Variations in Hornady 140 ELD-M

[TN Shooter]

Has anyone noticed a change in Hornady 140 ELD-M bullets between lots. I have some that the ogive varies as much as .020” between lots. I use a Redding competition bullet seater and had to change the setting because they seated differently. My concern is that I worked up a load with one lot and now may have to start over since the bullet length to ogive is longer with the new lot. Would seating the bullet (new lot) deeper in the case to match my current load (old lot) cartridge base to ogive measurement change velocity,pressure, accuracy, etc.?

 

[spife7980]

Only way to know is to test. It will probably match up fine but who’s to say.
New lot, new load. To expect otherwise is to be disappointed.

 

[918v]

I would load to the same COAL, base to tip.

 

[Rimfiremike]

Wow... 0.020" change between different lots sounds more than I would have expected!
I bought a large amount from the same lot, but will definitely do some measurements when the current supply runs down and I get some new ones.

If the bullet dimensions are changing, I would want to redo your measurements to keep the jump to the lands the same as what was working well with the old lot of bullets.

 

[918v]

I have .012” inside one lot.
.020” between two lots is normal.

 

[TN Shooter]

I have .012” inside one lot.
.020” between two lots is normal.

Have you had any change in accuracy? I loaded both lots the same distance off the lands but haven’t had a chance to test yet.

 

[Niles Coyote]

I agree with 918v, but will add Lot to Lot changes are not limited to Hornady. Whenever I switch lot #'s I remeasure length to lands. So Far I have not seen a difference in performance.

 

[918v]

I load to the same coal range (base to tip). So if Lot A ends up around say 2.000” plus minus, then Lot B needs to be the same. Don’t chase lands. Just make sure your cbto is consistent.

 

[Niles Coyote]

I track that stuff

 

[omgtkk]

What 918V said. Last month I used the Hornady gauge to measure CBTO on on 12 samples OF 7 different .224 bullets in my 224 Valkyrie X-caliber barrel. The 80gn ELD-m were the worst by far. Here's what I got:
Avg CBTO SD
Hornady 73 eld-M 1.74 .00617
Nosler 70RDF 1.77 .00098
Hornady 75HPBT 1.771 .0041
Nosler 77CustComp 1.802 .00118
Hornady 80 ELD-M 1.7482 .0128
Nosler 80 CustComp 1.8116 .00084
Nosler 85RDF 1.756 .00236

So the Hornady 80 ELD-m's show a standard deviation that is a decimal point higher than any other bullet. The COAL measurements were similar withthe SD of the hornady's at .016

I haven't dealt with the 140 ELD-M's as I've gotten great results with the Nosler 140RDF in my Creedmoor

 

[acourvil]

I had a .020 change from the last lot and the new lot definitely does not have the same accuracy as the last; haven't had a chance to re-do load development.

 

[nso123]

While not the ELD, I noticed quite a bit of variation between different lots of the Amax. I did not ever notice any impact on overall accuracy. For what it is worth, I have also noticed variations in the same box of bullets.