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Hornandy ammo.....

1798 Views 14 Replies 8 Participants Last post by Tim_W, Mar 23, 2009

marinesg1012

Discussion Starter · Mar 21, 2009

Well I was talking to the GF while she went into Cabellas to check on a safe and the hornandy rep was there... so I asked her to ask him if they had improved the ammo velocity up to the current standard as was rumored... and he said no, he also said something about how it wasnt doing what it should of in a bolt gun and said they (whoever that is) is going with the 338 lapua... well I told her to tell him that the 6.8 wasnt designed for a bolt gun and it was designed to replace the 556... I also told him that the Vmax bullet is probably one of the best HD/LEO bullet and they should do some research and get caught up on what the 6.8 is doing today.... He didnt tell her what the chamber or barrel spec they use to test (I asked her to ask him) and I told him to look into the 6.8 SPC II chamber with a 1-11 twist...
I then asked if there was going to be any new bullet offering coming from them for the 6.8 and He said the only bullet they are coming out with this year is the .277 vmax with cannular (that we all know about)...

I told him till they get caught up and get thier ammo up to snuff they wouldnt be making much money on it... I guess he didnt like that...

Of course that was just a rep and probably doesnt know much about the product but I figured I would relay

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paulosantos

· #2 · Mar 21, 2009

I love the Hornady 5.56 ammo, but the 6.8 ammo sucks.

marinesg1012

Discussion Starter · #3 · Mar 21, 2009

I use the hornandy ammo all the time, it is my pistol bullet and my 556 bullet I have a bunch of 6.8 as well and I use it in my house gun but I would like them to load it on par with the SSA ammo, or atleast offer their TAP in the tac loading, thats what they do with the 556 TAP....

dlance13

· #4 · Mar 22, 2009

FYI Hornady uses a DPMS with SAAMI chamber for their testing.

DocGKR

· #5 · Mar 22, 2009

Actually, the Hornady 110 gr OTM is about the best overall 6.8 mm load we have ever tested...

6.8 mm Hornady 110 gr OTM, vel=2613 fps from a 16" 1/11
BG: pen=17.7", NL=3.5cm, Max TC [email protected] from 3.5-20cm, RD=0.50", RL=0.37", RW=80.0gr
Glass: pen=14.0", NL=0.5cm, Max TC [email protected] from 0.5-24cm, RD=0.32", RL=0.51", RW=74.5gr

marinesg1012

Discussion Starter · #6 · Mar 22, 2009

But not velocity wise, if I remember correctly, So that limits our max effective frag range correct?

Doc you mentioned they have increased thier velocity, do you know a batch number when this started or anything so we can verify? Like I said this guy was just a rep, and probably didnt know much about the 6.8.... I just figured I would ask some questions when i had the chance.

paulosantos

· #7 · Mar 22, 2009

DocGKR said:
Actually, the Hornady 110 gr OTM is about the best overall 6.8 mm load we have ever tested...

6.8 mm Hornady 110 gr OTM, vel=2613 fps from a 16" 1/11
BG: pen=17.7", NL=3.5cm, Max TC [email protected] from 3.5-20cm, RD=0.50", RL=0.37", RW=80.0gr
Glass: pen=14.0", NL=0.5cm, Max TC [email protected] from 0.5-24cm, RD=0.32", RL=0.51", RW=74.5gr

The bullet may be the best performer, but they absolutely suck ass in the accuracy department and the velocity is weak. I can get 2600 FPS with 29 Gr. of H322 from a 16" barrel, and they are barely getting 2550 FPS. They need to change from their retarded Secant Ogive to a more conventional Tangent Ogive so they could get some accuracy. The Secant Ogive was OK in a SAAMI Chamber, but not in a SPCII Chamber. 3MOA from a bench is horrible, especially when most of the other bullets are 1MOA.

Equalizer_2

· #8 · Mar 22, 2009

I bought some Hornady 6.8 VMax in December before I joined this site or I would have bought more SSA. The label on the boxes states the velocity is 2550 fps from a 16 inch barrel and that is all it tells about velocity, it does give some drop with a 200 yd zero. I haven't fired any of this yet but I will run some across my Chrony when I get a chance.

constructor

· #9 · Mar 22, 2009

There may be old stock on the shelves, look for a date after 9/08.
Paulo's right they need a tangent ogive to improve accuracy.

marinesg1012

Discussion Starter · #10 · Mar 22, 2009

constructor said:
There may be old stock on the shelves, look for a date after 9/08.

Anyone tested any ammo after this to see if the velocity has been improved?

Zippy

· #11 · Mar 22, 2009

paulosantos said:
I love the Hornady 5.56 ammo, but the 6.8 ammo sucks.

I'm confused, I thought the VMax was great stuff for HD and general SWAT type work. Are you saying it isn't or just that it has some flaws? If it has flaws, what are they? (I assume your comments about the OTM are specific to it).

paulosantos

· #12 · Mar 22, 2009

Zippy said:
paulosantos said:

I love the Hornady 5.56 ammo, but the 6.8 ammo sucks.

Click to expand...

I'm confused, I thought the VMax was great stuff for HD and general SWAT type work. Are you saying it isn't or just that it has some flaws? If it has flaws, what are they? (I assume your comments about the OTM are specific to it).

The bullets perform great once they hit the target. The problem is the accuracy. At close range, such as HD or CQB work, the accuracy doesn't really matter. But at 100 yards, the accuracy GENERALLY sucks. There are some barrels that can shoot the Hornady bullets very well, but GENERALLY they are not very accurate. I found that the V-Max are slightly more accurate than the BTHP.

Zippy

· #13 · Mar 22, 2009

paulosantos said:
Zippy said:

paulosantos said:

I love the Hornady 5.56 ammo, but the 6.8 ammo sucks.

Click to expand...

I'm confused, I thought the VMax was great stuff for HD and general SWAT type work. Are you saying it isn't or just that it has some flaws? If it has flaws, what are they? (I assume your comments about the OTM are specific to it).

Click to expand...

The bullets perform great once they hit the target. The problem is the accuracy. At close range, such as HD or CQB work, the accuracy doesn't really matter. But at 100 yards, the accuracy GENERALLY sucks. There are some barrels that can shoot the Hornady bullets very well, but GENERALLY they are not very accurate. I found that the V-Max are slightly more accurate than the BTHP.

Ahhh, that explains it! I have about 600 rounds of the Urban Combat round sitting around waiting for my Noveske to appear. Glad I found out about their weak points before I tried them and got frustrated.

constructor

· #14 · Mar 22, 2009

I have 1000 H 115 OTMs that I loaded to function test uppers. I loaded them out to 2.305, I am actually getting around 1" groups with the Xtreme test barrel.

Test_User

· #15 · Mar 23, 2009

The issue with the Horandy's as most know is the spire point they rigidly insist on using on all of their bullets other than a few A-maxs. The issue with these is they have a very sharp angle ogive(nose) Most chambers are cut with from a 1.5-3 degree throat angle which is ideal for all tangents and most VLDs. The Hrdys are much steeper angle. This causes the bullet to have to deform to fit that angle and add that to having a jump to the lands usually means that they are hitting the lands from round to round inconsistently. The Xtreme barrel specs help reduce the inconsistency as do the custom and Lothar barrels sold by ARP. One way to help get better accuracy and what is done with ease in bolt guns is to seat the bullets into the lands or in a auto as close as possible. The ideal way to get the best accuracy as with any bullet is to have the throat angle cut to match the specific type of bullets you plan to shoot. This is fine in a competition barrel or even a hunting barrel that you have one round that stands out better than all the rest but very few companies other than Hrdy use spire points.

The newer Hrdy ammo since the horrible first lots does have faster vel. They may be as fast as the Pro SSA load but in most barrels produce 2x or more group sizes. The Pro Hunter load is the lowest pressure round SSA makes. Personally I hope this is all moot once we start getting tests back from the 100 Accubonds. I think these may best the best all around "barrier blind" bullet for the 6.8 currently. The only issue maybe penetration could be a bit deeper than ideal. But one of the fav's of LE is the Speer Bonded Bear Claw bullet in 5.56 and I do believe its a deep penetrator as well. As I am not LE and live in the country I think it beneficial to have two holes instead of one in a target subscribing to the old let air in and blood out as quickly as possible being a good thing.

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