Hornady 55gr differences?

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JEBruns

JEBruns

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I ordered some .224 55gr Hornady FMJ-BT's from Rocky Mt. Reloading. I'd been buying them from a local store for load development (FMJ-BT with Cannelure, #2267), and found a very accurate load with them, so figured I'd get some bulk ones from RMR.

When I got the RMR's, I broke out the calipers and scale. Much to my surprise, the RMR supplied ones are shorter (.731" vs .743") and the weight is heavier on the RMR supplied ones (55.4gr vs 55.0gr). I sent a note to RMR early yesterday, but no response so far.

Is that an acceptable difference for supposedly the same bullet? I've not been loading rife very long, but that seems to be excessive to me. I'd expect bullets from a name brand company like Hornady to be very consistent.
 
Hornady makes, and other retailers sell, non-standard, non-catalog bullets... like the 62grn Hornady BTHP, which is not in the Hornady catalog. As Colt mentions, unless RMR advertised them as #2267 bullets, they likely are not.

Chances are your RMR bullets will still shoot very similar to your gen-u-wine #2267's... Hornady makes good bullets. I'd give them a try...
 
I haven't loaded any yet. Want to have all of them in case RMR says to send them back, etc. They may well shoot fine, but I'd be unhappy if I had to adjust my loads for them.
 
Got tired of waiting for an email answer from RMR. They are usually very good about this kind of thing, but not this time. Anyway, I called Hornady and they said what I'm seeing is within specs for that bullet. They said it should shoot the same with the same loading data. Length spec is .735" +/- .01. I didn't get the weight tolerance.
 
Try some #2266 if you haven't unless you really want FMJ. The SP are about the same cost in bulk, maybe a penny more. But the accuracy is a very noticeable difference. Might be bumping up against my limits of shooting groups, but I find the 2266 group very slightly larger than VMAX, but still easily MOA. The FMJ won't do MOA [for me]. But for an inexpensive bulk bullet the Hornady #2266 is hard to beat.

How big a sample to get the 55.4gr? The whole lot - avg weight of many samples was 55.4gr? Or what kind of variation did you see? I find Hornady bullets in general have very little variation in weight and very consistent overall. My first thought if that's avg weight of the lot, they're seconds of some sort.
 
What kind of accuracy were you getting with the ones you had before? I’d load 10 or so up exactly as your previous ones and compare them to your baseline and I’d expect they will be extremely close to the other ones if not the same. Even shooting a few to compare will not affect a return should you choose to go that route, and you will know that they don’t shoot well enough to warrant keeping. Or they might, you just have to find out first.
Have you tried the RMR made 223 bullets? I’m loving the 55fmj and the 3GH they make.
 
CMV said:
Try some #2266 if you haven't unless you really want FMJ. The SP are about the same cost in bulk, maybe a penny more. But the accuracy is a very noticeable difference. Might be bumping up against my limits of shooting groups, but I find the 2266 group very slightly larger than VMAX, but still easily MOA. The FMJ won't do MOA [for me]. But for an inexpensive bulk bullet the Hornady #2266 is hard to beat.
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Yes, I have tried the 2266's also, and have some on the shelf. They also shoot well out of my AR. I will look for those the next time I'm buying bulk bullets. Thanks.

CMV said:
How big a sample to get the 55.4gr? The whole lot - avg weight of many samples was 55.4gr? Or what kind of variation did you see? I find Hornady bullets in general have very little variation in weight and very consistent overall. My first thought if that's avg weight of the lot, they're seconds of some sort.
Click to expand...
I tested 10 from each bag of the 2 bags of 500. They were consistent, just didn't match the ones from the 100 pack.
 
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bullseye308 said:
What kind of accuracy were you getting with the ones you had before? I’d load 10 or so up exactly as your previous ones and compare them to your baseline and I’d expect they will be extremely close to the other ones if not the same. Even shooting a few to compare will not affect a return should you choose to go that route, and you will know that they don’t shoot well enough to warrant keeping. Or they might, you just have to find out first.
Have you tried the RMR made 223 bullets? I’m loving the 55fmj and the 3GH they make.
Click to expand...
I am getting MOA groups with them at 100 yards, which I'm good with for non-bagged bi-pod shooting. I am going to load some up today, since Hornady said they were good to go. Same load data. It will be interesting to test them back to back with the ones from the 100 packs.

I have 2 of the RMR bullets I've been testing. Their 55gr FMJ and their 69gr HP. I have not found a good load for either of those yet. Getting there on the 55's, but the 69's have been frustrating. May have to do with their acknowledged issue of media in the hollow point, but I can't find a method to remove that. The Hornady 55gr FMJ, OTOH, was easy to find a good load for, and shoots equally well with several powder types/weights.
 
JEBruns said:
I am getting MOA groups with them at 100 yards, which I'm good with for non-bagged bi-pod shooting.....
Click to expand...

Wow. You should see if they have more and get them all. Your barrel must really like them. Typically a FMJ w/ cannelure is about the worst construction there is for accuracy, but if you're getting MOA with them, you're def doing a lot of things right. That load + barrel must be sick on a VMAX
 
CMV said:
Wow. You should see if they have more and get them all. Your barrel must really like them. Typically a FMJ w/ cannelure is about the worst construction there is for accuracy, but if you're getting MOA with them, you're def doing a lot of things right. That load + barrel must be sick on a VMAX
Click to expand...
Thanks, good to know for someone just getting started loading rifle. I have shot some VMAX also, it shoots well, but no better than the FMJ's. So I can't see spending more for them. I'll likely never shoot over 100yds with this gun, or hunt with it. So I'm happy with the subject bullet for my purposes. Accurate plinking, I guess I'd call it. ;)
 
I bought a huge quantity of these #2267 bullets from Brownell's.

My policy is to weigh them all before loading them. Almost none of them weigh 55 grains. Most are 54.5.

I suspect that they might have been factory seconds, but I just load them up. No big deal to me.
 
JEBruns said:
Getting there on the 55's, but the 69's have been frustrating. May have to do with their acknowledged issue of media in the hollow point, but I can't find a method to remove that.
Click to expand...

I do believe I saw somewhere that Jake said after lots of testing the media just looked bad in the tips but did not affect their accuracy.
 
bullseye308 said:
I do believe I saw somewhere that Jake said after lots of testing the media just looked bad in the tips but did not affect their accuracy.
Click to expand...
I read that too. The way he talks them up, I was expecting great things from them. But I've not come anywhere close to a good load out of my AR with them yet. And it's not from lack of trying. They have moved to the back of the shelf at this point. I know not every bullet will shoot well out of every gun, so no hate on RMR. They are just not working for me.
 
JEBruns said:
. . . the RMR supplied ones are shorter (.731" vs .743") and the weight is heavier on the RMR supplied ones (55.4gr vs 55.0gr).
Click to expand...
You've just reported a one-thousandth inch, half-grain difference, in an inexpensive ball blasting bullet, between batches.

If I could buy a premium HPBT .224 bullet with that little variation within a batch, I would be delighted; I can't. The variation you're observing is well within expectations, especially for inter-batch comparison.
 
I'm finding that the profile on the RMR 69gr HPBT is very similar to Sierra's 65gr and 69gr. Jake says these are designed to expand, so that puts them into the GK class. Which means they will not be match grade, but a good hunting bullet. I've found several loads that are 1 moa, but did take some work.
 
I have shot the 55 gr Hornady with and with-out the cannalure and my gun did not like them much. Though moved to the 62gr Hornady and seen an immediate improvement.

So with that I have used the Hornady 62gr FMJ and the Hornady 62gr HPBT that I have only been able to find at MidSouth Shooters. As the OP has stated I have seen a variance in weight of .48 gr in these bullets and also a .004" in overall length. I buy these in quantities of 500..

Now I also have been using the RMR 69gr .224" in my Savage 223 with Benchmark powder and am pleased with it enough that it has become my standard round for use in our ranges Winter League out to 300 yards.
 
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