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

I like it because I can see a lot better at 100yds lol. I use the 4x for my service rifle setup. You should see what 600yds looks like at 4x.. I have 3 of these 10x I have one on my other rifle that’s set up for AR tactical. 600yds through a 10x ain’t so bad.. you do have a 20 inch barrel compared to my 18. I can’t believe velocity loss is so extreme in these AR. Looks like what 150 FPS an inch?

You can't believe that, you should have seen how my AR's spanked my 22" 223 predator rifle when it came to velocities... They downright just spanked that bolt gun. It couldn't keep up, even though it has a barrel that is 2" longer..

Could very well be a different lot too. The old guy was telling me today that you have to watch out for different lots and its bad because it was manufactured in different facilities. Israel, chech republic, Belgium and the US. So different velocities are to be expected. The bottles he gave me look old. I didnt check to see where it was made.

And now you guys know why nobody competes with 2520.
I've only seen one lot# of AR Comp. Been using it for ~5 years. Made about 4 separate purchases over those years.

And now you guys know why nobody competes with 2520.
I've only seen one lot# of AR Comp. Been using it for ~5 years. Made about 4 separate purchases over those years.

I think the other big reason is that it's really temp sensitive. Adjusting for a given lot is easy enough, especially if you've bought a large quantity of it, but accounting for the temp changes is a different thing.

I do suggest though, BSA, to be careful about putting much stock in primer appearance or recoil to judge pressures; neither are very reliable indicators. If you're also using milder RL15 loads, your rifle is probably overgassed with 2520 before it hits max pressure, and that's what you're experiencing. Restricting the gas down a little more and using CCI 450 or #41 primers can make the same load seem pretty normal again, and higher velocities are to be expected with the right ball powders.

I say bullscheit yondering. You are wrong buddy. Look at book max speeds. I'm over that with the loads that I said were too hot. I'm not new to the reloading game buddy. If you sit back a bit and watch, you may learn something..

Here is a little more to add to the op from loads I fired off today:







To everyone else interested, the AA2520 powder is working well enough as far as getting higher velocities than AR Comp with the 75gr Hornady BTHP match bullet. The Hornady load manual also verify's that. In my notes on one of the targets, I list Hornady's max velocity and max load from their service rifle load data. I could see and feel pressure signs with these loads when they were over book max velocity with AR Comp. 2600 fps is all I'd want to push my rifle with this powder, based on feedback from said rifle and load... I also know for a fact that I can push this bullet to well over 2800 fps with AA 2520, but I personally would not load past 24 grains with this powder. At that charge weight my average velocity was 2,777 fps. Again, the Hornady load manual states that with AA2520, the max velocity would be right at 2800 fps with a charge weight of 24.6 grains. Since my Noveske has a 556 chamber, I used the 556 load data in the tenth edition Hornady load manual. For my rifle, I loaded up to 24.3 grains and found the load to be too hot. I only fired off 3 rounds #1 at 2,841 fps, #2 @ 2,816, and #3 @ 2,822 fps. This is not an "overgassed" issue, this is a too hot of a load issue, which is also stated in the latest Hornady load manual... Their test barrel must be very similar to mine, a 20" 1 in 8 vs. theirs which is a 20" 1 in 7 twist.

You forgot to mention that 2520 was bought when bill clinton was still President 😁

That lot of 2520 you have, is a lot faster than what I have. Shoot isn’t until next week. It’s reduced yardage match so been messing around with a cheap but accurate load for 100yds. Using, yep 55gr fmj. I’m
Using 3031, best I got 1.5 moa I had a couple flyers but 7 of them in group you can cover with a quarter. I hate random flyers is it me? Who knows. So I have a backup using h4895 with the relatively cheap 73gr ELD-M. Anyhow, With my lot of 2520 my accuracy load as 24.0gr with a cci 450 primer. My load is only .3 tenths of grain higher than western powders minimum of 23.7. Also I bought some 69gr smk and tried them with AR comp and got same results as you. You are thinking a lot of bullets to be messing with lol, again was just trying to find a decent 100yd reduced match load. Don’t want to waste my 77tmk or 80.5 Berger’s at 100yds. But that 2520 load with 75 hornady pretty good and i have a pile of them as well.

Buddy, i think tyrone is right. Those 69gr sierras are hard to beat. They are very consistent, with minimal flyers. I shot a 1.167moa avg yesterday with the sierras and an avg score of 100-8x.

79s, for 100 yd reduced course you should try the sierra 52 hollow points.

I know where more of those 69 smk are. I need to go get them.. I tried the same 68gr hornady and that bullet sucks..

I was looking at that bullet as well. What powder you recommend?

Pretty sure I used H335 or 748. It was like 25 years ago.
Didn't do anything but play around with it a little as we always shot full course. I'd check Sierras manual and see what they list as the most accurate load.

Well I found some 55 Sierra’s, not 52 smk. I might try h4895 with them.. I never had much luck with cfe or tac.. I heard good and bad about benchmark. I need to find more Varget, Varget is hands down the most accurate powder I used. Followed by RL15, AR comp is phenomenal with 77tmk. I have also had good luck with H4895..