Biathlon Ammo Results

[xswanted]

Hey everyone,

I shot an NRL match this past Sunday and at match time it was 3 degrees or so.

Needless to say guns/ammo and everything was pretty cold.

I’d read and played with some things regarding 22s in the cold and found that a cold rifle and cold ammo seem to have the best combo of accuracy in extreme temps.

A cold gun and warm ammo was a disaster, cold ammo and a warm gun wasn’t the best either.


Anyway, for those of you who have spent time shooting some kind of precision discipline in temps under 20F and have used some kind of biathlon ammo……did it shoot fairly well?

I grabbed a brick of SK Biathlon to try and I’m curious as to what ti expect.

Thanks!

 

[Williwaw]

IMO the first thing to understand is that SK Biathlon is biathlon ammo in name only. It is simply the middle grade of the velocity family ... PMS, B, LRM.

I have experience with shooting down to about -22C, not sure exactly. F Class precision pretty well goes out the window below -18C. I split most cases and shoot half in the winter and half in the summer. Good ammo shoots good regardless of the season. Lapua Biathlon Extreme shoots like a middling lot of SK and not as good as Cx, I shoot warm/warm.

 

[grauhanen]

As Williwaw says, a particular lot of .22LR match ammo that shoots well in warmer temperatures will do so when it's cooler. This is true whether or not the word "biathlon" appears on the packaging.

All .22LR match ammo and entry level match ammo performance will vary by lot, not by make or variety of make. Many lots of match ammo may be very similar and a few very good or very poor. As a result it's not possible to accurately predict how any particular variety of .22LR match ammo -- be it CX or Polar Biathlon or the no-longer-produced Biathlon Extreme -- will perform.

SK Biathlon is an entry level .22LR match ammo (as are all SK varieties). While match ammos may vary in performance within a lot, entry level match ammos will often have greater variation of performance within each lot. This can mean some boxes or rounds within boxes will be more or less consistent than other rounds. In other words, there will often be good and poor performance with the same ammo.

 

[xswanted]

IMO the first thing to understand is that SK Biathlon is biathlon ammo in name only. It is simply the middle grade of the velocity family ... PMS, B, LRM.

I have experience with shooting down to about -22C, not sure exactly. F Class precision pretty well goes out the window below -18C. I split most cases and shoot half in the winter and half in the summer. Good ammo shoots good regardless of the season. Lapua Biathlon Extreme shoots like a middling lot of SK and not as good as Cx, I shoot warm/warm.

As Williwaw says, a particular lot of .22LR match ammo that shoots well in warmer temperatures will do so when it's cooler. This is true whether or not the word "biathlon" appears on the packaging.

All .22LR match ammo and entry level match ammo performance will vary by lot, not by make or variety of make. Many lots of match ammo may be very similar and a few very good or very poor. As a result it's not possible to accurately predict how any particular variety of .22LR match ammo -- be it CX or Polar Biathlon or the no-longer-produced Biathlon Extreme -- will perform.

SK Biathlon is an entry level .22LR match ammo (as are all SK varieties). While match ammos may vary in performance within a lot, entry level match ammos will often have greater variation of performance within each lot. This can mean some boxes or rounds within boxes will be more or less consistent than other rounds. In other words, there will often be good and poor performance with the same ammo.

Myself and countless other NRL shooters will disagree with you. g

Most of the Nothern (ND,MN, WI) NRL competitors that are shooting in the winter struggle with cold temps.


There's a point when the rifle is frozen and you cross a threshold where the inside temp of your barrel is cold enough for whatever lube you're using freezes, the gun isn't going to shoot very well. For me its about 20 degrees.

I guess I'm confused on the responses. From what both of you have said "biahtlon" ammo is no different then standard ammo, which is in fact incorrect according to the manufacturers of said ammo.

To clarify I'm not asking how it shoots, I'm asking how it performs in subzero temperatures.

I would assume there's a reason olympic competitors use it when temps reach a certain threshold.

 

[FNSafari]

In the Febuary and March matches at LCRC, when it was really cold I honestly didn't see much diff in 1120 roughly fps ammo vs. 1070/1080. Still rifle dependent. When its that cold though, its difficult to tell if its the ammo or your shivering!

 

[xswanted]

In the Febuary and March matches at LCRC, when it was really cold I honestly didn't see much diff in 1120 roughly fps ammo vs. 1070/1080. Still rifle dependent. When its that cold though, its difficult to tell if its the ammo or your shivering!

What temps?

 

[grauhanen]

To clarify I'm not asking how it shoots, I'm asking how it performs in subzero temperatures.

Are how it shoots and performance not related?

 

[Hoser]

20 above zero to about 100 is about my threshold for shooting outdoors.

That said I did a little lot testing with Lapua Biathlon and Eley Biathlon ammo. At 50 yards Eley Biathlon Club is awesome. Just shoots little knot holes like it means it. But past that it suffers in most of my rifles. Lapua biathlon extreme is the best ammo I have found in my Vudoo repeater. Really low ES/SD, feeds and extracts in the cold and velocity stays consistent. When I found a lot of it that held about .75 MOA at 150 meters I bought all of that lot that Mile High had in stock, 3 cases. The good news is that it isnt covered in slime/wax. The bad news is the price and also that it isnt made anymore.

My 40X Elrod repeaters and Vudoos get iffy on extracting almost all non biathlon ammo when the temps are below 15-20. Not sure why.

 

[xswanted]

Are how it shoots and performance not related?

I’m not sure how to phrase it any differently.

I’ll try to be more simple.


Assuming the ammo shoots “x” inch groups at 50 yards in warm conditions, since I’m explaining I’ll say 50 degrees.


Assuming the shooter then shoots in sub zero temperatures the question I’m asking is does biathlon ammo perform as advertised and maintain similar groups in said weather.

The argument on weather standard 22 target ammo shoots the same in warm weather and near sub zero temps is irrelevant to me at this point. From my findings and many other shooters experiences it’s not the case. I have lot tested ammo, very high quality ammo at that, and it where it shoots fantastically well in “normal” temperatures it does not hold up in cold weather.

Of the shooters I shot with on Sunday two of us were shooting high end Eley ammo, one Lapua, one SK and one was shooting CCI standard.

The guy shooting CCI standard won the match by a fair margin of impacts. My belief on this is CCI standard does not use a waxy or oily lube like Eley, SK or Lapua and was less effected by the cold than the others. The same has been proven by a few other northern shooters I’ve spoken with on the subject.

I shot less than 50% of a normal monthly score form myself and still ended up in second place. Groups at 50 yards started off when my gun/ammo was warm as normal and deteriorated as the day went on.

A group I fired at the end of the match for curiosity sake was roughly 3” at 50 yards, from ammo that will shoot in the .4s or better in “normal” conditions. No discernible evidence as to what direction they were going to go.

So the main question from the thread was not how to determine what ammo to use or to find a lot that works.

I’d like to hear from someone that has first hand experience with one of any of the biathlon ammo on the market to see if in fact it does (performs) what is supposed to do in extreme cold.

 

[xswanted]

20 above zero to about 100 is about my threshold for shooting outdoors.

That said I did a little lot testing with Lapua Biathlon and Eley Biathlon ammo. At 50 yards Eley Biathlon Club is awesome. Just shoots little knot holes like it means it. But past that it suffers in most of my rifles. Lapua biathlon extreme is the best ammo I have found in my Vudoo repeater. Really low ES/SD, feeds and extracts in the cold and velocity stays consistent. When I found a lot of it that held about .75 MOA at 150 meters I bought all of that lot that Mile High had in stock, 3 cases. The good news is that it isnt covered in slime/wax. The bad news is the price and also that it isnt made anymore.

My 40X Elrod repeaters and Vudoos get iffy on extracting almost all non biathlon ammo when the temps are below 15-20. Not sure why.

Boom. Here’s what I’m looking for.


Thank you

 

[dutch14]

20 above zero to about 100 is about my threshold for shooting outdoors.

That said I did a little lot testing with Lapua Biathlon and Eley Biathlon ammo. At 50 yards Eley Biathlon Club is awesome. Just shoots little knot holes like it means it. But past that it suffers in most of my rifles. Lapua biathlon extreme is the best ammo I have found in my Vudoo repeater. Really low ES/SD, feeds and extracts in the cold and velocity stays consistent. When I found a lot of it that held about .75 MOA at 150 meters I bought all of that lot that Mile High had in stock, 3 cases. The good news is that it isnt covered in slime/wax. The bad news is the price and also that it isnt made anymore.

My 40X Elrod repeaters and Vudoos get iffy on extracting almost all non biathlon ammo when the temps are below 15-20. Not sure why.

For my information on a project, what are you calling a really low es/sd?

 

[moondog]

Flew down to Mesa Several years ago to get my RimX tested. None of the lots shot great but, a lot of BiathlonX shot best. I bought 2 1/2 cases, all they had. Hated the RimX and sold it. That ammo shoots better in my Vudoo than anything else. In fact, it shoots really well in most other of my buddies 22s. I'm not a benchrester but it shoots amazingly well out to 400 for me. I know it doesn't meen squat, but I'm pretty amazed at the sd.

 

[moondog]

My experience with the BiathlonX in the really hot days is excessive fouling. I've since come up with a fix for that. In cold weather, no wax to harden up causing extraction issues.

 

[grauhanen]

I’m not sure how to phrase it any differently.

I’ll try to be more simple.


Assuming the ammo shoots “x” inch groups at 50 yards in warm conditions, since I’m explaining I’ll say 50 degrees.


Assuming the shooter then shoots in sub zero temperatures the question I’m asking is does biathlon ammo perform as advertised and maintain similar groups in said weather.

The argument on weather standard 22 target ammo shoots the same in warm weather and near sub zero temps is irrelevant to me at this point. From my findings and many other shooters experiences it’s not the case. I have lot tested ammo, very high quality ammo at that, and it where it shoots fantastically well in “normal” temperatures it does not hold up in cold weather.



So the main question from the thread was not how to determine what ammo to use or to find a lot that works.

I’d like to hear from someone that has first hand experience with one of any of the biathlon ammo on the market to see if in fact it does (performs) what is supposed to do in extreme cold.

In a single shot rifles I haven't found that biathlon ammo shoots or performs better than standard match ammo in colder temperatures. An ammo that performs well when it's warm will also perform well when it's not. Colder temperatures can certainly affect shooter performance.

All .22LR match ammo, including those with "biathlon" on the box, will have slower MVs in colder temperatures. Once sights or scope are adjusted, that doesn't affect how the ammo shoots or performs downrange.

What makes match biathlon ammo such as Lapua or Eley different than standard match ammo such as Lapua or Eley are two things, neither of which have much to do with how they shoot or perform downrange. One is that they are a little faster than the standard match varieties. The other is that in terms of physical shape they are made slightly differently in order to help in rapid loading in cooler temps in the Fortner action rifles used in biathlon. In the case of Lapua the bullet is differently shaped and in the case of Eley the cartridge has a smaller diameter than usual by .0008". While Lapua says nothing about different bullet lubrication, Eley says it uses a "specially formulated lubrication" without indicating whether it's different from what's used on it's other match ammo.

 

[Hoser]

For my information on a project, what are you calling a really low es/sd?

Single digits for both.

 

[Hoser]

My experience with the BiathlonX in the really hot days is excessive fouling. I've since come up with a fix for that. In cold weather, no wax to harden up causing extraction issues.

I also saw that, but after a few boxes it seemed to clear up.

Our December 120 round belly match was about 55 degrees or so. The fouling was that same as with any other ammo.

But I dont mind cleaning a barrel after a match.

 

[xswanted]

In a single shot rifles I haven't found that biathlon ammo shoots or performs better than standard match ammo in colder temperatures. An ammo that performs well when it's warm will also perform well when it's not. Colder temperatures can certainly affect shooter performance.

All .22LR match ammo, including those with "biathlon" on the box, will have slower MVs in colder temperatures. Once sights or scope are adjusted, that doesn't affect how the ammo shoots or performs downrange.

What makes match biathlon ammo such as Lapua or Eley different than standard match ammo such as Lapua or Eley are two things, neither of which have much to do with how they shoot or perform downrange. One is that they are a little faster than the standard match varieties. The other is that in terms of physical shape they are made slightly differently in order to help in rapid loading in cooler temps in the Fortner action rifles used in biathlon. In the case of Lapua the bullet is differently shaped and in the case of Eley the cartridge has a smaller diameter than usual by .0008". While Lapua says nothing about different bullet lubrication, Eley says it uses a "specially formulated lubrication" without indicating whether it's different from what's used on it's other match ammo.

Again, I’ll disagree with you about ammo not perromimg in the cold. Its been proven time and time again by many shooters.

I myself have been playing with it daily and quality match ammo is simply not shooting in the cold.

So I’d love to hear what ammo you’re using, what discipline you’re shooting and what the temps are, group size in “normal” temps and groups sizes in temps below 20 degrees F.


Ammo that will shoot very well normally is shooting very large groups in the cold weather.l to the extent of I know it’s not shooter performance.

The tests I’ve done since Sunday have included quite a bit of different high end match ammo as well as cheap target ammo.

Temps have been at or near zero.

A cold rifle, outside for 30-40 minutes with ammo that has been outside for the same amount of time will not shoot the same as it normally does.

 

[xswanted]

Flew down to Mesa Several years ago to get my RimX tested. None of the lots shot great but, a lot of BiathlonX shot best. I bought 2 1/2 cases, all they had. Hated the RimX and sold it. That ammo shoots better in my Vudoo than anything else. In fact, it shoots really well in most other of my buddies 22s. I'm not a benchrester but it shoots amazingly well out to 400 for me. I know it doesn't meen squat, but I'm pretty amazed at the sd.

Yeah that’s crazy over the long string.


Have you ran it in single digit temps by any chance?

 

[Williwaw]

F Class 50 yards 8x5 40 shot composite 10F

This is the best 40 shot composite that I have got with this lot. This is the second case I've shot,the first case was shot in the summer.

 

[xswanted]

View attachment 1511122
F Class 50 yards 8x5 40 shot composite 10F

This is the best 40 shot composite that I have got with this lot. This is the second case I've shot,the first case was shot in the summer.

What ammo?

Earlier stated you shoot warm/warm……what do you do to keep your rifle warm?