Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Hornady 55 SP

I bought 1000 of these a while back. Haven’t gotten the accuracy I was hoping for yet.

Been working on loads for 2 different ARs and a Tikka Lite. All 3 rifles have been easy to find a < MOA group with a variety of bullets and weights.

Best 5 shot groups from each rifle with the 55 SP Horndays (w/cannelure) have been between 1.5 and 2 MOA.

Anyone having these shoot as well as Sierras, Vmaxs, NBTs, etc?

I like the price and hear they do well on game, but I’d like to get a little better accuracy out of them.

I get about 3/4 MOA with them and the 55 gr. Speer sp's over H4895 out of my 1/9 Savage .

I guess they are capable then!

My best from them have been with IMR 4895 in the Tikka.

55 SGKs, Vmaxes and NBTs will go .5” from that rifle with several powders.

My Savage will do .5" with 53 gr. V-Max's but I don't use them much anymore because the 55 speer and hornady sp's are good enough to meet my needs and do it cheaper.

I used to buy them in bulk from Midsouth for about $42/500, but it appears those days are over. They were mostly used in plinking ammo in my son's ARs. They were accurate with a variety of powders. Have used them in our .22-250s as well. No issues and plenty accurate.

Try TAC if you can find it.

I've shot well over 40,000 of these if not a lot more... all in bolt action rifles...But I've really never experienced grouping as poor as 1.5 to 2 inch groups.

your problems are either the rifles, their bedding, or the powders you've chosen...

its not the bullet....its plenty of good for sage rats out to 200 to 300 yds....

I've shot over 500 to 600 of them in an afternoon, many a time....

I still use them in several rifles. Always a good bullet for me.

Either the Hornady or Sierra 55 grain softpoints shoot very well for me over 27 grains of Varget.

Can’t remember the exact charge, but Hogdon’s max of h-335 under those bullets will run just over/under an inch for 5 out of my AR.
Might shoot even better if I tried “load development”.
Pretty rough on coyotes punched through the shoulders too.

26 grain Varget did 1.8” (10 rounds) through a 14.7” Colt barrel. Best group through it the 55 SPs.

Worked up to max with Tac with the Tikka and it was right at 1.6” for ten rounds.

Not terrible for me by any means, if the TAC loads do decent in the ARs I’ll load the lot and be done with it.

Reason for these bullets, was to find a cheaper bullet than these I’ve been shooting, across multiple rifles.
(Midsouth 77s)

May just need to find the right load or you may have picked up a bad, lot of bullets. Perhaps someone else can make them shoot in their rifle. Perhaps you want to send them down the road. Some of AR shooters seem satisfied with 4 MOA.

for a good shooting and effective 55 grain bullet that is cheaper.. take a look at the Speer Line Up in 22 cal.

They offer the 50 and 55 SP in bulk packaging of 1000 bullets, along with their 52 grain HP bullet and their 50 grain TNT varmint bullet. I go thru 3 to 4 of these each varmint season out here. They all shoot real well..... the 50 and 55 grain SPs are effective on deer from a 223, 222 ( even) and a 22.250.

Since the late 70s, one of my cousins has used the 22.250 exclusively on deer since his wife shot a deer at 250 yds with one out the kitchen window, where he was taking her family's brothers out hunting, and they didn't have any luck seeing any.
He has an orchard permit each year, so he takes 20 to 25 deer a year and has since the 70s when he bought the property he lives on over on the West Virginia side of the state line. Beef tastes funny to his sons, as they grew up on venison and pork.
Which have been taken with that 22.250 since the mid to late 70s. He quit handloading and just has used Remington 55 grain Corelokt ammo since back then... and a few boxes of Federal here or there if they were sold for cheaper.

No, they have been a MOA bullet or slightly more in my experience. They are better than ball (55gr fmj) but there is no mystery or magic in their accuracy.

The Hornady bulk 55 grain soft point isn’t going to be match accurate. It’s a blasting bullet. I use them for jackrabbit loads. They work for a walk in the sage jump shooting jacks. Well at least until most of them died. If it shoots 1.5. I would call it a day.

There's a thread in the AR's and Tactical forum
from about a year ago with much informative
posts regarding this

Can't remember exactly. "Magic Bullet " or
something similar ?
It was worth reading ( to me)

Thanks for the replies.

I’ve shot a couple hundred of these so far, seem to be an excellent bullet, especially for the price.

Ended up with several pounds of CFE-223, that I don’t really need. Loaded up a box full at 27 grains with the 55 SPs, in mixed, range pickup brass. Shot well in the Colt and PSA (1.75 MOAish) and better in the Tikka (1.5 MOAish). Loading the rest and will order a few k more.

Will likely do more load work in the Tikka, in some good brass to see what happens, but I’m more than pleased with the above load for me all around bulk loading.

Maybe a bad run of that particular bullet? Maybe try a single box of 100 and compare?
Good luck,
Rick

With 1x fired R-P brass, 26 grains of Tac and cci 450s I get solid Moa groups with those bullets.

I never got them to shoot as well as the tipped varmint bullets or match bullets but they are at least an MOA bullet.

They kill great too.

I've shot thousands of them thru bolt actions, with a load of 12.5 or 13 grains of Blue Dot.

Running between 2550 to 2650 fps MV. In about any of my 223s, they average a decent 1/2 MOA.
Out here, for those east coast guys, imagine shooting between 250 to 600 rounds in an afternoon.

So Blue Dot, give me over 550 rounds per pound of powder. Single shooting them also, it can shoot a rifle say two to three shots every 2 minutes or so.. and the barrel NEVER heats up enough for me to have to let it cool to regain accuracy.

If you are an AR type guy, Blue Dot won't cycle your bolt in one... BUT, if you put a spring in it meant for an AR 9, it will cycle your bolt all day long. Learned from John Noveske, whom I knew personally as he lived here locally and ran into him at the range all the time, and been to his home many times. That is what he use to do with his personal ARs when he went high volume shooting of sage rats. Got the load from me and I got them from the Calhoon Web site and just worked up loads in a lot of calibers.

SteveRedd reminded me of this, as he worked it out also, like Noveske did.

Some Shot gun powders and some powder that were used for cast bullet shooting, can be amazingly accurate and work fine with Jacketed bullets. Even on barrels 'shot out' on rifles with high mileage on the barrel.

Holston, I noticed you said you were shooting 10 shot groups, and getting around 1.5 moa with the Tikka, and slightly worse with the short barreled AR. I don't know if I'd expect much better than that from that bullet. That bullet is great on deer though. My buddy uses it in his 22-250's and 223 rems to shoot deer. That bullet just works, but don't expect real tight groups with it. Especially in that AR. Now, if you were shooting something like a 20" HBAR with matchgrade chamber, I'd expect closer to 1-1 1/4 moa for 10 shots in the AR. But that bullet has its limitations. It's not a match grade or varmint type bullet. Once you get that figured out, you'll be money ahead. I ran across 800 or so 55gr midway bullets yesterday at a LGS, and I passed on them. As I've messed with that weight and style, and have never been entirely happy with the accuracy/precision from them. I ended up buying 5 boxes of the 68's (BTHP) though:


The 55's were priced the same, so that may tell you how I feel about them. Even when practicing on steel and paper, I demand better precision from a bullet, than what the 55gr Hornady gives. I wouldn't even let my girlfriend shoot them, because I don't want her complaining that I loaded her some crappy bullets. There was a poster here that sent me some 55gr bullets to test out, as he was in the same boat as you. IE: getting mediocre precision. I was getting around 1.5 moa with them as well. Keeping in mind, I'm talking about 10 shot groups. They would go into an inch for 5 though, with an occasional flier. Again, though, you have to ask yourself what your intentions are for this bullet, and what you can live with..

I have used these for a long time. Always with good accuracy. About 5 years ago I bought 6,000 in bulk. It is our bullet of choice for most uses in ARs and bolt guns.

I wasn't able to get as good accuracy out of CFE .223 with that bullet as I get with H4895. I wouldn't expect better than you're getting with mixed brass.

Are those recent 22 RF Remington yellow jackets?
Haven’t seen those in years.

There are 3 versions (or more) of the 55 grain Hornady soft point: boat tail w/ cannelure, flat base w/ cannelure, and flat base w/o cannelure. My current A/R (Ruger MPR) loves all 3 with the same load: WW brass (size w/ RCBS X die), Federal 205 AR match primers, and a max load of H335, seated as long as a p-mag will allow. All three shoot near half inch for 5 shots at 100 yards.

Tom

I looked for a date on them, but they are not recent manufacture. I found them yesterday as well. $9.95/box, so I snagged them. They only had 4 boxes/400 rounds. I love the old yellow jackets from the 80's and 90's. Talk about a bullet that hits way above its price point. That one does it.. Good eye though ruffcutt.

That's good info. I believe I also had my best luck with H335. This was with the 55gr sp interlock bullet. Not a max load though, I believe I was a grain off of max in the Hornady manual. Ran BR4 primers because I had a bunch at the time, and I was trying to produce the most accurate load. 5 into around an inch was about the best I could muster in several AR's and a Ruger M77 varmint, and Ruger Hawkeye with 1 in 9" twist.. I went just the opposite direction as someone said, after that, and started loading the 53gr V-max for varmints and targets. This is, after all, the varmint rifle reloading forums.. With the 53gr V-max, I also had very good success with H335 powder. I'm still a little leery of that powder though, after guys like seafire say they blew up a rifle (or something to that effect) with it.. YMMV..

I recently bought new manufactured Remington Viper 22 RF that looks exactly like original, that’s why I had to ask. Bought mostly for nostalgic collection.

That would be cool. If I had to guess, I'd say the Yellow jackets are probably at least 10 years old. Maybe older. I remember when they were sold in the cardboard boxes and bricks. It wasn't until later that they started putting them in the plastic cases, like the ones I bought yesterday. I buy a lot of old ammo from that place..

Very large doe 80 yards 16” 223. 1 bullet two pics

I do real good with the bulluts . I get about .75 with my .223 rem Savage 12 fv.

Those 12FV's are damn accurate/precise rifles. Doesn't take much to make them shoot well. My 6.5 Creedmoor was a tack driver, and then even better after I glass bedded it.

Now, on to the 55sp Hornady bullets. This is what I had written in my manual:


Also, that midway bullet I was talking about is a Hornady blemished product that Midway sells/sold. I should have bought the other boxes they had a couple days prior. They only had this one box left, and a box of 60gr Hornady H.P's. I was thinking about it, and figured at that price, it was stupid to leave them behind the first time I saw them:



Even if I just end up loading them for my buddy, that loves them...

Easiest thing to do is sell them to someone that is getting good accuracy with them and go to a VMax bullet. You should see improvement with those. You could burn up a lot of powder and primers chasing an unnecessary easy fix…

I have had better luck with faster powders and the 55 SP. I like AA2015 and AA2230. With the 2015 you might have to go above the .223 recommended load for your AR's. I like 23.4 of AA2015 and the 55 SP in my 1:8 and 1:9 AR's. IN an AR NATO or Wylde chamber you will be well under 62,000 psi just doing some simple math. AA 2230 and H335 are very close to each other. The downside to a slower powder is less velocity but I doubt if any coyote knows the difference.

kwg

Holston, you are talking about 10 shot groups and the accuracy/precision you are getting. I appreciate that, as that tells a lot more about a load and rifle than a single 3 or 5 shot group does. I don't think these guys here understand that, or maybe your post here went over their heads? If not, I'd love to see their 10 shot groups with said bullet in question. AR's, bolt actions, I don't care. Post them up.. Those saying they are getting sub moa or even moa, may be stretching things a bit. Just trying to keep things honest here.

Hell, I'll even load some up and go and shoot some groups with them if you'd like. I'll be using AR Comp though, as I don't like TAC much, and I think I'm' about out of H335. There are some powders that aren't the best for this application. CFE223 is one of them. Varget is better for heavier pills, but I also don't like using that powder in the tiny 223 rem case. Like I said before, I don't expect much better than 1.5 moa for 10 shots in an AR or a bolt action rifle.

There is an old boy that used to post here. went by the name of Formidilous. He used to say that if he shot 1.3-1.5 moa 10 shot groups with his AR's, he was happy. A lot of guys here don't like him, but at least he kept chidt honest...

This is sage advice.

Holston, have you considered a different powder, like AR Comp? That is one of my favorite powders, and I've seen it locally again. Like I said, I loaded up a little the other day. It has been snowing almost constantly here the last couple days though, so I could not go out until today. It was a little windy, but at least it was not snowing!!!

Anyway, I know you were talking about 10 shot groups. I did my usual routine for load development, and started off with some 5 shot groups. For starters, those tell you enough to get you going in the right direction. I'll load up some more of the ones that shot the best, and re-test. Then I'll shoot a couple 10 shot groups at that time. Keeping in mind, I don't like to waste a lot of components, trying to figure out a load. It's just not necessary.

Now, if you remember, in an earlier post, I said If I shot consistent 1.25 moa 10 shot groups with that bullet, I'd be done with load development. What I've found is you just don't get match grade type consistency with the 55gr Hornady sp bullet. Here's how today went:

First 5 shot group. Cold clean barrel. :


Last group shot. Only tested 5 charge weights and 1 seating depth. Loaded to mag length for AR15. Max book load (24.8gr.), loaded at 25 grains:


Charge weights were 23, 23.5, 24, 24.5, and 25 grains. Bullets shot to find a decent load: 25. Will confirm with 10 shot groups. That will tell me more of what I want to know.

Winds:


All data written on the targets above. I'm pretty sure the 25gr load will shoot into about 1.25 moa for 10 shots. I'll load up more, and shoot some to verify. That powder is one you may want to consider. It is generally very forgiving, and easy to work up a good load with. It produces some very consistent loads, in my experience.

You say the best you are getting with your 55's is 1.5-2 MOA groups for 5 shots, in the above post. What I shot today, in high winds shows you can get much better than that by using a different powder. Your other post was stating 1.8 moa groups for 10 shots in your AR's with a different powder, and slightly better with your Tikka. Those groups can also be bested with AR Comp, I believe.

My Ruger AR-556 with a 1:8" twist will punch holes all over each other with that bullet - that is with a 50-yard zero, though. I haven't shot that load at 100 yards yet. I use Ramshot X-terminator.