Match Report
Went to our silhouette match Sunday. It was a bit humid, no breeze and 86° with mostly sunny skies. Did a test in the Calfee XP-100 in .22LR.
Eley recently came out with their first-ever bulk box of bullets, the resurrected Eley Standard, which used to be my go-to silhouette ammo until it was discontinued in 2008. This new stuff was made for sale through the CMP at first, but there is at least one other retailer that has them now. You could only buy a case of 5000 through the CMP. I did obtain a brick to test...even though I have vehemently shunned anything in a bulk box.
There have been a few threads here about this ammo, several of them say it is junk, but I thought differently. I figured Eley was responding to the hugely successful American market, where most rimfire shooters go for the bulk ammo...a way to get into this market for them. The ammo specs are pretty much the same as most of their target-grade varieties. So, my take is that Standard is nothing more than Eley Target in a bulk-pack. I can't see them making some completely new ammo just for this purpose. I wanted to try it out.
The rimfire side was quite empty, so after the targets were all freshly painted, I made a deal with the match director. I would shoot 2 entries, back to back, but I didn't want anyone else to start a relay before I got the first entry done, plus the first relay after. That way, the only bullet marks on the targets were the ones I made.
I checked the sight settings on the swingers with Eley Target, my usual ammo. I do 1 pig, 2 turkeys and 2 rams. All 5 were as expected. I then proceeded to shoot the match using Eley Target, and 40 rounds later, I had scored a 40x40. Right back to the chickens, I started the next match, using NO sighters this time. 40 rounds later, I had recorded another 40x40.
With 4 bullet marks on each target (we shoot banks of 5 auto-reset targets) I compared the hit locations. None of the Eley Bulk shots were out of the groups established by the Eley Target ammo in the first match. They weren't all exactly on top of one another, but most were well grouped. I did make one marginal shot on a ram, but it was called 3" left of center, and that is where it went. With the 8x Leupold scope, I could see each impact of each bullet as I shot the match, before the target went down, and I confirmed all the hits after I was done shooting.
I have shot 2 matches now with the Eley Standard this year, both were perfect scores with no uncalled flyers. I plan on shooting a lot more of this stuff.
Went to our silhouette match Sunday. It was a bit humid, no breeze and 86° with mostly sunny skies. Did a test in the Calfee XP-100 in .22LR.
Eley recently came out with their first-ever bulk box of bullets, the resurrected Eley Standard, which used to be my go-to silhouette ammo until it was discontinued in 2008. This new stuff was made for sale through the CMP at first, but there is at least one other retailer that has them now. You could only buy a case of 5000 through the CMP. I did obtain a brick to test...even though I have vehemently shunned anything in a bulk box.
There have been a few threads here about this ammo, several of them say it is junk, but I thought differently. I figured Eley was responding to the hugely successful American market, where most rimfire shooters go for the bulk ammo...a way to get into this market for them. The ammo specs are pretty much the same as most of their target-grade varieties. So, my take is that Standard is nothing more than Eley Target in a bulk-pack. I can't see them making some completely new ammo just for this purpose. I wanted to try it out.
The rimfire side was quite empty, so after the targets were all freshly painted, I made a deal with the match director. I would shoot 2 entries, back to back, but I didn't want anyone else to start a relay before I got the first entry done, plus the first relay after. That way, the only bullet marks on the targets were the ones I made.
I checked the sight settings on the swingers with Eley Target, my usual ammo. I do 1 pig, 2 turkeys and 2 rams. All 5 were as expected. I then proceeded to shoot the match using Eley Target, and 40 rounds later, I had scored a 40x40. Right back to the chickens, I started the next match, using NO sighters this time. 40 rounds later, I had recorded another 40x40.
With 4 bullet marks on each target (we shoot banks of 5 auto-reset targets) I compared the hit locations. None of the Eley Bulk shots were out of the groups established by the Eley Target ammo in the first match. They weren't all exactly on top of one another, but most were well grouped. I did make one marginal shot on a ram, but it was called 3" left of center, and that is where it went. With the 8x Leupold scope, I could see each impact of each bullet as I shot the match, before the target went down, and I confirmed all the hits after I was done shooting.
I have shot 2 matches now with the Eley Standard this year, both were perfect scores with no uncalled flyers. I plan on shooting a lot more of this stuff.