Originally Posted by
JMS
I've not found that the Freedom ball ammo patterns well past 15yd, be it reman or new. That's with 115 and 124, never bought 147. The difference is more a matter of reliability, the level of incidence of having a primer take 2 or more attempts to light off goes up with the reman, though I've yet to have it be more than 3/case of reman.
I just had a new-new stock barrel (1:10) put into Thing2 (2012 M&P9, 10/8 sights, front painted flour orange), and checked for a tight fit. Hit the range to see what it could do and adjust sights, all of which included Speer GDHP124gr+P, Hotshot Elite 124gr ball, Blazer Brass 124gr ball, and Freedom 124gr ball. Freedom was used to get the sights roughed in @10yd, strictly because that stuff prints like smashed ass. I usually don't bring a buncha different ammos unless I'm trying to nail down where a gun's printing and which it prints best that most closely matches how it prints with what I carry.
FredM ambled in to the range as I was finishing up (and proceeded to positively burn the range down, BTW...), saw the target with which I finished up, which was a 25yd grouping with the last 12 rounds I had, Blazer Brass. The gun did fine, outside of user-headspacing. I put 3 rounds out of the bull, none by more than .5". ASH, I'm with you in terms of ability to establish one's hold, I'm still inconsistent enough that I'm still not sure if I do better using a smaller specific aimpoint, or if I do better with a larger well-contrasted field where I find the center on my own....
It's a small matter, but sometimes printing stuff one'd usually print to letter-size paper (say, a B8) to legal-size can help, especially if one has to lollipop. Whether it's a solid black front sight tip or one painted orange, that little extra bit of white appearing between the blade and the bull can provide a better indicator in crappier lighting.