I know that this topic has been beaten to death, but today it really struck home. I went to the range to confirm zero and shoot 200 and 300 yard groups with 2 separate rifles before deer season opens next weekend. I opened a brand new box of Hornady 6.5prc precision hunter and started grouping. I looked down to grab another round and something caught my eye.
Out of curiosity, I shot the gold primers and all 3 of them landed ~2” lower at 300 yards than the silver ones. They were also about 20-30fps slower on the chrono.
I will now be a reloader. I only get to hunt a few days out of the year and I would have been furious if I wasted the entire week waiting for a shot and missed because of ammo inconsistencies. Shame on you Hornady.
Nothing wrong with hand loading but…
Not clear if you’re already a bandleader - with equipment and components or planning to start.
I’m going to load some 140gr A-Frames for my 270 Win because I want to shoot some 270 Win A-Frames; however, I don’t shoot competitively & it’s really not cost effective for a relative few shots a year (I just spent $65+tax for just 1lb of N560 and over $70 for 50 bullets that I hope my barrel will “like”). If you’re already setup for hand loading, more power to ya; otherwise…
If Hornady is not living up to expectations, there’s always Barnes, Federal, Nosler, Norma, Remington, Swift, etc. (I’m going to hunt whitetail this week & next with Federal Fusion soft points.) Again, I’m not knocking reloading, but there are other brands of factory ammo –> unless you’ve already got all the components and a load worked up, two boxes of ammo are cheaper than working up hand loads.
I think the idea is more long term. I very well may follow bad advice on hand loads, but of all the brands you mentioned the only other one ive had success with is Federal. If Federal decides to change primers, runs out of their standard powder, or decides they like Pepsi more than coke, then im right back in the same spot. I shoot year round and want to develop my skills with a stable baseline. That is worth investing $$$ into something I can control vs the $119 I spent on Hornady’s un-advertised randomness.
