Hornady 7 PRC Factory Ammo Inconsistencies

Roughrice said:

Sir!
If you have a 7PRC and have used factory 175 Precision Hunter ammo from different lots you already know what I'm saying.
If not… I suggest you read up a bit more.
Nothing new about the PRC issues starting with brass. That's another long story.

If you read my post well… you'll notice I said he's a young guy who bought in to the propaganda and uses factory ammo which was a GREAT disappointment!
I did also say that the problem can be fixed with hand loading… which he's doesn't.

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Yeah, I have a Browning X Bolt Mountain Pro that shoots everything I've ran through it amazingly well. The Hornady is down on FPS but still plenty to kill elk at all but the most extreme distances. I stocked up on Federal ammo though, so I don't have to worry about it. As said before, all of this has been well documented for months.

I've got an idea......how about one of you guys with a few extra rounds of Federal 7PRC ammo send this young lad a few rounds to compare velocity with his Hornady stuff.....easy for me to say, as I don't have any. But if I did, I would. Let's maybe turn hlthe time for this fella?!

Bang4theBuck said:

I've got an idea......how about one of you guys with a few extra rounds of Federal 7PRC ammo send this young lad a few rounds to compare velocity with his Hornady stuff.....easy for me to say, as I don't have any. But if I did, I would. Let's maybe turn hlthe time for this fella?!

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At those prices, I'd be pretty reluctant to send out a few cartridges for someone to practice with, but I am a tight wad by nature though

Kimber7man said:

Hornady tested and loaded their initial factory ammo with R26 according to sources. They have been having problems getting same powder, so have been substituting other powders, thus the difference in velocities. It's been documented in threads all summer/fall.

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I don't know about them using RL26 in their ammo but they did get into the reduced velocities in a recent podcast episode. They said because of lack of availability they had to substitute a less optimal powder. They chose to lose some velocity to keep temp stability, consistency, extreme spread, etc. I can understand needing to make the compromise but IMO they should have noted that on the box. The reduced velocities on that ammo is way outside normal lot to lot variances. A buddy of mine's son has a Fierce Carbon and one and his initial speeds were very disappointing using those loads, like 200fps slow of "box velocity" if memory is correct. My buddy was shooting a 300 PRC right next to him, same ammo (ELD-X in both) and the 300 was slightly fast of stated speeds. Same day same bench over my Labradar. Like I said understandable to need to make the compromise so guys can get ammo but they should have disclosed it.

They will still kill but if you shoot at longer ranges, just buy the Garmin Chrono and run your own data

doctorjj said:

Yeah, I have a Browning X Bolt Mountain Pro that shoots everything I've ran through it amazingly well. The Hornady is down on FPS but still plenty to kill elk at all but the most extreme distances. I stocked up on Federal ammo though, so I don't have to worry about it. As said before, all of this has been well documented for months.

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I agree.
It has been well documented for months.
Doesn't it seem a bit ironic that you stocked up on Federal ammo?

Buzzsaw said:

They will still kill but if you shoot at longer ranges, just buy the Garmin Chrono and run your own data

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Yep.
I don't doubt that his rifle will perform when the opportunity presents itself.
Garmin is what I used to help the young man get his dope.
Love that Garmin… hasn't missed a shot yet!

Kimber7man said:

Hornady tested and loaded their initial factory ammo with R26 according to sources. They have been having problems getting same powder, so have been substituting other powders, thus the difference in velocities. It's been documented in threads all summer/fall.

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Read THIS ^^^ as, It's, the Truth ! ( Some Powders, have been Very Hard to get ! )
The 6.5 Creedmoor, 6.5 PRC and the 7 PRC are All, very ACCURATE, Modern cartridge Design's. ( I have NO experience w/ the .300 PRC ).
Hornady's ELD-M Bullets, are, nearly, "Top Notch" for, Accuracy and the ELD-X's, Kill Big Game, very Well !
They've made, quite a Bit of, Progress, over the Last few Years and Hopefully, they can get their Brass / Ammo, Quality Control "issues"straightened Out. We've got, All 3 Cartridge's in My Family and with, "Proper" Handloading in Good Brass ( ADG, Peterson, Lapua ) they ARE,.. "Impressive" !
But, We don't Buy into, "All" the Marketing,.. "Hype",. either

Starbuck said:

...

While less than ideal, the situation described by the OP isn't Hornady's fault. They're trying to keep ammo on the shelves during challenging times.

Not saying it's the best, but I've shot thousands of rounds of OEM Hornady ammo; most of it shot great and produced the intended results. Likewise with Hornady components.

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I agree it's not Hornady's fault that the powder supply dried up...BUT...

It is Hornady's fault that they didn't relabel their ammunition to indicate this. They KNEW about the lower velocities, and still print the higher number on the box. Not only is this misleading, it's negligent, as there are some hunters without chronographs that take the box number as a good indicator and use it for dope (not saying that's good, but it's reality).

I'm a big Hornady bullet fan, but this behavior amounts to false advertising, not just "hype" as all the haters love to say.

Roughrice said:

Ok.
To start…my young neighbor (in south Louisiana) planned an elk hunt in Idaho and ordered an Alamo Precision Custom 22" 7PRC for his hunt.
He came to my range for break in, sighting and dope gathering.
Very nice, well fit rifle with a NF NX8 4-32x50 F2 scope .
He had 2 boxes of 175 ELDX Precision Hunters for break-in and sighting.
Velocity hung around 2830 fps for the day.

The following week he picked up 3 more boxes of the same ammo and came back for dope charts before leaving for his hunt.
As soon as he fired the first round, we looked at each other in amazement that the velocity was 90 fps slower. I looked at his 3 boxes of ammo and 2 were from the same lot and one was different lot. He shot 3 from the odd lot and velocity was in the middle of the previous two lots!
Anyway… we corrected his zero and doped his drop card with the two boxes of the same lot at 2740 fps. The Alamo rifle shot very well so he's set for the hunt.

I brought my 24" 7 SAUM with 168 ABLR and
shot a few rounds while his was cooling off and was posting a steady 2920 fps.

This was my first experience with the Hornady over-gloated, magnificent 3000 fps 7 PRC!!
How in the hell can a company create such a good cartridge design and market it so confidently but load factory ammo so inconsistent that it will disappoint the proud new owner of an expensive custom rifle!

Just a rant because I'm not impressed.
I'm sure hand loading will fix this issue but for $50/ box… I'd expect more!… especially since they designed it!

I'm done...

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They had some real problems with their powder supplies. I think they got it figured out you should call them and see. They should have let people know because it made people mad and probably cost them customers.

When I first started reloading it was due to having a 300 PRC built before ammo was on the shelf. I let a very well known gunsmith talk me into it.

When 300 PRC started hitting the shelves I was thoroughly disappointed in the rifles performance with factory 225 and 212, but I needed the brass, so I bought and shot a bunch. When the Plandemic hit and people were panic buying and ammo prices were skyrocketing, I purchased 2 cases of 225 match, by that time my brother had a 300 prc also.

Anyway, this is all to say thay recently I re-tested the factory offerings while breaking in another 300 PRC for which I have 2 barrels. While pulling bullets out to re-seat them to find the best seating depth, I noticed ball powder. I remembered it being stick on my brother's rifle, same lot. So I pulled 3 bullets/box from 5 boxes. There was what looked like H1000, some ball powder and what was definitely either RL-26 or RL-25. I pulled 15 random rounds from 5 random boxes from 2 cases of the same lot of ammo and found 3 powders. One sleeve had both ball and stick in the same sleeve.

The aforementioned ammo, the brass had a difference in headspace of over 0.004" in. One sleeve, the CBTO length was all over the place.

I own hornady equipment, I have and I've used hornady components, and I'm no a fan of hornady anymore. Their stuff is just pure trash.

I've had to modify my LnL ammo plant so much just to get it to function relatively well....you still have to absolutely babysit each case the whole way through the process.

Their, little powder scale drifted so badly I used the RCBS beam scale I was trying to replace instead. Their dies are mediocre at best.

Seeing this thread pop up about their 7 PRC ammo being trash too just agitated the crap out of me. You hype up all your new cartridges and you're the only manufacturer of the cartridges when they're released and it mostly trash that doesn't shoot well in most factory or custom rifles. Do better Hornady!

Skip the Hornady until they get their powder issue straightened out and get it together. Try the Norma Bondstrike or Federal with the ELD-X. You'll get very close to published velocities with them.

This is not only common to Hornady I experienced the wildest E.S spreads yesterday from Federal Premium 6.5 Creedmoor 130 grain Terminal Ascent loads all shot across my Garmin XERO C1 Pro Chrony . Varied from 2817 - 2881.2 FPS. SOOOO inconsistence's can and will occur with any and all ammo hand loaded or factory.

Starbuck said:

Gotta check lot numbers when buying factory ammo. Especially these days when component availability is so inconsistent. I learned this year's ago and now buy at least a case at time if planning to burn factory fodder in a rig. A case - 200 rounds - isn't much shooting when practicing for far off shots on game. Less than 5 boxes of ammo burned in prep for a hunt with a new rig seems way light to me, but maybe the person referenced in the OP does enough shooting to be competent.

While less than ideal, the situation described by the OP isn't Hornady's fault. They're trying to keep ammo on the shelves during challenging times.

Not saying it's the best, but I've shot thousands of rounds of OEM Hornady ammo; most of it shot great and produced the intended results. Likewise with Hornady components.

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Normally I would agree on checking lots, but I was getting muzzle velocity readings from 2701fps to 2769fps out of the same box. I gave the rest of mine to a friend including the match ammo and CX ammo which was giving bad results also. I've reloaded since 1972 using Hornady bullets so I went back to my roots. End of problem.