Hornady Ammo

William Reinicke

William Reinicke

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I kind of got away from the shooting scene awhile back. With tax stamps gone and finding my way back to bullet shooting more, im diving in kind of deep again. With the AR build and sprucing up the old AR for long distance, I am going to go sight in both very soon. I keep reading around the internet how bad hornady ammo has got and how they keep having half loads and blowing up guns. For 223 ammo, I never buy super expensive stuff. Usually just buy a PSP bullet style, get 55 gr stuff and its good for target shooting and opens up enough to euthanize a yote pretty quickly. Im sure a FMJ, put in the right spot is just as lethal, but I like the idea of something that opens up at impact.

I found that hornady frontier hp ammo, good price for bulk stuff, but keep reading stories here and there about it blowing up. Then just yesterday, watched a video of a guy (very new video) that was shooting 17WSM hornady ammo and it blew up his gun. Lots of comments on guys saying they are completely done with hornady ammo. Back in the day, it was all I shot. But has their QC gone down? Anyone have any insight or opinions on this? Leaning towards the PMC bronze PSP ammo as I can buy it in bulk to keep the rifles fed. On my other calibers, i spend money on them, but I usually get them dialed and then they live in a safe until I need them. They arent the plinking type or get the same usage my AR's do.

They're ready to sight in and eat. Just waiting for a warmer day to go get them out. Put my purple twist into my first build. With all the duck calls and my signature color being purple, felt right to put it into the first build. Black/purp gets pulled for big open flats and valleys, want to stretch out a shot and maybe get a dog down in the 400-500 yd range this summer. Thats a goal of mine. In wooded or close quarter canyon country, going to pull little brother brown/red.
 

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I shoot a lot of Hornady .223 FMJ target ammo. I've never seen evidence of an over pressure load.

I have a 17 WSM which I like a lot. I use Winchester branded ammo. For a rimfire the pressure is pretty high (similar to some centerfire cartridges) so I can understand why they might fail once in a while.
 
SJ Fairbank said:
I shoot a lot of Hornady .223 FMJ target ammo. I've never seen evidence of an over pressure load.

I have a 17 WSM which I like a lot. I use Winchester branded ammo. For a rimfire the pressure is pretty high (similar to some centerfire cartridges) so I can understand why they might fail once in a while.
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Are you shooting any of that frontier ammo made by hornady? Any issues if so?
 
I cannot speak specifically of the Frontier variety, but I shoot a lot of SuperPerformance and American Hunter/Gunner flavors from Hornady, and have never had any issues. PMC makes good budget rounds. Freedom Munitions (AKA LAX Ammo) is another good budget-friendly option that makes a 60 grain PSP round. For bulk 55g 5.56, I buy everything from Winchester to Prvi Partizan to other foreign mass-produced bullets with little to no issues. My last issue with ammo was some made in USA Winchester rounds that had a ton of FTFs. Seemed like a bad batch of primers.

I sometimes wonder if many "bad ammo" problems aren't more to do with individual weapons, and not actual bad ammo when things like that happen. Or if someone shot a squibber and didn't clear the barrel before a follow-up shot that blew the gun up.
 
Steven Alexander said:
I cannot speak specifically of the Frontier variety, but I shoot a lot of SuperPerformance and American Hunter/Gunner flavors from Hornady, and have never had any issues. PMC makes good budget rounds. Freedom Munitions (AKA LAX Ammo) is another good budget-friendly option that makes a 60 grain PSP round. For bulk 55g 5.56, I buy everything from Winchester to Prvi Partizan to other foreign mass-produced bullets with little to no issues. My last issue with ammo was some made in USA Winchester rounds that had a ton of FTFs. Seemed like a bad batch of primers.

I sometimes wonder if many "bad ammo" problems aren't more to do with individual weapons, and not actual bad ammo when things like that happen. Or if someone shot a squibber and didn't clear the barrel before a follow-up shot that blew the gun up.
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Ill start looking around. Im seriously thinking that PMC PSP round is all I would need/want. I can find FMJ everywhere but just want a little expansion on a dog. I will look at these other brands you have talked about. Think i will steer clear of the frontier stuff, even though a HP in that price range would be nice to keep stockpiled. I know PSP stuff does just as good on dogs.

I wonder that too. Believe me when ive seen it all when i used to work in an indoor shooting range for quite a few years. Everything from the guy who committed suicide to a hot piece of brass down a low cut shirt that resulted in a bullet through the foot to a slide bite that made a kid faint. Lots of weird things. I couldnt even count how many rifles and pistols I watched blow up on the range as well. So I know shit happens, but when you can pinpoint it to a source with multiple people having that issue, then thats when i start to get worried.
 
I hadn't heard anything about Hornady Frontier ammo having issues. I'll have to ask around since that is a safety concern for my job.

I have always liked the Hornady as well as the PMC Bronze ammo. I don't do a lot of target shooting with it but they have always been reliable rounds for us.
 
Dani said:
I hadn't heard anything about Hornady Frontier ammo having issues. I'll have to ask around since that is a safety concern for my job.

I have always liked the Hornady as well as the PMC Bronze ammo. I don't do a lot of target shooting with it but they have always been reliable rounds for us.
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if you google around, you can actually find cases of the frontier ammo making guns go boom. I dont like that at all. it also could of been a bad batch and you know how the internet likes to hold onto grudges for years and years and call something junk even after the company has fixed it. Ive been so out of bullet shooting for so many years, so I wanted real day opinions on this. Only real reason I was looking at the frontier was because they are the only one that offers a true HP bullet sold in bulk. But im perfectly ok with a SP bullet as well. I just want something a little more than a FMJ to hunt dogs with.
 
Ya trying to just stick with 55 grain. Keep it simple and sweet and fast. I guess I could venture up to bigger grain bullet. Never really thought about it. Just shooting targets and dogs. But might not be a bad idea if i get back out to W texas some more hogs. I know the kind of laugh at 55 gr for hogs. Small part of me wants to build an AR10 for them though.
 
William Reinicke said:
Ya trying to just stick with 55 grain. Keep it simple and sweet and fast. I guess I could venture up to bigger grain bullet. Never really thought about it. Just shooting targets and dogs. But might not be a bad idea if i get back out to W texas some more hogs. I know the kind of laugh at 55 gr for hogs. Small part of me wants to build an AR10 for them though.
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If you ever switch to a 77 grain 5.56, you won't go back (especially in that long barrel gun you have). Higher ballistic coefficient, more stable and accurate at longer distances, and more downrange kinetic energy.
 
Almost double the kinetic energy at 500, but almost 3 moa more drop in the bullet at 500. Now you got me looking at other grains as well. Maybe 55 aint the way to roll.

For shits and grins, I put in the ballistic data on their 60 gr sp and it has the absolute best kinetic energy at 500 yards due to increase muzzle velocity and better MOA drops. Not sure ill make the leap to 77 but that 60 from freedom has caught my eye in a major way. Certainly more kinetic energy at 500, subtle MOA differences. Maybe I need to look into a little higher 66-68 gr stuff.
 
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William Reinicke said:
Almost double the kinetic energy at 500, but almost 3 moa more drop in the bullet at 500. Now you got me looking at other grains as well. Maybe 55 aint the way to roll.

For shits and grins, I put in the ballistic data on their 60 gr sp and it has the absolute best kinetic energy at 500 yards due to increase muzzle velocity and better MOA drops. Not sure ill make the leap to 77 but that 60 from freedom has caught my eye in a major way. Certainly more kinetic energy at 500, subtle MOA differences. Maybe I need to look into a little higher 66-68 gr stuff.
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You need a fast twist 1:8 for 77 gr, ideally.
RM
 
William,
Back to your original question on Hornady ammo; I have no idea if it blows up guns or not. I reload everything I shoot but if I didn't, I would purchase Black Hills Ammo. They are the best IMHO and are used by police departments.
RM
 
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