What powder does Hornady use in their Precision Hunter ammo?

[MagnumManiac]

Wow, the fibs companies tell their customers! I can tell you almost emphatically that zero ammo makers make their own powder…they buy it by the train load from the cheapest vendor at the time. Another thing, they rarely buy the same canister powder available to reloaders because it costs about 3 times the amount of BULK powder.
These rumours about blending are HOGWASH! They buy BULK lots that are outside the 3% variance that canister powders MUST adhere to to be sold as such…so the bulk powder is used and tested to get the desired ballistics. No blending occurs other than in specialty powders like Superformance which is blended prior to being distributed. Bulk lots are given bulk designations, such as 759 for bulk 760, 749 for bulk 748 and so on.
Every batch of powder has the same recipe when manufactured, however, due to variance in quality of ingredients it can go beyond normal parameters, these are not mistakes, it just happens.
When I worked for ADI here in Australia making powders like H4895, Benchmark, H4350, H4831, H1000 and Retumbo or H50BMG, the lots would be fine for 2-5 batches, but then for a few batches they did not meet the desired result and the entire batch would be designated as BULK and sold as ONE LOT, which is TONNES of powder.

Cheers.

 

[LTH181818]

Wow, the fibs companies tell their customers! I can tell you almost emphatically that zero ammo makers make their own powder…they buy it by the train load from the cheapest vendor at the time. Another thing, they rarely buy the same canister powder available to reloaders because it costs about 3 times the amount of BULK powder.
These rumours about blending are HOGWASH! They buy BULK lots that are outside the 3% variance that canister powders MUST adhere to to be sold as such…so the bulk powder is used and tested to get the desired ballistics. No blending occurs other than in specialty powders like Superformance which is blended prior to being distributed. Bulk lots are given bulk designations, such as 759 for bulk 760, 749 for bulk 748 and so on.
Every batch of powder has the same recipe when manufactured, however, due to variance in quality of ingredients it can go beyond normal parameters, these are not mistakes, it just happens.
When I worked for ADI here in Australia making powders like H4895, Benchmark, H4350, H4831, H1000 and Retumbo or H50BMG, the lots would be fine for 2-5 batches, but then for a few batches they did not meet the desired result and the entire batch would be designated as BULK and sold as ONE LOT, which is TONNES of powder.

Cheers.

Thanks..

 

[adk hunter]

The biggest "fib" Hornady has sold the common Joe is buy this rifle chambered in this XYZ PRC cartridge and shoot this factory ammo and shoot bugholes. I found the results with ES/SD to be alarmingly poor.

The common guy who buys a few boxes of ammo (if you can find it) or wanders into a local store every few months and grabs a box for the cabinet pile is being hoodwinked at best. Sheash!! I am amazed they switch powders.

And finally, these results were through a high end rifle company with a proven track record and qualified shooter. Imagine where this wanders off to in mass production rifles...

Great post.

 

[YZ-80]

I called Hornady years ago to try and find out what they were putting in a .22-250 factory load and they would not divulge the info. I had pulled one of the loads and the powder looked something like TAC but a bit bigger of a granule, for sure.

 

[hunter0528]

A couple of years ago I had access to the Winchester 300 win mag white boxes with the Sierra 190 gr match bullets ( was told this was the military sniper ammo) the cases were Federal 07. When I took 1 apart the powder appeared to be H1000. I used the H1000 and Hornady eldx 200gr and was able to duplicate the performance. (1/2" and 100yds).

 

[Mike Matteson]

I disassembled a few of my 300 PRC PH ammo last night, 2 differing lot numbers, and they used different powders. Seems even a large company like Hornady cant get enough of the same powder.

Interesting! I don't buy factory ammo except in 5.56 or rimfire.

 

[Mike Matteson]

The large ammo companies buy powder in bulk, by the ton. More often than not these are not the same as canister grade powders that we buy. It's also been a basic reloading principle that when using new lots of powder you need to retest the load.

That kind of like the press. They buy ink by the barrel, paper by the ton. Hard to beat them.

 

[Mike Matteson]

Wow, the fibs companies tell their customers! I can tell you almost emphatically that zero ammo makers make their own powder…they buy it by the train load from the cheapest vendor at the time. Another thing, they rarely buy the same canister powder available to reloaders because it costs about 3 times the amount of BULK powder.
These rumours about blending are HOGWASH! They buy BULK lots that are outside the 3% variance that canister powders MUST adhere to to be sold as such…so the bulk powder is used and tested to get the desired ballistics. No blending occurs other than in specialty powders like Superformance which is blended prior to being distributed. Bulk lots are given bulk designations, such as 759 for bulk 760, 749 for bulk 748 and so on.
Every batch of powder has the same recipe when manufactured, however, due to variance in quality of ingredients it can go beyond normal parameters, these are not mistakes, it just happens.
When I worked for ADI here in Australia making powders like H4895, Benchmark, H4350, H4831, H1000 and Retumbo or H50BMG, the lots would be fine for 2-5 batches, but then for a few batches they did not meet the desired result and the entire batch would be designated as BULK and sold as ONE LOT, which is TONNES of powder.

Cheers.

Again interesting! Now did the Australia give up making H1000?

 

[MagnumManiac]

Again interesting! Now did the Australia give up making H1000?

They had a fire where H1000 and RETUMBO were stored…this is why supply has been slow, also, 99% of their sales are to military contracts.

Cheers.

 

[MagnumManiac]

A couple of years ago I had access to the Winchester 300 win mag white boxes with the Sierra 190 gr match bullets ( was told this was the military sniper ammo) the cases were Federal 07. When I took 1 apart the powder appeared to be H1000. I used the H1000 and Hornady eldx 200gr and was able to duplicate the performance. (1/2" and 100yds).

You are correct, it is H1000, I have the same stuff here in Australia, it was shown at our military show as I was involved in the ADI/Thales exhibit.

Cheers.

 

[Mike Matteson]

They had a fire where H1000 and RETUMBO were stored…this is why supply has been slow, also, 99% of their sales are to military contracts.

Cheers.

That figures.

 

[Justice1327]

I recently got two new boxes of PH in 6.5 PRC. I compared the powder in these to two different lots that were a year old. Two different powders were used. One was a stick and the other a "ballish" type powder. I have nothing in my powders that resembles the ballish type of powder.

 

[akmtnhnt]

The biggest "fib" Hornady has sold the common Joe is buy this rifle chambered in this XYZ PRC cartridge and shoot this factory ammo and shoot bugholes. I found the results with ES/SD to be alarmingly poor.

The common guy who buys a few boxes of ammo (if you can find it) or wanders into a local store every few months and grabs a box for the cabinet pile is being hoodwinked at best. Sheash!! I am amazed they switch powders.

And finally, these results were through a high end rifle company with a proven track record and qualified shooter. Imagine where this wanders off to in mass production rifles...

Great post.

They guy that's buying a few boxes to shoot 3, call it sighted and 1 or 2 more hunting is never going to see the difference.

 

[highfinblue]

Eye opening indeed; real world for most people are their shots on game are under 200 yards and I would guess most are under 100, and at those distances there would be maybe marginal hits, but if the shooter does his/her job they would be successful. Throw all that out the window if shots are extended to long range, 500 yards and more, and what a shame it would be to spend the thousands for a diy western trip, much more a guided hunt (the guide should require rifle sight in) to take shots at game with a box of ammo the shooter believes is what they have always used without realizing the factories are not even close to duplicating prior lots.