Hornady! Again

[onehole]

I have brought this up before on  lengthy posts but have recently bought two boxes same batch Hornady 87g Vmax bullets and on loading I noticed two loadings showing inconsistent readings on case base to ogive readings which is a tell tale that there is probably something wrong and first suspicion it will be with the bullets !,,,,,Only course of action is to measure every bullet and to no great surprise I identified seventeen further culprits,,,,they measured 12 thou difference to the rest on base to ogive and the rest showed a two thou variance not enough to worry about for my application but the 12 thou is!!! So appx 10% of these 200 were probably from a different machine?,,,,,I raise this again if only for a few on here that may be new to reloading or have had some unexplained discrepancies either in reloading or indeed the odd unexlained flyer in a shot group which can certainly mess up load development.Hope this was of some interest,,,,,,,,O

[gruntus]

Hi Onehole,

It really is worth mentioning and Hornady isn't the only culprit!

I experienced much the same for Sierra bullets as well (in my case 175gr SMK's .30cal).

I would be interested to hear of anyone elses experience with the likes of Bergers.

Cheers

G

[onehole]

Gruntus,,,,Hi,,,I can honestly say apart from lot to lot small differences I have never had a problem with Bergers and preferred bullet for some serious work on the range.,,,O

 

[Popsbengo]

Very happy with Lapua Scenar 30cal 155,  I've found only tiny variation within batches.

[DeLaRue]

+ 1 on the Lapua Scenar 155's

[Andrew]

12 hours ago, onehole said:

I have brought this up before on  lengthy posts but have recently bought two boxes same batch Hornady 87g Vmax bullets and on loading I noticed two loadings showing inconsistent readings on case base to ogive readings which is a tell tale that there is probably something wrong and first suspicion it will be with the bullets !,,,,,Only course of action is to measure every bullet and to no great surprise I identified seventeen further culprits,,,,they measured 12 thou difference to the rest on base to ogive and the rest showed a two thou variance not enough to worry about for my application but the 12 thou is!!! So appx 10% of these 200 were probably from a different machine?,,,,,I raise this again if only for a few on here that may be new to reloading or have had some unexplained discrepancies either in reloading or indeed the odd unexlained flyer in a shot group which can certainly mess up load development.Hope this was of some interest,,,,,,,,O

But how do they shoot? ~Andrew

[Kalahari]

Andrew, stop asking pertinent questions. It will never catch on! 😀

 

David.

[onehole]

Andrew is asking how they shoot,,,,,they shoot very well when they are all pretty much the same.The point of the post was to highlight Hornadys continuing poor quality control.This has happened to me numerous times so there must be a lot more of the blighters out there. How cant they manage to box up from a better controlled run from individual machines.I appreciate dies etc do wear etc when making such huge numbers but simply in this day and age monitoring could be better managed I,m sure. There is also a safety issue and a heads up to some that you must not ever assume your next purchase of box of hornady is going to be the same as your last and to make fresh measurements before proceeding as you could well be stuffing your new bullets hard in the lands in a worst case scenario or a lot further off than you intended.I know there are going to be many that cant be assed to measure every bullet but please at the very least one should check where bullets from your new lot actually measure up in your chamber and any inconsistent seating is investigated. i guess if one is loading to sammi/factory COAL spec then quality control is less of an issue...hey ho..............O

[Andrew]

Frankly, I shoot Noslers, mostly.  The point is that Hornady Bullets are what they are: An inexpensive varmint/vermin bullet. I've always contended that too many shooters spend too much time measuring things and not enough time shooting things. ~Andrew

 

[DaveT]

Just my 10 pence worth but I need to feel confident in the quality and consistency of my reloading materials.

The projectiles may or may not fly well anyway as Andrew has rightly stated BUT we are handloading in order to produce (usually) better and / or cheaper than factory.

If the bullets are not quality controlled, the brass maybe not concentric or varying in weight / internal volume, the powder burn rate varying in a major way etc etc etc then I would find better suppliers with more focus on quality control.

Its not hard to make quality handloads but we don't want shoddy raw materials from any source.

[264wm]

Garbage in garbage out as the saying goes! However I fail to see when you  measure  from the  ogive when setting the oal  and  not the  base,how much does a 12 thou  variance make, I could understand  if shooting f class, but then if shooting targets that would not  be the choice.

12 thou vs the  oal of the bullet is  probably about  1% , I would  be more concerned if the weight was as erratic,in a  v.max I doubt that makes any difference  whatsoever. What ranges are shooting over?

As has  been mentioned how do they shoot,I have always found  v.max to be as accurate as I need them to be and  probably more  accurate than I will ever be..

If I am looking for  bugholes then that would not  be  my choice of  bullet...

 

[cooter]

How close are the weights to the 87grn they are meant to be?

Have you tried batch weighing the whole box?

[onehole]

On 31 July 2019 at 6:22 PM, cooter said:

How close are the weights to the 87grn they are meant to be?

Have you tried batch weighing the whole box?

Cooter,,,,not really done this as a rule but this morning I have weighed 50each of the following,,,,,87g VMax    80g Nosler Varmint   8g0 Berger FB Varmint.     The Vmax ranged from 86.9 to 87.4 the Nosler somewhat half of this variance and the Berger almost perfect. Cant be assed to do the whole boxes,,ha!,,,,,,,,,,,,,For "my purpose"e not sure the Hornady spread would make any difference to required accuracy. As I have said above once the measurements have been confirmed and adjusted to sit within the rifles chamber I have no problem with the hornady accuracy at all ,,,they shoot in the .2,s in my 243 and 6BR. You just gotta know what your dealing with,,,regds,,O