Sneak Preview: Hornady 75 grain 5.56 NATO Superformance

[Scoby]

Double post.

Scoby

[Scoby]

Molon:

In comparing the PPU to the Hornady TAP T2 or SP this is what I'm still left pondering.

The TAP T2 has a cannelured bullet. The PPU and SP does not but has a slight taper crimp. Is there a danger of bullet setback in using the PPU or SP in a semi-auto? What's the risk here? From what I've read on here, there appears to be some differences of opinion on this. I'd like to hear your opinion on this.

Should a bullet cannelure and approx. 300 fps dissuade me from considering this PPU for defensive purposes?

Scoby

Molon:

It appears everyone is avoiding the bullet setback issue I keep asking about like it was diseased or something. I know folks have differing opinions about running non-cannelured rounds through a semi-auto.

What has been your experience?

Scoby

[Molon]

Molon:

It appears everyone is avoiding the bullet setback issue I keep asking about like it was diseased or something. I know folks have differing opinions about running non-cannelured rounds through a semi-auto.

What has been your experience?

Scoby

I have never had a bullet set-back in firing thousands upon thousands of my hand-loads without a crimp. I've also never had a motor vehicle crash in the thousands upon thousands of miles that I've driven; but I still wear a seat-belt and carry auto-insurance.


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[Scoby]

Thanks Molon.
That's kinda...sorta what I was hoping to hear.

I understand though. Kinda like a "enter at your own risk" sort of thing.

Thank again.

Scoby

[Molon]

These accuracy results, and the experience of other forum members, would suggest the these SP loadings are a poor substitute for TAP T2. the main reason is the poor accuracy results, but the lack of cannelure and case mouth sealant are other deficiencies. With accuracy being this poor, the extended fragmentation threshold is meaningless.

There is only one 75+ grain, NATO spec, OTM offering that is easily found on the civilian market: SSA 77 grain Sierra OTM. This load was a little less accurate than TAP T2, but only by a slight margin (shoots about 1 MOA in my SPR build). I do not believe that it has a case sealant like the T2, but I've learned to live with this. I heard rumors that SSA had improved on this load in the past few months, and I seem to be getting better accuracy results from my last two orders.

Just an FYI; many lots of the 5.56 TAP do not have sealant at the case mouth, or the primer pockets, or both.


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[Molon]

UPDATE: Hornady 53 grain Superformance



From Hornady’s website.

As previously mentioned, the 53 grain Superformance load uses a brand new bullet from Hornady, the 53 grain V-MAX.





According to Hornady, this bullet has been “optimized for the .223 Remington chamber.” The pic below shows the new 53 grain V-MAX on the left compared to the 52 grain A-MAX on the right.



It seemed only fitting to test this new load from a .223 Remington chambered AR-15. The test vehicle was my 24” Krieger barreled AR-15 with a 1:9” twist and naturally, a .223 Remington chamber.







Shooting was conducted from my bench-rest set-up at a distance of 100 yards. A 10-shot control group using hand-loaded Sierra 55 grain BlitzKings had an extreme spread of 0.63”.







The 10-shot group of the 53 grain Superfromance load had an extreme spread of 0.70”!





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[Belmont31R]

Good to see since I have 5 boxes of that on order...

[Molon]

Good to see since I have 5 boxes of that on order...

Have you fired the .223 75 grain Superformance load yet?

[d90king]

Well glad to see I wasn't the only one with poor accuracy with the 75GR 5.56 SP load....



ETA: Well not glad with the poor accuracy but Id been accused of being a "flincher" per off site comms so in that regard Im glad Im not the only one, and several other people have reported poor accuracy, too.

I had similar issues with the .308 150gr SP also. Not sure if I had the old batch or if my FN simply didn't like it as much as the 175 GMM. I tried it in two rifles and got a little better results out of my 26" 700P but it was not as consistent as the GMM....

[Belmont31R]

Have you fired the .223 75 grain Superformance load yet?

Yeah got some target pics loaded up in my thread. In the next few days Ill have a Noveske Afghan build done, and be able to get a 3rd barrel on my end. I need a better rest though. Shooting off a "bag" doesn't work too well. The range I shoot at is surrounded by flat land, and its always super windy out there. Today when I was shooting I was getting the wind moving the gun around on the rests....then it would go from cloudy/dark to bright sun and getting mirage. Anyways both the LT Stealth and Centurion Mk12 barrel don't like the 556 load. The 223 shot about average.