It must be encroaching age. As I near the big one starting with a 7, I find myself struggling with some perplexing data. Let me explain.

About 18 months ago, after learning of the passing of Swampy, I decided to switch to Hornady A-tips 230gr bullets on the strength of recommendations here and the technical data.

It was not an immediate success. To be completely non-judgmental, it was nothing short of a disaster. My scores took a nosedive and then they got worse. Everything that I had learned in 14 years of F-TR and 38+ years of competition shooting was out the window. Nothing made sense. One day I would have a great string then it would just blow up. After 1300 rounds of match ammo with 230 A-tips, I was ready to give up on these bad boys. Then I loaded my last 300 rounds for one club match and TSRA LR. I had found recently than the A-tips behaved very badly in heavily fouled barrels. My JLKs could go many hundreds of rounds before they started acting up. Then a quick cleanup and back to normal.

Not so with the A-tips. A few months back, I posted here where I was at my wits' end, and after inspecting the bore with my Hawkeye, I cleaned the snot out of the barrel. I reported that it took almost 15 round before the barrel settled in after the JB bore (not Weld) treatment.

I shot a club match 2 weekends ago and did ok, but not as I used to. Then we got to TSRA last weekend. On Friday, we shot team and I had a great time calling for the other 3 shooters, but we were short one shooter and I had to shoot and let someone else call wind for me. It was not a success. We did win the third match of three, where the wind was awful (remember, we had hurricane Delta a hundred miles away of some such.) I did fine with the first 3 shooters and I shot last and crumbled, but we had done well enough with the first 3 to win that match. I blamed the wind caller most, and my rifle next.

On Saturday, we started the individuals and in bunny conditions (Delta had gone by that time, and it's quite calm after a hurricane has gone by,) I shot a master score. Not good enough to place, however. As the day wore on the scores got worse. I was watching my bullets jump up or down and not going where I expected them to go. Everyone was saying it was the Hornady A-Tips and that I should switch to the Bergers and give up on those Hornadys.

Saturday night, I toyed with the idea of sleeping in late and not going to the match. What was the use? But that's not my style, I was going to show up.

So, I decided to clean the snot out of my rifle again, even though it had only been about 300 rounds since I had cleaned it to the metal. Usually I would go 600 rounds or more before a deep cleaning and 300 rounds for a quick 2-3 patch clean. I cleaned that puppy on that Saturday night, down to shiny metal.

On Sunday, I started the first match, fully expecting to take about 12-14 rounds to stabilize but instead I went for record after 6 rounds and did OK. I still was not fully confident in my rifle and the wind was twitchy. A couple hours later, after coming back from the pits, I started my last match. The mirage was up and running and the wind was nasty, once again. I took three sighters, and elected to put 2 MOA on the gun to get me just to the left side of the 10 ring. I figured the wind was mainly from the front right, (northeast) and I would just hold one or 2 lines from it and play from there. After the third sighter, which was a 9 at 3 o'clock, I declared for record and started my 20 round string. X, one on; X, two on; 10, three on. I was running my magnificent March-X 10-60X56 HM at 50X and I was watching the mirage in my Kowa on my left side. I kept up the rhythm and I was shooting fast. I was adjusting between center and 2 left. Then on shot 7, I got an 8 at 7 o'clock and I figured the A-tips were acting up again. Looking in my scope, I noticed that the mirage had actually switched around when I shot and that was what cause the blowout left and low. Without hesitation I switched to the right side, held 2 and a half lines right, favored high and cut loose. 10, nine on. I kept going. 10s and Xs. I was switching left and right, about 2 lines, 2 and a half, and then I dropped another one, a 9 at 9 o'clock just outside the 10. Should I challenge? Nah, we'll lose the story of the condition. I kept on going for the last few rounds, collecting a couple more Xs, and even aiming center at times. My last shot was a 10. I dropped two rounds, but 3 points for a 197-7X. I will tell you that I had some very fat 10s, but a 10 is a 10, however fat it may be. I was elated with my rifle and the ammo. My scorer was in awe. I did not listen to the other scores, but he told me this was some fancy shooting and that others were struggling in these bad conditions.

I signed my card, my scorer turned it in and then I noticed that I was the first one to finish. Looking back over my string, I just seemed like I could not miss; left hold, right hold, center, etc. Never more than two, two and a half lines out. It was uncanny.

Then I started going up and down the line looking at other shooters scores and it dawned on my that I had done quite well. As it turned out, I won that match beating the overall winner by a point and all the others by much more than that.

This is what the A-tips were supposed to do for me, I was holding one to two lines less than the other shooters; the A-tips were bucking the wind. So, it looks like the A-tips require a super-clean barrel. Or put another way, they HATE fouled barrel. So instead of clean every other match or three, I have to metal-clean after every match, and I'm toying with the idea of even running a patch or two through the barrel between strings.

That is, if I stay with the A-tips.

But for one glorious string on a windy switchy Sunday afternoon, I was able to coax the A-tips to shoot "sub-MOA" at 1000 yards. However, one must remember that sic transit gloria; the b*tch.

And now, do I stick with the A-tips or look elsewhere? I am soooo confused.

Thanks for that; I actually got a little tense reading it.
And congratulations.

I’d try the Berger’s just to be sure.

But I don’t compete.

I found out recently that JLK bullets are back in production. It seems someone picked up the stuff from Swampy's family. They are not making 30cal yet, but I am monitoring.

The problem with Bergers is that you can't just load them from the box; they have a pretty high base to ogive variation and so you have to sort them, and that's a pain. The JLKs were much more uniform. I would like to think the A-tips are also. I have measured a bunch and they look ok.

One of the neat by-products of aging is the ability to hide your own Easter eggs. The equivalent for us competition shooters is when you discover a box in your garage in which you had stored the inventory overflow from your reloading room. In that box, I found 1000 JLK 210gr .308 bullets. This has been a great weekend.

Just to share my frustration...
I've nearly given up on 208gr ELDM for the 308 Win in a 28" barrel. I had great results with 208 AMAX and 47.0gr of RL17 (2.253 measured to Oglive) in Winchester Brass (sorted by mass) and F215M primers. I was getting 2630fps and 1/2 MOA groups and no pressure signs. Needless to say I was elated. Then the 208 AMAX became hard to get and started running 208gr ELDM for availability sake, and had to lower the charge down to 46.0 but speeds stayed around the same. The accuracy is all over the place. Some days 1/2 to 3/4 and others 1 1/2. I switched to Lapua Brass and I can't more than 2 to 3 firings before the primer pockets give up and results aren't noticeably better (except for ES/SD reduction). This is the same with Berger 200.xx pills about 0.016 from the lands.
I will have to try the super clean approach vs. a fouled bore that seems to work on everything else...or search for a slower node.

Just a quick update after the Texas State mid range match. I loaded 200 rounds a week ago for this match using the load I had prior to my adventure in A-tip land. I loaded these bullets directly from the box, no tipping or trimming.

I had a great time at at the match; it was windy as all get out, but my rifle and ammo performed flawlessly. I cleaned the rifle before the match on Saturday and again last night before today's matches and I think I have the proper regimen now. I only need 2 rounds after the cleaning to get solidly locked in and even those first two rounds are realty good.

So bye, bye A-tips. I loved your BC, but you were unpredictable. They may be fine for PRS or ELR, but the repeat precision required in F-class was not something they can provide.

Thanks for the update and congratulations.

A-Tips have the aluminum tip—?

Correct, the A in A-Tips is for aluminum. They should have been called the AL-Tips. But for me, they are the Gone-Tips

Thank you for the detailed thread.

I had heard that JLK bullets were coming back; someone bought the equipment from Swampy's family, I would guess. I contacted the person, and it looks like they're getting ready to make my 210s again. That is good.