What makes "match"

[Jim Watson]

I shot F=T/R for a few seasons and had a lot of fun early on. Then NRA decided the scores were getting too high so they cut the size of the target in half. That cost me a new barrel and more care in the loading.

Match is what the good shooters are using in rifle matches. The rest is advertising.

Lots of advertising of "match grade." They don't say "match WINNING grade." Very commonly seen in production line pistols.

 

[jmorris]

In some circles it’s a term one uses to entice people to buy their product. Along with other unsubstantiated claims.

“Match” ammunition with “target-grade accuracy”, I guess it sounds better than “Ideal for plinking”…



There is a hint of truth in “Excellent choice for action target shooting”. You probably won’t see any at a bullseye match.

When most people use it I hear, “new and improved”, “space age”, “super”, “extra strength”, “fast acting”, “now with more….”

 

[Slamfire]

I shot F=T/R for a few seasons and had a lot of fun early on. Then NRA decided the scores were getting too high so they cut the size of the target in half. That cost me a new barrel and more care in the loading.

With the current level of scores, I predict another reduction in target size. I am wondering when they will go the bench rest route with indexing paper behind the bull. Also at some point, the rifles will be automated in some sort of fixture, the human will sit somewhere and tap on his tablet to make the thing go bang.

 

[Jim Watson]

I don't think anybody is building target pits any more, it is all electronic targets like CMP Talladega. That ought to handle overlapping shots.

There was a humor piece in an old Handloaders' Digest. At the futuristic gun club meeting, everybody was comparing their latest algorithms for simulating targets. Everybody but one, who was actually shooting. He was thought hopelessly out of date.

 

[.308 Norma]

Match is what the good shooters are using in rifle matches. The rest is advertising.

Lots of advertising of "match grade."

Yup! This is “match” ammo. In fact, it’s “hunter match” ammo - it says so on the box.
It worked so well (except in my Ruger 10-22) for shooting ground squirrels over on a friend’s ranch the spring before last that I went back to the store and bought 2 more bricks just like this one.
I don’t know why my Ruger 10-22 doesn’t like it very much, but I really don’t care - it works well in every other .22LR gun my wife and I have tried it in. And it kills ground squirrels dead, dead, dead.
Note: I put the masking tape notice on the box because my wife and I each have several .22LRs, and I’m getting old - I don’t like trying to remember which .22LR ammo works in which gun(s) when we're going shooting - whether we're just going plinking, ground squirrel shooting, serious target shooting (like if we just put a new scope on one of our rifles) or what.