Who considers lot #'s?

[BammaYankee]

I was at the range recently shooting factory match .308 in a bolt gun. Normally I get .30" average groups with this ammo, but on this day I could barely keep it under 1.5" at 100. I then tried it in a M1A and same thing... Rounds all over the place. This particular box came to me as part of a gear swap I made and I don't know exactly when it was made.

Fast forward, when I tried some rounds from a box from the same lot I last bought and have been using, no accuracy problems at all. Makes sense from a production variance perspective, but it raises the larger question of how many of us really pay attention to ammo lot #'s when buying ammo when accuracy can be significantly affected?

I keep track of my cold bore shots and rely on my drop table for this load, and to say my confidence was a but shaken was an understatement. I'm seriously considering a permanent switch to my pet handload because I can at least count on round to round consistency if I make it myself.

 

[JesseL]

Since you didn't buy the poorly performing ammo directly from the retailer, you might consider that you may not know much about how it was stored. Extreme temperatures can accelerate the degradation of the powder and primers and may give you the results you saw.

 

[taliv]

i sorta do. mostly though, because i have a pressure test strain gauge and i use factory ammo to calibrate it, so i try to buy a decent quantity of a particular lot and call the factory and ask what their pressure was for that lot.

 

[Walkalong]

Always buy a lot (16 to 32 Lbs) of one lot# for a competition gun so you don't have to keep working on a load. Even for pistol plinking I like to buy it in 4 or 8 lb jugs when I have something I like.

 

[JohnBT]

I certainly try to stock up on the good lots of .22 rimfire when I run across them. It makes all the difference. Unfortunately, what's great in one gun might only be merely good, if that, in another.

John