Thread: Matches with hunting bullets

Originally Posted by Magnetite

How much of a difference in accuracy is there between match and hunting bullets?

2 examples:
Sierra 6.5mm 130gr TMK vs TGK
Hornady 6.5mm 140gr ELD-M vs 143gr ELD-X

If you wanted just one hunting load and do the odd match are you at much of a disadvantage?

For me, there's a definite benefit to using just one bullet and getting to know it.
I use a hunting bullet with excellent terminal ballistics and good accuracy(NBT) and shoot about half of them at competitions, which are really 90% practice for hunting anyway.
If you're shooting long range (>700m), bench rest or NRA (eg F class) then you'll want to at least test out a specialist target bullet. But for positional and practical type matches a good hunting bullet will be plenty good enough. Of course, if you can't get your hunting bullet to group well (< 1.5 MOA) then start again with something else.
Another point is that very high BC bullets can be very long and difficult to fit in your magazine.
I've read that longer bullets are a bit harder to stabilise so if you've got an average, non-match barrel you might get better overall accuracy using a short flat base hunting, varmint or bench rest bullet, as mentioned above (this is not personal experience, just received wisdom from Litz books and elsewhere).