Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Heads Up.. Re: 55 gr SPSX Hornadys

Probably should put this in the reload section, but figured it would get a fair amount of exposure here also...

I have a standard load for sage rats for longer distances...
22.5 grains of H 4198 and 55 gr SPSX Hornadys.. MV is about 3150 fps out of a 26 inch Rem or Ruger varmint rig..

Went to the range to check scope zero and 5 shots at 100 yds, and NOTHING... wth?????

so I went home and got a batch of 20, and out of 10 shots about 4 hit the target, small tight group... but only 4 shots..

next same load with regular Hornady SPs in 55 grain and had a tight one hole 5 shot group...

tried 10 more of the SPSX's and again 4 made it to the target, bull 6 didn't...

I've used this load for years, with no issues..

chronographed them.. 3150 fps..

called Hornady, and they said they should be able to handle 3400 fps in a 223 with a one in 12 twist which both rifles have...

problem is... they aren't... a second range trip again verified the same...50 to 60% are disintegrating before they can make it 100 yds..

I don't know if they have changed the make up of these or what...but now I am busy disassembling 900 loaded rounds that I have done with bullets bought this year...

I am doing 100 a day, disassembling and then reloading with 55 grain Varmint Nightmare Extremes from Mid South...which are presenting NO problems...

after this, I have 400 or so 22.250 rounds loaded to about 3400 fps to also disassemble...

I am sure most of you can relate to the joy of having to do all of this...

hence the reason I am giving a heads up to the forum....

better check your loads out at the range before loading up so many or going to the field with them and have them vaporize in thin air instead of vaporizing varmints...

at least all this never ending rain, is keeping me occupied with time to do all this...

sounds like a sale coming up at Seafiremart. I wonder how they would run at ~3000 out of an AR???

That blows.

Very interesting John.
I just loaded up 30 rounds of .223 with some very old Hornady 55 grain SX bullets with a max load of W748. The SXs have been kicking around for 25 or 30 years. I used them in my .22-250 with good results, but I sold the .22-250 over 20 years ago.
Fired five shots at about 100 yards with my Savage with a 1 in 9 twist to see if they were close to the same POI as the Speers I loaded with the same charge.
When I went over to check the target there were three holes. It looked like one was enlarged enough to be two together, but there's no way three could have gone through the same hole!
I think I'll break out the Hornady bullet puller and replace the SXs with some 50 grain V-Maxes.
Maybe I'll use the SXs with some Blue Dot at a lower velocity.

Jerry

Seafire, SXs were designed for .222 & .223 speeds with 12 twist barrels.

What twist barrel were you running those through?

They will come apart. I have see it personally. Before the plastic tipped bullets, I shot a lot of Hornady SX bullets. I had a fast twist .223 and about one in four reached a 100 yard target. I ditched them for a Speer 52 grain HP. Funny thing is that they shot fine in a 1 in 14 .22-250 at full velocity. The box says max velocity is 3500 fps, but a cousin was shooting them in a .220 Swift at full velocity and they performed great. So the spin is definitely the problem.

Both his rifles are 12". That's why he's posting it.


Travis

If the rifle is a fast twist, yes. Not all AR's are.

I've seen them come unglued at Swift speeds with slow twists.


Travis

+1000000

Gunner

yeah, the ones I am pulling.. all 900 rounds of them, the bullets will end up on 223 cases that will be loaded with Blue Dot or SR 4759 loads...

after these are done tho, I am not buying anymore SPSX bullets..

I am going to just go with Mid South Varmint Nightmare bullets..

cheaper, just as accurate... and they hold up easily at 22.250 redlined velocities, yet work fine down to 22 Win Mag velocities..

I'm sure Hornady will replace those for free.


Travis

Yeah I talked with their tech dept this morning.. they want me to send them 20 bullets or so for them to test out...plus the lot number and the box... the load I was using etc...

I'm not going to send them 900 bullets... because waiting around for them to do their thing, it is 900 bullets out of circulation for varmint season which means I'd have to go out and replace them...

so they'll have to go on slower loads, less MV...

its more of a real hassle than anything else...

and life has been more than overloaded with hassles lately it seems...

I shot out 2, 22-250 barrels with Hornady 55 SX at a shade under 3600 MANY years ago. Something went wrong with this bunch for sure.

900 Rounds to pull really blows.

I had the same thing happen out of a 223 with a 9 twist, nothing on the paper at 100 yards. I moved up to about 20 yards wondering if maybe my scope went south and shot these two rounds. I thought they were interesting pictures anyway.

I see smoke. That is the same situation I had.

SPSX's are pretty "thin skinned". Are your barrels new and/or rough? If so, they won't work at any speed. I've been using them since they were first available and unless I ran them through a rough barrel or excessively fast in a tight twist, I've had very good luck with them. In a good barrel they'll do 3600 or so if the twist isn't faster than 1:14. One in twelve takes 'em to their "edge" in twist speed and anything else faster usually just causes them to 'disappear' such as is being described.

I'm hoping to launch a Barnes TSX fast enough for that to happen one day....

I've had an idea in the back of my mind for a while to neck down 300 ultra brass to 22 cal just for that.

Dude that SUCKS! Thanks for the tip!

Now that right there would be AWESOME!