Hornady 50 grain Z Max load recipes...

Gunner1

New member
I've got 500 Hornady 50 grain Z Max bullets and 500 Lake City fully prepped brass coming. I've decided to get my son a bolt action. 223 for Christmas and couldn't pass the deal up. Has anyone loaded these bullets before and if so what worked for best you?
 
I used Win brass rather than LC but 25.7 gr 8208 with cci400 in my cooper model 21 varminter 14 twist shot many .25" groups. Velocity was around 3400 with a 24" barrel. In my 18" barreled AR 8 twist the 50 gr zmax in LC brass shot very good with 26 gr benchmark and rem 7.5's. Velocity was about 3200. Not quarter inch groups but good. As always start lower and work up, I had higher vel but groups opened up. These loads also shot well in my 9 twist Savage model 10.
 
I load the 50 Zmax bullets with Benchmark and Remington 7 1/2 primers. Start around 24.5 and work up to max. You should have a couple good accuracy nodes in there to choose from.
 
Originally Posted By: MGYSGTZ Max, V Max, same thing.

sometimes, but not always....

please be aware a zmax is not always a vmax. it can be a SST or an AMAX or a VMAX

the "zmax" line are just existing bullets/ammo with green tips and fancy packaging for a marketing shtick.

if you look at ANY hornady z-max offering - be it loaded ammo or just bullets - you can find a corresponding hornady offering in its regular lineup. its the exact same product produced to identical specs. i have confirmed this directly with the wonderful folks at hornady tech support when i was diagnosing some issues with some zmax ammo in my LR308.



for example in their bullet only offerings

.224 50gr zmax = .224 50gr vmax
.308 168gr zmax = .308 168gr amax
.310 123gr zmax = .310 123gr sst (this bullet is also sold private label as a .310 123gr vmax too (item # 3142g) by graf's, just to make things more confusing)

likewise

168gr 308 zmax ammo = 168gr amax 308 hornady match
110gr 300 blk zmax = 110gr 300 blk vmax

and so on.


the new "black" line of ammo follow the same rules, without changing the color of the tip this time around. again proven ammo/components with a fancy marketing push.



hth
 
Lots of description for no relevance - the 50 Zmax is a 50 vmax.

If 27.3grn Varget under the 50 vmax/Zmax doesn't shoot well in your rifle, there's something wrong with the rifle.
 
Originally Posted By: Cdncyote24326 grs varget and 50 gr zmax works great!

+1

Been my favorite load for years. All I even buy Varget for anymore.
 
typical 50g loads:

27.5g Win 748

23-24.5g of H322

25-26g of H335 or AA2230

You may want to cycle all brass through your gun before you reload them. If the brass was fired in a machine gun, then the brass will "normalize" and start swelling back out to the machine gun size chamber, thus will be tight to impossible to close the bolt in your rifle.

Seat the bullets to within .005 of the lands if you can, but DO NOT JAM the lands!

Good luck!
 
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Yup 27.5g w748 with the 50g bullets, my standard p-dog coyote in the .223.
Other great powders as stated above, h335, h332, blc2...all will do what you ask of them.
 
Originally Posted By: ackleymantypical 50g loads:

27.5g Win 748

23-24.5g of H322

25-26g of H335 or AA2230

You may want to cycle all brass through your gun before you reload them. If the brass was fired in a machine gun, then the brass will "normalize" and start swelling back out to the machine gun size chamber, thus will be tight to impossible to close the bolt in your rifle.

Seat the bullets to within .005 of the lands if you can, but DO NOT JAM the lands!

Good luck!
You may want to cycle all brass through.......This dont learn the hard way!
 
Originally Posted By: robsOriginally Posted By: ackleymantypical 50g loads:

27.5g Win 748

23-24.5g of H322

25-26g of H335 or AA2230

You may want to cycle all brass through your gun before you reload them. If the brass was fired in a machine gun, then the brass will "normalize" and start swelling back out to the machine gun size chamber, thus will be tight to impossible to close the bolt in your rifle.

Seat the bullets to within .005 of the lands if you can, but DO NOT JAM the lands!

Good luck!
You may want to cycle all brass through.......This dont learn the hard way!

I can vouch for the H322 range.

I'll reload new factory brass and shoot...all others you are absolutely correct...nobody preps my brass but me, they all go through the set die to guarantee chambering!!
 
Lots of good info already posted. I shoot 50grn Vmax with Winchester 748 and H335. You should slowly work up to these loads in your rifle but I drop 27.0grn of W748 and 26.0 of H335 for 50grn Vmax, these are proven loads that both shoot well in my Ruger American ranch as well as my Savage axis. A bolt 223 is a great first rifle, cheap to shoot and incredibly accurate.
 
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