Practice Ammo?

[papajoe222]

For those of you that shoot competition of any sort, do you practice with the same loads you shoot in competition? When the money is on the line, my best reloads, those with top of the line components, get the nod of course. When I practice I use rounds with less expensive components, but give me similar results. For my .223, as an example, Sierra Tipped Match Kings, Lapua brass, BR primers and H322 powder. My practice rounds are Sierra Match Kings, Federal brass. CCI #400 and Varget powder. My .308 practice fodder is about half the cost.

 

[Hengehold]

It depends. I shoot NRA Long Range ( 1k yds) and highpower rifle (200/300/600yds).
For some rifle disciplines I can practice at reducing ranges to simulate the full distance of the match and get similar training value. When I shoot reduced distance matches & practices I usually shoot “practice ammo” which is made with cheap components and lower quality controls during the reloading process.

If I am practicing at 600yds or beyond then all my ammo is the same quality.

-Trevor

 

[Retired Grunt]

For those of you that shoot competition of any sort, do you practice with the same loads you shoot in competition? When the money is on the line, my best reloads, those with top of the line components, get the nod of course. When I practice I use rounds with less expensive components, but give me similar results. For my .223, as an example, Sierra Tipped Match Kings, Lapua brass, BR primers and H322 powder. My practice rounds are Sierra Match Kings, Federal brass. CCI #400 and Varget powder. My .308 practice fodder is about half the cost.

Last year yes, this year I am not practicing much...both times I went out on scheduled practice days I was really just load testing.

 

[Forum Boss]

I found that shooting .22 LR at 50 yards helped my centerfire shooting considerably. Any mistake I made in rifle hold, aiming, trigger pull, follow-through etc. would show up on the target.

To my surprise, when I went back out to 600 centerfire, things seemed easier, and my scores improved.

 

[JohnKielly]

I kind of think that using less reliable ammunition to practice is the same as telling a new shooter to buy any old gun because they won't be skilled enough to know the difference.

 

[wkdickinson]

I have always practiced with what I shoot in competition, how else do you know that your practice is of any value. The only time in the past that I have done anything else was practicing for High-Power "rapid-fire" when my purpose was to develop a cadence, I don't think I ever even looked at a target in those practice sessions.

For example, if you know you rifle shoots Lapua Center X (lot XXXXX) the best and you practice with RWS Target Rifle, what are you learning? You already know the RWS doesn't shoot as well as CX. So using it hasn't taught you a thing.

This is an expensive sport! True, ammo and components are hard to find, so if you are just practicing the fundamentals, maybe dry-firing would be better. IMO, if you are to the point in your shooting career that you are using the best to compete, practicing with less is not of much value.

 

[Matthew Schwartzkopf]

Practice is overrated

 

[BP1]

Remember this guy?

 

[MikeMcCasland]

With the component situation being what it is, I don't even "practice" anymore. My 308s really only get shot in matches or load dev, and I'll screw around with a 6mm/6.5mm to avoid putting miles on the 'serious' guns.

Edit: If I felt like I needed practice on my 'serious' guns, I would shoot the same ammo I intended to shoot in a match. You need to learn the system as a whole. For example, wind for a 175 SMK and a 200.20x at 1,000 are two totally different things.

 

[Rsadams]

I agree with shooting a decent rimfire for practice during these tough times....

 

[CaptainMal]

Well, with no bullets, powder, primers or even barrels readily available, practice is suspended maybe forever.

 

[Dgd6mm]

As little as I compete anymore it's now called shooting for me. It's also cheaper. A lot of. 22lr SK SP and CCI SV. For centerfire we just purchased 6000 Hornaday 55fmjbt for banging steel out to 400 yards in our .223's. I did this during Obama's years.

 

[Dub]

my practice is done with match components. otherwise why bother

 

[D-4297]

My H.S. Football coach said you'll play the way you practice . We won three state titles , back to back , to back and I shoot the same load to practice that I shoot in comps . Just use my older brass to save the good stuff for Matches . Although I have to admit , my practices have been reduced by about half in the last year or so . AND IT SUCKS !

 

[garandman]

If cheaper components gave me same results, I'd go with the cheaper components in matches.

They don't, so I compete with Midas + and practice with Midas + (50 yd BR) Otherwise, how do I know if it was the ammo or me that hit outside the 10 ring?

 

[Ned Ludd]

I have recently been working up an F-TR "practice" load utilizing 185 Hybrids and AA4064. The sole reason for doing so is to have a practice load that is reasonably close to my competition loads with 200.20Xs over Varget in terms of performance and recoil, so as not to burn up all my Varget and 200.20X match components solely on practice. The 185 Hybrid bullet has a very good BC for its weight, and when pushed to around 75 fps faster than a typical 200.20X/Varget F-TR load, the performance is only very slightly behind. The difference is small enough that I seriously doubt it will have a negative impact on my match scores by using it in practice. Moreover, AA4064 has been readily available in the last few months, and I have at least seen 185 Hybrids available from time to time since the shortages began last year. I can imagine that IMR4166, which has also been readily available in recent months would also be a good choice. It's solely a personal choice, but I would much rather shoot a load that is close in performance to my match loads, but that doesn't burn up the reloading components that hardest to come by right now, than to shoot/practice less often.

 

[jelenko]

My thought is practice ammo/rifle needs to provide enough performance/accuracy to be able to provide useful feedback on our execution.
If it's good enough for that, isn't it good enough for a match?

 

[CJ6]

How do you figure out mistakes If you're using substandard ammo/componants ?

 

[Sandstorm]

Practice on the line is the only practice I do...school of hard knocks.