375 Ruger Hornady DGX or DGS

[J.G.]

Looking for some feedback on the Hornady 375 Ruger in 300GR. DGX & DGS

I used the Hornady 270 GR SP-RP on a bear last season and it did the job just fine, although I wasn't overly impressed.
It smashed one shoulder and came to rest under the hide on the opposite side.

What have been your experiences with the DGX and DGS ?

Thanks !

 

[thumper1]

Eieio

 

[Freyr_255]

Bought some DGX for my 375 H&H on impulse and never did load them up. Reading I did after I bought them seems to indicate they have a core/jacket separation issue on heavy game(aka African). That being said when I do get around to using them it'll be for spring bear because regardless of reading I'm curious as to what they will perform like.

As it stands though if you weren't a fan of cup and core bullet performance you should be shooting a bonded bullet(accubond/interbond), partition/A-Frame, or a homogeneous bullet(TSX, E-tip, GMX).

 

[Gatehouse]

The DGS is a non expanding solid and not legal for BC hunting. The 300 gr RN DGX bullet should kill stuff effectively. It's a 300gr bullet going over 2600 fps.

 

[Dogleg]

They called it the Dangerous Game Expanding (DGX), not the "Should kill stuff expanding". I pulled this one out of a buffalo last August. Crap.

 

[Neo]

In fairness to Hornady, their solids have a stellar reputation -- and I'm a big fan of the current DGS bullets based on a very limited sample of 2 giraffe and a cape buffalo. But when it comes to softs, their DGX seems to be picking up a lot of bad press from a number of African professional hunters, folks whose opinion is based in daily experience as they take out one client after another for the big stuff and get a front row seat to witnessing what works and what doesn't.

Myself, I've elected to feed my .375 H&H Hornady solids and Swift A-Frame softs, and so far it's worked out very well.

 

[jsmurd]

Interesting. When i got my .400 jefferey in a Ruger single shot, back then the only bullets hornady turned out were their 400 grain, .410 diameter, softnose. I think they were interbonds. Have a few rounds of the original box left, but cannot get them any more. Now hornady is hyping the Dangerous Game series and the "old" bullet is unavailable for purchase.
I do note, however, that the company still produces roundnose softnose in 458 and 416 in the original styles.
The older bullet was less expensive to buy, and made for more reloads per dollar spent. Now, as I have yet to have a paper target. "charge"me , either the the company is making a tacit admission that their other bullets in other calibers just are not up to snuff anymore ( although they still build them ) or....... its all in the marketing hype. I really suspect the latter to be the case.

 

[Dogleg]

In fairness to Hornady, their solids have a stellar reputation -- and I'm a big fan of the current DGS bullets based on a very limited sample of 2 giraffe and a cape buffalo. But when it comes to softs, their DGX seems to be picking up a lot of bad press from a number of African professional hunters, folks whose opinion is based in daily experience as they take out one client after another for the big stuff and get a front row seat to witnessing what works and what doesn't.

Myself, I've elected to feed my .375 H&H Hornady solids and Swift A-Frame softs, and so far it's worked out very well.

Hornady did make a pure crap solid for about a year, and an equally crappy gilding metal jacketed interbond to go with it. Story was that they couldn't get the copper plated steel jacket material that Woodleigh also used. The good part is the the african Interbonds were getting blown out cheaper than the interlocks and were plenty good enough for plinking.

 

[notlim2424]

My experience with the Dgx's mirrors doglegs and I have a couple of pictures that look just like his. They are not a premium bullet at all. Unless I could not find any of the other bullets listed below I will not not be hunting with DGX's. If I had a box of plain jane remington softpoints and a box of DGX's the softpoints would go hunting with me.

If you want a premium find some swifts or tsx/ttsx barnes or some woodleighs, all three tend not to dissapoint. If you feel really spendy then CEB's or north forks are building really good reputations as well.

Not failures because critters died, but not premium performance IMHO......

 

[BigUglyMan]

I've shot a few animals with the 300 DGS/DGX. I took a warthog and Cape buffalo with the DGX (buff was a single shot through the shoulders at 110 yards) and my brother shot a baboon with them. With the DGS my brother and I both killed an impala each and I shot a baboon and civet as well. We ran low on soft points which is why we were using the DGS on light game. They worked great and everything that was shot properly died without protest. The warthog was another matter as it was a running shot and I chopped off a 4" mopane with the shot. The bullet ended up hitting the wartie right up the keister. After a long tracking job and a couple more shots ended the affair. Still, you can't argue with a bullet that can chop through a 4" hardwood tree and still give you 12" of penetration on wild pork.