me. I have to move up to Eley Club before groups get noticeably smallish. Right now I shoot CCI SV for "Training" sessions. Dang rim is a bit thick tho or the bullet is engraving the lands making bolt closure a bit on the stiff side.

edgehit wrote:SK shoots better for me. I have to move up to Eley Club before groups get noticeably smallish. Right now I shoot CCI SV for "Training" sessions. Dang rim is a bit thick tho or the bullet is engraving the lands making bolt closure a bit on the stiff side.

Joe, make sure you keep your bolt's locking lug well lubricated when using CCI SV ammo because the metal on the bolt it's kind of soft and you would not want to develop problems with it in the future. Karl Kenyon the famous gunsmith used to have the Anschutz bolts heath treated when ever he re barreled them. The reason being he used match reamers to chamber the new barrels that in turn made some of those bolts a bit hard to close with some ammo.

My 1712 really likes sk-standard plus and center-x the eley and I tried different kinds was not bad but not as good as the other and it was harder to chamber. When I was testing sk and center-x at 100 meters there was not enough difference to spend the extra money on center-x. Then the cci-standard I thought I was going to break off the bolt handle trying to get it to chamber. I just shoot the standard plus for matches and for practice. Mike

I know ever gun is different. My Pharr built 1712 will do great groups at 100 meters with wolf match target. I am not complaining is great to shoot cheaper ammo. But I thought for big matches I would try some match extra. I figured it was just a more consistant batch of the same ammo. My gun didnt like it, groups got noticable bigger. I fired quite a bit of it to make sure was seasoned to the new ammo. Is match target and match extra different? But i agree no one can tell you what to buy you just have to spend what you can afford for the groups you can live with. Once you find something it likes then you can go into lot testing to fine tune it. Good luck.

SK+ is what I use for bigger matches. For local matches and practicing at the house I will use CCI SV more often. I don't find the CCI that much of a lesser ammo for 1/2 the price and have shot many 30+ scores with it at local matches. You occasionally get one that sounds a bit hot or underloaded but most all my misses I would atribute to me not the ammo. A shooter I know recently went to a Mini F-Class match to play around and was using Eley Target. Some of the fliers he got were HORRIBLE like 4+ inches at 50 yards horrible. While most of the rounds pretty much made one hole those few fliers would have been misses for sure in silhouette.

IMO the SK+ is for the money the most consistent ammo when looking in this price range.



Dee

For people shooting SK Standard Plus and loving it what would your 10 or 25 shot group sizes be at 100 meters shooting off a bench?

The lots of SK Standard Plus or Wolf Match Target that I have had shoot well in my rifles also tended to be lower velocity than the Eley/Lapua match ammo. I've had lots of problems with SK or Wolf in the past shooting in temps < 40 degrees (F), with accuracy usually going completely away below 35 degrees or so. For instance, one lot of WMT went from 1.25" average center-to-center for five shots at 100 meters at 55 degrees to over four inches at 30 degrees. I don't know if the powder used is more sensitive temperature or if there's even any difference in powder used. I do know that I don't intend to risk any more matches in temps colder than 40 degrees by using SK/Wolf.

For cold weather shooting I keep disposable handwarmers in my pocket with loaded magazines (SK+ or WMT) between them. Does it make a difference? Not sure but I don't have groups expanding. I also keep warmers under my ammo boxes in my range bag, so everything stays warmer, whatever that means.