Anyone else have problems with Hornady Ball?

[rdstrain49]

I generally prefer to cast my own bullets & ball. I also like to have some factory rounds on hand. I recently ran low on Hornady ball in .440. I purchased 5 boxes thinking I was set for some time.

Upon inspecting these new ball I find that they are very much out of round. I mean REALLY bad. Any one know what's up?

 

[necchi]

I learned that lesson nearly a decade ago,, it was in fact what finally pushed me to casting.
It's simply that making round ball for us is second fiddle to the primary market of Centerfire bullet production.
Swaged ball instead of cast with a mass production quality tolerance broad enough to keep it profitable.

 

[hanshi]

That's just another reason I cast everything I shoot; cheaper, too.

 

[Zonie]

Is it possible someone might have changed the balls in the boxes or cast up some balls and put them into new looking boxes?

I've seen a lot of Hornady balls vary in weight and size a bit but I haven't seen any that were grossly out of round.

If the boxes were sealed, perhaps a call to Hornady would give you some answers and possibly some replacement balls?

Speaking of forged balls from the big makers, I've always been curious about the reasons the balls seem to weigh different amounts.

I've checked a lot of lead and jacketed bullets from these makers and they all run less than 1/10th of a grain of being exactly the same.
The lead bullets are also swaged so I know it is possible to make consistent bullets.

 

[rdstrain49]

I just got done weighing another 100 of the .440 Hornady ball. I had an arbitrary limit of 128.4 to 127.8 grains. That's only +- .3 grains. I only culled 5 out of the 100, that's pretty good. My only issue the ball being out of round.

I talked to Hornady this morning. As always their tech guys are first rate. They claimed to be unaware of the issue and requested the product be returned for evaluation. The tech I talked to also told me what the specs were for that particular item. These balls are way out of spec.

Regarding casting. I am very well aware of the advantages and draw backs of casting. I have somewhere around 40 different molds ranging from single cavity to 6 & 8 cavity production molds. I also have approx. 2000 lbs of #2 alloy and about 1000 lbs. of pure lead, as well as two large production pots and a plumbers pot for refining scrap. I have been casting for well over 50 years.
There are times when casting is simply not possible due to wrist injuries and arthritis.

 

[BigBoreBLR]

Dixon's sells rausch creek roundballs. they are cast with a sprue.

I use hornady balls, mostly because I need .535" which is hard to find elsewhere.

I've heard folks who rely on good commercial roundball like speer more....

I do pretty well at woodswalks with hornady balls. I do reject about 20 of of 100. I use those for speed "spooked" deer practice shots.

 

[Rifleman1776]

I read a lot of posts about how bad Hornaday/Speer balls are. Don't understand why. :idunno:
Several years ago I went to the Arkansas state championships and forgot my .45 cal. balls I had cast (and carefully inspected) at home. I had to buy a box of Hornaday to compete. Using my TC Half Breed rifle (hawken fitted with a Douglas barrel and target sights) I won the bench rest 100 yard match beating out those with genuine heavy bench rest rifles. Them balls couldn't have been too bad. :grin:

 

[Vaino]

I've mainly shot Hornady RBs, but at times have intermingled Speer RBs and never had any problems w/ either. A new box of swaged RBs is opened and 2 RBs are miked just to verify the caliber and no further inspection was performed.

My .45 squirrel LR w/ a 42" bbl was sighted in at 20 yds from the sitting position and the target was a 1-1/2" bullseye. 2 consecutive hits well into the bull and it's good to go.

Once the powder granulation is decided on {3f}, an .018 thick pillow ticking patch is used, lubed w/ Oxyoke 1000 Plus and the swaged RBs complete the load. The powder is thrown from a volume measure and have come to the conclusion that the patch and it's lube far outweigh in importance any discrepancy in amount of powder, w/in reason, and the weight of the RB is also of lesser importance to achieve a load that's accurate enough to head hit squirrels.

Previously handloaded 5 cals of CFs and nothing is taken for granted....every item is miked or weighed to achieve maximum accuracy. So when first shooting a MLer, was amazed at the ease w/ which head hitting accuracy on squirrels was achieved w/ a BP rifle......Fred

 

[ZUG]

I've also been shooting Hornady & Speer RB's since the early 70's before then I cast my own. I have never seen anything like you have described. I've shot them in rifle and revolver from .315" to .530" diameter and all calibers in between. The balls may exhibit some light "dimpling" but never anything "out of round" that would give me poor accuracy.

 

[rdstrain49]

The balls in question are lot number "#6040". I'd probably stay from that lot.

On the brighter side, the ball that I tumbled for 24 hours + Shot respectable groups. The 50 yard measured .851" center to center. Considering there was a heavy & variable wind switching from 10 to 3 o'clock, I'll take it.

A pleasant surprise awaited me at 100 yards. Still heavy, variable winds. 100 yard group measured 1.639" center to center. Just a bit over an inch and a half at 100 yards under those conditions, well that's just fine with me.

 

[ZUG]

Well I think you solved your problem :thumbsup: . Those are VERY RESPECTABLE groups at those distances :bow:

 

[1100 Remington Man]

I like mine Hornady's .54 rb. No problem here.

 

[Eterry]

About 4 years ago while pheasant hunting we toured the Hornady plant at Grand Island, Nebraska and really enjoyed it.
They first showed us the trophy room; all manner of game taken by Joyce and Steve Hornady, and others.
Then to the assembly line; I've been reloading over 35 years, I thought I had a keen eye for spotting defective bullets. They handed me a small box of CF bullets and said please pick out the rejects. I gave it a close look, but didn't see any. The nice lady said, "they are ALL rejects", then showed us tiny imperfections we had missed.
She said most on the QC line were females... she said women are better at finding minor flaws...being married 23 years I have to agree.
We had several guides on our tour, we even got to enter the smelter room where a melting pot about the size of a VW Bug held molten lead, and the underground range, where they were testing 338 Lapua .
They said they were working 2 shifts to keep up with demand. My friend wasn't into BP guns, and we didn't see any BP ammo.
We just dropped in and they made time for us. I thought that was nice.

 

[hanshi]

A good friend gave me a box of Hornady .54 ball years ago and I still have some of them left. I cast everything but had no problem when firing the Hornady .54 ball. They loaded easily, were accurate and I have had no complaints. The rest of them are in a can along with a supply of my cast ball and are, IMO, interchangeable.

 

[Wes/Tex]

... she said women are better at finding minor flaws...being married 23 years I have to agree.
W

And never miss the big obvious ones...35 years! :thumbsup: :wink: :rotf:

 

[Dave Marsh]

... she said women are better at finding minor flaws...being married 23 years I have to agree.
W

And never miss the big obvious ones...35 years! :thumbsup: :wink: :rotf:

They know in advance when you will develop another flaw.....50 years :rotf: :surrender: :bow:

 

[Walks with fire]

I bought some Hornady ball last season or the season before that and they were horrible. I never had issue with them before that. They had loose lead that would just flake off leaving a large gouge in the ball.

I called Hornady about it and they wanted me to send them the ball at my expense for them to inspect. I decided to just eat the loss and won't buy another product from Hornady from there out and that's where it sits today. Poor product and a very poor way to handle a complaint.

I used their products for years in the past but now I am dead set against it.

I buy Speer now and have had no issues.

 

[Tinker2]

I bought some Hornady ball last season or the season before that and they were horrible. I never had issue with them before that. They had loose lead that would just flake off leaving a large gouge in the ball.

I called Hornady about it and they wanted me to send them the ball at my expense for them to inspect. I decided to just eat the loss and won't buy another product from Hornady from there out and that's where it sits today. Poor product and a very poor way to handle a complaint.

If I have a problem like that I just return it to the store where I got it.
Problem solved, easy.


William Alexander

 

[rdstrain49]

Tinker, I didn't want my money back, I just want Hornady to fix the problem. BTW Hornady did e-mail a prepaid shipping label the same day I talked to them.

I've always found Hornady's customer service to be first rate. For what it's worth, on the rare occasion I have an issue with a Hornady produce I don't start off talking to customer service, I go straight to their tech. guys. Be prepared to talk guns for a while.

 

[Maven]

Don't know "what's up" with Hornady swaged RB's, but I got a sealed box (shiny red box) of .451" Hornady RB's last month (They were new, but old stock) and mic'ed several of them the other day. Like yours, mine were certainly not round or even .451" and would not fit my revolver (too small), By way of contrast, my Lee Precision .451" RB mold casts truly round balls of the correct diameter when using pure Pb. Btw, those Hornady swaged RB's went into my melting pot.