Black Hills 77gr OTM 5.56 Ammunition
The Black Hills 77gr OTM 5.56 Ammunition is the cream of the crop from what the word on the street is. After using this ammunition in this test and throwing hundreds of rounds down range to test it out, I can confirm it is the ammunition which stand above the rest. Out of testing Atlanta Arms, Gorilla Ammunition, Asym, Cor Bon, Hornady, HPR and others, the tightest groups have always been when using this Black Hills ammunition. Black Hills prides itself and has built a reputation on consistency, and that is evident in my testing and the results I have seen. Consistency in building ammo and making sure the exact same amount of powder used, for example, will mean if you hold the same spot, it will consistency hit it. With some companies they put ammunition production over ammunition performance consistency. At Black Hills it is the opposite and it shows.
In terms of what my testing consists of, I shoot three round groups on a bench at 100 yards. I use the same 18″ match barreled SPR/DMR rifle build and USGI magazines. So the consistency is there when I test all my ammunition. This specific Black Hills 77gr OTM 5.56 ammunition comes in 50 round boxes and I saw no cosmetic flaws prior to hitting the range. There are some metrics which I find to be the secret sauce in testing ammunition. The first is average, what is the average size of the groups. This is going to basically take all the numbers and give you what you can usually count on if you use said ammunition. The other metric is standard deviation. What this will tell us is what is the standard difference in each group. This is what really shows how accurate ammunition is in my opinion. If you have groups that are all over the place but get averaged due to a few killer groups, then that is not a true showing. But if you have 100 groups that are only a tenth of an inch different on average then you know you can count on that ammunition to be a consistent performer.
During my testing of the Black Hills 77gr OTM 5.56 Ammunition I was impressed with how consistently I got the same sized groups. Nothing short of amazing. I never had one slightly off target shot, given I did not mess up myself. On average my three shot groups have been .84″ in diameter. This is great for shooting off a pack like I do. That is inside the diameter of most watch bezels at 100 yards. This is easily a sub MOA performing ammunition.
Black Hills really made a fan out of me. If I ever was in a situation where I had one bullet for whatever reason to get the job done in a defensive situation, I would without hesitation pick Black Hills ammunition. It might be slightly more expensive than some others, but what do you want. If you want the best, then Black Hills is your place to go. They run purposely slower in their ammunition building to ensure they accurately get the same build quality and that consistency within each round made. It has show on the range for me, that is for sure.
