Anyone used this 7mm amax?

[kiwi3006]

I have been given 45 of these Hornady 7 mm amax national match. It is the projectile on the left of the picture. The other is a Hornady 7 mm amax.

Has anyone used the national match projectiles on game? Any ideas of the BC? I don't think Hornady make them any more as they are not shown on their website (at least I couldn't see them).

Thanks in advance,

Stu.

 

[Joel Russo]

Stu,

I have about 1,500 of those bullets. They are Lot No. 95-175.

According to Hornady, they stopped production as they were tearing their dies apart. They only made one lot. They preceeded the original A-Max with the larger red tip than the present. The one you have in the picture is the present A-Max.

My experience in shooting these bullets is they are better suited for game than long range target. It would be an understatement to say they are very effective on deer size animals.

Ironically, I just sent Hornady an e-mail last night asking for the original tested BC. Yesterday I traded a buddy some bullets, and I got another box of these.

I'll let you know what they tell me about the BC.

 

[Varminator 911]

Joel:

I'm assuming from your reply that this bullet expands very well on deer. But why is it better for deer than paper; accuracy? What twist do they need?

The bullet looks very similiar to the Henson. If this expands well on deer, he should be able to build one that does. I've noticed that Hornady still makes a 510 caliber that looks like this. I believe it has a bc of 1.05.

 

[kiwi3006]

Thanks for the reply Joel, I will have to ration them out! I doubt if i can get any more.
I have just rebarreled my rifle to 7 mm rem mag and was going to use the national match to break in the barrel but I will use another projectile now.

By the way, your stocks are awesome!

Stu.

 

[Joel Russo]

Kiwi,

No word yet from Hornady, looks like I"ll have to call them tomorrow.

Thanks for the compliment on my stocks.

I dug a few bullets out to show you the progression of the 162 gr A-Max.

Left to right... National Match A-Max Present A-Max

Please find any other bullet to use for barrel break in....these are much to difficult to find to use for that..

Varminator,

I have shot these at 1K out of a 9 twist barrel and accuracy was acceptable but not excellent. I always seemed to do better with the SMK or the Berger. Now, performance on game is a different story, where the SMK or the Berger don't come close to the terminal performance.

 

[Joel Russo]

Kiwi...

Just got off the phone with the engineer at Hornady.

BC of the National Match was published at .710
BC of the large Red polycarbonate tip .660
BC of the present day bullet .625

One run of the National Match in '95. Production was halted due to the high cost of manufacturing. The aluminum tip was turned on a lathe. No plans to make them in the future.

There you have it.
Don't waste the ones you have..

 

[kiwi3006]

Thanks, for the info Joel. I had hoped the BC might be around .7 Hopefully I don't use up to many confirming the drop chart.
I am really keen to see what they do on deer and tahr. I am planning a few long range hunting trips over the next month so hopefully won't have to wait too long.

Stu.