Hornady bullets

[Chuck Boyer]

I have a Tikka T3 in 243 that shoots like a house afire. I decided to try some 85 gr Interbond bullets. For the life of me I can not get them to shoot. I mean in the 3" range. Nosler partitions 85 and 95 as well as 95 Bts shoot under an inch. Heck even the 95 Fusion load shoots under an inch.

While I am on it, I have 2 .270's. An old Rem 700 and a Ruger carbine. The 140 SST will not shoot in either gun. Noslers and Sierra's shoot fine without much tinkering.

I have tried different powders(at least 4), seating depths, etc. What's up with these bullets? Has anybody had a similar experience? I would think the 85 Interbond would be the cat's meow. Boy was I wrong.

 

[ACKLEY NUT]

Chuck ; I am having the same problem with my 6.5/06 Ackley' It just will NOT shoot the 129SST or the 140SST tried everything but still 4" to 5" (5) shot groups at 150 yds. The 140 A MAX shot just fine (5) shots@150yds inside .600MOA. (120NOS. B.tip (5)@.500MOA.) I'm also interested in what could be wrong.

 

[montana_native]

SST's in a .270 here. Pretty pathetic groups as well.

 

[WildcatB]

I shoot 150gr. SST's in two tikka 270 wsm's and they shoot really well - 1/2 MOA from one and 1/4 from the other (at 100 yards 3 shot groups). What's nicer is both go to sleep downrange and get tighter. 3 days ago I shot the 1/2" gun at 600 and got a 2-1/4" group. I couldn't be happier. I use magpro, remington cases, and cci mag primers.

 

[davewilson]

can't say i've got much experience with Hornady's, have used the 6mm/105 with excellent results. but i just happened to purchase a box today. measured the baring surface of the 30cal/178 A-max, 100 count. 93 were the exact same length and the other 7 were only 1 thousand less. i was impressed with that. the A-max has a very good reputation for accuracy and long range hunting.

 

[lerch]

this is funny cause i was just talking to a customer in the store about pretty much this same thing today.

Correct me if im wrong here.

Hornady uses a a vld (secant??) nose profile on there amax bullets, i am not for sure on the sst and interbond bullets. they tend to be a little ****y about seating depth, much like the bergers. play with seating them into the lands and out of about .005" at a time. with the 105 amax in my 6br they would group around 2.5" seated .010" into and out of the lands at 400yds. around 4" at .015" in and out. right at the lands about .003" off and they grouped 4 shots just under 1" at 400yds.

just a little bit makes a big difference.

you might try that and see if it makes a diff

have a good un
steve

 

[Pdvdh]

I've never had any luck with Hornady bullets providing stellar groups in my rifles but some guy do very well with them so maybe Lerch has touched on a possible difference in results.

I tried their 139 gr Interbond in two 7mm Rem Mags and the group sizes were consistently 2-3 times larger than I achieved with Nosler 140 gr Accubonds and BTs. The first box of Hornady Interbonds had a bunch of crooked plastic tips on them. I didn't notice them until I'd shot about 1/2 of the box of 100. So I sent them back to Hornady and they mailed me a new box of 100. Well 26 of those 100 pack of bullets had crooked tips too. And several of the plastic tips were loose. In fact one tip fell off when I picked the bullet up out of the box. Didn't give me a lot of confidence in Hornady's manufacturing process or quality control. And it wasn't just a fluke with my 7mm Hornadys. I told two guys at work about my experience and then brought my bullets in and showed them to them. So they go home and bring in some of the .308 & .338 Hornady Interbonds that they had on their reloading benches and their plastic tips were also crooked!

If you're trying to load Hornady Interbonds, I'd pull the plastic tips off them first. Either that or load them butt end first! I guess that would make for a butt-ugly cartridge that shot butt-ugly bad! Seriously though, they were a joke.

But like I said, a number of folks report good results, which I can't explain based on my experiences. FWIW, I gave up on Hornady bullets after I returned the box with the crooked tips and then they turned around and sent me a new replacement box which ran a 26% crooked tip rate. A lot of good that did me. You'ld have thought they'd have at least looked at the bullets before they sent them off to me.

No crooked plastic tips on my Nosler's so far.

 

[rtv900]

It might be the bullet weight. I might be wrong about this as I am no expert. I just bought a Tikka T3 243 and I shot 100 grain bullets out of it. Groups were good. I ask for some help and I was told to shoot 85 grain bullets. Tried a few and I was really really impressed. I shot 95 grain Remington Accubonds (factory) and oh my goodness - hold the horses. I just found the round for my gun. It shoot very very well at 200 yards. I am getting really small groups. I am going out again tomorrow and I will take and post pictures of the targets.

The gun has a 1:10 twist rate. It should shoot 75-85 grain bullets the best and that is the weight I want to shoot for my application. But the fact is 95 grain accubonds are the bullets for my gun. I am really impressed with the accuracy. I guess I was told several times to keep trying different bullets and it took me awhile to listen to that advice.

I cannot say enough about how these bullets work in my gun. Give them a try.

 

[lerch]

Phorwath, wow!!!

i aint seen anything like that!! hell ya send those back to hornady. me and Bill have talked several times to one of the main guys in charge with bullet manufacturing at hornady and he is a hell of a nice guy. if you get a chance PM Bill Bailey tomorrow and he can give you his number and i bet he would be a hell of a lot of help on the problem and would probably like to hear about it. i havent seen that and hornady is one of our better sellers so if there is a problem like that i am sure all of us would like to solve it. a problem like that needs to be fixed.

the spitzer nose profile of the nosler and sierra bullets lends itself to being a little easier to get to shoot. i may be wrong but the vld nose on the hornady bullets really could be the reason why they are hard to get to shoot sometimes. I aint the best on this. Maybe we can get Kirby or GG to respond and they might have a little more concrete evidence on the matter.

Phorwath, holler at Bill (BJ) if you get a chance, if we have bullets with that problem i would like to get them sent back and replaced before we sell them. If you think of it you might call 1-800-522-3314 and say something to him, he can call hornady for ya if you want.

have a good un
steve

 

[Pdvdh]

Re: Hornady Interbond Bullets

Lerch,

I didn't mean to convey the notion that my experience with the Interbonds was a current event. My encounter with the crooked tips was probably about 2-3 years ago. Maybe Hornady would know when the replacement box of bullets were mailed to me based on the Lot Number on the box. The replacement box of Hornady 7MM 139 gr Interbonds were Lot #2050571. I mailed the original box of crooked-tipped Interbonds back to Hornady so I don't have that box / Lot Number any longer. I'll ask the two guys I work with also and send you those Lot #'s. One co-worker had a box of .308 Interbonds and the other a box of .338 Interbonds. I suspect they'll still have their boxes because they were disappointed after learning their bullets had crooked tips too. If I remember right the consensus was we could use them for clean bore shots to foul our barrels or for fireforming some cases. I wasn't going to keep paying postage to ship boxes of bullets back to Hornady to get another box with crooked tips. I'm no expert on the affect crooked plastic tips would have on bullet accuracy but I couldn't take the chance of having my hunt'in buddies pokin fun at my reloads anyhow - even if they had shot well. Here I am the serious long range hunter carrying around home-brewed cartridges with crooked tips? Not me!

I've still got 15 of the crooked ones in my reloading cabinet. You don't even have to roll some of them on a counter to see the crooked tips. They're yours if you'ld like to examine them or show them to your Hornady rep. I'd think Hornady would like to get to the bottom of it if they already haven't.

On a more positive note, I did double-lung a fork-horn bull moose with one of these 139 gr Interbonds with my 7mm Rem Mag. Broadside through the ribs from about 85 yds away. The moose ran about 30 yds and collapsed dead. I found the bullet under the hide on the far side ribcage. I'm looking at the bullet right now. 2.5X expansion and an expanded bullet weight of 98 grains, for 71% weight retention. Top notch performance. I remember I used them for a moose hunt that year because they were accurate enough to hit a moose in the vitals at the ranges I'd be shooting on that particular hunt. But I haven't hunted with them since then. Switched to Nosler Accubonds for shots out to 4-500 yds and Berger VLDs for anything farther out.

I'll post the Lot #s on my co-worker's Hornady Interbonds if you or anyone else wants to compare those Lot #s to theirs; plus you can check it out with Hornady if you'd like. They might listen to you. Me - they kindly sent out another box of bullets - no questions asked - to shut me up, but I don't know that they really looked into, or resolved, the problem.

 

[johnnyk]

I too have had years of anguish with the Hornady bullets. I've tried the 154SST in two 7mmRM's with nothing better than 1-1.5". I tried 87gn VMax's in a couple of .243's with no better than .4". Ballistic Tips have shot better in all instances. I have also tried two or three different bullet styles in a .223 and .22-250 that I used to own and they never delivered. I have several partial boxes of Hornady bullets setting on my reloading desk.
I never said anything about it on here because lots of folks were getting what they claimed as good accuracy. Made me wonder what everyone else expected from their rifles. I talked with a gunsmith friend in N.C. about this subject over 5yrs ago. I knew something was wrong after I tried that first box of 52gn BTHP "Match" bullets in my .22-250 that was drillin' the Sierra 52gn MK. He and I concluded later on that nothing in the red-n-white boxes shot worth a darn, at least for us. I figured it was the ogive and tried different seating depths but never found the "G" spot (LOL).
I probably won't buy anymore Hornady bullets but I'll keep these that I have around in case the federalis come to take my guns. Good enuf for 'em. JohnnyK.

 

[Chuck Boyer]

I am glad that I am not the only one. I was just trying to find a cheaper alternative to the Nosler BT and Accubond to hunt with and shoot pest out of the pickup(like possums, coons, beavers etc). On the positive side, I have good luck with a 154 Interbond in a Win 70 7mm STW. I push it to 3400 with H-1000. In 35 cal, the 200 Spire Pt does real well in a 358 Norma. I mean groups in the 3\4-1 1\4 in range.

Understand, the performance of the bullet after impact has been great, you just got to be lucky to hit what your shooting at with some of Hornady's bullets.

 

[srhaggerty]

I got the 105 A-max's to shoot just fine with the first powder and primer combo I picked. I think I seated them what the book said.

 

[Pdvdh]

Re: Crooked-Tipped Hornady Interbond bullets - Lot Numbers

OK,

Here's the Lot numbers from my co-worker's Hornady Interbond bullets:

.308 165 gr Interbond - Lot #2050371
.308 180 gr Interbond - Lot #2040665
.338 225 gr Interbond - Lot #2040429

And again, my 7mm 139 gr Interbonds - Lot #2050571

I've got a digital camera and could take a picture of my crooked tipped 7mm Interbonds but I don't know how to post pictures on this forum. The tips are crooked enough that I believe they would be visible if I laid the bullets out side-by-side and took a clear digital photo.

But for Lerch & others interested, these bullets were purchased maybe 3 yrs ago. They weren't purchased within the last year so my comments may only be of historical value if Hornady has identified and corrected the problem. I posted on another forum about this and at least one guy checked his Hornady's and said he found some crooked tipped Interbonds in his box also.

If they shoot good in your rifles, more power to you. They typically have not performed to my accuracy expectations and I don't shoot them anymore. The crooked-tipped ones get used for barrel break-ins or dirtying a clean bore prior to heading out to hunt.