Hornady Lineup

[762libertarian]

Hello there,

I've been putting off a bullet shopping chore for too long. I need to get a precision bullet for my .308 rifles. Local shops usually keep Hornady and Lapua in stock. I need the bullet to be cheap, availible and decent. I don't need extreme BC, just decent. I also do not need to try out ten different bullets, I need a decent load, not some moonlander engineering marvel. I've settled on 150-155 gr bullets. The Lapua Scenar is availible in bulk, but I honestly don't think I'll get to shoot 1000 rounds of handloaded .308 this year (baby on the way). Both the A-max and the BTHP are availible in inexpensive packs of 100.

With the ELD Match lineup becoming more popular, will Hornady keep both the 155 gr BTHP and the 155 gr A-max in the product line? Is it "safe" for me to settle for one of these?

 

[762libertarian]

So I found this summary. It's three years old but it seems to hold up.

Hornady Grows the ELD-X & ELD Match while Trimming the A-MAX

Hornady has been slowly phasing out the A-MAX reloading bullet whle expanding their newer lines of ELD-X and ELD Match bullets.

www.thefirearmblog.com

Not the right time to become an A-Max devotee

 

[krw]

If you can go up 20grs, the SMK 175’s are hard to beat. Decent BC, very easy to tune, and very forgiving. Put 43.3gr Varget in a Lapua case and go shoot.

 

[Ryridesmotox]

I also shoot 308. If you have the appropriate twist rate barrel, go up to the 168 or 175-78 class bullets. I've shot 178 hornady BTHP match, ELD match, 175 nosler CCs, and 175 sierra SMKs. They are all pretty good. I prefer the hornady and sierras though (of those 3) They are the easiest to work with. The 178 hornadys in either ELD or standard BTHP match, they are very reasonably priced, that why I started with them.

I prefer the non tipped bullets, as they can be seated a couple cunt hairs longer in an AICS magazine. The small BC benefit from a tipped projectile are not that useful to me at my local match that topenout under 900.

 

[Idaho-5R]

I also shoot the 308, 5R Remington 700. I'm still trying out many different bullets for it. But, as far as 'Cheap & Easy', I've found the Nosler 175 CC does quite well. Cheaper than the SMK, & fairly easy to find a decent load. If you shop around a bit, they can be fairly cheap. I did however purchase 500 a while back, & after comparing them to older batches, found that the shape was slightly different from older to newer lots!!! Hope its not enough to have to change my data!!!!!!

 

[Ryridesmotox]

I wasn't as much of a fan of the noslers as I'd hoped. The 178 Hornady BTHP match are cheaper than the noslers and shoot just as good or better. That said, there is a reason why SMKs are the yardstick everything else is measured by