By Frank Melloni

October 31, 2018

Truth be told I almost never shoot factory ammunition. Hornady components have always delivered the results I've been looking for, turning even rack grade rifles into sub minute of angle tack drivers.

I believe that being able to select your own powder, charge weight and seating depth is instrumental to finding sub minute of angle accuracy.

Well, I used to anyway.

In October of 2018 I was evaluating a Savage 110 Stealth Evolution chambered in 338 Lapua Magnum for ShootingIllustrated.Com.

The article was about testing Savage's sub MOA out-of-the-box claim. After mounting a Riton Mod 7 5-25x optic we decided to take it out to 500 yards to see how she shoots. Not all of our readers handload so we ran a variety of factory ammo through the rifle and turned in groups with a wide variance in accuracy, some as poor as 3 MOA. We found a few different Factory loads that brought us into minute of angle at that distance but only one that brought us inside of half, and that was the Hornady 250 grain BTHP match round.

After shooting several groups that were smaller than 2.5" at 500, we ran a piece of paper out to the maximum distance of the Mifflin County Sportsman Association range which is just shy of 1050 yards.

With just a mild wind to my back I quickly delivered three rounds before it changed.

Turning to my spotter Ron Ingram I said "They felt good let's take a ride"

About 3 minutes later we arrived at the target and I couldn't believe the 1/3 MOA group that I was staring at.

With results like this I may be spending less time at the bench and more time on the range.

Frank Melloni
Renaissance Firearms Instruction - Owner
History Channel’s TOP SHOT -
Season 4 Competitor
Freelance Firearms Writer - Multiple Publications