Hornady 80 gr ELD match

H

hounddawg

New member
Anyone tried these ? If so how much of a jump do they seem to prefer and how much wiggle room do you have on that.

I am thinking about getting a couple of hundred to test in my bolt gun. The BC is .485 which if true tops the Berger VLD's. They are long at 1.160 but they would be single loaded. According to the Hornady X Edition they would be loaded to 2.390 , the same as the the 80 Gr Amax. They would be shot from a a 1- 8 twist Criterion barrel with plain vanilla .223 Rem chambering not the match chamber. I am also looking at the 73 Gr version of the same bullet, any opinions ?
 
Got some but haven't loaded them yet. Loading for a 5.56 NATO chambered AR-15 with a 24 inch heavy 8 twist barrel.
This looks like it might be an interesting thread.
 
don't think many here have shot them and I will wait on some reviews I think

The gun seems to like the 69 gr SMK's and today I shot a couple of .4 and .5 groups at 200 while playing with seating depth. Midway has the 69 gr Nosler CC's on sale for 160 per 1000 so I grabbed 1k of them instead

69 SMK seated .10 off lands and 24.3 grains of Varget @ 200

https://imgur.com/a/xZF14

Nosler CC's have the same length as the SMK so I hope the ogive is similar. I may have to tweak the load slightly, still it should shoot well enough for it's purpose. It is primarily intended as a 300 yard practice rifle. I have shot it at 100, 200 and 600 with 62, 69, and 77 grain bullets and while it has been a solid sub MOA rifle it seems to prefer the 69 grain bullets best.

Still if anyone has shot the Hornadys I would enjoy hearing about how they shoot, that BC is outrageous for a .224 bullet
 
Cowtowner -

You may already be aware by the description of your gun, but here’s the obligatory statement - those 80-grainers are too long for an AR-15 magazine, so if you have your heart set on them, you’ll be loading them one by one in the chamber. The 75gr ELD-X’s have the appropriate COL to fit, as do the 75gr BTHP Match bullets.

I’ll be loading my 75gr’s hopefully later today for a 5.56 chamber. Not sure how much that helps you for a shorter throat, but i’ll share the info once it happens.
 
"...how much of a jump..." If you mean how far off the lands, that has nothing to do with the bullet. Each rifle chamber is slightly different and every one of 'em will prefer a different distance. Finding how much is a 100% trial and error thing.
In any case, the whole off-the-lands is a load tweaking technique that doesn't get done until you have worked up a load. And that's only if you feel like fiddling with it.
The ogive is irrelevant.
 
The ogive is irrelevant.
Click to expand...

Not sure where you heard that in my experience a bullet with a tangent ogive, a bullet with a secant , and a bullet with a hybrid ogive have different tolerances for jump and prefer different velocities. I started shooting my 260 with a 140 grain tangent bullet and switched to a 140 grain hybrid bullet. I did a complete new workup and the bullets liked different powders, velocities, and jumps to the lands. Just because they weigh the same and have the same diameter they don't shoot the same

Now just looking at the 69 SMK and pictures of the 69 Nosler CC they look identical and the overall length of the bullets are identical according to JBM Balistics so I think there is a 99% chance they will load and shoot identically. The BC's are so close it is a moot point. That being said I won't be 100% sure of that until I get the Noslers on my bench then do some measuring and then range test them
 
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MagnumWill

Yes, I read the fine print in the Hornady manual. I have a single round follower in a 5 round mag for just this reason.
I just want to see how well the rifle shoots with these.
I also have some Sierra 80 Grain BTHP MK which do fit in the magazine to load as well.
 
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