Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles 77 grain SMK vs Hornady 75 BTHP?

Shot barrels to over 10K rounds with N540. Granted I was pushing em, and they were barely MOA or over at that point. Still won the Louisiana state leg match one year with that old barrel...

That said barrels are cheap enough.

All depends on your goals.

Good thread guys. Good info

They are ok, they like a clean barrel.. once a barrel starts getting dirty the groups start opening up. I used them couple times last year and some others in our club were using them. We all noticed accuracy fell
off after awhile. Now Sierra and Berger’s just keep on shooting.

J, wasnt it you that said you are guaranteed a funky flyer in every box? Ive stayed away from the nosler custom comps, after some poor performance from their 168gr 30 cal bullets. I found i got more consistent accuracy from hornady 165gr interlocks.. it was pretty sad.

Yes you will get oddball flyers as well. I really wanted this bullet to shoot well for me. This was the original bullet used mk262 load it was the mod0. After black hills got Sierra to put a cannelure on the 77gr Sierra rest is history.

Yeah, it sure is nice when you can find good shooting Noslers becasue those damn things can be bought cheap if you get to them at the right time over at SPS. However, I don't trust the damn custom competitions. I'd trust the partitions before those based on what I've seen... Skeered to go back and try them again... Hey J, you said the AA2520 powder is good fertilizer, what was your experience with it? I'll give it a try, but I have to say that I've seen this old guy shoot his load into sub moa 9 shot groups many times. He's kind of weird on his 9 shot group theory though. I guess some guy really pounded that into his head. I was cutting a damn ragged hole with the 77gr TMK with my Northtech defense the other day and then sent the 10th shot way into no where land. I said, If I would have went by your 9 shot idea, I'd be a fu cking hero right now... Kind of pizzed me off that I was getting weird flyers that day, but I was shooting 4 different rifles, was a little rushed, the girlfriend helped me load them. She's cool, shows interest in this chidt. She wanted to drop the powder in the cases and then seat the bullet. I let her do half of them (50 rounds). I'm not blaming her, but my powder measure is finicky and everything has to be done exactly the same way every time for it to be consistent. I was proud of her for wanting to load my ammo though. She sat next to me as I shot these groups too. Well, she sat at the same bench, on the right hander seat... Anyway, back to the load that old guy uses. Those damn things are accurate. After I was done shooting his, I picked up his brass and they were all from a different manufacture, but mostly military brass. Nothing special for primers, he says he prefers CCI400's and has never tried benchrest primers, as I was running BR4's in mine... I'll give that powder a try with some of the 75gr Hornady BTHP bullets he prefers. He sent me the item number from midsouth shooters and said they are $38.00/250 plus shipping. I'd order a thousand of those things if they shoot as good as they appear to shoot. I'll even experiment a little with that powder he gave me.. I'll generally try something and see for myself, before I decide its best used for fertilizer...

I never tried 2520 with the 75gr bthp. I tried it with 77 Sierra otm’s, What didn’t like was the horrendous groups, but SD was in the single digits and very good velocity. I have had this 2520 for awhile maybe the newer lots are better. I need to go find my notebook of notes.

24.7 grains of 2520 was giving me around moa groups with the 75bthp. I never tried to tweak that load any further but I suspect a tenth or two one way or the other might have whittled it down a tad more.

Ok it looks like a I did a primer swap when I used 2520. Initially I used cci 400. Then switched to WSR and I was avg 1.6 inch 10 shot groups. With cci 400 it was no bueno, I also was using nosler. Not 77sierras. So maybe should revisit that powder with TMK’s. I was doing a lot of load development at the time I was after speed to get an advantage over the other shooters, but also needed 1 MOA groups. You can always find 2520 as well. Right now no time to shoot yard cleanup and trying to get a garden put in as well.

My data was 25.5grs of 2520 and was avg 2750 ish out my 18 inch barrel.

Thats good info. I just ordered 1000 75gr bthp hornady bullets.

Has anyone ever found an accuracy load for the 75bthp faster than around 2500-2550 fps? Edit to add, 18" barrel.

The reports on these threads seem to be that the 75bthp doesn't group all that great with the gas pedal floored. So far that seems to be my experience as well, but I am still looking.

It was looking to me like Leverevolution may possibly group them pretty good at a hotter loading, but my friggin' rifle range got shut down before I could really investigate.

How accurate are you looking for? The group i shot the other day was 1 1/8" for 10 shots with a load that runs 2750 fps in an 18" barrel. The guy i know from my club shoots these loads in his spr and they average 1 moa for 9 shots. Maybe you didnt read any of my posts?

I read that somehow as being just the 77SMK. Didn't see that you were using 75bthp as well. Good deal, 25.2 of 2520 with the 75bthp didn't do that well in my gun versus backing off, but glad it worked for you.

After i get those 1000 75gr bthp's, ill work on load development. Ill find out exactly what they will do. As ive said many times, ill take a fairly slow load over a screaming hot load, if the slow load is a lot more consistently accurate. Im hoping ill find something that consistently shoots in the .8's and runs from 2600-2780 fps in multiple rifles. Can it be done? We shall soon see..

I haven't had great luck with the Nosler .224" 77gr CC. Just don't seem to slay the 300 yard target like Lapua, Sierra or even Hornady 75/77s.

However the 52 and 69 have shot well for me and the 80gr has won a fair number of prone matches for me. I used to use Sierra 80s and Berger 80 VLDs, now I don't bother with them. I'm sure the Nosler 80s will hold the 600yd X ring.

Good luck, I hope you find a winner with them up over 2700, but I have not yet seen them scream. Maybe 2520 is the stuff, it was not LVR though.. I'll copy your data when/if it works out. They are cheap.

Right now, the 77 TMK's are working real well though.

2520. This from many moons back. When it shot, it shot well. Next batch, might or might not shoot. Might or might not be within 200 FPS of the last.

Supposedly thats fixed. I don't intend to find out with other powders out there.

I've not had a nosler yet. But I defer to a somewhat known shooting family that tried them and said nope, don't waste your time.

I'd still wager most on Sierra, JLK, Berger and Lapua. Don't think I missed anyone there. Expect maybe even more custom than JLK types...

I personally wouldn't bother with 2520 either. I hate ball powder.

The TMK's seem to be a pretty good bullet. Hopefully availability will get better.