Extra Hot Hornaday V-max factory Loads!

[jmarston]

I just came back from the range where I was chronographing some factory loaded ammo. I was shooting both my
mini-14 and my AR. I started with some Hornady 110 grain Vmax rounds. I was a little shocked when I got 2696,
2700, 2678, 2677, and 2704 in my AR with a CMMG 18 inch barrel. Even more shocking was the eleven inch group I
had at 100 yards. I changed to SSA pro-hunter 110 grain ammo and averaged 2529 feet per second and got 3/4 inch
to 5/4 inch groups. I was afraid there was something wrong with my AR until I switched to SSA ammunition. I have five
more boxes of Hornady Vmax ammunition and I am not sure I want to use it. The hottest I have ever loaded my Vmax
reloads is 29.5 grains of H-332, It averaged 2655 feet and had good accuracy. Has anyone else had this experience
with Hornaday ammunition?

[paulosantos]

That is definitely not right. You should be under 2600 FPS with an 18" barrel. Your groups should be 1-4MOA.

[Bushman_269]

Any signs of excessive pressure? How hot was it where you were shooting and was the ammo left out in the sun? Some powders are temperature sensitive.

[Tim_W]

Looking at group and vel is screaming defective ammo. I have gotten in the mid 2600 from my match 18" 1:12 DMR but as bad as the vmax are for accuracy 11" there is somethign very wrong. I have actually gotten smaller groups when fooling around and loaded bullets backwards to see what woudl happen. They key holed all but it was still a 3.5-6" group. Maybe they put the powder charge of either the ball powder with the extruded or vise versa. I would not be surprised if there were no pressure signs as I can easily load to that level and well above.

[Desert_AIP]

DocGKR told me about 2 months ago that, at the response to Police agencies, Hornady is loading their Vmax hotter.

Could be the new loads are on the street

Still, those numbers do seem high.

[marinesg1012]

I want to get some of this "hot" Vmax load.....

[Desert_AIP]

Graf & Sons has loaded Vmax back in stock.
Just ordered some.

[jmarston]

I expected more pressure signs than I saw with this ammunition. The ejector marks were deeper they were on
the SSA ammunition and the primers were fairly flat, but I expected more signs with ammunition that hot. I don't
understand the poor accuracy when the 90 grain SSA varmint cartridge going over 2900 feet per second were
giving 3/4 inch groups. I am not sure what to do with the 120 rounds or so of hornady Vmax ammo I have left.
I might put the bullets and reload the casings with some loads I know are accurate and safe. I think either Hornady
overloaded some ammunition or used faster propellent.

I don't think even the combat loads of SSA were that fast were they?

The temp when I was shooting was only about 80 degrees adn the altitude was around 6500 feet. My barrel has
a longer leade than saami barrels and seems to handle hotter loads without problems, not that I push my loads
that hard. I wonder if it had anything to do with the bullet rather than the propellant.

[owenslee]

This wildly inaccurate report is very similar to multiple reports from one batch of "cosmetic second" red tipped VMax style bullet sold by Midway several months ago... They were not advertised as Hornady bullets...but were identical in physical appearance.

We had a lengthy thread where we were able to isolate one style of bullet and manufacturing date that was affected. Ultimately Midway agreed to allow the bullets to be returned as accuracy reports were 6-8" groups at 100 yds. out of known accurate rifles.

Perhaps the same bullet issue has surfaced at the manufacturer...?

Kerry

[paulosantos]

Can you pull one of the bullets and weigh the powder charge?