Hornady Brass for the poylytip bullets

[LaOtto222]

I know a while back some of you guys were talking about the Hornady 45-70 brass being shorter than other manufactures cases. I know it is shorter, but does it hold as much powder; less powder? I do not see where Hornady sells 45-70 brass or 444 marlin or 30-30 brass. Since they get higher velocity, generally than the competitors, I was wondering if they just stuffed more powder in there or they had their special blend for each cartridge. I guess the real question is...is the Hornady brass made stronger to handle higher pressures or do they truly have a magic powder for each one of their loads?

[stimpylu32]

This is just a guess but I would say that they use a blended powder for their loads to get the extra speed that they are showing .

As for the shorter cases in the 45/70 , from what I have been told it was done due to the bullet that they were using , nothing else . The cases were shortend to allow for the longer bullets to be used yet not have to seat them any deeper and still maintain a useable COL .

This also leads me to think that a blended powder is used as the case cap would be reduced with the shorter cases .

stimpy

[LaOtto222]

Stimpy - I know they say they have special powders for the "flex" tips, but how did they come up with all those different blends for all the different cases they have? Is it that easy? I was wrong about the 444 Marlin cases, they do sell those, I just could not find out where, only on their site at a premium of course. They do not sell 45-70 or 30-30 cases. I was just wondering if the cases they have were made stronger (thicker) to with stand higher pressures, or thinner to hold more powder. I just seems odd that they could come up with super duper powders for all these cases that developed higher velocities without increasing pressures. Why would not some of these powders be available to the general public, if that is the case, or why wouldn't some thing like them have been developed before. Why would it be that Hornady would say we want to obtain these "super" powders and get them, when powder companies could have been developed at any time? Even blended powders could have been done by powder companies if they wanted to. Just curious, nothing that important.

[stimpylu32]

All factory powders are Blended to some extent just by the shear amount that they buy ( rail cars full ) and no 2 batches are exactly the same , so they must do some mixing to match the lot or load that came before it as well as the batch coming next .

I have used some of their brass that was sold as Frontier brand , from what I have seen it is not only heavier but also more consistent from case to case than say Winchester or Remington . The case life is quite a bit better than the other brands too when using close to or max loads .

stimpy

[LaOtto222]

Thanks Stimpy - I think your answer is about the best I am going to get. The only experience I have with the Hornady brass is with 44 Mag. I have not even got through the first loadings of those yet. I think they have a pretty good rep for their brass, I know it is more expensive than the Remington or Winchester brass - about on par with the Lapua brass as far as cost, at least in 223 any way. I do not know if it is on par with the Lapua or not as far as quality.

[stimpylu32]

I happen to like Hornady brass and use quite a bit of it , but for most of my loading I stick with Win. just for the cost difference . I love their 243 brass for my Handi because it holds its shape so well , once it is trimmed to length and formed to the chamber it only needs a tough up on the trimmer once and that's it . Load - shoot , load - shoot , you get the idea . 

The only down side to the ammo companies selling the powder that is used is that there would be so many that you would never know what to use .

Can you imagine what it would be like if you could only use a given powder for one case , bullet , primer combo .    There are will over 200 powders now . 

stimpy