Hornaday Steel Match .308 Winchester ammo

R

reynolds357

New member
No, its not pick on Hornaday week. I bought the steel match ammo the same day I bought the Superformance I was complaining about a few days ago. I went to my range at lunch today and thought I was going to shoot the steel match ammo. I ended up shooting 6 of them. 4 of the 6 misfired and the primer had to be struck a second time to make them go off. This particular rifle has never misfired any other ammo either loaded by me or by a commercial maker. I call Hornaday. I was told it must be my rifle. I asked why my rifle fires everyone else's ammo and not theirs. I was then told "we use the same primers in steel match that we use in everything else." I continued to complain and they told me to shoot the rest of them but do not re-cock any misfires, just keep them separate and send them back to them for evaluation. They then said "our primers are within spec."
Sounds like they know they have a primer issue.
Anyone else tried to shoot Hornaday Steel match? Misfires?
 
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I have not tried Hornady steel match, but I have heard complaints about it in rifles with match triggers and reduced hammer springs.

My STG58 with a "trigger pull reduction" kit will not reliably ignite Wolf 308 (poly coated steel). Wolf is not Hornady steel match, so just a data point.
 
As an update, Hornaday is going to replace them. Even though not impressed with ammo, I am impressed with their customer service.
 
The story I got is that Hornady buys the primed steel cases overseas and loads with domestic powder and company bullets. The quality control on the steel cases may(or may not) be up to "our" standards for domestic brass. All my current "match/target" type rifles are based on Mauser actions and I would expect that platform to handle the steel cases w/o a hitch but others might not fare so well.
 
The problem is headspace is wrong. The case is so far forward in the chamber, the firing pin does not strike primer deep enough. Hornaday told me they are primed with U.S. made primers.
 
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