Hornady 9.3 bullet explosion again.........................

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mbogo3

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Hornady 286gr Interloc disintegrated like a shotgun on a 5x5 WT buck tonight turning inside out shedding it's core at 75 yards on a spine shot.There is a golfball sized entrance wound and a softball sized exit peppered throughout with jacket and lead shot.also of the entrance side a piece of the jacket exited to make a third hole a foot from entrance hole.

 
Very typical with Hornady in even the mild Velocity cartridges... not my cup of tea for hunting ey, unless like smaller-than-normal-deer game!
 

Now the story.........We caught a glimpse of this 5x5 this am after my son shot a doe.So with everyone else tagged out I went out myself and set up 20ft in a tree stand. A 1/2 hr before dark I spot a doe in the thick willows at 125 yards .She was agitated and stamping her feet looking at me and over her shoulder intermittently.I don't think she could have seen me as the wind was in my favor but her body language gave away she was not alone. Within 5 minutes she tucks her tail up her butt and streaks off like the devil himself is after her.Sure enough he was ......a large bodied deer[buck] tore off after her and they both vanished into the thick woods crashing away.I pulled a doe bleat can out of my kit and let it bleat 1/2 a dozen times and stowed it away to free both hands.I can then hear a deer crashing running in my direction.I'm standing 20ft up the tree[with safety belt] and pick an opening the buck is headed to at full tilt.His chest hits the crosshairs and the 9.3x62 mauser goes off with no felt recoil.The buck drops like a bag of cement not moving.I watch him for a minute as the light slowly fades and climb down to have a closer look.The shot was not stellar but effective hitting him high spine right in the tenderloins.The fact I was able to hit him and kill him cleanly at that speed is good enough.I was using up the remainder of my Hornady handloads that were NFG on moose a few years ago and thought a softer target like a deer would be alright.Harold
 
WhelanLad said:
Very typical with Hornady in even the mild Velocity cartridges... not my cup of tea for hunting ey, unless like smaller-than-normal-deer game!
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Ive had good results out of my 8mm with hornady bullets. 195gr, 170gr , 150gr all preformed good on close and medium ranges 25-300 yards on deer, bear, and moose. I Just guess the 9.3mm is constructed poorly as many people posted around here. Just because one cal offering goes bad, doesn't mean all the caliber offerings are bad.
 
I had simiar results with my .358 last year on a mulie.
200 gr Interlock with a big splat as Harold shows.
Slight up hill shot at 90+ yards and ricocheted up into the spine.
DRT, but I sure wasn't pleased with the pizza sized splat.

Not sure what is going on with Hornady's pills as of late.
Might have to slow them down a bit....?
 
dgradinaru said:
Ive had good results out of my 8mm with hornady bullets. 195gr, 170gr , 150gr all preformed good on close and medium ranges 25-300 yards on deer, bear, and moose. I Just guess the 9.3mm is constructed poorly as many people posted around here. Just because one cal offering goes bad, doesn't mean all the caliber offerings are bad.
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this is true, however ive found the same in 7mm projies , in particular the 139gr at 7mm8 velocitys..
I didn't do much testing with 140gr .277 but will be in future an expect them too act similar, open up quick an shed jackets, lack penetration on 'accidental' shoulder/leg bone contact, but potentially a good bullet once the velocity winds down, say 400m away!?

im using them in my Whelen at the moment, 250gr int-locks SP , so far been pretty good an most bullets behaving well but only using on mid sized deer... pulled few from dirt bank, unrealistic but gives an idea how they go when belted into solid dirt 100m away.
im loading a min load of varget too..

so the 9.3s when reloaded in modern rifles might be 100-200fps too quick for the original bullet/jacket design?? 200fps or more is enough IMO
 
The interlock is a fairly basic bullet.
It does wonders in lower velocity stuff like 30-30 to the heavier 308 bullets.
Like a cup and core, it doesn't like velocity, or bone.
I used a 170 Hornady interlock on a bull moose out of the 30-30. The result was 18" of penetration in through the ribs, and stopped in the offside shoulder.
Similar results with the 308, just no bullet recovery yet.
I think the bullet is fine, just the application is the problem.
 
John Y Cannuck said:
It does wonders in lower velocity stuff like 30-30 to the heavier 308 bullets.
I think the bullet is fine, just the application is the problem.
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I beg to differ... the 9.3x62 isn't a speed demon. And if it wasn't designed to perform at 2400 fps, then what cartridge did Hornady think it was going to be used in? The world is not awash with 9.3x57's, or 9.3's of any flavour.
 
CreamySmooth said:
Wait a second....I'ma try and understand this. Gimme a sec....

Ok... think I got it....

This thread is about using a 9.3 and not liking the size of the hole and the damage that it caused when you hit the animal in the loins.

Got it.
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Seems to me it's about a 285gr. chunk of lead blowing apart like confetti on a relatively small, lightly constructed animal. Using that bullet on anything larger or potentially dangerous would be really bad news.
 
9.3mauser said:
Seems to me it's about a 285gr. chunk of lead blowing apart like confetti on a relatively small, lightly constructed animal. Using that bullet on anything larger or potentially dangerous would be really bad news.
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Oh. Sorry. I musta missed that the bullet did exactly what it's supposed to do at 75 yards at 2500fps and about 4300ft/lbs....

It looks pretty much the same as my .338 Lapua does at that range. Big hole. Dead animal. No following an injured animal anyway!

I've seen them used on whales and they work fine so....
 
CreamySmooth said:
Oh. Sorry. I musta missed that the bullet did exactly what it's supposed to do at 75 yards at 2500fps and about 4300ft/lbs....

It looks pretty much the same as my .338 Lapua does at that range. Big hole. Dead animal. No following an injured animal anyway!

I've seen them used on whales and they work fine so....
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I would expect a bullet like that to shoot lengthwise through a deer without coming apart. I would certainly not expect to recover a bullet from a broadside shot, bone or no. Deer are not particularly large or heavy boned in the relative scheme of things. Just because the animal was recovered doesn't mean the bullet behaved as it should. It was just a matter of luck that the deer was recovered, and I don't like trusting to luck. Had that been a bear or elk, bullet performance like that could very well have resulted in a lost animal.
 
Thanx and yes it is......Creamy Smooth ...................I am only responsible for what I say ,not what you understand...Harold
 
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Considering the 9.3 is supposed to fill an all around role like a .375, I wouldn't want to use thst bullet on anything bigger than a deer. It's sure no elk/moose in the timber bullet.
 
What he said! Walking in on a spring black bear bait would get interesting if challenged by a sow grizzly with cubs now wouldn't it? Harold
 
Phoning Hornady is a WOT as I did a couple years back along with two buddies that had Inter-lock failure and all I got ,was "it's the first we've heard of this".So...... I gave them both friends names and their issues and they became instantly defensive .Old dull red box Hornady's were great bullets and I scoop them at gun shows But they have cut corners somewhere on their jackets as they aren't the same bullets they once were...............shame as ,I've shot grizzly with their 225gr .338 with no issues............Harold
 
mbogo3 said:
Phoning Hornady is a WOT as I did a couple years back along with two buddies that had Inter-lock failure and all I got ,was "it's the first we've heard of this".So...... I gave them both friends names and their issues and they became instantly defensive .Old dull red box Hornady's were great bullets and I scoop them at gun shows But they have cut corners somewhere on their jackets as they aren't the same bullets they once were...............shame as ,I've shot grizzly with their 225gr .338 with no issues............Harold
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There is an absolute world of truth in this comment Harold.
I've got a pile of .358 bullets and going to use the shiny boxes at the range.
 
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