Chronographing Remington & Hornady Ammo

[BD1]

OK, I got to spend the afternoon at the range today. I had on hand Remy ammo from Able's, as well as Remy ammo from Midway, a box of Hornady factory and 100 rounds of my hand loads. I had pulled two rounds earlier in the week, and as they pulled with one wack of the inertia hammer, I crimped one of the boxes I'd gotten from Able's.

After I've had some time to think about it, I'll post my thoughts. In the meantime:

Average velocity of ten rounds Remington from Able- 2027 fps out of my 16" barrel
Average Velocity of ten rounds Remington from Midway- 2026 fps out of my 16" barrel
Average velocity of the box of Able Remington that I crimped was also 2026 fps

Average velocitry of the locally purchased Hornady was 2122 fps, (60 fps slower than the box I'd chronied last year).
Average velocity of my hand loads was 2220, (20 fps faster than the last time I chronied it, heat?).

I have to shoot prone through the chrony at my local range as the firing line is elevated and I don't own a tripod tall enough to shoot through the chrony from the bench. Also, it was hot, humid, gusty/windy and it's been a long week so I'm not drawing any conclusions about absolute accuracy from today. I did shoot all three at 100, 200 and 300 yards from a rest, but by that time I was 40 rounds into it, hot, sweaty and not on the top of my form.

In short, the Remy that I'd crimped shot as well as the Hornady factory at 100, 200 and 300 yards, although it was a foot low at 300. The un-crimped Remington did not group quite as well, and I did not try it at 200 and 300 as the backboard paper was ragged and I wasn't certain I could ID shots off the 8.5 x 11 target paper.

I don't know what to think about barrel length/velocity comparing my data to PB's. I'd like to see some 20" data. I think barrel length for peak velocity must be less than 26". I do know I'm not willing to carry an extra 10" of barrel into the woods to gain 25 fps.

BD

[Hoot]

So where are all the other members who were drooling, waiting for theirs to come. Lets see some chrony and group data guys.

I have never fired a factory round through my 20" and really do not want to start now, especially factory loads that pull with one tap of the inertial puller (whats up with that?) and cost 3x more than quality reloads.

Hoot

Edit: I'm not beyond corruptible though. If someone has a case, but no chrony or time to go to the range, send me a box. I'll do a full report, including water jug test, reload them with Hornady and send them back. I only have easy access to a 100 yard range though.

[Siringo]

Seems that the Remmy factory ammo preforms admirably in the accuracy department. I got nearly 200 fps out of my pulled shot gun bullets that I reloaded. For duplication purposes -- if any Remmy bullets ever show up for reloading -- 34 grs of LG may be close to the factory velocity.

I suspect that the lessened bullet pull is because the Remmy bullet is not .452". IFFFF they are using the same bullet as in the shotgun ammo -- it will be .451". When I loaded up the shotgun bullets, I just sized the cases and did not expand them.

It will be interesting on the upcoming comments about the down range performance. What range was your zero? if it was 100 yards and the Rem bullet was a foot low compared to the Hornady -- it would be traveling a shade over 1050 fps at that 300 yards with a ME of 650 foot pounds. For me at least, that bullet would be marginal for a 200 yard shot. Seems the BC of that bullet is .16. Any thoughts?????

[pitted bore]

I don't know what to think about barrel length/velocity comparing my data to PB's. I'd like to see some 20" data. I think barrel length for peak velocity must be less than 26". I do know I'm not willing to carry an extra 10" of barrel into the woods to gain 25 fps.

BD-
I'll wait for more results to come in before drawing any conclusions. Part of the difference between our results may be my barrel, which is nominally 0.451". My tests were at 52F, which was less than your ambient temperature. This may bring the velocity readings down a bit for my trials. (But it doesn't explain the Hornady result with about 52 fps from my rifle than your faster tests last year.)

At least both our results show the Rem ammo to be slower than the Hornady.

--Bob

[BD1]

So nobody out there with a 20" barrel, a chrony and a brand new box of Remmy ?

PB,

It would look like your Lil Gun handloads are producing velocities more like what I'd expect from the longer barrel. Below is some data I shot a few years ago in NY while testing the Quickload model for the .450B. If you look at the 37 grain load, I'm nearly 200 fps slower than your 26" tube. The powder in the Remmy loads looks a lot like my most recent lot of H110. I'd post the charge weight but I'm not confident in the charges I pulled with the inertia puller as that hollow bullet tip gets filled with powder and it's darn hard to keep it all in hand when recovering it. I'll trash a bullet or two with the collet puller to get an accurate idea of the factory charge weight.


34 grains Lil Gun {Quickload predictions}
AV 2074 fps {2009 fps}
ES 45 {33675 psi}
SD 17.49

35 grains Lil Gun {Quickload predictions}
AV 2105 fps {2064 fps}
ES 144 {36912 fps}
SD 53.36

36 grains Lil Gun {Quickload predictions}
AV 2127 fps {2119 fps}
ES 64 {40487 psi (over saami max)}
SD 26.83

36.5 grains Lil Gun {Quickload predictions}
AV 2151 fps {2146 fps}
ES 96 {42397 psi (over saami max)}
SD 29.7

37 grains Lil Gun {Quickload predictions}
AV 2194 fps {2172 fps}
ES 168.5 {44393 psi (over saami max)}