Range Report Hornady Steel Match .308 155 gr

[Macca]

I’ve got a new,to me,rifle & a 600 club match coming up & have no time to work up a load.
On one hand I feel dirty about it,but on another-how good or bad can it be for the price?

 

[tnichols]

A quick search for a price shows it at 0.97 per round. You can buy Federal Gold Medal Match for roughly the same money. I believe I’d try some FGMM first and see how it does in your rifle.

 

[M5NSX]

I concur try FGMM. A guy on here sells 500 rd cases shipped at .82 cents a round or you could do sgammo.com out of Oklahoma-200rd cases for a little more .90 cents a round shipped.

 

[Macca]

Thanks fella’s,
No postage & especially no deals on FGMM on this side of the Pacific.

 

[DownhillFromHere]

I used Hornady Steel Match .223 75gr BTHP in a heavy AR-15, in which it performed quite well (about an inch at 100 yards). Interestingly, my Tikka T3X Varmint hates it - but it has yet to perform even half-decent with any 75-grain load.

If you can find it for a good price, it's worth trying.

 

[Greg Langelius *]

What's the twist on the Tikka Varmint?

75's generally require at least 1:8", especially longer bullets than the HDY HPBT-Match, and especially shorter barrels. I can run the HDY 75gr HPBT M's in my 1:9" 24' barrels with 23.5-24.5gr of Varget, but I think I'm right at the margin on twist. I have HDY 75gr Steel Match and IMI 77 Razor Core on hand, but still need to run some down the bores yet.

Most Varmint 223's are optimized for Varmint bullets, 40-52gr, run a twist of around 1:12", and don't do well with stuff much heavier/longer than 55gr.

Greg

 

[richthe1]

I used Hornady Steel Match .223 75gr BTHP in a heavy AR-15, in which it performed quite well (about an inch at 100 yards). Interestingly, my Tikka T3X Varmint hates it - but it has yet to perform even half-decent with any 75-grain load.

If you can find it for a good price, it's worth trying.

Do you know if Hornady discontinued the Steel Match 75gr? I can’t seem to find a good place to buy it online anymore.

 

[DownhillFromHere]

What's the twist on the Tikka Varmint?

75's generally require at least 1:8", especially longer bullets than the HDY HPBT-Match, and especially shorter barrels.

Twist in my copy is 1:8.

Do you know if Hornady discontinued the Steel Match 75gr? I can’t seem to find a good place to buy it online anymore.

There are a couple of places on ammoseek.com that have it. I haven't ordered it in a couple of years, but I do remember it disappeared for awhile. As I recall, I contacted Hornady and asked. The response was, they run a big lot of it and distribute it to vendors, and vendors had pretty much run out of it. They gave me a date for when the next lot would hit the street... and it did.

 

[richthe1]

Twist in my copy is 1:8.


There are a couple of places on ammoseek.com that have it. I haven't ordered it in a couple of years, but I do remember it disappeared for awhile. As I recall, I contacted Hornady and asked. The response was, they run a big lot of it and distribute it to vendors, and vendors had pretty much run out of it. They gave me a date for when the next lot would hit the street... and it did.

Thanks, I’ll plan on contacting Hornady.

 

[Greg Langelius *]

Midway lists it as discontinued, Ammoseek has listings. I got my 75gr Steel Match from Midway about midyear 2018.

Marked differently, looks very similar. Supposedly not for us Rubes.

Greg

 

[Macca]

Well I gave it a try & damb it shoots good for the price.