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Just bought a box of MidwayUSA blem, .224, 80 gr. SP. Usually it's not too hard to figure who made their blems/seconds. This one is different. It has a protected type lead tip, two cannelures, and a groove near the flat base.

It doesn't look like an 80 gr. Nosler HPBT, a Horn 80 gr. A-Max or a Sierra SMK 80 gr. It looks kinda like a Speer Deep Curl regarding the tip, but they don't make an 80 gr. .224.

My 8 twist .22-250 really likes the 80 gr. A-Max, so I was thinking it may like these. And at 16 cents a pop, not a bad price, especially if they're going to be good hog bullets. They're not slick like the A-Max, but for general use, may be OK.

Any ideas?

DF

Looks like a Remington PSP.

That's my SWAG.

It looks like the Hornady bullet for sbr's

Is it a cataloged item?

DF

My guess. and only a SWAG guess, is that it a bullet designed for a factory/commercial load. I've frequemtly encountered bullets bought bulk, thst the csnulure does not exactly line up with factory losd lengths. No idea of maker, but whatever major manufacturer probably has a similar bullet in it's stable.

jac3k may be onto something. I did some on line checking. The Tactical Application Police (TAP) Hornady ammo for Short Barreled Rifles (SRB) has a bullet that looks a lot like that one, but 75 gr. And it seems MidwayUSA mostly has Hornady products for their blem/second line of bullets.

Possibly, Hornady made a run of 80 gr. SBR bullets and they didn't pan out, the 75 gr. version prevailing. That may be why they're being closed out as blems.

Now, if that's the case, how will these bullets perform at max .22-250 speeds vs. the 2,300 fps of the TAP/SBR ammo.

As a tactical bullet, I'm not sure how much expansion they expect, vs. penetration, my thinking more of the latter.

So, if I push a bullet with a 2,300 fps design window up to 3,000-3,100 fps, wonder how it will perform on critters such as hogs.

Or said another way, how does a C&C bullet designed for tactical use perform on game.

tjk may be right. I don't see this bullet cataloged; it's probably a factory round only bullet that got into surplus liquidation thru MidwayUSA.

DF

I just sent the following email to Hornady technical support.


"I bought some MidwayUSA seconds that look like an 80 gr. version of your TAP SBR 75 gr. bullet. Midway, of course, didn't say what it was...

My question: Assuming this could be the case, how would you expect a C&C bullet made to run at 2,300 fps act on game (hogs) pushed at 3,000-3,100 fps out of a fast twist .22-250.

Thanks."


I'll be surprised if they own up to those blems being theirs, but if I get useful info, I'll post it.

Thanks for the help.

DF

It looks like a bullet designed for a subsonic suppressor application

Interesting. I recently bought a box of 6.5mm 140gr FMJ Midway blems and can't seem to locate any exact offerings they match up too. That said, the other blue boxes have been Hornady standards.

I 'think' so too. I can't remember any other manufacturer's TIP looking so much like the Rem P S P.

Jerry

Remington PSP was my first thought as well. They also have a double-cannelure PSP in 6.5mm.

Does Remington make an 80 gr. PSP bullet in .224?

There aren't that many 80 gr. .224's out there and the ones I know about are mentioned in the OP, none of them remotely similar to this bullet.

DF

I'm not aware that they make one as a component, but it's possible they made them for a factory round and these are the over-runs.

No idea what it actually is, but to me it reminds me of the Remington PSP design and that double-cannelure adds to that as well. The one box of 140g 6.5mm Remington PSP core-lokts with a double-cannelure I bought were factory seconds/over-runs at MidwayUSA. So not all MidwayUSA seconds are Hornady's...

I'm going to load some up and see how they fly.

With what seems like a longer bearing surface than an 80 gr. VLD or A-Max, I'm considering how much I need to back off.

Those may be good hog bullets, just looking at them. I don't know how soft the alloy may be or how they'll perform.

The price is right. I said 16 cents, it's 19 cents. I bought some Midway blem 100 gr. 6mm SP's and they were 16 cents. Those I'm going to load in my .240; I've been using the 100 NPT with good success, but these 100 SP's may work pretty well. They look like Hornady Interlocks.

DF