Hornady provided me with several boxes of the various .30-06 and .454 Casull Factory ammo for product testing in a Remington Model 700 LSS Mountain Rifle , Freedom Arms Model 83 and Taurus Raging Bull. 

Early on in the testing in the R700 LSS I was having a lot of trouble with the rifle grouping two bullets together fairly closely and the third way out from the others. This was NOT the fault of the ammo and should not be misconstrued as such. I finally had to glass bed the action and lap the locking lugs and experimented with both free floating of the barrel and using various pressure points before hitting on a combination that provided the best accuracy. By the time I had worked all of this out many of the factory ammo selections had been used up. I used them to start with because in the past I’d found the Hornady ammo to be super accurate in my other two R700 Mtn. Rifles. 

I will report the specifics of the group sizes in the Product Test Reports on the guns mentioned as opposed to this report on the ammo provided me by Hornady. Suffice to say that the Hornady ammo even when the rifle was acted up acquitted itself in an excellent fashion and after I got the rifle problems worked out the ammo I had left was excellent in the accuracy department. I can say without reservation that the Hornady Custom Line of rifle ammo is some of the most accurate I’ve ever fired in the rifles I’ve tested it in and the .30-06 ammo used in these tests was no different. Hornady Custom Rifle Ammo gets the Graybeard Seal of Approval for its excellent accuracy and dependability. I’ve also used it on game in caliber .270 Winchester several times and was always pleased with the results. If you are a shooter of factory ammo you should give the Hornady Custom Line a shot, pun intended.

The Hornady .454 Casull ammo tested was not quite as big of a success as the rifle ammo. I spoke with the Hornady engineers and was told they were trying to walk a fine line between having the brass too hard and too soft. Too hard and it has short reloading life for us reloaders. Too soft and it doesn’t stand up to the rigors of the SAAMI pressures for the .454 Casull. Early on they erred too far on the soft side and it gave problems in the Taurus Raging Bull. The problem being that it sticks in the quite rough chambers and has to be knocked out individually from the chambers. The ammo I was provided exhibited this trait. In the FA83 revolver it drops from the glass smooth chambers with no problem. Hornady has promised to make another adjustment to the brass hardness in order to cause it to work better in the Taurus Raging Bull and have indicated they will provide me with further samples when they are available. 

The sample FA83 I have on loan from Bob Baker at Freedom Arms for some reason doesn’t like the Hornady 240 XTP or 300 XTP factory ammo. I’ll not address the specifics of groups here as that will be covered in the Product Test of the guns themselves.  Accuracy at 50 yards was fine but at 100 yards I was dissatisfied with the accuracy. I wasn’t able to test the accuracy in the RB because of the cases sticking. This probably was just an unhappy match between the particular revolver I have and the lots of ammo provided. I do not think you should assume your FA83 revolver will not like the Hornady factory ammo just because this one didn’t. Each gun or barrel is a unique entity and what one likes another may or may not. Your results WILL vary from mine and of that you may be certain. Hornady 240 XTP and 300 XTP component bullets proved to be some of the most accurate in the FA83 I have for testing so as I say I’m sure it was just a problem unique to the gun and ammo combination I had and not something endemic to the ammo line. I would have no hesitation to buy and try the Hornady .454 Casull ammo in another gun in the future. 

Bottom Line: Hornady produces a wide range of quality ammo for both rifles and handguns. If you are a factory ammo user then you owe it to yourself to give it a try. For reloaders the Hornady .30-06 cases were the most uniform of all the cases I’ve fired to date in the .30-06 and have given excellent results in my reloads to date. They are worth using for your custom hand crafted ammo also. 

For more information on the Complete Hornady Custom Ammo Line visit them at: http://www.hornady.com/html2/customammo.html