75 grain Hornady Match reload

[Boudreaux78]

I love this bullet and it works perfect in my rifle out to 600 yards. I’m trying to replicate this round. Looking at using a 75 grain hornady bullet starting with 25 grains of Tac powder. Anyone have any data for this load?

 

thanks in advance for the help!

[milanuk]

25 might be a bit warm for a starting load. IIRC from earlier endeavors to duplicate BH 75 match ammo, 24-24.5 was more the norm. Pulled down some factory rounds at the time... they had 24.2-24.3 of what looked like Tac... and a $hit load of neck tension; one might almost call it a light to medium crimp. We tried up to 25.5 with poor results - crap velocity, damaged rims, etc. Backed off to 24.2, and started playing with a taper crimp die... everything just tightened right up.

Personally I'd start at 23.5 and work up 0.2 gn at a time, and then adjust the neck tension and/or crimp.

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[Blockader]

TAC is my powder of choice and I did some loads with the 75 grain Hornady BTHP to see if I wanted to switch to it from 77 SMK as it is half the price in bulk. 

 

I loaded all the way up to the published max 25.8, which seemed too high but didn't seem to show signs of pressure. 

 

Accuracy was terrible above 24 grains of TAC, 2-3 MOA groups plus fliers too. 

 

Between 23 and 24 grains it was fine and at some charge weights actually more accurate than my 77 SMK load out of a 18" Odin barrel. And almost as fast. 

 

I decided to switch to it and buy 1000 bullets. Than the world went crazy and now it's out of stock everywhere. Dammit. 

[AHI]

75s like to jump a little ( shorter over all length)and Tac has a accuracy node around 23.5. No crimp.

This works in 3 out of 4 different guns.

[Boudreaux78]

Thank you for the data, it’s a place to start!

[sschultz]

Try CFE rifle my rifle loves it I'm getting 2750 FPS with it

[Boudreaux78]

Anyone find a plus or minus difference between hornady 73 grain ELD and 75 grain ELD?

[TonytheTiger]

2 hours ago, Boudreaux78 said:

Anyone find a plus or minus difference between hornady 73 grain ELD and 75 grain ELD?

75 ELD is not for mag length loading. If you're determined and creative you can make it happen, and the ballistics are impressive, but its not worth it for 3 gun.

[Boudreaux78]

1 hour ago, TonytheTiger said:

75 ELD is not for mag length loading. If you're determined and creative you can make it happen, and the ballistics are impressive, but its not worth it for 3 gun.

Does it over pressure the gun?

[TonytheTiger]

The 75's have a short bearing surface and a long ogive. If you seat them any shorter than about 2.34 ish the bullet has no neck tension and falls right in. They're designed for bolt gun mags.

[Boudreaux78]

Thank you!

[CPD7119]

If you're looking for a 75ish grain mag length bullet you might want to look into the blackhills mk262 mod 1. It's a 77gr OTM bullet.

[12glocks]

Tac at 25 grains is way over max in a lot of manuals for 223 pressure so it's probably not a good place to start.  I know the Western Load data is hotter.   My accuracy node for that bullet with Tac was 23.4 grains.  I think it's about 2600 FPS out of an 18". I lost accuracy above that but a lot of guys go up to 24 grains of Tac.  I have also had good luck with the 75 grain Hornady HPBT using CFE-223 in most rifles as well as 8208.  I like Tac the least of the 3.  I found the 73 ELD less accurate and velocities higher than the 75 HPBT, the 73 must have a longer bearing surface for sure.

[Wolerine19D]

Check out Johnnys Reloading Bench on Youtube or the reloaders network.  He has a really good workup for Mk262 Black Hills clone using mostly the Sierra 77gr OTM bullets.  He has also used the Hornady 75 OTM in the past on some videos and if a charge does well with the 77 Sierra it will also likely do well with the 75 and be safe. 

 

From memory there are about 10 powders he tested that got up to the velocity of the BlackHills factory 5.56 ammo but many weren't as accurate from his barrel.  Some of the best ones were 8208 XBR and AR Comp if you want a temp stable powder that is very accurate and doesn't have pressure signs at just below the BlackHills velocity.  It could be pushed up that fast but started to show pressure signs, but not as much with the AR Comp.  The factory ammo was running around 2750 fps out of his 18" barrel and the 8208 and AR comp done extremely well at around 2725 ish fps. 

 

If you don't care as much about temp sensitivity then the best ball powders were probably Accurate 2520 and PP 2000-MR.  Both were extremely accurate and produced the 2750fps and then some.  The PP-2000 MR could be pushed even further without pressure signs if memory serves and is a slightly compressed load.  I believe Accurate 2520 was one of his favorites.

 

CFE223 got there velocity wise and I believe it could even be pushed a little further like the other ball powders above but the accuracy was lacking in his barrel.  I know all barrels are different but overall it seems like the 2520 and 2000MR and AR Comp and 8208 shoot better then CFE.  Also in this group was LeverEvolution which is very similar to CFE223 and produced some amazing velocity numbers like 2800+ fps without pressure signs but the accuracy was similar to CFE which was around 1 to 1.5 MOA if memory serves while the others above were closer to .5-.75MOA

 

Another powder that showed great promise was Alliants Varmint, it produced the most velocity with none other coming close.  I believe he got it to 2860 or so without really any pressure signs or just minimal but the accuracy wasn't as good as the others above.  But I believe there was a node at around the 2750-2800ish mark that done quite well but it didn't take much above or below it before it opened up. 

 

My pick for the same ammo is AR Comp and 2000MR but 8208XBR and 2520 are right there with them.  I know he tested more powders then I just mentioned but I believe these were the top performers.  It was a very interesting test for me and I got a lot of data from it to help my own workup.  He also has a good series on the 55gr bullet using various powders.

 

Edited to add - I remember he also had a video testing out some Shooters World powder but can't remember which one it was I believe Precision Rifle.  It was basically identical to 2520 and even required the exact same charge weight to produce the same velocity and accuracy.  This would be a great slightly lower cost option.  From almost everything I've seen on Shooters World they produce powders that are almost exactly the same as Accurate powders which makes sense since the top guy used to work for Accurate.  I don't believe the powders are identical since I've seen some side by side that looked slightly different but I believe they used the same formulas for many of the powders.  Like their pistol powders with Clean Shot being AA2 , and I believe Major Pistol is AA7 if memory serves and so forth. 

Edited July 8, 2020 by Wolerine19D

[TonytheTiger]

5 hours ago, Wolerine19D said:

Check out Johnnys Reloading Bench on Youtube or the reloaders network.  He has a really good workup for Mk262 Black Hills clone using mostly the Sierra 77gr OTM bullets.  He has also used the Hornady 75 OTM in the past on some videos and if a charge does well with the 77 Sierra it will also likely do well with the 75 and be safe. 

 

From memory there are about 10 powders he tested that got up to the velocity of the BlackHills factory 5.56 ammo but many weren't as accurate from his barrel.  Some of the best ones were 8208 XBR and AR Comp if you want a temp stable powder that is very accurate and doesn't have pressure signs at just below the BlackHills velocity.  It could be pushed up that fast but started to show pressure signs, but not as much with the AR Comp.  The factory ammo was running around 2750 fps out of his 18" barrel and the 8208 and AR comp done extremely well at around 2725 ish fps. 

 

If you don't care as much about temp sensitivity then the best ball powders were probably Accurate 2520 and PP 2000-MR.  Both were extremely accurate and produced the 2750fps and then some.  The PP-2000 MR could be pushed even further without pressure signs if memory serves and is a slightly compressed load.  I believe Accurate 2520 was one of his favorites.

 

CFE223 got there velocity wise and I believe it could even be pushed a little further like the other ball powders above but the accuracy was lacking in his barrel.  I know all barrels are different but overall it seems like the 2520 and 2000MR and AR Comp and 8208 shoot better then CFE.  Also in this group was LeverEvolution which is very similar to CFE223 and produced some amazing velocity numbers like 2800+ fps without pressure signs but the accuracy was similar to CFE which was around 1 to 1.5 MOA if memory serves while the others above were closer to .5-.75MOA

 

Another powder that showed great promise was Alliants Varmint, it produced the most velocity with none other coming close.  I believe he got it to 2860 or so without really any pressure signs or just minimal but the accuracy wasn't as good as the others above.  But I believe there was a node at around the 2750-2800ish mark that done quite well but it didn't take much above or below it before it opened up. 

 

My pick for the same ammo is AR Comp and 2000MR but 8208XBR and 2520 are right there with them.  I know he tested more powders then I just mentioned but I believe these were the top performers.  It was a very interesting test for me and I got a lot of data from it to help my own workup.  He also has a good series on the 55gr bullet using various powders.

 

Edited to add - I remember he also had a video testing out some Shooters World powder but can't remember which one it was I believe Precision Rifle.  It was basically identical to 2520 and even required the exact same charge weight to produce the same velocity and accuracy.  This would be a great slightly lower cost option.  From almost everything I've seen on Shooters World they produce powders that are almost exactly the same as Accurate powders which makes sense since the top guy used to work for Accurate.  I don't believe the powders are identical since I've seen some side by side that looked slightly different but I believe they used the same formulas for many of the powders.  Like their pistol powders with Clean Shot being AA2 , and I believe Major Pistol is AA7 if memory serves and so forth. 

Pretty much mirrors my somewhat less extensive testing. These days if it won't shoot with a known load of 8208 I just move on. It really is the easy button.

[Boudreaux78]

Found some bullets so was able to do some testing.

 

75 grain Hornady BTHP 16 inch barrel

22.6 grains TAC - 4 inch group at 200

22.9 grains TAC - 2.5 inch group 200

23.3 grains TAC 1.5 inch group 200

23.5 grains TAC 2 inch group 200

 

 

pretty close to what I’m looking for. Will keep updating as data comes in