TargetTalk

I know I'll catch a lot of crap for this one, but I'm seriously looking for an answer.

Got my bags of Ely from CMP. Off the Ransom rest, SW41, grouped excellent. Fed Gold not quite as good, but good. OLD Remington target OK too, certainly for 50ft.

BUT.... when i shot hand hold, red dot, Ely all over the place, seriously. Went back and forth between each brand, and consistently the Ely couldn't hold the 9 ring at 50ft. Other brands easily 9/10 ring groups at 50ft.

WAY back in the day, when my father was doing 45 ballistic testing, he found a similar phenomenon with certain loads, great machine rest groups, but lousy hand hold groups.

One thing we found was that his rest (Broadway Rest) would allow for clips to be utilized, and this made a serious difference from clip to clip grouping. The Ransom rest, you cant use clips for loading, have to single load. This is only element i can think of.

Any experiences with this??

You can change magazines with the Ransom Rest. I do it all the time with the 1911, because for long line I only use one magazine. I have never used the Ransom Rest single loading with a magazine fed pistol.

Post your rest and hand held groups along with the distance.

I can't speak about pistol but when it comes to Smallbore rifle, here's my thought. Having spoken with many high master shooters, some will have their lot testing done at the Ely test facility in Texas, while others have their testing done in Mesa, Arizona, at the Lapua test facility. It is my understanding the the Army Marksman unit (?) does their testing off of a test bench but this is "hearsay." Other people do their testing while "suited up," meaning they test their ammo lots as if they were shooting in a tournament. My understanding is that there is a definite difference...... however, I'm sure there will be someone or some people who will disagree with this. The people whose opinions I value, test their ammo while "suited up." This, in my opinion, would lend credence to your thoughts about a difference between results obtained from a Ransom Rest vs a normal shooting posture. Having said all the above, I am reminded of the old adage: "Opinions are like rear ends, everyone has one."

well I haven't shot my lot of the CMP stuff at 50 Ft. but from 25 Yards it does quite well off hand both in my Marvel conversion and trailside.

Agree with Jim, I have a 41 and it will feed from magazines on my ransom..