PrecisionRifleBlog.com A DATA-DRIVEN Approach to Precision Rifles, Optics & Gear

Bryan Litz and the team from Applied Ballistics have released another book packed with their latest research projects and findings related to long-range shooting. This new book is the 3rd Volume in the series they call Modern Advancements in Long Range Shooting. It is not just a new edition of an old book. It contains 100% new content/research and stands on its own (i.e. you don’t have to read the other volumes to get value from this one). Bryan mailed me an early draft of the book several weeks ago, and I’ve read it cover-to-cover. It is equally as interesting ...

Have you ever been at a match, and you saw a shooter there you respect – and you wished you could see what was going on in his head? What does he think about before a stage? What is he thinking about as he takes each shot? Why is he running that bag? How does he practice? What helped him make the leap from a mid-pack shooter to the guy who consistently goes home with trophies? Over the past couple of years, a few of the very best precision rifle competitors have started publishing podcasts. It would be extremely rare in any sport for the guys at the absolute pinnacle of the sport to take the time to host a podcast and openly share their knowledge, approach, and mindset with the rest of their community - but, we are fortunate in the precision rifle world for that to be true. Over the past few months, I’ve learned more from these podcasts than anywhere else, so I naturally want to share those with my readers so you can benefit from them, too!

I need your help! I’m excited to share the details of a 100-yard underground range I’ve been building where I’ll be able to experiment in a fully controlled environment. I’ve already completed the structural construction, and I’d love some advice on how to finish it out (i.e., electronics, bullet traps, ventilation, etc.). I know I have readers with expertise in many different fields, so I’ll share what I’ve done so far and what I have planned, and you guys can help me improve it!

This quick post is a little different than most of my content, but I wanted to pass along something I personally found exciting. It’s not technical, but it’s helpful! The convenience and speed of Amazon Prime have revolutionized how we all shop. Before my Amazon Prime membership, the cost for expedited shipping to get something to my door in 1 or 2 days was outrageous. Honestly, expedited shipping still costs a fortune for most online retailers – often even more than what you’re buying! Amazon has clearly changed consumer expectations when it comes to shipping speed for online orders. Today, ...

This article takes all of the performance data collected from my massive ammo test based on 1,000+ rounds of live fire and shows us what the best rifle ammo for the money is. It takes the hit probability from 400 to 1,200 yards for each of the 19 types of ammo and the average price for a box of ammo and calculates which provides the highest value per dollar spent. Check out which brands are offering a ridiculous value to the shooting community – and which are not! There are more than a few surprises!

If you only read one article in this series, MAKE IT THIS ONE! This article takes all the data collected over months of live-fire research and sums it all up by ranking each type of ammo by hit probability from 400 to 1,200 yards! After all, the size of a group on paper at 100 yards or the muzzle velocity our chronograph spits out doesn’t really matter – at least not directly. For long-range work, all that actually matters is if our bullet impacts the target downrange. Precision and velocity affect that, but so do a lot of other factors! So this article is like the grand finale and ranks which ammo gives us the best odds of connecting with long-range targets.

Welcome to Part 5 of the results from my massive 6.5 Creedmoor ammo field test! This article will cover the results from over 150 five-shot groups that I fired. There were 760 shots for record, which I carefully collected over several tedious days at the range. When it comes to long-range, precision rifles, many of us can fixate on trying to coax tiny groups out of our rifles. After all, if you can’t hit a 1” target at 100 yards – your odds of hitting a target at 1,000 yards aren’t great. But, what is factory ammo truly capable of? ...

This is the second article in this series covering the muzzle velocity data I collected. The last article covered how this data was collected, along with a summary and head-to-head comparison of all the 19 different types of match-grade factory 6.5 Creedmoor ammo that was included in this research. If you haven’t read that article yet, I’d suggest starting by reading it – but here is a quick summary: I bought two boxes of 19 types of 6.5 Creedmoor ammo that were marketed as “match” or “target” grade. Each box was purchased 6 months apart from different distributors to get ...

Welcome to Part 3 of the results of a massive 6.5 Creedmoor ammo field test, where I tested multiple boxes of every kind of 6.5 Creedmoor ammo that is marketed as “match” or “target” grade. That included 19 different brands and types of 6.5 Creedmoor ammo! This article is going to cover all the muzzle velocity data that I collected over almost 1,000 rounds fired. Consistent muzzle velocity is key for long-range shooting, otherwise, bullets that leave the muzzle faster than normal could miss high, or bullets that leave the muzzle slower could miss low. While the goal is for ...

I’m so excited to start sharing the data I collected in a massive field test I conducted on 19 different types of 6.5 Creedmoor match-grade factory ammo. With the price of this kind of 6.5 Creedmoor “match-grade” factory ammo hovering around $3/round right now, it seems like this series might be especially relevant! That’s too expensive for most people to experiment with several brands and types of ammo, so hopefully, this research will help guys narrow down their search to a couple of the best-performing brands and types to try in their rifles. I know there are a ton of ...