.308 Hornady Match vs. Sierra Matchking

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Beentown

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I plan on using/currently use Hornady for most of my bullets in rifle. Just wondered if anyone has pitted these two bullets against each other and the outcomes.

I have had good results with the Sierra but have never tried the Hornady match stuff. I definitely like the price and use Hornady for almost all my 5.56 needs.

Anyone done any side by side with them?

Any review of the .308 Hornady Match Bullets?

Thanks.
 
The Hornady bullet shoots well, as does the Sierra. It will take a good rifle and shooter to prove a difference. Your rifle may like one over the other, or it may not. My rifle seemed to like the SMK a bit better, so that is what I bought after testing.
 
I know SMK's shoot well. Guess I just need to buy some AMAX and Match 168 grainers and see. Just hate spending $80 to test. I could be spending my money on worse things.

Thanks for the insight Walkalong!
 
I shoot 178gr AMAX in my .308, it seems to eat those the best. But my .300WM prefers the 220gr SMK. I tried the 207 AMAX in the 300 but it didn't perform quite as well.

My brother has the exact same .308 and shoots a 168 gr SMK and gets awesome results.
 
Well I am going to give them a try. I would buy the box also but the problem lies in buying enough right now. If I can try 20 of each I will be able to decide and then buy in larger quantities when available.
 
One of the junior rifle teams just bought a pallet of Nosler .223 bullets. They were so impressed with them in their rifles they swore completely off the SMK in competitions. They cost less to boot.
 
I don't mess with Match bullets much, but when I am loading for accuracy I reach for Sierra every single time, they are across the board without question the most accurate brand of bullets for hunting anyway, all five of my rifles love them I cannot say that about any other brand of bullet.
 
I've had the best luck out of Sierra bullets but the Hornady's shoot well. This could be attributed to random selections of components that resulted in better combinations that happened to be with Sierra bullets. It could have been just as likely that I achieved better results from Hornady. I have certainly been less than scientific in my approach to accuracy. I play around and have fun and most times I get great results.

This doesn't really answer your question, but now one else knows the answer except you and your rifle. I have had my share of surprises and rewards along the way.

BTW I have had great results with the Accuracy loads in the Sierra book(they've done the hard work) plus they were great to talk to at the NRA Convention last weekend!

I do have some Noslers to get around to as well......
 
I have been shooting 3 30-06 rifles lately and all 3 can't tell the difference between the .308 168gr Hornady match bullet and the Sierra 168gr MatchKing bullet. Even though I tend to believe the Sierra bullets are better I shot my best 100 yard group with the Hornady bullets. (.314")

I have yet to try the Nosler bullets mentioned above but I will as soon as I can find some.
 
My 700 AAC SD 308 seems to like the 168 AMAX better than the 168 Matchking but both are fantastic bullets. If you do find some 168 AMAXs let me know I have been looking all over for them.
 
I have shot all brands of 168 match bullets : SMK, Hornady, Speer, Nosler. I have shot HM scores with all of them out to 600 yards. Buy by price.
 
I started using Horn 75gr match in .223 last year and really like it. I've not missed the 77gr smk's at all.

In .308, I like the a-max better than smk. For me, 155 and 178 amax is great. I like the 155 w/ 4895 (8208 looks good too, just haven't used it as much) and varget for the 178.
 
In my SuperMatch and NationalMatch M1A's, both prefer Sierra over Hornady. Interesting that the Super like 168's and the National 155 Palma's the best.

I can tell the difference off the bench in 50 shot strings.
 
Beentown said:
I plan on using/currently use Hornady for most of my bullets in rifle. Just wondered if anyone has pitted these two bullets against each other and the outcomes.

I have had good results with the Sierra but have never tried the Hornady match stuff. I definitely like the price and use Hornady for almost all my 5.56 needs.

Anyone done any side by side with them?

Any review of the .308 Hornady Match Bullets?

Thanks.
Click to expand...
I never did an actual comparison of those two specific bullets, but I did use the Match King out of a lever action Savage M99, and consistently shot 1 inch groups of 5 shots. Keep in mind, this is a lever rifle, not a bolt. I always try to buy Sierra if they are available.
 
I have not tried any Hornady Match bullets, but the Amax and the Vmax bullets are very accurate, and I use the 155 Amax bullet in my semi auto 308 and shoot right about 1" at 100 yards, which is as good as I can do.

My bolt rifle likes the 155 Lapua Scenars and the 175 SMK. The latter it likes so much, that I am shifting the Scenars to use in the Semi Auto, and shooting the 175 SMKs exclusively in the bolt rifle.

I remember in the 90s when I shot AR 15 cross the course that the Hornady 68 grain bullets had an ogive that was much more abrupt than the rounded ogive of the 69 grain SMK, and I just couldn't get the Hornady to shoot well in my rifle. Things may have changed since then, I don't know.
 
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