Hornady Light Mags
 

Has anyone had experience with the Hornady light mags, paticularly .270. How do they shoot, and are they worth the money. Thanks

RE: Hornady Light Mags
 

It is an extreme compressed load. Most rifles don't like them. Especially those with small pencil barrels. It most likely will have sufficent hunting performance. But I would recommend you stay with the standard Hornady stuff.

I tried some 270 long time ago, and got 4" groups from my 7400. I can get 1.5" with handloads. I figured it was just the gun.

So Hornady sent me a new box of 308 due to a friend had trouble with them shooting in his model 7. So I figure why not send them back and then I could evaluate them. I did, and they sent me a new box. So I tried it in three different guns. Two A-Bolts, and a FN APR tactical rifle (that is the best tack driver I ever shot). None would get below 2.5MOA at 100 yards. I wouldn't waste the money.

RE: Hornady Light Mags
 

I have a 20 yr. old 700 BDL 30-06 that really shines with the 165 gr. Light Magnum. Have two buddies having good luck with the .300 Win. Mag. Heavy Magnum. If you are not a handloader it is worth buying a box for experiment. If your rifle likes them it is an inexpensive way to step up to the next performance level without buying a different rifle. Be prepared for a noticeable increase in recoil.

RE: Hornady Light Mags
 

The 270 has always been a fine accurate bullet with it BC&SD/ Guns that are bolt actions will shoot more accurate than auto or ppumps as well. Figur out what you want and what your going to hu;nt then go from there. The standard 270 Win is hard to beat,and shell aren,t out of sight llike some of these new magnums.If you don,t rreload. vangunsmith

RE: Hornady Light Mags
 

vangun, settle down, just giving my experience with them in 4 different guns.

RE: Hornady Light Mags
 

IMO they arent worth it, Besides i dont think a dead deer knows the difference of a few hundred FPS or a live deer for that matter. also i have read that they burn up barrels faster then standard loads

RE: Hornady Light Mags
 

My own observations at the range have shown that the velocities are usually below the claimed numbers and the accuracy can be very poor with some rifles.

RE: Hornady Light Mags
 

My exact experience with both Hornady and Federal

RE: Hornady Light Mags
 

you need to try them in your gun and see how they shoot


jjo

RE: Hornady Light Mags
 

jjo, how did they shoot in your guns?

RE: Hornady Light Mags
 

Vangunsmith says on another post on this site don't believe all you hear and its all dependant on the gun. Yet here the ammo is not worth a flip.

Let me just say all anyone can say is to try it. A box of ammo won't kill you and its the only way you'll ever know if they shoot well or not. I've seen it go both ways with light mags.

As to whether the supposed extra MPH is worth it or not, thats up to you. But it can be worth it simply from an accuracy check. As to those that say an extra 100 fps doesn't matter-- well it may not but then again if you miss judge distance and make a bad shot any extra flatness or energy may help make a difference. So if it works I say don't worry about others. If its not accurate don't worry about 100 fps slower.

As to light mags burning out barrels faster, I suspect it is true. But on the life of a hunting rifle for the average shooter you'll never know it. If you shoot 5 boxes of shells a year it'll still probably take you 6-8 years to even see a difference and most every barrel will last 1000-1500 rounds minimum. Thats a lot of rounds. Thats the life of most magnum barrels to hold sub moa accuracy out at 600-1000 yards on the rifle range. Up close around 100-200 it doesn't seem to matter much even then.

FWIW on a 223 experiment I know folks using the same barrels as I use and mild loads(ie normal factory representative) while I on the other hand run pretty stiff loads and probably somewhat the same powder that the light mags use. Our barrel life differences are less than 500 rounds which can be one barrel to another. IE the slower crowd has the same life differences between them as they do between mine and theirs.

If you shoot 100 rounds a year I congratulate you on the practice. Most don't. I don't run my main hunting guns that much but I try to shoot a minimum of 1000 rounds a year in 22s and smaller rifles in hunting practice to keep up to date. I can then switch to my hunting guns and have full confidence without burning up the barrel and powder and bullets on a gun hunting rifle.

Jeff

RE: Hornady Light Mags
 

All shooting practise is certainly beneficial but the best practise for hunting is to use a gun with the same trajectory as your hunting rifles.This helps to learn the trajectory better and the correct sight picture and holdover becomes almost automatic with little thinking required.My approach to this has been to hunt with rifles that have almost identical trajectories and to obtain a practise rifle with the same stock,action and trajectory.I use this practise rifle for almost all of my practise to prevent burning out the barrels on my hunting rifles.When the barrel on the practise rifle burns out,I simply rebarrel it.

RE: Hornady Light Mags
 

Rost, you can say that just about anything. Cars, trucks, any commercial product. But the guy came on here and asked opinion. More likely than not, I bet they are not that accurate of a combo. Sure it will do the job.

I mean if the answer for every post was you will have to try it yourself, then there would be no reason to ask for opinion? Would there?

RE: Hornady Light Mags
 

Stubble

I agree with you totally. I just don't want to mess up a good hunting tube that I worked up good loads for. I just keep the drop data on it and when I have to shoot beyond 300 yards I dial it in and squeeze. I don't trust holdovers since they are not precise. I also dial in my windage. When you do it that way you only need practice trigger squeeze. When the X is there the gun fires itself.

I also do a bit of what you suggest, I take a smaller caliber that can stand more than 1000-1500 rounds and make ammo for it that emulates the trajectory of my mag rifles. That way I'm totally with you. And the practice rifle is actually maybe even better if you just burn it up and replace it with a so so barrel. Doesnt need to be a tack driver. As long as your main gun is as good or better. Only thing I wish we had were PDs. Would be great year round practice as would groundhogs. Shot GHs one year in TN and had a super blast one afternoon. Only wish we could do it again.

Of course I'm a bit different than most, I can get all the practice I need of dry firing in the house if needed. Comes from more than a few rounds and more than a few years in competitive shooting. For hunters that are not competitors(as I suspect most are) then it may well be better to use the gun you hunt with.

Bottom line, I'd rather see someone shoot a 22 all year, rather than not shoot till a month before season. Heck if you look at it in reality most folks don't shoot past 200-250 yards and for that trigger time is the most important issue along with correct sight in of the main rifle. This is all assuming you can ignore the recoil factor. To me recoil has never really mattered because its simply mind over matter. Yep it might smack me, but if I decide to shoot that type of rifle, and I"m going to pull the trigger its gonna stomp me. And if I'm going to get stomped I may as well hit while I'm at it so its worth the thump. To me it can't be any more simple.

We are in the same book right!!?

Jeff

RE: Hornady Light Mags
 

I use a similar philosophy - all my bolt action rifles are Remington 700's - and I do most of my shooting with the .22 and 6MM calibers, not shooting the bigger rifles very much. But since they all feel pretty much the same right up until they go "bang", practice and varmint hunting with the .243 this spring is preparing me for a big game shot with the .300 Winchester this fall.

RE: Hornady Light Mags
 

Big

Didn't want to come across adversarial. But with ammo and guns and all else you mention its so subjective. For every good experience there is a bad one. I've seen a number of rifles(bolt guns only ) shoot the light mags really well. In fact a buddies Remmy 270 shoots it better than any other ammo.

One of the things about the powder they are supposedly(no I'm not totally sure but its well suspected its the same version) is that it likes really warm loads to perform the best. High energy powders seem weird from that aspect and it goes against the grain that heavy loads will shoot well. But it seems like a number of guns really like this ammo.

Your opinion is extremely valid. I suspect mine might be on the same lines. Its one of those things were you just can't answer the guy straight up. He'll have to find out on his own. And thats not either bad or good I suppose.

Again, not arguing with you, only giving some more feedback.

Jeff

RE: Hornady Light Mags
 

You may be right rost, I just can't believe I have tried two boxes thru numerous guns with less than stellar results. And it seems so common. Its all in what the feller wants to invest. If he's like me and likes to tinker and has money to go every week to the range, and just shoots to see the results, then you are absolutely correct. But from his post, I got the feeling he doesn't like to spend money on shells just for the hey of it. And wants his best bet.

RE: Hornady Light Mags
 

Big

You know for what its worth, and over many years I've had a fair bit of luck using Win ammo in Win guns, Rem ammo in Rem guns. Used to hate Federal. Then came along Fed premium..... Had I to venture a wild guess on all the 270s I've seen, at least down here and to include a few Remmy semi autos, they shoot Federal Premium 130 SBT good enough not to worry about others.

I suspect the companies like Remmy test their ammo in most of their guns till its tweaked for the best. But then were does that leave folks like Hornady? A myriad of guns to test in or just load up to lower ES/SD and then from what I've seen low numbers there may or may not coorelate to anything on the target.

I always thought part of buying a new gun was either picking a bullet and die set and working up the best load OR if not reloading going out and buying a box of every kind in the weight I want to shoot and depending on the twist rate of the barrel. Isnt that part of the fun.

And in the long run I'm back to the stupid statement, you just never know. When you think you've got a handle on a pattern, you shoot a flier.......

Later, Jeff

RE: Hornady Light Mags
 

they shot good out of my browning micro hunter in 7mm08. but it liked the win. supremes ballistic tips better, but thats in my gun.

RE: Hornady Light Mags
 

shot a box of 7mm rem mags outta both of my 7mm's and they both hated them.....literally got a 6" group out of my M77 [:'(]

RE: Hornady Light Mags
 

Thanks Guys
I guess that I will just have to find out for myself because some like them and others don't. Time and money are tighter than I would like. I'm a full time graduate student and work full time. My plan was to buy three boxes of ammo a spend one full day shooting and I wanted to narrow my choices down. I allready have a box of rem cor-loct 130gr. I think I'm going to get
1.federal premiun
2.winchester
3. Hornady light mags.
I will let everyone know what works for me. I also have a new inline that I have to work up a load for. Its going to be a long day at the range. Thanks again guys.

RE: Hornady Light Mags
 

Schoolboy
If you have that one box, then buy the first 2 mentioned, and skip the light mags for right now. ANd then when you get to the range if you spy someone with ammo of something different, go over and start a chat. Ask to buy 3 rounds just to see. You may get them free but I'd happily help my neighbor out to test other ammo any day. And worst case the 3 rounds shouldn't be much over 3 bucks anyway.

Its a pretty friendly world with shooters, at least the ones I know, and most will help. It'll save you some money.

Now once upon a time I thought there was someone coming up with a sample pack deal of 5 of each blabla bla..... don't recall anymore than that though.

Best, Jeff

RE: Hornady Light Mags
 

I think you should skip the light mags and get the regular hornady customs. My experience has been very favorable with them.

RE: Hornady Light Mags
 

I have a sneaking suspicion the lowly core lokts are gonna group the best ;) Funny how they do that in so many guns..lol. I dont use em myself for hunting but they group good in every gun I have.