Tikka T3X 7mm-08 Hornady ELD-X

[steelheadmike]

This is an FYI.

I have a T3X 7mm-08 that I've had for ~5 years. I've typically shot the Federal Copper load (ex-Californian) but Federal has, seemingly, got out of the 7mm-08 business. I picked up a couple boxes of Hornady 150gr ELD-X to try. Of the first 5 rounds I tried, I couldn't close the bolt on two of them and three that did chamber were a bit tight. I tried three different factory rounds and they chambered butter smooth (like every other load I've used in this rifle). I contacted Hornady and the tech said they have seen this in some rifles so they shipped me out another box (from a different lot). Next time at the range, same result: couldn't close the bolt on the first round out of the box.

Just a little curious as to what's going. I'm a little disappointed because I wanted to try it but during all this I picked up some Nosler 140 Accubond that shoot fantastic.

Also, If anybody wants a killer deal on 57 rounds of Hornady ELD-X 150gr 7mm-08, let me know.

 

[Thinkingman]

After case head separations on Hornady defense 9mm and the factory not really giving any concern about it, I'm done with Hornady.
Good luck.

 

[209hunter]

I’ve seen this same thing with hornady ammo in my buddies Tikka 25-06. I don’t think he ever got a good explanation of what’s going on though.


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[Macintosh]

If you search you’ll find this popping up several times on this forum, both with tikka and other rifles, as well as with several brands of ammo, especially nosler. I had a flat of nosler 7mm08 ammo that would only chamber in my tikka with excessive effort—every other make of ammo would chamber fine. Nosler took over a year to replace ammo for me but they happily replaced it.
Its an issue with tolerances stacking—chamber is on short end of spec, cartridges are at extreme long end of spec or over it, and you have tight chambering on a batch of ammo.

 

[Pharmseller]

That’s a shame, we shoot the 150 ELD-X out of 4 Tikkas, really like the bullet. Handloads, not factory.





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[Bomberodevil]

How do the Hornady cartridges measure out compared to the SAAMI specs?

 

[Macintosh]

They headspace off the shoulder, so it’ll be one of those measurements. If you color it with a sharpie and chamber one (or try) a few times you can see where the contact is being made. But if it chambers other ammo its a good bet its that batch of ammo, not the gun. You would probably find a different lot# of the exact same ammo would also be fine.

 

[Motown]

I have a bunch of Tikka’s and have had this same issue in the past with Nosler Ammo but never Hornady.

 

[steelheadmike]

I usually despise necro-bumping posts, but I wanted to provide and update and see if anybody had some more input. I tried another lot of the factory 150 ELD-X ammo and still had similar issues: roughly half of the rounds chamber/shoot just fine and I can't close the bolt on the other half. All the rounds look the same but I did notice the 150 ELD-X ammo is ~0.05" longer COAL than other brands/bullets (not a big deal as they still work in the mags).

Does anyone know if Hornady has possibly changed their manufacturing spec or QA/QC in the last year? I'd really like to be able to shoot this bullet but it may not be worth the trouble as I have found other bullets that shoot well.

 

[Nhenry]

Personally I would just shoot what shoots well in your gun as is. You avoid the hassle of this ELDX problem and you get to kill animals with a tried and tested bullet (accubonds). Win win.

 

[coast range]

I would just shoot those accubonds. That round is hard to beat