Went to the range today, fired some groups with 55g Horns over 25g of WC844, this went pretty well. 2-2.5" groups with several 1.5-1.75 5 shot groups at a 100 yds, 1.5" high, circular groups. Moved out to 200 yds was getting about 5" groups center on the bullseye. Switched over to my 75g Horns over 23.5 AA2520 (my usual load), I’ve shot 2-3 inch groups centered at 200 yds with this load before. Today I was getting vertical stringing, shots 6" to 11" high at 200 yds. At 100 yds I was getting the same thing but 4-8" high.
Everything was tight, 1-7 barrel, less that 3k though it. All the rounds fed and fire ok.
OH not this again. :jester: If you use the search function you will find a ton of info on the Hornady 75’s.
In short a few shooters are able to get good accuracy with them. Most get mediocre accuracy and many like you and I experience very poor accuracy with these bullets. 3-7 moa in my case.
I didn’t find much on the search concerning this problem. What’s throwing me is that I’ve been able to shoot this load with reasonable accuracy. All of a sudden everything has gone haywire. I mean it’s really gone bad.
I haven’t hand loaded with them but I’ve had good accuracy with them in Hornady factory loads and the Asym load that uses them. Hornady loads 75’s in Match and “FPD”, these are .223, and the TAP 5.56 loading-- a little hotter. I’ve had some guns group better with the TAP than with the Match, but I recently shot Match into under an inch with a barrel from SLR15 that had been Melonited. The interesting thing was that they were the first five rounds out of the barrel.
I think it’s generally accepted that the Hornady 75 grain “T2” bullet with the cannelure will be less accurate, or theoretically so anyway. But for ammo that’s for something other than target shooting, the cannelure is considered optimal since the case neck can be crimped into it for more durable ammo.
75GR TAP is easily my least favorite “premium” load that I have shot in great quantity.
I have never had the accuracy, consistency, or primer issues with MK262, Brown Tip, or even Green Tip that I have had with 75GR TAP.
I don’t have much scientific data to back it up, but in my 416, M4, and MK18 the TAP is on par with Green Tip accuracy wise (or slightly worse), my 416 without FPS will double every couple of mags due to the super sensitive primers, chrono results show beyond acceptable deviations in velocity from shot to shot, and I have had some loaded too long from the factory to reliable feed from any magazine. There is a reason that stuff didn’t last long in real world use.
I won’t touch Hornady anything now after shooting 10K rounds of 75GR TAP over a span of a few years. I also know some very prominent industry guys who used 75GR VMAX for their testing and had huge issues with it.
Take that as a sample of one, but I really dislike that stuff. I know some of these issues don’t apply due to you loading your own, but when I hear “Hornady” now I almost break out in hives.
I compete with them and while I preffer 80gr SMK for 600 and 69gr SMK for 200 and 300 I’m cheap and lazy so I just load the 77 to mag legth. If your getting 3-7moa its you, not the bullet.
To the OP. Make sure you have good consistent neck tension. The newer water based case cleaning methods can cause havoc with neck tension as the super clean case “grabs” the bullet inconsitently when you seat it.
If your worried about the bullets weigh a few of them. You can even weigh the loaded ammo but cases can vary more than you would think
Funny this question should come up as I’m working up a load with hornady 75gr Match OTM as well. I’m using Varget though. Here are a couple of thing that I have found as compared to my SMK 77gr Mk262 clone loads.
Here might be some causes:
If you have a digital scale Weigh each projectile from your lot of 600. you’ll find that the variation from bullet to bullet ranges almost .7 grains! Yeah that’s 10% different in bullet weight within the same box! Compare this to my box of Sierra Match Kings and 90% is 77gr on the dot. With the other 10% around ± .2 grains off 77gr. Hornday is not my friend right now.
Did you clean your rifle before the range session?
I find that proper fouling and barrel seasoning should be added to any load workup. I usually put about 20 rounds of XM193 down the barrel then I put 5-10 round of my control load down the barrel. Example: if I were to do a load workup for Varget and 75 Grain Hornady OTM I would load up 10 rounds of my middle Gr weight…for me it’s 24.2 of varget and put that down range while doing some chrono recording and zeroing in. Multi-tasking so I don’t waste 10 hand loads.
What was the Weather like?
Load developed during summer months will act cooky in the opposite extreme if it’s temp sensitive. Now winter in North America. AA 2520 is know to be temp sensitive that’s why I use Varget
Proper Workflow and Rifle stability.
Did you use the same bench rest, Load your test loads, cheek weld…ETC. the same this time as last?
Pick ANY 2 of the above and this is why reloading is SOOOO Much Fun! It’ll keep you coming back OR make you throw up your hands!
I have a bunch of blem bullets from midways that I’m pretty sure are 75gr Hornandy bullets and these factory seconds vary less then .2 gr on my RCBS scale with a sample group of 50.
I am FAR from any kind of ballistics expert/enthusiast…if it feeds, chambers, goes bang, extracts, ejects and goes about where I want it to I am a happy camper. I just know I had issues with the factory Hornady stuff accuracy and QC-wise (unfortunately).
I like 5.56 70GR TSX as loaded by Black Hills. My short guns like it, it’s accurate as you could ask for, and the damage it causes on targets is legendary.
That said, if every round I fire for the rest of my 5.56 life is Green Tip I will survive.
Uh oh, someone needs to review the rule on making Assumptions:rolleyes:. The issues with the Hornady 75 bullets are well documented here and elsewhere.
Just because the Hornady 75 grain T1 has proven to be an accurate bullet for you does not mean that a large number of other shooters with different equipment aren’t encountering accuracy issues.
My shooting fundamentals were learned from professionals and I have built upon that over many years. They are quite sound.
While I experienced 3-7 moa with the Hornady 75 I was also getting 1 moa from Hornady 55 grn Vmax and 1.5 moa from the Hornady 55 FMJBT at 100 yards through my chrome lined non-free float 1/7 twist rack grade carbine.
Since I have moved from the Hornady 75 to the much more consistent Nosler and Sierra 77 grain OTM’s accuracy has improved to a consistent 1.5 moa.
Link below to my original post concerning my issues with the Hornady 75 T1 bullet.
OOPS it is less than 1%! Too much holiday turkey. But there is a difference of 350% between the bullet variance / extreme spread in weight of 75 Hornady as compared to 77 SMK.
