Hornady 75 A MAX?

[chkunz]

Does Hornady still make the 224 75 grain A MAX?

 

[sawcarver]

Not to my knowledge, its been replaced with the ELD-m line

 

[ms6852]

It was discontinued. Not sure why but I believe it had to do with that design when used for hunting it would create a lot of damage but the animal would still run for a while before succumbing to its wound. Also a lot of the meat would be tainted. So the ELD has replaced it, haven't used it myself but do use the HPBT 75 grain on does or small deer that has needed culling and it has worked well.

 

[SSL]

It was discontinued. Not sure why but I believe it had to do with that design when used for hunting it would create a lot of damage but the animal would still run for a while before succumbing to its wound. Also a lot of the meat would be tainted. So the ELD has replaced it, haven't used it myself but do use the HPBT 75 grain on does or small deer that has needed culling and it has worked well.

Actually, the AMax was replaced by the ELD-M when they changed the polymer tips to ones that are supposed to be less prone to velocity deformation. In most cases the ELD-Ms are identical to the corresponding AMax bullets they replaced.

 

[jwink]

I liked the A max the way it was, they gave it a new name and raised the price

 

[SSL]

I liked the A max the way it was, they gave it a new name and raised the price

Yep. I was crushed when I heard the AMax had been discontinued. The 52-grainers make crazy-small groups from my .22-250. The gentleman that I spoke to at Hornady felt the same way, but assured me the ELD-M bullets were identical. I tried a box and they do shoot the same in my rifle. Luckily, I picked up just under 1,000 AMAX from my friend - a hoarder of the highest level - who as usual bought them cheap and had no use for them.

 

[284winner]

Does Hornady still make the 224 75 grain A MAX?

No

 

[ms6852]

There is a person selling 2200 rounds of AMAX 75 grainers in another forum. P.M. if you are interested for further info. DISCLAIMER, I don't know how legit these person is as I do not know him.

 

[John Edmonds]

Chkunz, Guess to answer youre question is with one. What do you plan on shooting with this replacment bullet into, Paper or Varmint, Deer? Amax Bullets were intended to be an all oround hunting bullet. Yet Guys used it as a match bullet. It had set even a few records. ELD-M 75 gr is a paper shooting bullet. Its efects on game would be unpredictable.

 

[cheek9075]

I shoot the 75gr eld in my 7 twist 223. Pretty darn good shooting round. In VA it is legal to shoot Turkey with a rifle. We have taken a few. It is not legal to hunt deer with a 223 in VA so I cant give input on deer size game, but it does a number on Turkey. I shoot it to 1000 yards and from what I know, it does well. Haven't tried amax in the rifle, I built it after amax was gone.

 

[chkunz]

Chkunz, Guess to answer youre question is with one. What do you plan on shooting with this replacment bullet into, Paper or Varmint, Deer? Amax Bullets were intended to be an all oround hunting bullet. Yet Guys used it as a match bullet. It had set even a few records. ELD-M 75 gr is a paper shooting bullet. Its efects on game would be unpredictable.

My 600 yard match pet load is with the 75 A MAX. It looks like I will be going to the 75 ELD or 80 SMK after my current supply of the A MAX is gone.

 

[Kurz]

Does Hornady still make the 224 75 grain A MAX?

No, they stopped making them 5 years ago...

I liked the A max the way it was, they gave it a new name and raised the price

Yep, absolutely, significantly raised the price. It forced many of us to go into hoard mode to insure we would have a supply for a while longer. However, if the new ones work for you, have at it!

And I don't care who states that the new versions shoots the same as the AMAX, they do not, and it's not just the suggested change in BC either. We shoot thousands of bullets in dozens of cartridges every year and the new ELD-M and ELD-X do not shoot the same as the AMAX. I have baseline data for all the AMAX bullets in various cartridges for my rifles and I've had to rework the loads just for the new bullets. Stopped buying them and use Bergers now. AMAXs were easy, the new ones, not so much.

I'm sure others will disagree and still others will try to explain away my lack of success with the ELD-M, X and that's O.K. I answer to the demands of those people paying the bills, not engineers and copywriters.

Here is a brief synopsis of the problem and Hornady's solution from 2015:

Identifying a Problem – Aerodynamic Heating

While analyzing the radar data on the new bullet, Hornady engineers noticed something right away that was puzzling. In Drag Coefficient versus Mach (Cd vs Mach) graphs, they saw that the new projectile was gaining drag shortly after leaving the barrel, which affected the performance of that bullet for the rest of its flight path. Simply put, the bullet acted like it had one particular BC for the first 100 to 150 yards, then transitioned to a lower BC for the rest of its flight path. Further testing was done with other bullets including BTHP match and A-Max bullets. While the BTHP bullets Cd vs Mach charts looked as expected, the A-Max bullets were showing the same increase in drag that the prototype hunting bullet did. It was as if the bullet was changing shape in flight.
....
The Hornady 6.5mm 140gr A-Max is a very popular match bullet. Its long-time published G1 BC of .585 has been measured with chronographs at the muzzle, 100 and 200 yards. The radar verifies that exact BC out to 200 yards. When fired at 800 yards; however, the radar verified average BC it is actually .545. This is because of the polymer tip melting and deforming during flight. When the traditional tip is replaced with a Heat Shield tip, the Radar verified 800 yard average BC becomes .610 – a huge improvement! Why a .610 when we already established a 200 yard BC of .585? The .610 BC shows that the traditional tip was already exhibiting degradation at 200 yards.

 

[chkunz]

I have a lot of 223 load development data for 600 yard loads for the AR and the bolt action match rifle. I was looking for both accuracy and wind drift and the 75 A MAX gave me those results. I also got great results with the 80 SMK and the 82 Burger so it will be easy to transition to one of those great loads.

I am not motivated to do load development for the Hornady 75 ELD. It may be a great bullet but they changed both the tip and the shape of the bullet so I doubt that it would simply be a drop in replacement.

But I have to ask, has anyone with experience with the 75 A MAX done any comparison testing for accuracy and wind drift with the 75 ELD?

 

[Dgd6mm]

I have 300 75 gr. Amax I will trade for 300 80 gr. ELDM. If your interested PM me.

Don Dunlap