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Why no mention of Winchester 168 Match?

Ultraman550

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Dec 8, 2011
717
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49
Utah
Has anybody had experience with this? I see them in my local Bass Pro at $34 a box and wonder why there is really never any mention of them. It's a 168 SMK in Winchester brass. Brand of powder I don't know. Since Winchester brass is more desirable than FC I am wondering why not many people use it.
 
I've shot several hundred rounds of it out of my Rem LTR. Didn't shoot as good as the Fed GMM 168. Still right around MOA tho.
 
The only stuff I've found here is $50 a box. Ridiculous price so I don't buy it. I can find FGMM here for 24 per box occasionally. I reload also but do buy from time to time.
 
Bought several cases of it back in the early 90's when you could get it at a slightly higher cost than factory 150gr NBT or comparable.
It shot really well in a rifle I was using back then, a 1 in 12 twist rifle that never liked anything over 168gr, averaging approx. 3/8 moa.
The code for it back then was S308M & the boxes were labeled Supreme match.
 
I got about 200 rounds from a friend and shot it my semi. It was great. I am biased in favor of WW over Federal though. Fgmm is overrated .
 
Winchester Supreme Match is my recollection as well and it shot very consistently and nicely in my FN SPR. The performance was equivalent to FGGM but the price was usually prohibitive.
 
I used quite a bit of Winchester Supreme Match. After having about 1200 rounds through my SR-25, the Federal 168 GMM ammo I was using, groups started opening up. I couldn't figure out why the GMM wasn't shooting as well as it had been. I scrubbed and scrubbed the barrel to get any Copper fouling out, thinking that was the cause. No good.

I switched to some Winchester Supreme Match ammo we had bought for training ammo. Bam! back down to just under MOA groups. The Winchester ammo shot well. To this day, the only thing I can figure is the barrel had worn a bit and the GMM just didn't preform as well as it used to.
 
The Winchester is great stuff. It always shot better out of my rifles than the FGMM. It uses the Nosler Custom Competition bullet and it's a little hotter than the FGMM.
 
For me the word 'Match' is not a label, but a process.

As I define it, a Match load is one that is 'matched' to my specific barrel, and not an institutionalized load that may or may not bear any resemblance to my particular rifle's needs.

That is why I don't often buy Factory Match ammunition, and don't attempt to duplicate such, either. Factory Match ammo is about some other guy's barrel, not mine. My loads are developed for my barrel only.

$35 for a box of 20? Not even in my dreams.

Greg
 
The stuff I saw recently has SMK bullets.

I checked and you are right. It is now loaded with the 168 SMK. The stuff I shot was loaded by Winchester in 2008. I think it is a recent switch though.
 
If they use Winchester powder it's got to be 748 or 760. You can just weigh the charge to find out which it is. If it's 46+ gr it's 760. If it's low 40's it's going to be 748.