Thread: Speer vs hornady 223

I see the last lot of Belmont 55gr 223 ammo has gone to a Speer 55gr SP, folks noticed any difference in performance? My experience with speer pills in the past has been they have been very soft. So maybe good varmint round but maybe not as good as the hornady for bigger stuff? Any real world experience out there?

speer=good...end of story.

+1 for Speer. If it’s the flat base SP projectile or HotCore you will have no issues with terminal performance. The only Speer pills that I’ve come across that are slightly softer (fragmentary) are some of the SPBT versions in 7mm. Even then I’d not be rating Hornady Interlok any better in that regard

Can you actually get Belmont .223 ammo at the moment?

Originally Posted by Tahr

Can you actually get Belmont .223 ammo at the moment?

No

@Hunty1, how do you know it’s a Speer projectile out of interest? I’ve got a 1,000 round tin here and can’t find a reference to the projectile?

There's a sticker on the tin lid on mine saying 55gr speer.

Originally Posted by Flyblown

@Hunty1, how do you know it’s a Speer projectile out of interest? I’ve got a 1,000 round tin here and can’t find a reference to the projectile?

@Flyblown as Brian said there's a sticker on mine saying speer 55gr. Fella at Belmont also mentioned that they changed to them as couldn't get the hornady when I collected them.

Yes there is a difference it is called Sierra or Barnes. LOL.

Originally Posted by Hunty1

I see the last lot of Belmont 55gr 223 ammo has gone to a Speer 55gr SP, folks noticed any difference in performance? My experience with speer pills in the past has been they have been very soft. So maybe good varmint round but maybe not as good as the hornady for bigger stuff? Any real world experience out there?

I got a few thousand of these for wallaby shooting, just turned up before xmas, no stickers on mine but even from the previous lot I thought they may have changed projectiles, they seem to work ok, not as rapid kills as the hornady from my experience, sometimes if you hit centre mass they bounce away then tumble over a few seconds later, don't recall this being as common with the hornady proj. Taken a few deer with them also and seem to do the business with decent placement, usually head or neck where possible. One shoulder shot but ended up with a lot of meat damage

None as good as the Hornady from my experience. Been using the Speer 62's and 55's as that's all that's been available for the best part of a year. Some seem to pencil through goats even with good placement, seems to depend on the size of the animal. Haven't really had that problem on the deer though.

Cheers folks.

Just be glad you've got the ammunition, the shape alerted me to a change last year and the sticker confirmed it. As a precaution I ensured I used up the hornady before switching and shot a verification to 400 metres which showed that there was no practical difference between the two. Same with terminal performance based on what I've shot so far. I only use the 62 grain stuff so can't comment on the 55.

I brought a tin of the 62gr last year, had a heap of mixed brass in it and they all grouped differently. Was frustrating to say the least, talked to Belmont and they replaced the tin with one of 55gr, haven’t used it yet as I have a heap of hornady to use and it’s going real well

Originally Posted by joelhenton

None as good as the Hornady from my experience. Been using the Speer 62's and 55's as that's all that's been available for the best part of a year. Some seem to pencil through goats even with good placement, seems to depend on the size of the animal. Haven't really had that problem on the deer though.

The 2k rounds of 62gr Speer I got off them seem to be Gold Dots. They're a bonded bullet made for Law Enforcement use - shooting through barriers etc, so they may not open up as readily on light game. I shot a few goats with it at 300m and got quite delayed kills. They had a pretty low start velocity out of the short barrel rifle I was using so that probably didn't help. I'm pretty sure they're the same projectiles loaded into 62gr Federal Fusion ammo.