I bought a couple of thousand Hornady 55 grain .224 bullets to feed the various AR15s in the house. What kind of accuracy potential do these bullets have? Not asking how my un-named rifle will shoot. Just curious if anyone has tried to find out just how well FMJ type bullets shoot.
- Thread starter Slim Chance
- Start date
In general, poorly. As a rule, FMJ designs will be the least accurate bullet in anyone's line, and they range from pretty impressive to downright embarrassing. We (Lapua) make the only true Match grade FMJs on the market today, and they will not usually perform as well as out Scenar HPBT line of Match bullets. FMJs are usually intended for military applications where accuracy is not only not a primary consideration, but may even be cause for rejecting some runs (true story) if it's "too good." The LC M118 with its 173 gr FMJBT was about the pinnacle of FMJ production, and that stuff was vastly improved by Mexican Matching it, that is, removing the FMJ and replacing it with a 168 SMK.
FMJs usually make pretty good plinking ammo, but if you're looking for accuracy, you need to move on to something else. Sorry.
FMJs usually make pretty good plinking ammo, but if you're looking for accuracy, you need to move on to something else. Sorry.
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Regards the Hornady offering in 55 grain .224 diameter my experience (8K rounds) is an average of 1 MOA, but some freakish small groups with tuned handloads have happened. You can also get a flyer that will eat your heart out.
As always, YMMV
As always, YMMV
Just to throw my .02 in the pot, I get consistent .5moa from my JP Supermatch with Lapua brass/Benchmark/sorted 69gr SMKs. I worked up a load with the Hornady 55gr FMJs and the best I got (on average) was 1 - 1.125 moa unsorted and .75moa weighed/sorted by ogive length. Pretty much in line with 308sako, at times got some really nice lucky groups. Just not as consistent as the Sierras.
Thanks for the replies. I wasn't expecting match accuracy, just curious. I have a 13 year old son who loves to shoot the AR he built.
I get about 1 1/2 MOA overall average and maybe a bit better out of the hornandy and xtream FMJ's.
When he gets through those, Hornady makes a 55 grain soft point with a cannelure for a similar price. It generally does a little better accuracy wise and has something that resembles terminal performance.
I'm hoping to put him behind my LTR in 223 with some match ammo. The fmj ammo should be fine for range time and plinking. I have a supply of Ballistic Tips as well as a few kinds of match type bullets but I don't want him shooting those just to be shooting. It is also time for him to learn the reloading process.
The funny part is I loaded hundreds of these things to spit out of my various ARs and decided one day to slap them in my bolt 223 for testing. Those suckers were far from precision loaded (on a turret press) and they were touching with 5 shots at 100 yards. I've seen this happen several times with crazy accuracy, but as listed above you can usually count on a flyer in a 5-10 shot string.
they hit just about everything i aim at and they are cheap enough that i don't care to miss.
cheers.
cheers.
Try 24.5 grs of H335 and a Hornady 55 fmj in Remington brass.I have shot thousands with good results.I like some of the others have shot some of my best .223 groups with this load.
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