Quote from Liberty4Ever on 11/02/09 at 17:36:55:I'd generally agree that it's good to use a common ammo to make rough comparisons between rifles, for reliable operation and accuracy, but I'd also caution against thinking that the ammo is the same so the accuracy differences are due only to the rifles. Some rifles like some ammo better than others.
If you know you'll only shoot one ammo, such as surplus military ball ammo, and that's all that matters to you, then making that comparison is fair and worthwhile. I'm interested in all accuracy reports with all types of ammo, but what I'd really like to see is the best accuracy that an experienced reloader is able to achieve. I think that's a much better indication of the accuracy potential of any rifle, and it's also more appropriate to the real world accuracy I can expect because I will be reloading specifically for the RFB.
So far, I haven't heard any super accurate RFB reports, but I also haven't heard from anybody who has gotten serious about reloading and bench rest shooting, either.
I'm also very interested in the accuracy of the Target RFB. It won't do much good to shoot 1200 yards if the best accuracy is 2 MOA, unless all of your targets are larger than 24" wide and tall. A Target RFB with a demonstrated accuracy of over 1 MOA is of much less use to me. A 2 MOA Carbine RFB is still pretty cool in my opinion and has a lot of use. There is very little shooting over 200 yards that I'd ever be doing in any practical application around here. To me, the Carbine RFB is more of a hard hitting, high penetration, urban combat weapon. If you needed to pop around a corner and corner and quickly fire ten reasonably accurate shots 75 yards away through a concrete block wall, that's the time to have a Carbine RFB. I certainly don't have that need now, and I don't anticipate it, but I was a Boy Scout. Be Prepared is still my motto.
Have no fear, I am a reloader.

I'm experimenting with factory ammunition at this point to determine where the 'sweet spot' is for bullet weight/design, so that I don't invest $$$ in components that don't have a chance of working out. Once I shoot these Nosler 165 gr Accubonds, I'll have a good idea - I've put 168gr, 160gr, 155gr, 150gr, and 147gr ammunition through the RFB. So far the 147gr and 168 gr has shot best, which is good to know in the times you may need to shoot commercial ammunition. I'll be working up loads soon once I've tried the 165, to see what I can bring out from the rifle. I'm currently looking at 165 Accubonds with ~45gr of Varget as a good all-purpose cartridge. At the current prices I can obtain components at, it works out to about 50c a round for ammunition loaded to my specifications.
In my 30'06 (Remington 700 based), I went from 1.5MOA to .3MOA through reloading, for approximately 1/4th the price of match-grade ammunition. Many people make this mistake of comparing reloads to the least expensive ammunition they can buy, and then making decisions based on this. Bad idea.

I expect to see the same accuracy improvements from reloading for the RFB - maybe not as dramatic as I'm limited by COAL due to the magazine, and the barrel not being floated/tilting action won't allow for the same accuracy, but I'm certain I can pull 1MOA or better groups from the proper bullet/load. This is more than suitable for my purposes.
The intent of this post was to find somebody who had shot the same ammunition, and determine if they had the same results, nothing more. The topic has drifted considerably since my initial post.