Range Report The Hornady 140 amax ammo. The OLD VS THE NEW

[SScott]

A quick update on the ammo I sent back for testing.
It took around a month, but I got a call from the tech at Hornady who tested my batch. He was very polite and agreed that it did not fall within their standards of accuracy and was replacing my ammo and some extra, for my trouble, as I had a lot of time involved with testing.
I look forward to testing the new ammo and appreciate the great customer service.
Scott

 

[kevinjs1]

Wow. That is great customer service.

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[steinmaster]

Has anybody heard anything else from Hornady? I've got lot# 3133063 that shoots about 2" at 100 in my savage model 12 LRP.

I just shot a box of these two days ago in a precision custom rifle. The groupings were horrible (over 1 inch at 100 yards). I had another person shoot too to rule me out. It definitely is not the rifle since it is from a reputable and high quality company. I want my $65 back (bought two boxes). I reloaded some Nosler Custom Comp bullets and will see how they shoot.

 

[sawgunner2001]

The Hornady 140 amax ammo. The OLD VS THE NEW

I've got 2 boxes of this stuff left. Thankfully, I found some H4350 yesterday and intend to pull the bullets, discard the mystery powder within, charge with a sane amount of H4350, re-seat the bullet, and save the last 40 pieces of brass from the 1,000,000psi chamber pressure that Hornady was loading this stuff to.

FWIW, the lot number on the stuff I was shooting was 3133158.

 

[BoilerUP]

Has anybody gotten some Hornady 6.5 Creedmoor 140gr A-Max ammo from either Midway or Powder Valley in the last 6 weeks?

If so, has it been 314xxx lot ammo? How has the accuracy been?

 

[jongekj1]

I have shot some 314xxxx lot and it was grouping well for me out of a savage 12 lrp considering my lack of shooting experience. 3/4" groups...

 

[rdbse]

After having good success with various 313 lots of factory ammo, I finally got a bad batch. Shot lot number 3133063 today with 3 blown primers out of 20 rounds. Cases were hard to extract from chamber, and accuracy went from 1/2 MOA to over 1 MOA.
Velocity was over 50 fps faster and standard deviation jumped to 24 (with other lots SD was around 10). Also had ejector swipes on brass.

All this time, I thought you guys were making this stuff up. Now the joke is on me.

 

[swhiteh3]

Yeah, no kidding. My first batch was TERRIBLE. (#3131672). I thought my gun was bad and I was ready to send it back to the gunsmith until I finished those 200 rounds, and switched to my other lots, which both shot MUCH better.

 

[steinmaster]

View attachment 44149

 

[Southpaw357]

The Hornady 140 amax ammo. The OLD VS THE NEW

Below is an excerpt from a separate thread i started about my 6.5 creedmoor criterion barrel remage setup. My hornady 140's were lot 3132922 and I've had no problem with the 120 rounds of it ive shot. But you guys might consider the winchester match loads with sierra match king bthps if you dont want to trust the hornady but i had great results with both:

I went to the range today to run two factory loads through the chrono and to zero my scope for the Hornady Ammo. Here are my results. Interesting to note that I did not have to adjust my zero when switching from the Hornady ammo to the winchester ammo. After I was done with this, I punished the steel gongs from 500 yards



Hornady 140gr A-Max - 10 Shot String

2,857 FPS - Average Velocity

70.0 - Extreme Spread

20.7 - Standard Deviation



Winchester Match 140gr Sierra BTHP - 10 Shot String

2,789 FPS - Average Velocity

38.0 - Extreme Spread

11.7 - Standard Deviation

 

[Foweis]

Damn I bought a 200 pack last week from milehigh. I was warned by them but I didn't have a choice. Haven't boughten any dies yet! Shit I hope they shoot ok.

 

[Roddd]

Foweis, any update on the ammo you bout from Mile High?

 

[BoilerUP]

I recently got two boxes of 140 A-Max Match from Midway, lot 314278. Box shows 2700fps muzzle velocity, with no listed load data. In a new-to-me 700 Rem-Age with 1:8 Criterion barrel, it was easily sub-MOA at 100 yards over multiple 5-shot groups, but I didn't have an opportunity to shoot further than that or check velocity.

I did pull one round and found it contained 45.0 grains of a very dark colored (similar to RL17), short cut extruded powder that was cylindrical in shape (ie. a hole through the center of each grain) and that each loaded round seemed to be right at 100% charge fill, if not maybe a hair compressed.

 

[MitchK]

I got my replacement ammo today. Lot#3141767. It took about two weeks from the time I sent my old stuff to Hornady. Hopefully I can get out and do some shooting next week

 

[rdbse]

Has anyone pulled the bullets from the bad lots and replaced the powder? If so, any results?

 

[RRW]

Has anyone pulled the bullets from the bad lots and replaced the powder? If so, any results?

I had one of the bad 2013 lots with the mystery powder. Not only was it loaded hot but charge weights within a 20 rd box were all over the place with just over a grain, yes a grain difference between the lowest and highest weight. All the other ones were somewhere in between. Even with powder loaded to acceptable levels, that much difference in charge weights and accuracy is going to be the shits. After a couple of blown and severely flattened primers, I shut er down. Took the remainder of the 80 rds I had from that lot, pulled the bullets, dumped the powder and replaced it with 41.5 grs of H4350 with a 2.810 " oal and the average 5 rd groups at 100 m were under 1/2 ". This was out of an AI AE with a 26" AINA Bartlein. I handload all my CM rds now so its a non issue. I am skeptical of using Hornady ammo now, unless its a proven lot # I am not going to waste my time or money on it.

 

[rdbse]

I had one of the bad 2013 lots with the mystery powder. Not only was it loaded hot but charge weights within a 20 rd box were all over the place with just over a grain, yes a grain difference between the lowest and highest weight. All the other ones were somewhere in between. Even with powder loaded to acceptable levels, that much difference in charge weights and accuracy is going to be the shits. After a couple of blown and severely flattened primers, I shut er down. Took the remainder of the 80 rds I had from that lot, pulled the bullets, dumped the powder and replaced it with 41.5 grs of H4350 with a 2.810 " oal and the average 5 rd groups at 100 m were under 1/2 ". This was out of an AI AE with a 26" AINA Bartlein. I handload all my CM rds now so its a non issue. I am skeptical of using Hornady ammo now, unless its a proven lot # I am not going to waste my time or money on it.

Thanks for the information.

Did you reuse the pulled bullets? I'm getting slight marks from the collet die and wonder if that will cause accuracy issues.

Did you resize the neck? After pulling some, the case appears to still have good neck tension.

 

[jake6547]

subscribed to topic. New to the creedmore world.

 

[MitchK]

I got my replacement ammo today. Lot#3141767. It took about two weeks from the time I sent my old stuff to Hornady. Hopefully I can get out and do some shooting next week

The new ammo shot .5 moa at 100 and 300. Just under 1 moa at 500.

 

[Foweis]

Foweis, any update on the ammo you bout from Mile High?

Sorry for the late reply, haven't shot it yet my barrel should be here any day. I spoke to milehigh about this issue they assured me It was resolved. They said late 2013 batches where bad but they are back on track il try to get some groups in by end of week.

 

[RRW]

Thanks for the information.

Did you reuse the pulled bullets? I'm getting slight marks from the collet die and wonder if that will cause accuracy issues.

Did you resize the neck? After pulling some, the case appears to still have good neck tension.

rdbse,
No problem. I used new bullets but didn't touch the necks. Just pulled the bullets, dumped powder, recharged with H4350 and seated new bullets.

 

[Foweis]

Foweis, any update on the ammo you bout from Mile High?

Well I suck at groups, but I managed this. Lol looks good to me!
23.5" AI AT Hornady 6.5cm 140 AMAX!

 

[ratrod54]

I'm not sure if people are still experiencing problems with 6.5 CM factory ammo but I read through this and other posts indicating problems and wanted to share my issues. I have three lots which I shot last Saturday. I had heard people were having great success with factory ammo so I jumped in. I was extremely upset with what I found after my first trip to the range with the new 6.5 Creedmoor.

After shooting three groups, My blood began to boil. I wondered why in the hell this rifle couldn't do what my stock savage barreled action in a manners stock could do. I asked another patron at the range, who was shooting reloads from his 6.5, if he had been having issues with factory ammo. He said he was only shooting reloads so he had not witnessed issues. I continued to tell him that my rifle "sucked". He then volunteered 5 of his reloads. I was a little hesitant but asked his load data and felt comfortable so I figured I would try it. My rifle loved it. 41.1 of H4350, 210M primers, Berger 130 VLD. So after this, I realized that I should have never questioned the rifle build. I am upset with myself that I even questioned it.

To this point, I had shot two different lots of factory Hornady and these reloads. I decided to grab another lot and try some more. This lot was exactly opposite of what I found before. I believe I saw earlier in this post that someone had the same lot with similar results. I have not pulled bullets from the poor lots,, but I will to measure the charge etc...

The 3 factory lots used:
3140663
3140415
3133922

Results:

Factory Target 1 (Bad Lots) - I have others but they all look the same so I only posted one target of each


Factory Target 2 (Good Lot-15 rounds, 3-5 shot groups)


Reload Target (One 5 shot group - I promise it is a 5 shot group!)


I do not profess to be a great shooter so take this for what it is. I am very unhappy however, with the inconsistency of this factory ammo.

Just wanted to share.

 

[Southpaw357]

Ratrod, thanks for sharing your results!


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[kevinjs1]

Ratrod, if you want to sell any of the lots that shoot poorly for you let me know. The 3132922 lot works well in my new rifle. And the 314 lots I have shot have been good too.

Come to think of it, if any of you guys want to dump 6.5 Creedmoor ammo shoot me a pm. I'm looking to pick up 500-the 1000 rounds.

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[Darkside-Six]

I just picked up 200rds of factory 140AMAX lot#3141767. Seems to be working well.

Here is 5 at 100




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[Southpaw357]

I just picked up 200rds of factory 140AMAX lot#3141767. Seems to be working well.


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Yep that would make me happy!



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