How Accurate is Hornady 55gr. FMJ-BT
- Thread starter MMH
- Start date
It's accurate enough that it will hit somewhere on a 12x12 plate at 400 yards 10 out of 10 times in any reasonably good handload. Beyond that it gets sketchy pretty quick.
Just for shits and grins I loaded that same bullet and the Hornady 52 HPBT on the same case/powder/primer combo and the match bullet grouped about 3X better (from 2.5 MOA to .75 MOA) at 100 yds out of the same rifle (Howa 1500/KRG Xray/SWFA 16X/Atlas BT10).
The difference in price locally is about $3/100 ct so I load the 52 HPBT for my practice ammo.
Just for shits and grins I loaded that same bullet and the Hornady 52 HPBT on the same case/powder/primer combo and the match bullet grouped about 3X better (from 2.5 MOA to .75 MOA) at 100 yds out of the same rifle (Howa 1500/KRG Xray/SWFA 16X/Atlas BT10).
The difference in price locally is about $3/100 ct so I load the 52 HPBT for my practice ammo.
Not really worth it then. 68 gr. match bullets are not that much more than the 55gr. FMJ. Thanks for the direct comparison - that really helped me make my choice!
I would recommend you test a box of 100 out first before you make the decision. You can get the bulk 6k backs of 55gr bullets very cheap when on sale. Unless I’m out of the loop on where to get 52gr and 68gr for a similar price; the 55gr Hornady bullets are a good buy. I’ve only use the SP now because the accuracy was better than the FMJ.
They are cheap enough to try, you're right. But it's a well known fact that FMJ bullets meant for bulk use rarely satisfy someone who is asking about how accurate they are. We were just giving the OP the benefit of our personal experiences with these very same bullets.
They are cheap, just not accurate enough for me to use them for my purposes.
Get the spire point over the FMJ, even if both end up being inaccurate the fmj will ding your steel if you shoot it up close. My cousin has already pockmarked a couple pieces of my steel shooting it up close with bulk ammo from his ar.
