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Last I heard, Jeff Hoffman has about 78 or so employees at BHA. Hopefully, the company has grown even larger. Jeff has referred to his company as either "a big little company" or "a little big company". Either way, they make some very fine ammunition for DoD & us civi shooters. And we appreciate it! I think of the time before BHA started making accurate .223/5.56MM ammunition for shooters as "The Dark Ages" in regards to high quality factory AR ammo for LE/SD/HD/hunting. BHA earned their "Sole Source" DoD contract for MK 262 MOD 1 AA53 type 5.56MM LR ammunition production. I am sure that contract along with the other DoD/U.S. Gov't/LEA contracts is keeping them quite busy right now.
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Quoted: I just bought 2 / 50rd boxes of 5.56 50gr Optimized from Selway Armory, about a month ago. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Haven’t seen Black Hills ammo in stock in over a year. I just bought 2 / 50rd boxes of 5.56 50gr Optimized from Selway Armory, about a month ago. Same. Thanks to a certain Arfcommer. |
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Quoted: Are they even still in business??? View Quote They're in business and IMHO make the best factory ammo available for AR15s. My honest assessment is that the only way to match or best BHA is with tuned handloads. Their stuff is damned good and makes bulk cased ammo look terrible...which, for the most part, it is. |
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Black Hills MK 262 MOD 1-C $549.95 shipped from v1 last Oct delivery, still isn't here...
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Quoted: A relative bargain considering it was about a buck per round during salad days. View Quote I still have a little of the Mk-262 and 75gr OTM. I never found anything wrong with any of it. |
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Quoted: I remember we used to be able to get the Blue Box "Blem" and contract overrun stuff pretty cheap (nowhere near $1 a round). I still have a little of the Mk-262 and 75gr OTM. I never found anything wrong with any of it. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: A relative bargain considering it was about a buck per round during salad days. I still have a little of the Mk-262 and 75gr OTM. I never found anything wrong with any of it. Yup. Always made me look like a better shooter than I really am. Love me some Mk262. |
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Man Molon it is so nice to see you back on here
I have a touch of ADD I never truly liked just shooting groups but you should get paid for that work I wish I could mail you my 16” railed monolithic LE6940 upper with a cheap ass Primary Arms Chevron 6x its shot 10 shot IMI 62 grain into 1.5” That ammo is not supposed to do that-I could only imagine what that thing would do with a 20x scope and you shooting it I have some IMI 77 Grain 5.56 I should shoot it but with the cost of that ammo it may have to wait |
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I am still waiting on my allotment of a case of mk262 from V1. it was suppose to be here in Dec haha.. I really want to test it and see how great it is
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Black Hills Blue Box 77-grain SMK I tested about 10 years ago was loaded with 23.9 grains TAC.
Visually, powder looked exactly like TAC. Handloaded some of my own with 23.9 grains TAC, and got identical velocity to the factory Blue Box. |
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Consensus on the mk262 is that they use canister grade 2520. It’s Czech we know that.
Not sure where TAC is made but it is visually similar to 2520 |
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After I got out of the army I had heard so much stuff about how good the Black Hills re-manufactured stuff was I bought a few boxes of it for varmint hunting, but none of it would group well & it just left a bad taste in my mouth for it & haven't bought any since. That probably makes me an internet commando, but I'll just have to live with it.
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Quoted: After I got out of the army I had heard so much stuff about how good the Black Hills re-manufactured stuff was I bought a few boxes of it for varmint hunting, but none of it would group well & it just left a bad taste in my mouth for it & haven't bought any since. That probably makes me an internet commando, but I'll just have to live with it. View Quote I never had much luck with it either. I had an LMT that hated blue box, lots of case separations. |
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Quoted: that sounds more like an out of headspace rifle than bad ammo View Quote Nope! It's because they use once fired military brass and some of that brass was fired in the open bolt 249 SAW. It has long and sometimes excessive headspace that stretches the brass to almost it's breaking point. When it is resized back to minimum dimension and fired again in even a normal sized chamber some of them separate above the head. I still use Blue Box ammo, but it is known for this issue. |
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Quoted: Nope! It's because they use once fired military brass and some of that brass was fired in the open bolt 249 SAW. It has long and sometimes excessive headspace that stretches the brass to almost it's breaking point. When it is resized back to minimum dimension and fired again in even a normal sized chamber some of them separate above the head. I still use Blue Box ammo, but it is known for this issue. View Quote I stand corrected! I've never bothered with the blue box before so that's news to me |
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Here are some quotes from Jeff Hoffman on the subject matter of case head separation of the brass used in Black Hills "blue box" ammunition:
To throw in what we know about this type of case separation, it is relatively uncommon, but it does occur. Our brass is purchased from the military. It is once fired mil spec brass. We do not accept customer trade in brass so we can be confident we are dealing with once fired 5.56 brass, in order to minimize the chances for this type of thing. Brass work hardens with use, each time it is fired and reused. The more it is worked, the more the stress. We produce many millions of rounds per year, and every year we get a couple reports of 223 case separations. Often, but not always, we find that the separation occurred in weapons on the looser side of headspace, which makes sense, because the brass has to stretch more upon firing to fit the chamber. I am not trying to shift blame to anyone’s firearm, but to explain factors involved. We try to size on the high side of acceptable (but within tolerances obviously) headspace to minimize the chances for a case separation. I have never seen firearm damage or any injury as a result of this type of separation. It is not the result of overpressure, but is a failure of the case to stretch to the chamber dimension on firing, or to withstand the stress of extraction. That does not mean we do not care, or think it is a good thing. Again, just sharing what we know. Case separations are relatively rare, and, I think are impossible to eliminate entirely due to the factors involved. (The original firearm chamber, weapon type and condition it was fired in, original pressures, how it is resized, the second chamber and type and condition of firearm it is fired in). The only way I know to further reduce the possibility of a case separation is to shoot only new ammunition made with virgin brass. The problem there is of course the increased cost. I do recommend new ammunition for any military, law enforcement or personal defense use, where lives may be at stake, simply because you should minimize any chance that you can for Mr Murphy to show up. ... |
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