.222 Hornady ammo.

[Hardy]

Hi all,

I have been offered (at a price?) some Hornady .222 40gr ammo, from my internet searching I believe they were once available but are now no longer made as there is no mention of them on Hornady website.

Can anyone please confirm if the above is true or not.

I currently use factory Hornady 50gr and like them but if price is right I would possibly try 40gr it would also depend on age of said ammo.

[BlueBoy69]

If it's a 40 grain V-Max bullet, then yes. The screen captures below are from the 'Hornady Product Catalog 2012' and the 'Hornady - Metric Ballistics Chart 2010'.

 

[Andrew]

Age? I just shot some 1950's WInchester 30-40 Krag ammo that grouped better than my handloads. It doesn't go stale. ~Andrew

[Hardy]

Thanks for that info Blueboy and Andrew I was not concerned with ammo going stale but in relation to the price being asked for what may be old stock..

(More than today's rrp)

I was asking if anyone knew  a date when said ammo was last made.

[BlueBoy69]

The 40 gr V-Max load for the .222 Remington disappears from the Hornady product catalogues after 2013. As such it would be at least 8 years old.

I wouldn't worry about its age unless the ammo is many decades old, that or that it has been sitting in the sun and/or getting rather hot for most of its life.

The energetic materials in the propellant (powder) and primer do degrade over time. The rate of degradation depends on the storage conditions, the types of energetics, the way they were produced and in some cases interactions (chemical) with themselves and the device holding them (case, primer cup, etc.). Loss of the propellant stabiliser is generally the main concern, and any changes in the burn rate modifiers would be another concern.

[Hardy]

Thanks for your response chaps, great source of info on this forum.