[Bob C]

I had tried the .308 A MAX 155's in a .308, and they shot significantly better than anything I had tried in that gun.

So, when they were on sale last month, I decided to try them in .243.
Yesterday I loaded them for the first time, and had three ( out of 23) of the plastic tips separate from the rest of the bullet when seating. Perhaps related to this, the accuracy was very disappointing also.

I've e-mailed Hornady about this, but with the holiday don't expect to hear from them until next week.

Anyone else had this happen?

[saands]

Although it COULD be a defective lot, I've never had a problem with the polycarbonate tips on their bullets ... even the V-MAX which should be more fragile with their thin skin. It sounds like maybe they were experiencing a lot of force ... if you were seating and crimping in the same operation, could you have crimped too early, and then been forcing the crimped bullet deeper? Just a thought. Was the tip crushed at all?

Saands

[Bob C]

The loads weren't crimped at all, the load wasn't compressed, and the tips did not show any deformation. Also, one of them was off before I loaded it.

Regarding the relatively poor accuracy, the twist in my rifle is 1:9, the velocity was 2990 ( per chronograph), and the holes appeared symmetrically round.

As I mentioned, the A MAX bullets do great in my .308, and I've also used their SST bullets which also have the tips with good results.

[EchoSixMike]

Hornady has gone through several generations of the A-max. Were they the long insert type, or the short insert type? The long insert type of A-max are the older variety, and were discontinued due to problems like this. Which was annoying since they had higher BC's than the current flavor ones. S/F...Ken M

[Bob C]

As an update, there isn't one. Hornady has not responded to my e-mail after two weeks.

I wasn't sure what to expect, but I didn't expect to get ignored.

I'll still use their A-Max 155 .308 bullets, and their 139 .284 Interlocks, which are established top performers in my guns.

Further trials by me of their bullets will only be in the unlikely event that Sierra's don't work out for a particular gun.