Blu,Blu wrote:GazMorris,Point taken, but how much money did those guys spend on their rifles, I'll wager a hell of a lot more than you or I would and they are usually finely tuned barrels and what not. Also those guys are probably doing all sorts to the bullet to get them to shoot the way they shoot, I don't believe for one minute they are shooting them straight out of the box. I believe it's a sad reflection when a cheapo 100Grn Speer bullet performs better than a so called "premier" bullet, hence I stand by my statement.Two Individual and Team World Long Range Championships in a row suggests that you're wrong about the $hite part
Blu
You'd be surprised how standard the rifles used by the GB Palma Team are. Most of the team used Swing (70s & 80s) or Paramount (90s) rifles, with the balance being made up by RPAs and one or two Barnards. Most barrels were Kriegers or Bartleins, with a few other brands thrown in for good measure. I doubt that there's a tuned barrel amongst them.
Relatively little was done to the bullets to get them to shoot. I think that the 1000 yard ammo was trimmed and pointed, but that's about it. All of the bullets for the match were spun to check concentricity. A single load was used for the vast majority of shooters (one or two had a slightly hotter load.) Bullets were seated very long when the ammunition was manufactured and the shooter would push back the ammo to the right length the night before. The most common jump was about 40 thou if I remember correctly.
Ammunition, rifle and shooter perform as a single system with the overall performance generally determined by the weakest link. If you're shooting an average rifle, then you can't expect to see a massive increase in performance when moving from good to very good bullets.
Gaz
