The Scoop With hornady Superformance Varmint Ammo
Hornady

The Scoop With Hornady Superformance Varmint Ammo

Varmint and predator hunters who love shooting high velocity rounds will love Hornady Superformance Varmint ammo. Here's why.

Many of the most popular varmint and predator hunting cartridges are small bore, high velocity rounds.

However, Hornady takes that a step further with their Superformance Varmint line of rifle ammunition, which they advertise as providing muzzle velocity increases of an additional 100-200 fps when compared to most other factory loads for the same cartridge.

Not only are they available in cartridges that are already shooting at a pretty darn high velocity, but the Superformance Varmint rifle ammo is billed as even faster than conventional ammunition.

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All other things being equal, a higher velocity will result in a flatter trajectory, less wind drift, a slightly longer effective range, and impressive terminal performance. These are always nice benefits, but they're particularly important when shooting at small targets in windy conditions when the range isn't certain, all of which are factors that varmint hunters often need to deal with. 

How does Hornady do it?

Hornady states that this ammunition uses a special proprietary propellant technology (powder) that's optimized for each cartridge and specific load. The result is higher velocities without excess pressure, reduced accuracy, or unnecessary recoil. They also claim it's safe to use in all action types, including semi-autos.

Hornady Superformance Varmint ammo is currently available a number of favorite varmint cartridges among North American hunters like the 17 Hornet, 204 Ruger, 222 Remington, 223 Remington, 22-250 Remington, and the 243 Winchester.

All of those cartridges are available with the Hornady V-Max bullet. However, the 17 Hornet, 204 Ruger, 222 Remington, and 223 Remington loads are also available with the Hornady NTX bullet (which is lead free and legal to use in California). Both bullet types have a polymer tip for improved terminal performance and an increased ballistic coefficient.

They all offer blazing fast velocities, but the 204 Ruger 24 grain NTX and 35 grain V-Max .22-250 Superformance loads Hornady advertises are absolutely scorching at 4,400fps and 4,450fps respectively!

Let's see how that stacks up next to other popular types of varmint hunting ammo.

Nosler, Hornady, and Winchester all manufacture a 32gr .204 Ruger load. The Nosler Varmageddon and Winchester Varmint X loads are both advertised with muzzle velocity of 4,000fps. On the other hand, Hornady advertises a muzzle velocity of 4,225fps for their .204 Ruger 32gr Superformance Varmint load, which is right in line with their claim of an additional 200fps or so of muzzle velocity.

Make no mistake: both the Nosler and Winchester loads are perfectly capable of getting the job done with impressive terminal results and rapid fragmentation. Both of those loads also have a very flat trajectory.

But if you're the kind of person who wants to wring all the potential performance out of your hunting ammo, then the Hornady Superformance Varmint ammunition is made with you in mind.

Like what you see here? You can read more great articles by John McAdams on The Big Game Hunting Blog. Follow him on FacebookYouTube, & Instagram.

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