Hornady Black ammo,... what powder?

[Lefty Trigger]

Anybody figure out what powder Hornady is using in their 6mm Creedmoor loaded ammo? The Black ammo uses their 105gr HPBT match bullet. I bought a box and took one apart, the powder almost looks like their Superformance stuff but its more of a "stick" configuration? Mine has exactly 39.8gr and seated to a .068 jump in my rifle, dont shoot the greatest and the es/sd numbers are not that good either with velocity at 3012. My local Cabelas had a bunch on sale so I bought a box thinking if it shoots, why not? If not at least I got brass out of it...

 

[Kurz]

I use factory ammunition to establish base line performance for some cartridges. When Hornady announced the Black ammunition I bought a case just to have for testing. The lot I have has performed well in 5 rifles as of now, not benchrest performance but pretty darn good for factory.

I took one apart to see if I could tell which powder but found that like most factory ammunition, the powders are a proprietary blend to achieve a certain burn rate and performance level. They may start with a basic formula such as Superformance but adjust it for specific performance.

I've used the SAAMI spec reamer for these 5 chambers by request. Chambers with the throats/freebore adjusted for specific bullets and seating don't respond as well to factory SAAMI ammunition in some situations.

 

[Zero333]

Maybe Hybrid 100V ??

 

[Lefty Trigger]

Maybe Hybrid 100V ??

Oh, I never thought of that,... I have that powder so will compare the two. The Black ammo is decent for factory loads but it's too hot for my taste. If I could knock about 160fps off it would be right at my barrel accuracy speed of 2850.

 

[spudgun]

When testing loads for my 224 Valk, I was having difficulty trying to find a accurate load.

I thought maybe the gun was the issue so I bought a box or Hornady Match factory loads and got sub .5 MOA at 100 yds. That told me the gun ws not the issue.

Took one of the factory loads apart and checked the powder weight, FPS of the factory ammo, bullet weight, case volume and OAL of round.

Since I didn't know what powder they used I worked on trying to find a powder that matched the weight and FPS.

Got close to it, but never exactly duplicated it.

Good luck.

 

[Texas10]

It's unlikely Hornaday is using a propellant typically available off the shelf. They buy in bulk and customize as necessary to their particular needs.

 

[Delfuego]

@Lefty Trigger It shot ok in my barrel. Was much better than their so called "match" ammo. I chambered this one up to shoot factory load and leave the brass on the ground in field matches. Seems like a dumb idea looking back.

Below are the "Black", "Match ELD" and the Berger.

 

[rr2030]

A few years ago, prior to Hornady including the 6 Creedmoor in the loading data, I contacted them explaining that I wanted to duplicate the factory 108 ELD loading. Without saying it was the powder they used, he highly recommended H4350, I inquired about other acceptable powders, he always drifted back to H4350.

I have just begun loading for the 6 Creedmoor, 108 ELD / H4350

FWIW

 

[GoldieMI]

6mm Creedmoor- 105 Grain Hybrid Target/41.0 grains H4350/GM205M Federal Primer is my go to for my bolt gun
~3048 fps (10 shots)
duplicated what I got from the Match Ammo velocity wise

 

[Lefty Trigger]

I can tell you that H4350 is NOT the powder in the case for the 6mm Creedmoor and I'm not comparing "match" ammo it's Hornady "black" with the 105gr HPBT's

 

[Dgd6mm]

Just a quess, Superformance.

 

[mensajd]

A few years ago, prior to Hornady including the 6 Creedmoor in the loading data, I contacted them explaining that I wanted to duplicate the factory 108 ELD loading. Without saying it was the powder they used, he highly recommended H4350, I inquired about other acceptable powders, he always drifted back to H4350.

I have just begun loading for the 6 Creedmoor, 108 ELD / H4350

FWIW

I bought a box of Hornady 108gr 6mm creedmoor ammo back when the gen 2 rpr in 6mm cm first came out (just for the brass which wasn’t widely available yet). Shot an 0.75” 5-shot group and pulled the remaining rounds apart. Weighed the powder charges and they were surprisingly consistent, though not consistent to the last kernel of powder as I tend to load. But I shot those 5 factory rounds using a labradar chrono. Using interpolation based upon the Hornady 6mm cm load data PDF, the velocity and charge weight data I obtained were entirely consistent with h4350 powder. Not claiming it was h4350 but it behaved almost identically per their load data. I handload almost always but was pleasantly surprised to find that Hornady 6mm cm ammo didn’t suck!