VIDEO PREVIEW: Hornady 2015 New Products Overview

New Hornady Rifle Ammunition
New rifle ammo to be introduced in 2015 includes: 17 Win Super Mag Rimfire (with 20gr VMax), Full Boar series with GMX bullets, .243 Win Superformance with 75gr V-Max, and .338 Lapua Magnum with 285gr A-Max. It appears that Hornady may also be expanding its Custom Int’l line of hunting ammo.

New Hornady Reloading Products
For 2015, Hornady is releasing a host of new reloading tools and accessories. Among the new reloading items this year are: Multi-Purpose Lock-N-Load® Quick Change Hand Tool (photo below), Lock-N-Load® Neck Turn Tool with power adapter (photo below), Lock-N-Load® Sonic Cleaner 7L, and Lock-N-Load® AP™ Primer Pocket Swage Tool (for Hornady L-N-L progressive press):

New Hornady Cartridge Brass — 15 New Varieties
This should make hand-loaders happy. Hornady will release 15 new types of Hornady-brand cartridge brass. Varminters should be happy with the new 22 Hornet, 220 Swift, and 6mm Rem offerings.

Missouri’s State IBS 1000-Yard Championship Match took place earlier this month at the Vapor Trail Valley range in Spickard, Missouri. Potratz set a new range record in the 1000-yard Heavy Gun Division with this 100-5X score. The group was impressively small as well: 5.571″. That was good for second best Heavy Gun group. With his combined scores and group for the event, John finished first place overall in the Heavy Gun Division (and now he’s got the trophy to prove it).

Dear Hornady Customer:

As you are aware, 2013 has been one of the most challenging years ever in the sporting arms industry. We are proud of the increases in production we have achieved this year, but we are still faced witha demand that exceeds our ability to produce.

In efforts to increase production, we have reviewed everything, refining procedures, adding people, and equipment when possible. One area that will help us produce more: cutting the number of changeovers in our production machinery.

In order to reduce changeovers, we are announceing the temporary suspension of over 150 ammunition items and 150 bullet items, for the balance of 2013.

Attached you will find the list of items that will be suspended. Our plan is to remove the orders for these items from our system, beginning July 10th, and notify you of the cancellations. We will continue to monitor and update this list as the market conditions change.

Our goal is to try to deliver more to every customer, and while this may impact certain categories, our overall delivery should improve.

Hornady has listed the suspended bullet/ammo items in ten pages of attachments sent out to Hornady wholesalers and retailers. One representative page (covering 6mm, 6.5mm, and 7mm bullets) is shown below. This is NOT the complete list — there are TEN (10) pages! Click on each link below to see suspended items listed by caliber, small to large.

Suspension List Contents by Page
1. Suspended Bullets .17 -.25 Caliber
2. Suspended Bullets .270 – .32 Caliber
3. Suspended Bullets .338 – .475 Caliber
4. Suspended Bullets 6mm – 7mm (See at right)
5. Suspended Bullets 8mm – 9mm and Suspended .17 – .223 Ammo
6. Suspended Ammo, .223, .243, 25-06, 270 Win, 280 Rem, 30 Carbine
7. Suspended Ammo 300 Wby Mag, 300 Win Mag, 30-06 Spr, 303 Brit
8. Suspended ammo 6.5 Creed, 6.5×55, 6.8 SPC, 7mm Rem Mag, 7×57 and larger metric
9. Suspended ammo 30-30, .308 Win, .338 Lap, .338 Win Mag, 35 Whelen, .357 Mag
10. Suspended ammo .357 Sig, 38 SPL, 380 ACP, 40 SW, 41 Mag, 44 Mag, 45 ACP, 45 Colt, and rifle 375 H&H, 404 Jef, 45-70 Govt

Notable Bullets on the Suspended List:
22832 – 22 Cal .224 80gr A-Max
22420 – 6mm .243 75gr V-Max
24562 – 6mm .243 105gr A-Max
26101 – 6.5mm .243 100gr A-Max
29402 – 7mm .284 162gr A-Max
29405 – 7mm .285 162gr BTHP Match
30314 – 30 Cal .308 155gr A-Max Moly
30715 – 30 Cal .308 178gr BTHP Match
30733 – 30 Cal .308 208gr BTHP Match
33102 – 338 Cal .338 200gr SST

Note, the above selection of “notable bullets” is just a “short list” of items that caught our attention. Remember 150 bullet types are being suspended for the balance of the year. With some items on the list, partial orders will be filled, or current orders will be filled, but no new orders taken.

This ammo is favored by many CMP Garand match shooters. It is loaded with accurate, poly-tip A-Max bullets. The M1 Garand uses a gas port system to cycle the action, but existing .30-06 ammunition can burn too slow, causing the operating system to be driven harder and faster than intended. This new offering from Hornady is purpose-built to provide accurate, safe and reliable functioning for the M1 Garand. While optimized for M1 Garands, this ammunition also shoots well in 1903 Springfield rifles and other bolt-guns chambered for the .30-06 Springfield cartridge.

Creedmoor Sports Special

New 6mm Bullet Data Profiles

Bryan recently added two new 6mm Bullet Profiles to his website: Sierra’s 107gr MatchKing, and Hornady’s 105gr A-Max.

Sierra 107gr MatchKing, HPBT
Sierra’s 107gr MatchKing has been used reliably in many medium- to high-capacity 6mm chamberings for many years. At 107 grains, this bullet is heavy enough to have a respectably-high BC while not being excessively long. This bullet is the ‘middle brother’ in the heavy end of Sierra’s 6mm target bullet line-up. The 95gr and the 115gr bullets have essentially the same nose and tail, and almost identical form factors as a result. The only difference being the weight which is taken up in the bearing surface. This bullet is comfortably stable in a 1:8″ twist in all but the worse case conditions, and even then the stability factor is still 1.33 which would result in acceptably accurate flight.

Hornady 105gr A-Max, PTBT
The 105gr Hornady A-Max is a very well-designed bullet with good performance. The plastic tip (PT) promotes a little higher and more consist BC compared to standard match bullet meplats while the 2.71-caliber long tangent ogive produces a low drag profile and good accuracy over a wide range of seating depths. The experimentally determined average G1 BC of 0.492 varies from 0.515 at 3000 fps down to 0.454 at 1500 fps. The G7 BC is a much better match for this bullet. Application-wise, this bullet was designed to be a match bullet, but has found favor with hunters as well due to the relatively thin forward jacket promoting good expansion.

Bryan’s Ballistics Book Offers Hundreds of Bullet Data Profiles
Bryan currently offers ten (10) detailed bullet profiles on his website — you can access these for free. If you want information on scores of other projectiles, you’ll find 236 other Bullet Data Profiles in Bryan’s definitive book, Applied Ballistics for Long-Range Shooting.

Sinclair is also running a sale now on Hornady BTHP Match Bullets. We’ve heard positive reports on the new match bullets with the Advance Manufacturing Process (AMP) jackets. Our friend John Adams has tested some of Hornady’s new 6mm 105-grainers with AMP Jackets. John says they shoot very accurately and are extremely uniform. John tells us: “I’m impressed by the new Hornady 105s. They are some of the most uniform bullets I’ve ever sampled. I absolutely stopped sorting them because the base to ogive measurements were so consistent.”

And to sweeten the deal, for the next week, Grafs.com is waiving its $4.95 handling/insurance fee on any orders worth $60.00 or more. Graf’s already offers free shipping on most products, so this is a good deal, even if you’re only going to buy a couple boxes of bullets. Here are some of the Hornady Bullet Discounts:

FREE Freight and No-Charge Handling/Insurance with $60 Purchase
Grafs.com will waive the handling and insurance charge ($4.95 value) when you order at least $60 worth of in-stock merchandise. Freight is ALWAYS prepaid to the 48 states on regular ground service only except for target load ammo (see terms of service for details). Offer excludes closeout items and target loads. Offer expires Thursday, April 28th at midnight CST. NOTE: Hazmat and other special fees are NOT included. Call 800-531-2666 for any questions.

High-BC 22 Cal Moly A-Maxs for under $20/100
Because Service Rifle competitors must shoot long strings of fire without cleaning, many prefer to shoot moly-coated bullets. Varminters likewise appreciate the fact that coated bullets may extend cleaning intervals. PrecisionReloading.com currently has moly-coated 75gr A-Maxs on sale for just $19.65 per hundred. That’s a good deal for bullets that are more than capable of winning Service Rifle matches. Consider that Sierra 77gr MKs are selling elsewhere for $25-$28.00 per hundred. If you have a fast-twist .224 and you like Moly, you may want to snap up some A-Maxs at this discounted price.

Robert Hoppe is one of the top 600-yard shooters in the country. Last fall, shooting a 6 Dasher, Robert nailed a 0.5823″, 5-shot group. At the time it was the smallest group ever shot in 600-yard registered benchrest competition. Just last weekend, John Lewis shot even smaller with an IBS Heavy Gun, but Robert’s 0.5823″ still remains the NBRSA 600-yard record, and the smallest group ever shot at 600 by a 17-lb class rifle. Robert has been very successful in the 600-yard game, and he finished 5th recently at the NBRSA 600-yard competition. He knows how to wring the best accuracy out of the 6mm Dasher cartridge. Here Robert offers some tips on load development and tuning for the 6mm Dasher.

Click here to view the embedded video.