Hornady's New Lever Evolution Ammo

I might as well confess right from the outset that I’m a dedicated handloader, always have been. I enjoy reloading almost as much as the shooting, note I did say “almost”. As a result the occasions in my life where I’ve bought factory ammo can be counted on half a hand. So it was somewhat of a strange experience to find myself at Rebel Gun Works shelling out some hard earned for a couple of boxes of the new Hornady Lever Evolution loadings in 30-30. You see I was lured there by the seductive dream of putting rapier like polymer tip projectiles into my tube fed lever action rifle, something which up until now has been totally verboten. That is, unless the polymer tip of the bullet is soft and pliable enough that it is safe to use in tube magazines. To make absolutely sure Hornady’s technicians extensively tested the ammo under recoil, bumping, and even dropping 15 feet from a ladder onto concrete. Yes, you did hear that right-15 feet from a ladder onto concrete! I’m just glad it wasn’t my rifle. They reported that the primers of the cartridge in front were not even marked, so I would say that puts the safety concerns to bed once and for all. At first look or should I say feel, the elastomer flex tip was much harder than expected, which is obviously good in a ballistic sense, but if pushed quite firmly against a hard surface it would deform. I’d say they’ve got the hardness level just right, hard enough to fly well but soft enough to be safe. Also available in the Evolution loading is 35 Rem, 444 Marlin, 45/70 and 450 Marlin. The 30-30 has obviously been chosen as the poster child for the group as being the small bore and long range performer of the bunch it has the most to gain from improved ballistic bullet design.

Down the years I’ve never had much luck with Hornady’s traditional style bullets but it’s quite another matter when it comes to their polymer tip offerings. I’ve always had impressive results using their V-max, A-max and SST bullets in various calibers, so the chance to load one of their ballistic tips in my 30-30 was just too much to resist. The Hornady Evolution bullet is a 160gn boat tail spitzer design sporting its revolutionary red elastomer flex tip. Compared with polymer tips for other cartridges the cannelure on the Evolution is relatively far forward, this is a result of having to keep the 30-30 within its normal overall length specifications. The long pointy snout of the Evolution requires it to be seated and crimped fairly far forward on the bullets bearing surface compared to its flat nosed cousins. I suppose this is one of the challenges of marrying a 21st century bullet with a 19th century cartridge. The traditional loadings for the 30-30 of 150gn and 170gn flat nose bullets usually have a BC (Ballistic Coefficient) of around .190 and .250 respectively. A BC of .330 for the Evolution bullet is certainly an increase but how much difference it makes over average hunting distances we shall see.

From a hunting standpoint, there is very little that can’t be achieved using polymer tipped designs, with the exception of heavy thick-skinned dangerous game. With the advent of bonded core hunting bullets like the Hornady Interbond, Nosler Accubond and Swift Sirocco, designers have amalgamated the aerodynamic advantages of the boat-tail polymer tip with the on-game terminal performance of a high quality bonded core controlled expansion bullet. For medium sized soft skinned game such as deer and pigs, regular construction (non-bonded core) polymer tip bullets such as Hornady SST and Nosler Ballistic Tip are more than adequate. In fact, some people are saying that the bonded core bullets in some cases are providing too much penetration when used on soft skinned medium sized game, so Hornady’s choice of a non-bonded core SST style construction for the Evolution bullet fits well with the 30-30’s traditional usage as a deer and pig cartridge.


The Hornady ammo has a Frontier headstamp and contains 35.3gn of a ball powder that looks remarkably similar to WIN748, but that’s where the similarity ends. I know with my own handloads that 35.3gn of WIN748 won’t get a 150gn bullet anywhere near 2400fps let alone a 160gn bullet. I clocked the 160gn Evolution bullet doing an average of 2310fps out of my 20” barreled Marlin 336. The published velocity for the Evolution is 2400fps from a 24” barrel and I’d say given its slower powder another 4 inches of barrel might help a little. Obviously the powder is somewhat slower in burn rate than WIN748 and not your standard commercially available offering. It’s most likely the powder is made especially for Hornady with a custom burn rate that suits their specified pressure limit. This is probably also the reason for the 24” barrel length of the new Marlin XLR series lever actions which are touted as being optimized for the Evolution ammo.


Testing

SSAA Brisbane dawned fine and calm on test day but it wasn’t long before small wind eddies started to materialize and by the end of the day it was doing a remarkable impression of a NASA wind tunnel. At least it was a fairly steady crosswind which gave me a chance to compare wind drift results between the Evolution and my comparison ammo; Federal Fusion in 150gn and 170gn FP (flat points). I’d chosen the standard 150gn and 170gn loadings for comparison as these are by far the most popular loads traditionally used in Lever action 30-30’s. The reason for the choice of Federals Fusion ammo is because it is virtually the only other premium ammo on the market for 30-30 and roughly the same price category as the Evolution at around $30 a box. I didn’t think it was fair to compare apples with oranges and it was also a sneaky way to get a look at this new Fusion ammo which is being promoted as premium bonded core loading at a reasonable price.

Being a hunting rifle and a lever action at that, I decided that 3 shot groups would be the order of the day. Group testing was done at 100yds with some 200yd groups also shot to help evaluate long range performance. I went no farther than 200yds as in my book that’s a long way when you’re out hunting. Despite the Yanks carrying on about 300yd + shots with the Evolution ammo I feel that if you can’t stalk any closer than that your not really hunting but rather long range sniping and there are better rifles for that purpose. Your average lever action rifle just hasn’t got the practical accuracy to shoot much beyond 200yds. If you add to that problems of range estimation, wind factors and less than ideal field shooting positions you can see why I believe 200yds is a long way when you’re in the field. Sure, we’ve all had lucky shots but I’m talking about making hits you can depend on every time.

Results

The benchmark group size for my Marlin 336 has always been around 1.3 inch groups at 100yds with carefully tailored handloads; more than acceptable especially for a levergun. It would be unreasonable to expect this with factory ammo. The Evolution came closest with a 1.7 inch average and the Fusion with around 2 inch group average. All fantastic results given that its factory ammo even if it is classed as a premium offering.

The real surprise of the whole event was how good the Fusion ammo performed and I feel a bit sorry for the Evolution ammo as it doesn’t shine quite as brightly as it could have against this stiff competition. Even though the Evolution’s average group size was better than the Fusion the Evolution had a tendency to put 2 shots almost touching and the third a little over an inch away. The Fusion on the other hand shot nice round even groups which are always nicer to look at and also makes sighting in a much more predictable task.With a 100yd zero the Evoution 160gn was hitting about 7 inches low at 200yds which was nearly identical to where the Fusion 150gn was printing. The Fusion 170gn dropped about 10 inches by comparison. As far as wind drift was concerned I saw a small improvement of about an inch or so over the flat points at 200 yards. Although I have no way of measuring the retained energy at 200yds it is plain to see that if the 160gn is shooting as flat as the 150gn bullet then by default it must be carrying a little more velocity and in turn more energy to arrive at the same point. There’s no doubt the Evolution ammo will hit harder provided the terminal performance of the bullet is up to par. According to Hornady the wider velocity envelope of the Evolution bullet produces a bullet that will expand at long distance (and low velocity) where the traditional 170gn FP would just sail through an animal with little or no mushrooming at all. Their ballistic gelatin tests at 300yds confirmed this fact. The only worry is that this long range/low velocity expansion capability may cause the Evolution bullet to over expand at close range/high velocity and hence not penetrate adequately. It remains to be seen what real world results in the field will show. Early reports seem quite encouraging though.

All of the ammo on test failed to meet published muzzle velocities and it’s quite common for factory ammo to fall short in this regard, so no surprises there. There can be many genuine reasons for this such as barrel lengths, variability between chronographs and ambient temperature etc but I’d never put it past manufacturers to do a bit of creative marketing from time to time. Speaking of creative marketing, I would take Hornady to task for marketing the 160gn Evolution against competing 170gn offerings. It stands to reason that the lighter bullet is going to look particularly good on the graph chart compared to a heavier one. Also the Evolution being a 160gn makes it difficult for the average person to make comparisons against competing 150gn and 170gn loadings without doing a bit of bookwork first. I find it always pays to look at a manufacturer’s data with certain amount of skepticism until it can be proven by real world results.




Conclusion

In simple language the Evolution shoots as flat as the traditional 150gn FP and hits harder than the 170gn FP, that is to say the increase in velocity combined with the higher BC bullet gives a flatter trajectory and consequently more retained energy down range for that weight bullet.
As far as accuracy results go ‘your mileage may vary’ as one rifle may shoot it well and another not. How much difference all this is going to make depends on your style of hunting. If you have an open sighted, worn out, rattly old Model 94 that shoots 4 inch groups at 50yds on a good day and is just used for pig shooting in the thick stuff, then I’d say the LeverEvolution is not going to do much for you. At the other end of the scale, if you run a scope sighted, race tuned, modern lever gun (Vote 1 for Marlin) that’s capable of under 2 inch groups at 100yds and you use it more as your all round rifle for say, goats, pigs, and deer out to possibly 250yds then I’d say LeverEvolution is worth looking at. Of course as a handloader, I’ll only be truly happy when they release the Evolution bullet as a separate component, then I can really get to work tailoring my own loads.

It could be argued that the advantages over standard ammo, whilst quite real, may be regarded by some as minimal and not worth the bother. The fact is that human nature being what it is; if you’re offered an advantage you usually take it, even if it’s a small one. To put it another way; I don’t see people falling all over themselves wanting to load flat points in their 308Win’s, so why shouldn’t lever gun shooters aspire to the same quality bullets in their loads. Granted the 308 runs at a higher velocity and benefits more from a superior ballistic design but should that mean the venerable old 30-30 should be left out in the cold. In the final analysis the Evolution ammo is as its name suggests more evolutionary than revolutionary in that like evolution it’s the small incremental changes that make a difference. If I had to buy factory ammo for an important hunting trip there is no doubt this would be the one I’d pick.

I’d say lever action shooters have carried this ballistic chip on their shoulders for long enough. A small improvement it may be, but I’ll take it.

‘Viva la Evolution’!