Factory hornady SST in my howa mini never performed better then 4-6 inches.
I have loaded up the same 123 SST in lapua brass, 1mm longer coal and velocity around 2400 V0, and they group 1" or lower at 100 meters. 5x5 (max load was 26 grain N133, down 4 steps 0.3 gr). All loads performed evenly.
Was worried the SST would not work even with hand loads and I bought 200 of them. But now i have 175 left and a load worked up.
I might get a bit more speed, Vihtavuori has max load of 26.7 on their 123 scenar, but the 26 load was quite OK and im going to use it for hunting roe.
Overall, im satisfied with the Howa mini, everything i feed it goes at worst at 1", so im mostly finding the velocity i need. Not like my previous 6.5x55 (modern sauer 101), where two bullets with same weight and V0 could differ 1" in groupsize.
--- edit
just to clarify, the only factory load i have used in the howa is the 123 SST (40 rounds). As ammo for grendel is not that common in sweden, i have not bottered to order any.
Was hoping for some ELD-M's from my store to try out or perhaps even federal. But with covid-19 and how ammo transports work in sweden, im not that confident i will ever get any.
but i have 600 bullets over like 15 kinds to use in the grendel, brass is easy to get (lapua or starline) so i rather reload. Brass life is good, unless i load max P.
I have loaded up the same 123 SST in lapua brass, 1mm longer coal and velocity around 2400 V0, and they group 1" or lower at 100 meters. 5x5 (max load was 26 grain N133, down 4 steps 0.3 gr). All loads performed evenly.
Was worried the SST would not work even with hand loads and I bought 200 of them. But now i have 175 left and a load worked up.
I might get a bit more speed, Vihtavuori has max load of 26.7 on their 123 scenar, but the 26 load was quite OK and im going to use it for hunting roe.
Overall, im satisfied with the Howa mini, everything i feed it goes at worst at 1", so im mostly finding the velocity i need. Not like my previous 6.5x55 (modern sauer 101), where two bullets with same weight and V0 could differ 1" in groupsize.
--- edit
just to clarify, the only factory load i have used in the howa is the 123 SST (40 rounds). As ammo for grendel is not that common in sweden, i have not bottered to order any.
Was hoping for some ELD-M's from my store to try out or perhaps even federal. But with covid-19 and how ammo transports work in sweden, im not that confident i will ever get any.
but i have 600 bullets over like 15 kinds to use in the grendel, brass is easy to get (lapua or starline) so i rather reload. Brass life is good, unless i load max P.