Hornady Precision Hunter range results--interesting

[the444shooter]

So far I have shot the .300 Win 200gr, the .308 178gr and the 7mm 162gr Precision Hunter factory loads from Hornady.

Accuracy from the 300 Win (Rem 5R, 24" Threaded) was good, just under MOA.

Accuracy from a .308 (Remington ADL Varmint, 1-12twist, in AG stock from Stockys) was just over MOA. (was shooting sub MOA with 168smk)

I had trouble with my SPS 7mm Rem Mag grouping--I think it's a bedding issue, however, because it's in a stock that was bedded for another rifle and I'm pretty sure I'm bottomed out on the recoil lug before the receiver is bottomed out in the well of the action. It started off promising, with 2 shots touching, but then started throwing them, so I'm going back to basics and trying the factory stock to establish a baseline. But also will be shooting different ammo--see below.

The most interesting thing out of all of this is the velocity(s) I'm getting. Both the 300 Win Mag and the .308 are SPOT ON compared to their listed velocities, and with very little ES. But the 7mm Rem Mag was 200 FPS below listed spec.
TWO HUNDRED FPS BELOW! I had some at ~2800+/- and one at 2770. 30-06 velocities in a 7mm Mag that is supposed to be closer to 3k fps.
I've read multiple places where the 7mm Rem Mag doesn't live up to its hype in factory ammo, being plagued with "slow" barrels. Why it's specifically the 7mm Rem Mag that this seems to happen to, I don't know, but I recall it specifically being mentioned a lot with this phenomenon. I've also read a bunch lately that the Hornady PH specifically in 7mm Mag was slower than their advertised velocity.

Chronograph was a Magnetospeed, and temps were below freezing, but that shouldn't account for 200fps slower velocity, especially when the 308 was spot on in the same temps.

I've reached out to Hornady, but have yet to hear back, and since it's close to SHOT show, I might not hear back anytime soon.

I'm going to try some Federal or Nosler ammo and see if my 7mm is slow with everything, or if Hornady's, specifically, is just lackluster.

Ultimately I'll handload for the 300 and the 7mm, but for now, I'm stuck with factory.

 

[Deleted member 46119]

I can only comment on the "slow" 7mm RM factory barrels.

data:

I had a "factory" barrel used to make a 28-Nosler. It always shot "slow" compared to QuickLoad. Most of my other xxx/26-Nosler were reasonable to dead on. One load was 1fps off on the Magnetospeed vs QL.

The 28-Nosler was always 100fps slow compared to QL and higher pressure. However, it shot very very well.

comment:

I am building a new 28-Nosler with a Proof Research barrel. If it is slow then something in the data regarding barrels is off.

 

[the444shooter]

Sidenote, I figured out what was wrong with the 7mm accuracy. The McMillan stock didn't have enough room in the trigger area, and it was binding on it, causing the barreled action to be torqued when tightened. Now I've got it cleaned up, and we'll see how it does next session.

 

[Radhimself]

Alot of companies and load data has slowly been dumping the ol 7rm farther and farther behind "new" "modern" "beltless" cartridges


I hit around 3130fps accurately with 162 amax's .3's @ 100

 

[Varberger757]

Can't tell anything concerning 300WM and 7RM, but I had the opportunity to shoot the 178gr ELD - X factory loads in 308W. I used a Steyr Mannlicher Stutzen (full - stock) 20' barrel. The precision / accuracy was phenomenal. At 100m 5 shots collected at 11 mm/0,37' and at 200m with stunning 14,7 mm/ 0,57'. Nobody needs to hand-load in this particular case, because you can't do better than these factory loads. Will surely try 6,5 and 7 mm as well.