poor experience with 75gr hornady and TAC

[Powerlock25]

23.6grTAC,75gr Hornady BTHP, R-P cases and CCI400's

noticing much vertical stringing
sorry no chrony data right now
2-3MOA at 100yds

discounting 2 flyers both 8-10" high, it was just under 1MOA at 400yds

same experiance with 2 separate rifles - 16" WOA barrel- fresh and a 18" WOA SPR barrel
i will try some FGM 68's and 75's and make sure that it is not OE.
anyone else had a similar experience?

 

[leadbullet]

Re: poor experience with 75gr hornady and TAC

what's your barrel twist?

 

[ChadTRG42]

Re: poor experience with 75gr hornady and TAC

23.6 grains is a max load for 223 Rem pressures (52K psi) with that bullet. My AR's shoot best at 5.56 pressures (62K psi). If your just picking a powder charge to try and hope it shoots well, it's a big gamble. You need to do a load work up with that bullet. Try several powder charges higher than what you are loading now. Read up on some ladder testing and see what the gun likes. I have had great luck with TAC, and you should be able to get it dialed in with the components you have with a little more effort at the range. You'll see the groups shrink up when you find the sweet spot. Also, try testing the loads at 200, and maybe 300 yards on a calm day. 400 yards is almost too far for load work up on a 223. There's too many external variables, like wind, that can effect the load.

 

[Powerlock25]

Re: poor experience with 75gr hornady and TAC

yeah, I just threw them together...
I will work them up higher
I didnt even have time to pull the chrony out...

barrel is a WOA 18" SPR 1-7twist

 

[jrob300]

Re: poor experience with 75gr hornady and TAC

What's your ES and SD? Vertical is *usually* a shooter issue unless you have a big velocity spread.

<span style="font-weight: bold">ETA</span>: Sorry. Just saw you haven't chrono'd.

Having said that I loaded 77 Noslers, 77 SMK's and 75 Hornady's all over varying identical loads of TAC. This was for my son's M&P 15 w/16" 1:9. The Hornady's grouped <span style="font-weight: bold">much </span>larger than the other two for EVERY load. I could not find a load to get them to shoot. Could be a more-secant ogive/twist issue. Don't know, but there it is. The Nosler's grouped the best and are the most tangent-ogive.

YMMV.

John

 

[esorensen]

Re: poor experience with 75gr hornady and TAC

Try 24.3 gr, and 450 primers. This is in WIN brass. Load them mag length. Either load is 1/2 moa in mine.

 

[Teggy1]

Re: poor experience with 75gr hornady and TAC

I have read that TAC seems to perform better at the upper end of the pressure scale.

Like stated above, just picking a number and running with it is a crap shoot. Your going to have to do a proper ladder test or the OCW method.

I tend to like the SMK a little better in my AR's. Havent tried much else besides the V-max's and the SMK's.

Good luck.

 

[johngfoster]

Re: poor experience with 75gr hornady and TAC

My experience is that the hotter I load TAC the BIGGER my groups. Sweet spot in my rifle for 77SMKs is 24.0gr. As I go up from there, the groups open up. Mk262-equivalent load for me is 24.6gr, and accuracy is worse. Factory Hornady 75gr TAP FPD also is more accurate in my rifle than Mk262, which is about 1.5 - 2 MOA.

 

[bigjohn451]

Re: poor experience with 75gr hornady and TAC

I tried TAC with 75gr Hornady BTHP in my White Oak 18" 1-7 also, was very disappointed with groups it just wouldn't tighten up.

 

[dogmessiah]

Re: poor experience with 75gr hornady and TAC

If 24.0gr is your sweet spot I would be tempted to say that is what was mean by TAC preferring the upper end of the pressure scale, seeing as Ramshot lists 23.5gr as being the max charge for 77gr bullets

 

[phreakmode]

Re: poor experience with 75gr hornady and TAC

I get around .75 to 1" groups from an 18" 1-8 twist. 24.2 TAC, LC brass, Wolf primers, hexagonal boron nitride coated bullets, seated to mag feed. Velocity is right at 2900fps.

 

[esromvre]

Re: poor experience with 75gr hornady and TAC

I tried TAC with 75s and waisted my money... Now I am only using VARGET with them

 

[Top Cat]

Re: poor experience with 75gr hornady and TAC

As pressure approaches 60k psi TAC will tend to burn more consistently, and may start to burn less consistently as pressures exceed 60k. It's a narrow window, but should burn very consistently when in the optimal range.

Also, TAC may not be liking your primers either...CCI 400 is not a recommended primer for higher pressure match loads in the 223. Try CCI 450, Rem 7 1/2 or Fed 205M Match primers.

TC

 

[Wannashootit]

Re: poor experience with 75gr hornady and TAC

Every rifles's different.
Now, my Mini's certainly no tack driver- but keeping things in perspective, with it's 1 in 7 twist the 77 gr. Sierra Match shoots like crap (it "should" shoot it well). Best for it is the 69 gr. match.

 

[Greg Langelius *]

Re: poor experience with 75gr hornady and TAC

TAC is fine for USGI-weight bullets. But beyond 52gr, I prefer Big Game. My match load for the HDY 75gr HPBT Match (Moly) is 26.5(C*) of Big Game. Mil brass, small rifle match primer, single hand feed 2.400" OAL. Impeccably accurate from Savage 10FP 1:9" twist.

Greg

 

[phreakmode]

Re: poor experience with 75gr hornady and TAC

Greg,

What kind of velocities are you getting from Big Game with the 75's?

R

 

[Ryegye]

Re: poor experience with 75gr hornady and TAC

I've had great luck with 23.6 gr of TAC and 75gr Hornady HPBT. My Stealth upper shoots them very well.