HSM ammo

[corbin9191]

Hi everyone I picked up a box of 139 grain HSM ammo for my 308 win because it was really cheap and on sale. I am just wondering how good is the HSM brass? Is it better than winchester and remington? Thank you

 

[DrMike]

All the HSM I've shot (7mm RM, 300 WSM) uses Winchester brass.

 

[Guy Miner]

Same here - I've shot well with HSM ammunition, but it was loaded on Winchester brass.

Are they making their own brass now? Or maybe having a big ammo company make it and change the headstamp to HSM?

At any rate - the HSM ammo I used in both .308 Win and 7mm Rem mag was quite good. The 7mm mag ammo bordered on superb.

Regards, Guy

 

[corbin9191]

Well I just got back from shooting some rounds and most of the rounds that I shot the necks split on them and the bolt was hard to open after shooting. So I now know not to buy hsm ammo for plinking around.

 

[SJB358]

Wow, that would be worthy of a phone call to HSM. That is unacceptable! Scotty

 

[Guy Miner]

Good grief!

Yup, something's wrong. Was that their new-brass stuff or loaded in used/mixed brass? Hmm. Didn't see any 139 grain ammo for the .308 Win listed on the HSM web site and don't recall ever hearing of any either. It's not actually 7mm-08 ammo loaded in necked down .308 cases is it?

I had terrible results with some mixed-brass .308 ammo from another supplier once. Similar experience to yours actually, and I couldn't even chamber about 20% of it.

Guy

 

[Antelope_Sniper]

I don't shoot mixed headstamped lots in rifles. .38 sp is a little different.

 

[corbin9191]

I will be calling them tomorrow and telling them. I also kept two of the bullets because they had a double cannaler on them. All the brass was the same (HP .308 7.62x51) on the headstamp. I will post a picture after dinner.

 

[DrMike]

I believe that is Hirtenberger Patronen cases. It is Austrian brass made for military consumption. Strange that HSM manged to get that, unless they are reloading spent cases. I don't doubt that they had pressure problems if they tried loading the same charge they developed with WW brass. You can bet when I'm handed HSM ammo for testing in the future, I'll be looking carefully at it.

 

[corbin9191]

Here is a picture of the box,

I don't know if you can make out the double cannaler on these bullets, but they are there, you can see it better on the right one.

 

[DrMike]

Tracer? That is illegal for sports shooters in Canada. However, you would normally be discouraged from shooting 7.62 X 51 ammunition in a 308 as the chamber specs differ significantly. You can use the spent cases, but they have less capacity due to mil specs. You might want to review the data presented at this web site: http://www.303british.com/id36.html,

You can also refer to the following: http://www.surplusrifle.com/shooting2006/308vs762nato/index.asp#Note_1

 

[corbin9191]

They say they are tracer's but they were just FMJ bullets dipped in magnesium and not a single bullet traced.

 

[Guy Miner]

Doggone. I don't like what you've got there, or what happened in your rifle one bit.

The HSM rifle ammo I've shot was loaded in new Winchester cases and featured either Sierra or Speer bullets - and did perform as well as I stated in my first post.

This stuff is different... And I don't like it.

On the other hand, it's a great reason to get into handloading and not shoot this kind of stuff!

Guy

 

[corbin9191]

it's a great reason to get into handloading and not shoot this kind of stuff!
Guy

This is the reason that I do reload all of my stuff. I should have just stuck with getting the pound of powder I walked in the door to get in the first place.

 

[corbin9191]

Well I just got off the phone with HSM and they are going to replace the ammo with whatever ammo I would like. Very good customer service I think.

 

[Guest]

Definitely a plus in their column. I always say, companies having a problem with product isn't an issue - it's how they handle the problem that makes or breaks them. Nice to know they stand behind it.