Hornady's Superformance... Califragilisticexpialidocious

When it comes to product reviews, organizational hype and press releases don’t really matter. We put products on the bench, or take them to the range, and make our own assessments. Some product reviews conclude with a positive result, others…not so much. This brief review was conducted with restraint, objective assessment and a level of professionalism that perhaps we were not afforded. But then we provide coverage of products for the benefit of our readers, not for the benefit of manufacturers.

Company Product Hyperbole and Information

There are two sources of Superformance information of consequence on the Hornady site. One is the marketing document with its necessary product performance dramatization, the other is a more staid technical piece written by Hornady’s senior ballistician, Dave Emary – complete with arts and charts and graphs and plots.

Hornady’s Superformance ammunition is promoted as delivering 100 – 200 fps more velocity than any other conventional ammunition while not increasing felt recoil, or muzzle blast, or sensitivity, temperature, or bore fouling, and without a decrease in accuracy. Weed whacking my way through the approximately 3,500 words used by Hornady to express the concept, sort of like Democrats explaining their national health care program, Hornady focused on propellant to constructively alter what would be a typical pressure curve and to increase the amount of energy produced from each grain of powder.

The problem set…

Firearm and cartridge hardware have a finite strength and are able to withstand a finite amount of pressure within the confines of safe and reliable operation. Most pressure limits are defined as peak pressure, the highest pressure level attained when a firearm is discharged, with an additional margin of safety to account for mechanical and environmental deviations and variations.

The SAAMI Maximum Average Pressure for the .308 Winchester is approximately 62,000 PSI. With typical smokeless powder types, peak pressure will occur within the first couple of inches of bullet travel where bullet inertia and case neck tension must be overcome. Then, with resistance to pressure diminished, pressure sharply falls away behind the moving projectile. This is illustrated by the curve of the red line, which is an actual plot of a traditional .308 Winchester load. So why not add more powder so the pressure remains high behind the bullet? Because, with traditional powders, the initial pressure would spike to unsafe levels and hardware failure could occur. By altering the chemical makeup of the powder charge, Hornady was able to alter its burn characteristics so that it would not exceed maximum allowable peak pressure, but it would hold pressure levels higher behind the bullet as it progressed down the barrel. The blue line does not represent Hornady data, but it does illustrates the concept.

Yeah, yeah, yeah… Does it work?

The decision to try Hornady Superformance ammunition came when I was writing a piece on an ultra lightweight custom rifle chambered for the .308 Winchester. The gun’s short…ish 20″ barrel and very light weight made it an almost perfect fit for ammunition that could boost velocity above typical levels, reduce felt recoil and reduce muzzle blast. For context I picked up some 150 grain Hornady Superformance GMX ammo, Federal Fusion 150 grain ammo and I cranked out some 150 grain Hornady bullet handloads, holding to a maximum velocity handload recipe taken from the current Hornady Reloading Manual.

Federal Fusion published muzzle velocity, 24″ barrel, is 2,820 fps. The 20″ barrel produced 123 fps less and the Fusion load generated 185 fps less than the Hornady Superformance load. The handloads utilized Re15 powder and a lead core jacketed Hornady BTSP bullet. Listed at 2,800 fps from a 22″ barrel, the handload yielded 2,691 fps from the 20″ barrel, or 191 fps less than the Hornady Superformance load. The Hornady Superformance load has a published velocity of 2,940, 24″ barrel, and delivered only 58 fps less from a barrel 4″ shorter. There was no perceptible increase in felt recoil or in dB report levels.

Federal Left, Hornady right – The Hornady powder charge weighed 49 grains, which was two grains heavier than either the Federal Fusion or the handload. The Hornady powder is a ball type, looking a bit like Win 748, however, it is not Win 748. Hornady hints at something similar to duplex powder loading, but I have no additional insight to offer.

The GMX gilding metal bullet is double cannelured, which is standard fare for a solid material bullet, and required to prevent bore fouling from an increase in bore friction. The plastic tip helps streamlining and brings the Hornady bullets ballistic coefficient to .415. This is not the same stubby 150 grain bullet used for their 150 grain GMX FTX .30-30 WCF load.

Conclusion

The Hornady Superformance round delivered in every respect; substantial increase in velocity over cartridges assembled from conventional cartridges, demonstrated less velocity loss in concert with a short barreled firearm, and exhibited no increase in felt recoil or noticeable increase in muzzle blast. The Superformance did not use less powder than the other cartridges in this exercise, but that could just be lack of the draw. I am sure Hornady’s unique pressure curve and pressure time has a lot to do with softer felt recoil. Federal Fusion was used for the sake of comparison, however, both Federal’s price leader American Eagle and Premium Vital-Shok ammo have MV ratings identical to Fusion ammo. The same applies to Remington and Winchester budget and premium ammunition. From a cost standpoint, the solid core GMX version, at $37.00 is a few dollars less than premium loaded ammo from other major manufacturers. The SS conventional lead core bullet version is a bargain at $24.00.

If I had a hunt planned, unless there was something very special in bullet construction that dictated otherwise, I’d be hard pressed not to want to get the benefits offered by Hornady Superformance ammunition. As a bonus, use of the ammo eliminates the deficiencies typically associated with light weight, short barreled firearms and gives standard barrel length guns significantly more power and extended reach.