Nickel Plated Hornady 308 Match?

[ArmedGinger]

Ok this is something I've never seen. Digging through a box of random rounds that I've had to see what is in there and I came across 3 rounds that I don't remember at all.

They are stamped Hornady 308 Win Match on the bottom of the case, they are nickel plated, and loaded with what appears to be a HPBT. For the life of me I don't remember Hornady ever making a 308 HPBT with a nickel plated case... in fact I can't even find a picture of a Hornady 308 Win Match stamped case that is nickel plated.

Both of these rounds are marked the same: "Hornady 308 Win Match" with what appears to be the same bullet type. You can clearly see one is nickel plated and the other is normal brass.

Both of the cases are stamped with near the same thing (The brass one appears to be a reload I picked up from some where due to the wear on the case).

The only nickel plated cases from Hornady I know of are the Critical Defense and the Outfitter lines but neither of those are stamped "Match" on the bottom.

 

[Ledzep]

It's older. May have been a TAP SKU or old premium match product. Not sure. We haven't stamped "match" heads for at least 7-8 years now.

Eta: I should say, "that I know about".

 

[ArmedGinger]

So talked to someone at Hornady and they solved the mystery.

Hornady TAP Law Enforcement ammo is Nickel Plated. So about 10 years ago they were still stamping it with the word "Match" and at the time they had a 168gr HPBT round available which is what he figures these are.

Somehow I ended up with three of them...

 

[trob]

never shot hornady in 308, so I can’t say for sure, but the 6.5cm barrier round is nickel as opposed to the open air 147 eld-m round.

I figured it was in order to make it easier to discern between the two, which it does.