Hornady Super Explosive Question

OldTurtle

Moderator - Deceased
A friend gave me two 100rd boxes of Hornady Super Explosive bullets, 50gr and 55gr.

Has anyone used these on animals, other than Prairie Dogs..?

The label inside indicates they are not to be loaded in excess of 3500 FPS. The speed doesn't really bother me as most of my loads are around 3200 FPS..
 
OT, I used some once, in a 223 (valmet 412) they made 50-75 yds before evaporating, missed 6 gobblers in one week before I figured out what was going on
RR
 
I have used them in my 220 Swift. With 35 grains if IMR 3031 they shot wonderful. Much less than an inch with velo right at 3500 give or take. Because it is a Swift after all, I like hotter loads than this most of the times, but it will certainly make a bunny take one gigantic hop let me tell you!

Oh, my Swift then and now has a 1-14 twist. That bullet probably wont like 1-9 and slower twist rates.
 
Bulletbob, a member here used a Rem 788 and the 50 SX last year to take two coyotes I called in one morning. One was hit in the brisket from 100 +/- yards and DRT. The other was running away and hit in the left hip just about two inches from center. It died within 30 feet after tumbing.
 
They work fine at the velocities your talking about. Loaded above that 3500 fps mark and strange things start happening such as they leave a smoke trail to the target and they explode without leaving a hole in a target. I bought a bunch for my 22-250 by mistake and loaded them to 3850 fps. I ended up pulling a what was left of a hundred of them and loading them in my old 222. They work great in the 222. I never killed any coyotes, but boy do they blow up ground squirrels.
 
Thanks guys, Our firearms deer season ends at midnight tonight and with the forecast for SNOW on Thursday, hopefully Friday, I might get lucky and have a pretty accurate load for the 50s.. now that I can take a centerfire out in the woods.. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-006.gif
 
The Older ones blew up Easy with speeed or fast twist... the Newer ones are almost as "Explosive" but hold together much better, I have run the newer ones Hot in a 1:9 .223 with no probs and above average accuracy. Same load made the older ones come apart.

Edited to add.. The older ones were SXSP and the newer ones SPSX I believe.. I'm not where I can look at the boxes, but I believe that is how it went.
 
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Old ones were spsx, new ones are sx.

I load them ( 50gr ) in my .222. Run them under 3k fps and are very fur friendly.
 
I shoot the 50's in my 223. I shot a prairie dog one day and it left a "cookie cutter" hole right through its chest. It looked like a bugs bunny cartoon, perfectly round hole blasted out of its center, otherwise intact. Very good accuracy too. I have not shot a coyote with it.
 
I have used them, and they are VERY accurate, and truly "Super Explosive"!!

I shot a small fox, hitting it at 90° to the body, just behind the rib cage. It went straight down like it was hit with a sledge

A 50 grain SPSX bullet, hitting at 3,000 fps. The insides were mush, and the bullet never came out the other side... now, THAT'S fur friendly!

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These Hornady SX bullets (and the Sierra Blitz (NOT BlitzKing)), are so fragile that you have to be careful what you shoot them in.

These two bullets are pretty much similar - they both have 0.009" thick jackets, whereas normal varmint bullets have 0.018" to 0.02" jackets, so the jackets are 1/2 the thickness on normal varmint bullets.

If you drive them (the .224" ones) past 3450 in a 14" twist, you are at the ragged edge of them coming apart.

I just recently tested loads with them from a .223, and at 3400, they were fine, at 3450, you could see little black tails at the edge of the bullet holes at 100yds, where the jacket was starting to fail because of centrifugal forces... at 3500, they will often come apart before they hit the target.

I have been using these bullets since the 70's (the "blitz" too), and I have found that 3400 fps is the highest speed that they are 100% reliable - over that, it is shakie.

In a 14" twist, 3400 fps translates to about 174,850 RPM.

If we use that as an upper limit of evolutions per minute, a little math tells that with the following twists, the top muzzle velocity is limited to:

14" = 3400 fps
12" = 2915 fps
10" = 2430 fps
9" = 2190 fps
7" = 1705 fps

So you can see why guys with AR-15s and/or fast twist barrels, or guys that try these bullets in .22-250s and .220 Swifts are NOT happy.

These bullets are ideal for rifles in the .222/224/222 Mag family with 14" twists, and the .221 Fireball (with 14" or 12" twists).

I shoot these in several benchrest grade rifles, and they can put five in one raggity hole.


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I've shot a couple 100 out of my 1-14" 22-250. It has a 22" barrel and I don't know what speed was, but all loads were book max. I shot 20-30 yotes with them and as long as the shot was good damage was minimal. Shoot one on the edges and it makes a mess.
 
When I first got them, I shot a bunch out of a .22-250 w/28" barrel and max loads. Most didn't make it to the 100yd target...

... they disappeared on a long string of white/gray smoke at 50 yds.


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That was a great post, Catshooter!

A custom stainless barrel in 14 twist that is super smooth will allow them to be shot a little faster as long as the barrel does not get real hot.

I found that the Sierra Blitz can be shot a little faster than the SX bullets in the rifles that I shoot them from.

The 55g Winchester Sp also has a very thin jacket, great coyote bullet up to 3500 fps in 14 twists. Many times, the 55g Winchester does not go through the yote!
 
"The insides were mush, and the bullet never came out the other side... now, THAT'S fur friendly!"

You ain't kiddin.......Same experience.
 
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Old ones were spsx, new ones are sx.

I load them ( 50gr ) in my .222. Run them under 3k fps and are very fur friendly.



Thanks for the clairification - I was just getting ready to load some up for my 1:9 AR and was glad to find out the ones I have (and have had for some time) are the SXSP #2260's
 
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