Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Hornady Light Mags?

Anyone tried them? I picked up some in 280 Rem to try.
I'll get back with a range report.

I have been using them with good success in a Remington Model Seven chambered in .308WIN for about fifteen years.

Stan

I tried them a couple of years ago and my Browning A-bolt 270 hated them....I mean they shot pitifully in this rifle. I went back to Federal Premium ballistic tips which the gun shoots exceptionally well. One of my buddies has used the light mags for years and swears by them....just see if your rifle will shoot 'em is all I can say. They perform great he says.

My best buddy bought some 165's for his 30/06 because the box said they would do 3000 fps. We clocked them and they were barely doing over 2700 fps.

I tried em in my Rem model 7 in .308 years ago and the gun hated em....so I never tried em again, but thats OK cause now I roll my own.

I use them in a .270 130 grain Interbond. Shoot them out of my sako model 75. the gun loves them and the kills with this bullet have been all bag flops.

Thanks for the info. I'll try to shoot a couple of groups today to see how my Rem. 700 likes them.

I won a couple of boxes of .280 Light Mags in a DU raffle not too long after they came out. I chronographed them in my Wby Mk V .280 and they clocked just about what Hornady said they would. In my Wby, they shot patterns as opposed to groups. I tried them in my wife's Model 70 (probably the most accurate rifle we own) and they grouped between an 1 1/4 and 1 1/2 inch for three shots. Since my handloads do a little better than half that, we never shot anything with them.

I did hunt with a fellow who used the 180 grain .308 Light Mags for elk and he collected a nice bull both years we hunted together--both were one-shot kills.

I haven't shot them lately, mainly because for factory ammo. the Federal Premium HE stuff has worked so well for me.

If they shoot well out of your rifle go ahead and use them but I also clocked some 30-06 150g SST's and they weren't any faster than plain jane Federal or Remington or my handloads for that matter. YMMV.

"I did hunt with a fellow who used the 180 grain .308 Light Mags for elk and he collected a nice bull both years we hunted together--both were one-shot kills."

Mudhen,
The 180's must have been the Federal Premium High Energy loads, because I'm pretty sure that Hornady only produces Light Magnum .308 loads with 150- and 165-gr. bullets.

The 165-gr. Light Magnum Interbonds usually shoot right about 1 moa in my Win70 30-06, and have performed very, very well on both deer and elk. I haven't chronographed them, but when I sight the gun in 3" high at 100 yards, they are only about 4" low at 300, which would indicate a velocity pretty close to the advertised 3000 fps.

I've also tried the .280 Light Mags and my rifle couldn't find a way to like them. My .280 is a Browning A-bolt, with the much maligned BOSS and say what you will, the ugly thing works. Even tweaking it didn't dial in as well as Federal Premium 150 NP's or 140 NSB's. The Hornady Custom load was better in my rifle. The 140 Fusion also shot better, as did the plain old Remington CoreLokt loads in 140 or 150. Best loads are the two Federal Premiums I mentioned before and those are what I always fed it. The 140 NSB load, now discontinued, averages .75" at 100 consistently (I bought 15 boxes of it back when Midway cleared it out) and the 150 NP load only a bit more and still under an inch, but my best groups with the Light Mags were around 1.5" IIRC.

My brother in law shoots the 140 .270 Light Mag load in his Howa and they run just under an inch at 100, so he uses them. No mystery, just the differences to be expected.

Best -
Andy

Well, I shot two 3-shot groups yesterday with them and got a 1 1/4 and 1 1/2 inch groups that strung out to the right. Then I shot my favorite handload and got my usual less than 1 inch group. Just satisfied my curiosity, I guess! By the way, I let the gun cool between groups while I shot my 308.
Thanks for all the info!!