Hornady Custon Ammo vs. Hornady Black

I know of one so far, let's see if more show up.

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Hornady Custon Ammo vs. Hornady Black

Postby Thom28 » Mon Aug 07, 2017 6:46 am

Good Morning:
Curious as to if anyone notices any difference in the original Hornady Custom 450BM ammo vs. the new Black Box Ammo?
Reason I ask is that a friend had gone to Randy's Hunting center in Bad Axe about a week ago and they give him a spiel about Black Box ammo not being as accurate and reports of bullet separating by time they got to target. Wished I could have been there and heard the conversation word for word.
Friend said Randy's had pallets of 450 Custom ammo for sale.
Wonder if just a ruse to sell his Custom ammo.
Anyone had any such info or experience with the Black Box ammo?

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Re: Hornady Custon Ammo vs. Hornady Black

Postby TNman » Mon Aug 07, 2017 9:11 am

I'm a .450 newby and have only shot Black in mine; it is very accurate-about an inch at 100 yds. I have the capability to reload now and hope to try some reloads soon. The 250 FTX bullets definitely did not come apart until they whacked the AR500 steel. The Ruger Ranch .450 is a great little rifle!
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Re: Hornady Custon Ammo vs. Hornady Black

Postby Al in Mi » Mon Aug 07, 2017 9:22 am

dunno, when I got my #1 Ruger, LGS tossed in box of black ammo, buddy sighted it thing in for me and was shooting 1 1/2" with it. Was more concerned with the 10 twist barrel and 1 1/2" was good enough at the time.

I never tried the "custom" tan box stuff from it yet, but will next time out, might swing by and get a box of black just to compare.

as far as a FTX coming apart in midflight, nadda ever see that happening. I've had them come unglued on deer more than once thou.
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Re: Hornady Custon Ammo vs. Hornady Black

Postby plant_one » Mon Aug 07, 2017 9:59 am

"black" is the same deal as their "zombiemax" ammo. its just a marketing shtick. it uses the same bullet, brass, powder and primer, loaded to the same PSI spec as any standard version of their ammo of the same bullet type/weight/caliber.

now, there's going to be lot to lot variance like there is in any ammo, but otherwise there's no difference.

i suspect someone was trying to move old inventory off their shelves, especailly if he had "pallets" of the stuff in stock.


if there was a legit issue with hornady black coming apart in flight, they would have requested the ammo back from whoever experienced the problems and have already been testing it to make sure they dont have to issue a recall. from my experience, hornady takes the safety and quality of their products VERY seriously. if there was an issue, they'd let us know ASAP.

I had some zmax ammo (about 200 rounds) a few years ago in 308. having some pressure signs showing up in my 16" LR308 (ejector and extractor swipes, cratering, etc) and when i contacted hornady about it they immediately had me return EVERY box i had for testing and evaluation. It was fired in a pressure test barrel, and found to be within spec. They replaced it with Hornady Custom - the exact ammo in a tan and red box - because they didnt have zmax in stock and i didnt care if it had a green tip or a red one. Come to find out - in my instance - that all the ammo was well within their load specs, and my gun was just over gassed badly because its a carbine gas 308.




you can find all recall information for hornady ammo on their website if needs be

https://www.hornady.com/support/product-recalls/
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Re: Hornady Custon Ammo vs. Hornady Black

Postby Bmt85 » Mon Aug 07, 2017 10:20 am

plant_one wrote:"black" is the same deal as their "zombiemax" ammo. its just a marketing shtick. it uses the same bullet, brass, powder and primer, loaded to the same PSI spec as any standard version of their ammo of the same bullet type/weight/caliber.

now, there's going to be lot to lot variance like there is in any ammo, but otherwise there's no difference.

i suspect someone was trying to move old inventory off their shelves, especailly if he had "pallets" of the stuff in stock.


if there was a legit issue with hornady black coming apart in flight, they would have requested the ammo back from whoever experienced the problems and have already been testing it to make sure they dont have to issue a recall. from my experience, hornady takes the safety and quality of their products VERY seriously. if there was an issue, they'd let us know ASAP.

I had some zmax ammo (about 200 rounds) a few years ago in 308. having some pressure signs showing up in my 16" LR308 (ejector and extractor swipes, cratering, etc) and when i contacted hornady about it they immediately had me return EVERY box i had for testing and evaluation. It was fired in a pressure test barrel, and found to be within spec. They replaced it with Hornady Custom - the exact ammo in a tan and red box - because they didnt have zmax in stock and i didnt care if it had a green tip or a red one. Come to find out - in my instance - that all the ammo was well within their load specs, and my gun was just over gassed badly because its a carbine gas 308.




you can find all recall information for hornady ammo on their website if needs be

https://www.hornady.com/support/product-recalls/


That's what I'm thinking, trying to move old stock.
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Re: Hornady Custon Ammo vs. Hornady Black

Postby plant_one » Mon Aug 07, 2017 10:40 am

if your friend is still sketpical, i would suggest he either call hornady, or e-mail their tech department for confirmation on the black = fancy box with the same ammo

tech@hornady.com

they've replied to all my emails, usually within a day or so.
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Re: Hornady Custon Ammo vs. Hornady Black

Postby Thom28 » Mon Aug 07, 2017 4:06 pm

Here is the reply my buddy received from Hornady Tech Service this afternoon:

"Thank you for your e-mail. It is very interesting and I will forward this on to our Marketing team. To clarify this, the bullets do not separate prior to making target. The black ammo has the same bullet travelling at the same speed as the older custom load. The trajectory and terminal performance are exactly the same. The information that you received was incorrect."
Thank you,
Todd Knecht
Hornady Mfg.3
Technical Services Mgr.
(800) 338-3220

He did write them back to see if they used the same powder in both ammunition but hasn't heard back from them.

plant_one,
I think you hit the nail on the head. I think Randy's was just trying to increase the sale of the custom ammo they have on hand.
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Re: Hornady Custon Ammo vs. Hornady Black

Postby plant_one » Wed Aug 09, 2017 9:58 am

Al in Mi wrote:
as far as a FTX coming apart in midflight, nadda ever see that happening. I've had them come unglued on deer more than once thou.



when you had them fail on impact with a deer... where was shot placement? what kind of velocity's? and what kind of twist? when did they happen (ie current lot, or bullets produced 3-5 years ago)


i just had a buddy txt me about the same issue he read about with the black ammo.

i'm just trying to sort thru if its just a nasty rumor going around, or if theres a possibility that there's a systemic issue - or even the legit possibility of a faulty lot of bullets out there - with the primary bullet used/sold for the caliber.
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Re: Hornady Custon Ammo vs. Hornady Black

Postby Al in Mi » Wed Aug 09, 2017 7:30 pm

plant_one wrote:
Al in Mi wrote:
as far as a FTX coming apart in midflight, nadda ever see that happening. I've had them come unglued on deer more than once thou.



when you had them fail on impact with a deer... where was shot placement? what kind of velocity's? and what kind of twist? when did they happen (ie current lot, or bullets produced 3-5 years ago)


i just had a buddy txt me about the same issue he read about with the black ammo.

i'm just trying to sort thru if its just a nasty rumor going around, or if theres a possibility that there's a systemic issue - or even the legit possibility of a faulty lot of bullets out there - with the primary bullet used/sold for the caliber.



been bullets made 5+yrs ago, only one from a 450B, factory load, 16" factory upper, frontal chest on a doe, 50yd ish.

Had 6-7 from smokeless ML, 18t, MV just over 2600fps, those were all shoulder shots under 150yds, never lost a critter, just would've thought with their heavy jackets they wouldn't of shed cores.
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Re: Hornady Custon Ammo vs. Hornady Black

Postby plant_one » Tue Aug 15, 2017 12:48 am

ok that kind of matches a lot of what google spit out re: 250 ftx issues 4-6 years back seems there was some problems with them.


as i said, its entirely possible that theyve got a small batch of substandard bullets out there, but until we get some more real world reports with this black ammo, not much we can do but keep an open eye for more stuff to crop up.
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