A Genuine Question : Why Is Hornady So Hated?

[Goose Cracker]

I've defended Hornady in this thread and elsewhere. Well, at a recent range session with my new Kimber 257 Roberts, I was breaking in the rifle and trying out a few factory loads for the rifle. Shot 110 Accubond ammo from GA Arms pretty well, just under an inch. Then I tried some Hornady Superformance 117g SSTs. Wasn't shooting all that well, a little stringing, then pulled the trigger on cartridge number seven from that box and "click". Nothing. Failure to fire. First time that's ever happened to me on a centerfire cartridge, factory or handload. Appears the primers may be seated too deep? Ugh.

 

[Ray B]

Not sure what brand primers Hornady uses BUT about 30 years ago I had a FTF in a 270, WW brass, CCI primer. At the time LI lived near Speer/CCI in Lewiston,ID so I took the case to them. They dismantled it sealed it in epoxy and ground away half the case head. They determined the cause of the FTF as a defective primer. What happened was that during the mfg process the anvil starts out as a flat piece of metal that is then folded so that it has three legs connected to the high point. On this primer one of those legs had cracked in the folding process. When the firing pin struck the primer there wasn't three legs to support the crush- the broken leg folded over and the other two collapsed on top of it. The anvil just folded over so the priming compound wasn't crushed. In addition, the primer was pushed farther into the priming pocket so that it looked similar to the picture.

It is possible that happened to the cartridge shown.

 

[johnnyblues]

I think the bottom line on this well beaten up subject is to stay away from the older DGX and DGS line. The failures have been well noted here. IMO the newer bonded bullets seem to be much better. Reports are better on game taken. I recently purchased a Christian Arms Mesa in 6.5 creedmoor and the results on accuracy using ELD-X was astounding. For me I have and will only shoot SAF bullets on DG. Next year I’m taking the Creedmoor to Africa to use on smaller game, I’m confident the bullet will perform well.