147 ELD-M breaking up and tips melting?

[COB_MASTER]

Hi

I have a 6.5PRC with a Krieger 1:8 Twist barrel 26". I shoot 147 ELD-M (batch 2180670). I am running them just over 3000 ft/s and shoot 1/2MOA all day long.

In winter, I calibrated the BC out to 1350m and it came in at 0.345; i.e. pretty close to the published value.

What I noticed when I calibrated the next time around 20 degree Celsius( 68 degrees Fahrenheit), that the BC came in at 0.335. I went to shoot a competition and noticed that as the day warmed up, I was undershooting all the gongs from 900m onwards. I blamed myself.

Last Friday I calibrated at around 30 dC (86 d F) and noticed that I could not see some impacts (I was alone, but I now know that they broke up), but the BC calibrated to 0.31.

The competition on Saturday started out at around 20 dC (68 dF) and went up to 33 dC (92dF). It was a very calm day so wind was not an issue. However, I overshot the long gongs initially and later undershoot them. The point of impacts were very consistent on each stage.

I had two bullets break up halfway (confirmed by a few spotters). Never happened before to me.

Today, I went back to my calculator and played around with the BC to check what the settings would have been at the respective distances during the match. If I started the day on 0.35 and ended on 0.295 it would have been an amazing day.... It seems like the BC is going down as the temperature is going up. I can only explain that by the tips starting to melt like on the Amax bullets.

1. Does Hornday still have an issue with the ELD-M breaking up?
2. Do the ELD-M tips still melt? I thought they fixed it with the new tips? Anybody experience the same?
3. Could it be the jacket starting to deform, but not breaking up and thus decreasing the BC? Personally I would think that this would cause flyers, which I did not have.

Thanks
Dirk

 

[Bkultra]

Range Report - Hornady 147 ELDM blowing up

Searched for 147 ELDM jacket separation or bullets blowing up/coming apart down range on here and one dead thread with 7 posts about the 147 and another on the 180 ELDMs. Over the past 2 weeks i've talked to at least 15 people who have experienced both factory Hornady 6.5PRC and reloads using...

www.snipershide.com

 

[AllenOne1]

Why do you think the BC is constant over a range of temps? I have my BCs set by temp every 10 degrees.

 

[COB_MASTER]

A smal

Why do you think the BC is constant over a range of temps? I have my BCs set by temp every 10 degrees.

What variation do you get? From 0.35 to 0.295 is telling me something is very very wrong.

 

[AllenOne1]

A smal

What variation do you get? From 0.35 to 0.295 is telling me something is very very wrong.

I run multiple BCs so I'll just give you the variance of the first BC which is .002 so not much. The thing that I found was the BC was fine from 30 -70 degrees but at 80+ it was off that little bit. Yours does seem like a large swing comparatively.

This what I found with my setup and bullet which I don't think will directly transfer to yours. If you are changing anything other than the BC and temp I think you will chase it forever.

 

[Drumie]

I just went round and round with my Hornady factory loads blowing up on me. I purchased 600 rounds of the 6.5 PRC early this year. I had issues with the bullets blowing up. You can read all about it here https://www.snipershide.com/shootin...ts-has-me-stumped.6996694/page-2#post-8593291. To make is short I had 3 different barrels that the bullets were blowing up in. Just a month ago I got some new ones to try from Hornady and they are good to go. So they just shipped out new ammo to replace all the other stuff that was blowing up on me. They had a issue that they knew about, thought they fixed it but it wasn't. Now it seems like they got it fixed.

 

[Baron23]

I just went round and round with my Hornady factory loads blowing up on me. I purchased 600 rounds of the 6.5 PRC early this year. I had issues with the bullets blowing up. You can read all about it here https://www.snipershide.com/shootin...ts-has-me-stumped.6996694/page-2#post-8593291. To make is short I had 3 different barrels that the bullets were blowing up in. Just a month ago I got some new ones to try from Hornady and they are good to go. So they just shipped out new ammo to replace all the other stuff that was blowing up on me. They had a issue that they knew about, thought they fixed it but it wasn't. Now it seems like they got it fixed.

Really? They admitted to a problem?

my impression reading the thread that was linked above is that while they may send you new stuff, they never admitted to any sort of endemic issue w these bullets.

did they put anything in writing to you on this?

 

[Steel head]

I had the 147’s blow up at 260 velocities.
Quit using them.

 

[hlee]

I had the 147’s blow up at 260 velocities.
Quit using them.

What twist? 3000 fps in an 8 twist should be comfortably below the proposed 300,000 rpm barrier where these bullets get squirrelly.

 

[Drumie]

Nothing in writing. But a couple techs at Hornady told me the same thing. Try to get some new stuff and try it.