Problem with Hornady bullets

[Lumpybrass]

Was loading 6.5mm Creedmore for the first time today. I check every cartridge ogive to base. I was looking to have a jump of 0.007". The problem was the bullets ogive had about 10% at 0.010" less, giving those cartridges a 0.017" jump. Damned hard to load precision ammo with two different bullet profiles. Unless I see eye popping groups, I may try Sierra match Kings next.
Anybody else have these problems with Hornady ELD Match 140gr?

Just to bitch a little more, the Hodgdon 4350 was clump-hanging in the Harrell powder measure and funnel drop tube, many times. I had powder all over the places. I never experienced that before with any powder. I have been using H4198 for years in benchrest and never had any hangs like this. Caught me by surprise.

Rough day at the bench, but, beats the shit out of a job.

 

[Hondo64d]

Any chance the ELD tips are bottoming out in your seating stem?

John

 

[10ring1]

Idk, but Hornady bullets just flat out kill shit.

 

[Brux]

Which Hornady bullets? There was another post on here with the guy complaining about the same thing.

 

[Doom]

Clumping of powder sounds like static electricity. Wipe it down with a dryer sheet.

 

[mckchome]

Was loading 6.5mm Creedmore for the first time today. I check every cartridge ogive to base. I was looking to have a jump of 0.007". The problem was the bullets ogive had about 10% at 0.010" less, giving those cartridges a 0.017" jump. Damned hard to load precision ammo with two different bullet profiles. Unless I see eye popping groups, I may try Sierra match Kings next.
Anybody else have these problems with Hornady ELD Match 140gr?

Just to bitch a little more, the Hodgdon 4350 was clump-hanging in the Harrell powder measure and funnel drop tube, many times. I had powder all over the places. I never experienced that before with any powder. I have been using H4198 for years in benchrest and never had any hangs like this. Caught me by surprise.

Rough day at the bench, but, beats the shit out of a job.

The dryer sheet might be a helpful fix here. I use H4350 daily for my 6mm CM and have never had these kinds of sticking problems.

 

[Lumpybrass]

I'll check out the seating stem Hondo. Never used the die before (Redding comp die). Could be a problem.
Good suggestion, Doom, with the drier sheet. The powder measure had to have a screwdriver shoved up the tube to break loose. Hope the sheet fixes it. Bench was a pig pen with spillage.
Thanks guys.

 

[Juggerxxx]

I have loaded up just shy of 2000 of the 140 ELDs and never had this issue with any of the lots. I am very anal about the base to ogive measurement and check every one after seating. 95% of them seat within 0.001”.
As others have mentioned, check your seating die. Also check your neck tension (inside diameter) of each piece of brass. This will also have an impact on seating depth.

 

[XLR308]

Hornady bullets have mostly been very consistent for me with the exception of the 155amax.
I found more variation in those than any others I've used and had to sort all from the lot I had to ensure consistent BTO measurements.
A quick check of the lot of bullets you have should be able to rule that out or identify it as the culprit.

 

[MarinePMI]

I'll check out the seating stem Hondo. Never used the die before (Redding comp die). Could be a problem.
Good suggestion, Doom, with the drier sheet. The powder measure had to have a screwdriver shoved up the tube to break loose. Hope the sheet fixes it. Bench was a pig pen with spillage.
Thanks guys.

IIRC, the Hornady Comp dies come with two separate seater plugs. One for the long tapered bullets (like ELDM's and RDF's) and another for standard secant ogive bullets (like Nosler CC's and hunting type bullets). That may very well be your issue. Pretty sure my Hornady set came with the standard seater installed in the die...

If you have the shorter seater installed you'll see the tips deformed or a light ring around the nose of the bullet (from the seater not properly matching the angle of the bullet nose when seated).

 

[mustang-cars]

I'll check out the seating stem Hondo. Never used the die before (Redding comp die). Could be a problem.
Good suggestion, Doom, with the drier sheet. The powder measure had to have a screwdriver shoved up the tube to break loose. Hope the sheet fixes it. Bench was a pig pen with spillage.
Thanks guys.

If you didn't buy this.....https://www.brownells.com/reloading...petition-long-vld-seater-stems-prod33937.aspx
then you're probably bottoming out on the tip of the projectile. Instead of seating off of the ogive its using the tip. Why for the life of me when you buy a $130 competition micrometer seating die it doesn't come with the long VLD stem I don't know. Dang good die though.

 

[Lumpybrass]

If you didn't buy this.....https://www.brownells.com/reloading...petition-long-vld-seater-stems-prod33937.aspx
then you're probably bottoming out on the tip of the projectile. Instead of seating off of the ogive its using the tip. Why for the life of me when you buy a $130 competition micrometer seating die it doesn't come with the long VLD stem I don't know. Dang good die though.

 

[Lumpybrass]

Sorry, I should have mentioned I checked just the bullet to it's base, eliminating seating questions.
It's the bullet with two distinct ogives, giving two measurements. Clearly bad bullets.
I'll segregate them. The shorter only represent 10%. I'll keep them for fire forming.
Next I'll change manufactures. Hopefully I can rely on Serira.

 

[XLR308]

I wouldn't give up on Hornady just yet but your choice of course.
Like I said before since I had the same issue with the 155amax I check them all now and generally find them to be very consistent.

 

[Brux]

Sure which you would contact Hornady about this. This is the second post about this in the past week about this same problem.

 

[XLR308]

Sure which you would contact Hornady about this. This is the second post about this in the past week about this same problem.

It kind of seems like they have two different lots that overlapped and were mixed together maybe.

 

[mustang-cars]

Sorry, I should have mentioned I checked just the bullet to it's base, eliminating seating questions.
It's the bullet with two distinct ogives, giving two measurements. Clearly bad bullets.
I'll segregate them. The shorter only represent 10%. I'll keep them for fire forming.
Next I'll change manufactures. Hopefully I can rely on Serira.

Got a lot number for the ones you have?

 

[spife7980]

Is this a hornady packaged lot of bullets or one of the midway special boxes where they combine or split up into different sized packs? I thought I was getting a deal on my elds from midway with the pricing but turns out they were repackaged so who knows if I actually have all of the same lot or not. That two cents savings per bullet would have bought a lot of peace of mind.

 

[Brux]

Midway does that on all there bullets. Just tried to order some 175 SMK's and they could not guarantee same lot #. I don't know how they sale any bullets. And these were in 100 count boxes.

 

[MarinePMI]

Hence why I frequent Powder Valley; they give a shit, and are shooters themselves.

When ever I buy bulk bullets, brass, whatever, they take the time to either put the lot number on the invoice (recent addition) or (in the past) wrote on the box itself with a sharpie, the lot number. When ordering multiple 100rd boxes of bullets or brass, they take the time to make sure they're the same lot. Nothing but good things to say about the PV folks...

 

[canezach]

Is this a hornady packaged lot of bullets or one of the midway special boxes where they combine or split up into different sized packs? I thought I was getting a deal on my elds from midway with the pricing but turns out they were repackaged so who knows if I actually have all of the same lot or not. That two cents savings per bullet would have bought a lot of peace of mind.

I'm in the same boat as Spife. The 140 ELDM is the only bullet I use for my 6.5 Creed match loads, so I thought I was getting a good deal when I ordered one of those bulk boxes of 2000 bullets. I thought I'd be getting four 500 round boxes, but no, all I got was a box with 2000 loose bullets, like someone took twenty 100 round boxes and just dumped them into a larger box. I may have ten different lot numbers in there. Who knows?

Edit: I would've been OK with twenty individual boxes, that way each box has bullets from the same lot number and should be fairly consistent to each other, but with 2000 loose bullets all mixed together in the box, I'm finding a lot of variation from one bullet to the next. I set my seater die to X" base to ogive. One bullet seats at X", the next is 0.05" shorter, the next is 0.10" longer, etc. It's more trouble than it's worth, since I now have to measure each individual round, set aside the ones that are short or long, readjust my die, re-seat, re-measure, etc. I didn't even care about the price difference between bulk and individual boxes. What I wanted was 2000 bullets from the same freaking lot.

 

[MarinePMI]

The bulk ELD-M 75gr bullets I got were like that, but from the same lot. Again, from PVI, not MidwayUSA.

 

[flyright]

I spoke with Midway CS about the bulk boxes after finding fairly big differences in weight and ogive on a box of 500 140 ELDM's. They told me that they could be from different lots. The item # has a "B" at the end to indicate bulk. I sent them back and received 5 100 round factory boxes with matching lot #'s from another source. Cost me $8 more iirc and no sorting was required with those.

 

[Lumpybrass]

I bought 4ea 100 ct boxes in Hornady sealed packaging from Midsouth. Only one box was opened and used. All the variations took place within this one box. I'll cull the remaining 300 rounds. Two of the 4 boxes are 143 gr which are unopened.

 

[mustang-cars]

I spoke with Midway CS about the bulk boxes after finding fairly big differences in weight and ogive on a box of 500 140 ELDM's. They told me that they could be from different lots. The item # has a "B" at the end to indicate bulk. I sent them back and received 5 100 round factory boxes with matching lot #'s from another source. Cost me $8 more iirc and no sorting was required with those.

That’s not how I understand it. I thought I’ve seen a press release that said if you buy the bulk box they’re all the same lot number. Now whether or not if you buy a smaller amount than the 2,000 pieces they mix 250 from one lot and 250 from another that would be on the business selling them. Looks like the OP is having a problem with bullets from the same box of 100. Picture is from a couple of cases I have. Shows a specific lot number for each case.

 

[mustang-cars]

I bought 4ea 100 ct boxes in Hornady sealed packaging from Midsouth. Only one box was opened and used. All the variations took place within this one box. I'll cull the remaining 300 rounds. Two of the 4 boxes are 143 gr which are unopened.
View attachment 7007888

View attachment 7007889

Were the problems your having with the 2182021 lot number? Looks like I have a whole case of 2,000 pieces from that lot. I haven’t opened and checked those but I’d be curious if that’s the lot number you’re having problems with.

 

[mustang-cars]

Cracked my case open that’s the same lot number as the OP’s. I picked 20 random bullets throughout the box and measured the OGIVE with a set of Mitutoyo calipers and a Hornady comparator. I hade an ES of .001 between all of them. Just for shits and giggles I compared the difference in OGIVE between the other lot I have open and the ES between the 2 lots was .003

 

[canezach]

I can't speak for anyone else, but that (see mustang-cars picture) isn't how my bulk order arrived. There was no Hornady label or anything on the box, aside from the shipping label, so I have no idea how many lots my bullets came from. I will measure a random selection of my bullets when I get home and report back.

 

[mustang-cars]

I can't speak for anyone else, but that (see mustang-cars picture) isn't how my bulk order arrived. There was no Hornady label or anything on the box, aside from the shipping label, so I have no idea how many lots my bullets came from. I will measure a random selection of my bullets when I get home and report back.

Make sure you peel some of the tape away on the sides where the label is supposed to be. The 2 cases I’ve purchased from Brownells they covered the label with brown packing tape. If you peel it away you can find the label though. The picture of the 2 cases I posted, I purchased those ones from Midsouth shooters supply.

 

[flyright]

Brownells is good about sending same lot #'s. Midway sends mixed lots in a plain brown box, no other labels.