Hornady 68gr 223 bthp help

I shot lots of cleans with the bullet in NRA HP competition. AR15's, 1:8 twist. Load was typically 24.0 grains Varget/AA2495/IMR4895/AA2520/N140. For gas gun shooters I recommend and use CC#41 primers to reduce the risk of slamfires. These mil spec primers are less sensitive than commercial or bench rest primers. I used every type of brass found on the ground. LC brass held up better than most headstamps, LC is good stuff. Federal brass, picked up from the military teams at Camp Perry, only lasted about five reloads, the case heads are soft and the primer pockets opened up.

The 68 Hornady is virtually indistinguishable from the 69 SMK, and lots of National Records were set with the 69SMK,. I never had an issue with the bullet.

While I can't help you with the 68gr bullets, my current go to powder in 223 is IMR 8208 XBR. It is a short grain extruded powder and temp stable, plus it meters exceptionally well. I have used it with 55, 77 and even 80 gr bullets with excellent results. The 7 or 8 twist barrels should work well with 68.

Just some thoughts.

3 different rifles? Jeepers.

Do you have any other data... velocities, SD, anything?

How are you shooting these rifles? From the bench, slung up, off-hand?

Are you using optics on the rifle? The reason I ask is 4" is pretty bad for all the powders you've tired. Varget is my go to powder for the heavier pills. I shoot the SMK 69gr bullet which is about 0.090" shorter than the Hornady bullet and get excellent results. I've shot some of the 68gr but would have to look at my notes for load and OAL.

Blue brings up a good point. When I am load testing pretty much for anything, I try to scope it, even if it's just for load development purposes, it takes some of the human element out of accuracy testing.

The reason I axed about how you were shooting it... is with AR's particularly, how you rest the barrel can affect accuracy, sometimes to a higher degree (assuming you are shooting an AR.) I like to shoot slung up, I had one instance where my POI was 4"-6" down and left... the barrel was deflecting from the sling tension.

I've also thrown my hands up and let someone else shoot my firearm to see if their results are the same as mine.

Makes a big difference if your your using a full float barrel too. Some of the low cost guns use a plastic fore guard which is supported at the gas block. Not the best for accuracy since it's putting pressure on the barrel.

I have an old “out of the box” untouched Colt 1:7 HBAR sporter that absolutely loves them, 10 rounds under an inch is not abnormal. Using Winchester SRP and 25.0gn of 748. 748 meters very well from many measures, even progressive press measures, not sure what you are using to know if that matters to you.

If you have tried them in 3 different rifles (assuming each shoots something well), with 4 different powders and still can’t get decent results, while getting the groups you are looking for with other ammunition during the same range session, I would check the runout first. That said a few thousandths runout often won’t turn a submoa load into 4” at just 100 yards.

Are the bullets seconds? Midwayusa has 68 grs for sale. https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1010677780?pid=536262

Try a different lot number of the same bullet.

IMR 3031 in a bolt gun.

If its not the bullet, or "range brass", its your loading method? My guess.

Slamfire said:

The 68 Hornady is virtually indistinguishable from the 69 SMK,

Click to expand...

On the target, for sure.


To many bullets. Gets more confusing every day.

My notes indicate 24.0 grains of Varget at 2.260 COL shot ok groups out of a 1:8 barrel (16"). 10 shot group was at 1.4" at 100 yds.
24.5 grains of Varget 5 shot group was at 1.0" at 100 yds

LC brass. Winchester primer.

I put a 1-8 twist WOA varmint barrel on my AR. This barrel will cut holes with just about any bullet I've fed it with the right powder... except 68gr Hornady's.

I gave up on 'em.

For accuracy, I gave up on AR's. Went with a bolt gun.
Been pretty happy w/both the 68 and 75 Match bullets over Varget
Happy enough to keep buying them.
YMMV

223 rem mixed brass trimmed to 1.750. Hornady 68gr match bthp loaded to 2.240" avg goal 23.3 gr of hodgdon benchmark and co or federal small rifle primers.

This load out of a remington 700 tactical .223 routinely does 5 round groups under .75" at 100 yds.

I have loaded the Hornady 68 gr BTHP over 24.8 gr of Varget at 2.25 OAL. I have gotten very good results out of Mossberg MVP with 1:9 twist with groups consistently less than 1". Out of 18" Faxon barreled AR with a 1:8 twist I have gotten decent groups usually less than 1.5".

I ran the exact same load as @jmorris in my mini and would get 1-1.5" groups from that gun, my 1-12 ADL didnt like them, but thats not a huge surprise.

Honestly Id say there is most likely and issue with THAT lot of those bullets. As has been suggested, give them a quick measure, and see if they really are .224s, as that would be the most likely and easiest reason for all of those guns to just not like them. The next thing id try is weighing a sample to see if there are major weight differences.

I switched to 65gr sierra sgks because i shot quite a bit of medium game with my minis, but those 68gr bthps did well in that role also, and i used them for quite a few years with no accuracy issues.