Aluminum-Tip Bullets? Hornady Says Yes!

Don’t worry, babe…it’s just a tip.

If you’re working on your long-range game, the mad scientists who run Hornady Manufacturing’s Ballistic Development Group have A Tip for you: the new A-Tip line of match bullets. The “A” stands for “aluminum,” because polymer tips are so mainstream, man. Just kidding: That long, uniform, precision-machined aluminum tip has a real use, besides being something new and different that you can claim to have liked long before it was cool.

“We wanted to incorporate aluminum tips in a full line of match bullets for years because we can make longer tips than we can with polymer materials,” said Joe Thielen, Assistant Director of Engineering. “This longer tip is a key component that helps move the center of gravity of the bullet rearward, thus enhancing in-flight stability and reducing dispersion. The problem has always been the cost to produce a tip like this, but we’ve developed a cost-effective process for manufacturing these aluminum tips while staying affordable for serious match shooters.”

Did you think I was kidding about the mad science? Although there’s no evidence that Hornady’s lab features mysteriously smoking beakers and machines that go “ping,” they did bring a level of research to this development that’s pretty astonishing. By drawing on years of research and experience with existing products like the ELD-X and ELD Match bullet lines, as well as equipment including Doppler radar, high-speed camera systems, and investment in advanced manufacturing machinery, processes and quality control measures, Hornady is promising the most consistent and accurate match bullets available.

“We are frequently viewed as a very large bullet manufacturer, which in many ways we are, but the Ballistic Development Group runs like its own small ‘skunkworks’ division that allows us to offer the small-batch craftsmanship normally only offered by a boutique bullet maker,” said Jason Hornady, Vice President. “We’re shooters ourselves, and we also listen to what shooters want, and we are excited to be able to offer competitive and hard-core shooting enthusiasts projectiles that are undoubtedly the new standard bearer of precision and performance.”

The longer aluminum tips are machined to be caliber-specific, and when coupled with highly refined AMP bullet jackets, aggressive profiles and optimized boattails, the result is enhanced drag efficiency (high BC) across the board. Each bullet design is carefully crafted for minimal drag variability for the utmost in shot-to-shot consistent downrange accuracy.

In addition to developing projectiles that will shoot well in a variety of chambers, the BDG also designed the A-Tip bullets with the right balance between the center of gravity of the projectile versus center of pressure to minimize in-flight drag variability.

The A-Tip bullets are also packaged sequentially right off the bullet press without being batch handled or tumbled, ensuring that each bullet in the box is a clone of the bullet before it — and after it.

A-Tip bullets will be available in 100-count boxes, and retailers will also sell sleeves of five sequential 100-count boxes packaged together, as well as a case pack of two 500-count sleeves for a total of 1,000 sequentially packed bullets. Since the bullets will not be touched or tumbled, there will be some slight oil residue, so a bullet polishing bag will be included with each 100-count box for the hand loader to use in preparing bullets for loading.

Initial offerings of the A-Tip™ bullet include the following listings with Doppler radar measured G1 and G7 BCs:

• 6mm 110 grain G1: .604 G7: .304
• 6.5mm 135 grain G1: .637 G7: .321
• 6.5mm 153 grain G1: .704 G7: .355
• 30 caliber 230 grain G1: .823 G7: .414
• 30 caliber 250 grain G1: .878 G7: .442

Want to know more, including Hornady’s best practices recommendations for loading these bullets? Visit them at www.hornady.com.