How do you like Hornady PA Conicals?

[m1garand_man]

I have been curious to try these bullets in my rifle. Mine has round bottom rifling so my concern would be the skirt not opening up enough to seal the bore properly. My rifle has a 1/66 twist seven groove Rice barrel. I have been told not to bother with them due to leading but I would plan on slathering them with my preferred patch lube which is a 50/50 bees wax and coconut oil that is a fairly thick lube.  My main curiosity is how well they will shoot compared to patch and ball.

Have any of you tried them? What were your impressions?

[Dave Patterson]

I don't.

You didn't mention the caliber; 1/66 is either a very slow twist (small calibers), slow (mid-size calibers) or just about average (larger bores).

I'm told, faster twist barrels (for their respective calibers) get the best results with bullets.

All my rifles have pretty slow twist, for round ball.  Haven't tried skirted bullets in all of them, but haven't been at all impressed with what little testing I've done with them:  didn't take me long to discard the whole idea, and stick with finding the loading each liked best for specific purposes, with plain-ol' PRB.

That's just been my experience with them:  results may vary.  Heck:  give it a try, and see what happens.

[m1garand_man]

I have a 50 cal. Hornady specifically lists on their box that these will work with a 1/66" twist.

A local store has them in stock so I might try them.

[smylee grouch]

Why, with that twist and depth of rifling even if you get the thing to hit paper it still wont be near as good as a patched round ball with a right load. Just MHO 

[Don Steele]

I tested them side-by-side, from a rest at 50 yds. in a 50 cal 1:70 Green Mountain bbl against my patched round ball hunting load of 90 gns. Goex 2f.  in a rifle with open iron sights.
They gave decent "minute-of-Deer" results at that range. My PRB hunting load out of the same rifle, same day was shooting single ragged holes.
NOTE: I didn't try to optimize the performance of the Hornady product. My only interest was how they shot vs my hunting load, NOT how well I could get them to shoot if I worked up a specific load for them.

[Frank]

I tested them side-by-side, from a rest at 50 yds. in a 50 cal 1:70 Green Mountain bbl against my patched round ball hunting load of 90 gns. Goex 2f.  in a rifle with open iron sights.
They gave decent "minute-of-Deer" results at that range. My PRB hunting load out of the same rifle, same day was shooting single ragged holes.
NOTE: I didn't try to optimize the performance of the Hornady product. My only interest was how they shot vs my hunting load, NOT how well I could get them to shoot if I worked up a specific load for them.

.
I hear a lot of this minute of deer stuff. What is that exactly? A 12 inch group at 50 yards or what unit of measurement.  It is like someone saying "I have tons of offers". Turns out those tons equate to 2 or 3 offers.

[Don Adams]

Minute of deer - I'm thinking it is a paper plate size pattern.  About the same size of the vitals on a deer maybe a little smaller depending on the size of the deer.

[Flint62Smoothie]

Buffalo Bullets made their “Ball-Ets” that were like the Hornady PA minie, as far as being a short minie ball. They shot excellent out of my old heavy barrel, 1-60” twist Mowrey. Shot closer to MOA than minite of deer!

[moleeyes36]

I tested them side-by-side, from a rest at 50 yds. in a 50 cal 1:70 Green Mountain bbl against my patched round ball hunting load of 90 gns. Goex 2f.  in a rifle with open iron sights.
They gave decent "minute-of-Deer" results at that range. My PRB hunting load out of the same rifle, same day was shooting single ragged holes.
NOTE: I didn't try to optimize the performance of the Hornady product. My only interest was how they shot vs my hunting load, NOT how well I could get them to shoot if I worked up a specific load for them.

I shot them the same time that Don did, only using them in a .50 caliber 38" 1:70 GM barrel.  I used 70 grains of 2fg Swiss.  That load with a .495 round ball and 10 ounce denim patching is a very accurate load for me and I've found is quite stout enough for white tail deer and hogs.  Like Don, the Hornady PA conical bullets didn't get nearly the accuracy for me as I was getting with round balls.  To be fair, as I recall Hornady recommends a pretty stiff load (90 or 100 grains of 2fg.) when using their bullet and I was using 70 grains.  But when 70 grains of 2fg Swiss powder under a .495 ball drops critters in a hurry, I just don't see the point of jarring your fillings loose in a light rifle by using a conical and a heavy load of powder unless you're hunting some large and nasty game.  Even then, I'd opt for a larger caliber using a round ball.

I'm not knocking any of you that like to hunt with conicals and heavy powder charges; that's your choice and God bless.  But for hunting and target shooting, other than long range target shooting, I'll take a round ball every time.

Mole Eyes

[bob in the woods]

Why ?    Round balls do everything I need done , and for the most part, much better than any conicals I ever used.  So, especially for deer, my preference is the round ball. 

[smylee grouch]

I've said it before but will again- the round ball is far under rated as a game bullet. Yes there are better  but the round ball is better than its reputation and shot placement is still the most important factor so if a round ball shoots better that is the one that makes shot placement more of a sure thing. Just MHO

[Daryl]

I have been curious to try these bullets in my rifle. Mine has round bottom rifling so my concern would be the skirt not opening up enough to seal the bore properly. My rifle has a 1/66 twist seven groove Rice barrel. I have been told not to bother with them due to leading but I would plan on slathering them with my preferred patch lube which is a 50/50 bees wax and coconut oil that is a fairly thick lube.  My main curiosity is how well they will shoot compared to patch and ball.

Have any of you tried them? What were your impressions?

My guess is your rifle is .50 or .54 cal.

Rounded bottom Rice barrel usually means .016" rifling depth. The depth of grooves and the 66" twist cries round ball. 

If your rifle was a TC with button rifled .004" depth of rifling, you just might get better accuracy with slugs than round balls.

A .495 ball (Rice Bl.) in a .50, or .535 ball Rice Bl) will kill deer more quickly than any slug you could use in either calibre. 

Larger hole, better cavitation, flatter shooting, longer effective range where elevation and drop are immaterial. With either

you can have a 130yard point blank range, something no conical will give you.

To find out how your Rice round ball barrel will shoot those slugs - YOU will have to try them.

I did try some slugs- R.E.A.L. bullets from a Lee mould, in my .45 Flinter's GM barrel 60" twist with .010" rifling depth. They shot OK,

but not as well as properly patched (IMHO) round balls.