More problems with Hornady bullets

[284winner]

Most of the serious target and precision varmint shooters I know use Sierra and Nosler bullets. I like the Hornady XTP pistol bullets but in rifle I've had my best success with Sierra and Nosler Rifle bullets.

I'm a pretty big Hornady Amax fan as I shoot them an alot of guns. Never any issues. I have alot of the newer ELDs also but have not shot many at this point. Hope not to find I'll have these issues. Time will tell. I have enough Amax bullets to make it thru about 3 barrels in 3 different Calibers. Time is on my side in that area. Mostly the guns are hunting guns so I'd opt for ELD-X bullets if the match bullets didn't run right. Sierra, Berger and Nosler are regulars on my bench as well so no worries.

 

[STOMP442]

I had the same experience until I had one blow up during a match, then the $20 per box did not seem like it was worth it!

That's exactly where I am at now. I did pick up a box of the new 150 Sierras to try out and they seem to want to shoot really well. I had to back my load off a grain and they preffered a .030" jump in my rifle. I'm getting a velocity of 2826fps and single digit ES and it's grouping in the .3s at 100. Next match is in two weeks and I will see how they do.

 

[JBT47]

Interesting posts so far & also some confirmation of what I've thought for a while.

- I'm not here to run anyone's product(s) into the ground but here's my take on bullets plain & simple and I realize that my situation doesn't apply to all shooters & gun owners. - If I'm going to spend the money to build a high quality rifle, why should I feed it anything but the best bullets ? - I go through a lot of steps in my reloading process with brass preparation & sorting of components including the bullets that get shot down the barrel(s). - The financial cost of the difference in boxes of bullets is small potato's in comparison to the lack of performance & satisfaction from shooting and obtaining good results at the target.

My .02

I agree 100%. I do not bargain shop when it comes to bullets.

 

[Falfan2017]

Like an idiot I tried to go cheap and save 10 cents a round over the Bergers for 6mm. Ended up with 500 of the hornady bthp 105 grainers. Weights are all over the map and trying to sort them with a comparator is a nightmare they vary a couple hundredths in each direction. Been able to get to about .4 moa with them but when they run out never again.

 

[pirate ammo]

Like an idiot I tried to go cheap and save 10 cents a round over the Bergers for 6mm. Ended up with 500 of the hornady bthp 105 grainers. Weights are all over the map and trying to sort them with a comparator is a nightmare they vary a couple hundredths in each direction. Been able to get to about .4 moa with them but when they run out never again.

send them to me I've got a wrist rocket,,

 

[Rob01]

Man only .4 MOA? That's horrible. Must be hard on you only shooting 4" groups at 1000.

 

[Falfan2017]

Man only .4 MOA? That's horrible. Must be hard on you only shooting 4" groups at 1000.

Yeah I've gotten 2.75" at 600 and 5 or 6 or so at 1k but for a dedicated benchrest rifle that's not too great haha

 

[ballisticdaddy]

Man only .4 MOA? That's horrible. Must be hard on you only shooting 4" groups at 1000.

Hard for us NON benchrest guys to comprehend but they shoot in the .2 or .1 when tuned in, so double their standard is not deemed to be acceptable.

 

[STOMP442]

Heard back from Hornady this afternoon. They claim that they can't replicate the problem in their lab and are sending me new bullets. Not the answer I wanted to hear but somehow expected.

 

[InkedIan]

Well I'm about to put them to the test.... I'm going to push them around 3100fps from a 28" 7 twist 6.5 SAUM. That should blow them up if they are going to.....

 

[rhovee]

I shot quite a few of the 147s out of my 6.5 wsm. Accuracy was at 3080. Ran them up to 3200 for a while. No issues.

 

[fyrewall]

There must be some logic behind this. Bullet construction is not rocket science, especially common cup and core bullets. Addition of a plastic tip should not affect the jacket unless jamming the tip into place causes jacket splitting. After reading this, I plan to section some ELD bullets to get a look at the insides. I never had any problems with Hornady Amax bullets and I don't see why the new ELD types should be any different.

 

[STOMP442]

Had another match this last Saturday. I switched to the new 150gr Match King and never had a problem. Ended up with a 2nd place finish one point behind the winner who was also shooting the new 150 out of a 6.5x55.

 

[fyrewall]

I am a Hornady fan and have shot buckets of 168 match bullets from .308's. The Amax bullets have performed well also, some what better than the hollow point match types. I have no intentions of making hollow point bullets more pointy and this is not needed with plastic tip bullets. The Amax bullets including .224 75's, .243 105's and .264 100's 120's & 123's have preformed just fine on varmints and exceptionally well on long range steel. My point is - except for the composition or specie of plastic on the tip - what differences between the Amax & ELD's that would cause the ELD's to fly apart in flight. Is this caused by some jacket defect in certain lots? I don't discredit the observations of those who made previous posts about what I call "gray mist" but I think random sampling of sectioned bullets might show something. I am not about to cut up a $35 box of bullets and make a pile of lead powder but I think a limited random sectioning of some bullets selected from the same lot having disintegration problems might show something. Taking a look at the insides under 10X magnification and comparing jackets with some comparable Amax jackets might show something. Looking at the paper thin jackets of some "super explosive" bullets I could easily see why they flew apart at .22-.250 velocities greater than 3500 fps but that usually occurred some 25 or so yards down range.

 

[STOMP442]

Hornady supposedly did just this. When I first contacted them they said they were going to section the bullets and check for any defects as well as shoot some. According to them they didn't find anything out of spec with them and couldn't replicate the bullet blowing up mid flight. I have no details on their testing procedures or methods all I can do is take them at their word.