Hornady CX experiences?

[notthattomsimonson]

My factory A Bolt 30-06 didn't like the 150 gr outfitter or the 165 gr superperformance. Velocity SDs were ok, in the 11-12 range, but mean radius north of 1" for both.

It really likes the 180gr outfitters though - just a bit larger than 1/2" mean radius.

Those are all based on 10 or 15 shot groups.

For reference, I had been shooting Federal Premium with barnes 165gr TSX with mean radius in the 3/4" range and was trying some different ammo to see if I had room to improve.

Good excuse to go shoot anyway!

 

[Weber]

I’d consider giving the gun a good cleaning and trying the Outfitter again. Some monos are reported to get pissy when they’re shot after jacketed bullets. The CX has a lot of bearing surface so that may be the case. Consider the first three shot group a fouler group and send another 3-5. If it’s still not grouping then it’s a definitive dud.

Just got back from a range trip to test this theory. Can confirm. 4 guns, if I swap back and forth it causes problems until I scrub the copper out

 

[SDHNTR]

Can confirm. Three guns. No such issue. Swap back-and-forth without problem and zero degradation in accuracy.

 

[Weber]

Can confirm. Three guns. No such issue. Swap back-and-forth without problem and zero degradation in accuracy.

Neat. Maybe its barrel dependent. Tested this across barnes, hornady, and Lehigh bullets with major POI and accuracy shifts (oddly left to right shifts as well).

FWIW I shoot suppressed so the additional backpressure may impact

3 of 4 were semis with chrome lined barrels. Bolt is a stainless.

I doubted this the first time I'd seen mention of it, as someone who only cleans my guns when the groups open up. But this issues been plaguing me for a while. Even had a rifle rebarrelled because when I switched to barnes my 100yd POI shift was 7 inches right and 2 Low. Enough proof sent alongside that PWS warrantied. New one wasn't as bad but had the same issues. Finally resolved to just believe my guns don't like barnes.

But saw a video from Ron Spomer mentioning it and he's not known to buy into fudd lore. So I did my own testing at the range. Shooting 40 rounds of ball ammo ensuring 0. Swapping to various coppers and can't get them to shoot well. Swapping back to ball and their accuracy dramatically affected.

Scrub to bare metal. Ball shot great for 100 rounds. Scrubbed to bare metal. Coppers shot good (only did 40 rounds each brand before rescrub for cost reasons)

One exception was my CX in one of my 223s did shoot well. And the 150gr barnes did fine in the boltie.

A little over a thousand dollars of ammo and a few bags of pouches later. I'm convinced that something, maybe the mixing of the different alloys, does cause some problems.

Anecdotally my father reports no issue from his 6.5 grendel but also doesn't swap ammo types as often as I do (I use my rifles for more than hunting).

Do what you will with the info ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. All my guns like CX and TTSXs now suddenly

 

[STAxel]

I’ve used the 130gr CX Superformance in .270 Winchester my last 2 hunting seasons. They’re worked great for me. Last year, I made a good neck shot at a Whitetail at ~110 yards. Clean through and through, severed the spine at the base of the neck. Deer dropped and didn’t ever twitch once. Didn’t waste much meat at all. This year I was given a perfect broadside shot, I double lunged my buck at ~160 yards. Ran like 100 feet or so then dropped. Also another clean through and through. Blood trail was just ok, no issues finding him. I chose the CX because they grouped the best out of my rifle, 0.5-0.8 inch at 100, cloverleaf if I do my part (in ideal conditions of course)