Mixed headstamp brass experiment and results.

[Dubious]

hunting season is over coyote season has started and covid is in full swing. Im an out of work tin basher with lots of time on my hands to experiment in my lair. So inspired by the mixed feeling on another thread I decided to load up some mixed ammo hit the range, record my results to share with you all. This ammo was in its repurposed from 270 form and had been trimmed converted to 25cal and had a false shoulder built keep that in mind. Please enjoy my data collection and interesting (for some of us) results.

Rifle
25-06ai 26" barrel 1-10 twist
Load
70 gr sierra blitsking mixed fire forming brass FC WIN RP head stamps h4831SC same powder charge for all brass fed large rifle primers OAL 3.190
Weather -3ºc(26.6F if your following along in quickload) 58%hum pressure 103.2kpa no wind

After driving to the range setting up my Labradar sighting in (first 2 groups) the rifle for the 70 gr bullets I recorded this data. the rifle shot well for all 3 groups I fired, I shot more than one recorded session so thats why the bullet count on the target doesn't match up. I did not keep track of what brass was being used in what order so the results are as mixed as randomly grabbing some ammo from a bag out hunting. the recored data is as follows; Velocity 3637fps ES 124 sd 33.7 number of shots 11. as you can see the ES is all over the place but the rifle did shoot a nice group when I got home I checked the brass capacity in gr h2o and discovered the difference,

FC empty 203.8 gr filled 70.2gr h2o
WIN empty 190.4gr filled 71.9gr h2o
RP empty 199.9 Filled 70.6gr h2o

The fc brass shows some primer movement and flattening of the primer, it did not remain flush with the head I would expect this is from its low capacity and the fire forming process spiking pressure I pressed it back in place before filling the case with water. the Winchester brass appears to have a slight bit of cratering (see photo) its not as pronounced in person as in the photo and RP brass had no notable markings on the brass head stamp or primers.

Over all this ammo shoots well for 100m I personally wouldn't put it into a regular go to load as the ES and SD is way to high for me. It looks good at 100 but I know if you stretched the legs out to 500 it would be all over the place, if you where to hunt with it at average hunting distances (1-250m) it would stack em up in the freezer over and over for you if your going to be knocking down dogs at a half click or punching paper it might be best to work on it a bit more sort your brass and tame that ES.

[obsessed1]

This test mirrors multiple test I have done on the same concern. I've shot alonside many other shooters who couldn't put groups like that together with factory ammo before calling their system good to go. I agree SD and ES will not be great but for tons of guys a real actual 200yds is about the furthest they will ever shoot and loads similar to your test loads are more than adequate for their hunting/ target needs. As skill level increases and desire to tighten up groups or push the distance past about that 300 yds then start going down all those rabbit holes.
I do agree with all the claims about being consistent and blah blah blah....but some guys starting out don't have the funds to go down every dark hole and if a good supply ghost of brass is already in hand , have at er you'll probably be surprised at the results sometimes.
Shooters often make the sport about nothing more than spending money.....If you don't have...If your...didn't cost...it's not always the case...start where you are and move forward from there.

Great test by the way and those are decent groups given the test parameters

[elkhunter11]

This is one example, and in this comparison the results were pretty good at 100m. I have seen situations where the capacities varied much more, and it effected velocity and accuracy much more than that. In some instances, when approaching maximum loads, the bolt was actually difficult to open with certain cases, which could have made a follow up shot very unlikely.