Jacket thickness on Hornady and Nosler cup and core

[kman300]

I know a lot of people say the Hornady Interlock is a tough bullet considering it's "just" a plain cup and core bullet. The interlock is usually one of the bullets recommended when people ask about a good non premium bullet.

The nosler ballistic tips on the other hand, as well as the hornady sst are often not held in such high regard.

For fun I filed some bullets in half today (got me out of putting Christmas lights on the house) and some of you may find the results surprising.

From L to R

7mm 120gr Nosler Ballistic Tip, 7mm 150gr Nosler Ballistic Tip, .308 168gr Nosler Ballistic Tip, 7mm 154gr Hornady Interlock, 7mm 162gr Hornady SST.

The 120gr btip uses the same jacket as the 140gr btip but it is used for the 120gr version which is why it is rather stout. The 150gr is also stouter than the 140gr version. The 168gr seems to use the same jacket as the accubonds and took a long time to file in half. Lots of copper there! The 154gr Interlock has the thinnest jacket and the 162gr SST actually has a thicker jacket than the 154gr version.

Some of you may have seen the experiment I did with deer bones and newspaper. I have 25lbs of cow femurs coming and will repeat said test with a few new additions. Very curious to see how the 168gr does with that thick jacket.

Not saying stop using what you're using, just posted some pictures. Please feel free to post any pictures of cross sectioned bullets you have. I find it rather interesting and my shoulder had enough for one day.

 

[1899]

The 180gr Ballistic Tip is also very stout. I believe the 168gr has a much heavier jacket than the 165gr BT. Many of these bullets have been changed/adjusted/improved over the years.

 

[mbogo3]

Hornady isn't the bullet was 10 years ago.They won't admit changing the jacket integrity and claim they have had no complaints so I called them on it.As 3 friends had phoned the previous week with jacket core separation,then I called .The phone went silent.I had a 286gr 9.3 Interlock explode on the shoulder of a cow moose at 190 yards failing to enter the chest cavity.Three more rounds to settle things down. At 2400fps they should be like a plow not fragile. Harold

 

[brybenn]

I've had great success with the hornady interlocks from .257 - .458. Never had any recovered in game though. Gravel sand water wood and newspaper they all behaved the way they should. Gravel really shews them up though. In my tests the sst's mushroomed beautifully but in factory ammo my gun didn't like them and I have yet to try them as a component. Vmax or interlocks both shoot considerably better in my guns and that's what I use. Its interesting to see how much copper is at the base of the BT though. Thanks for sharing.

A look at the lead core shows quite a difference in the lead alloy used. Shiny using means harder am I correct?

 

[kman300]

Hornady isn't the bullet was 10 years ago.They won't admit changing the jacket integrity and claim they have had no complaints so I called them on it.As 3 friends had phoned the previous week with jacket core separation,then I called .The phone went silent.I had a 286gr 9.3 Interlock explode on the shoulder of a cow moose at 190 yards failing to enter the chest cavity.Three more rounds to settle things down. At 2400fps they should be like a plow not fragile. Harold

Thanks for the pictures. Very interesting. The 154gr IL I sectioned had a price of $12 on the box, so not recent production. The sst is from a box I bought 4 months ago.

 

[medvedqc]

Hornady isn't the bullet was 10 years ago.They won't admit changing the jacket integrity and claim they have had no complaints so I called them on it.As 3 friends had phoned the previous week with jacket core separation,then I called .The phone went silent.I had a 286gr 9.3 Interlock explode on the shoulder of a cow moose at 190 yards failing to enter the chest cavity.Three more rounds to settle things down. At 2400fps they should be like a plow not fragile. Harold

a good training bullet but ill stay on the partition side ....

 

[Cleftwynd]

I shot three deer this year with 130 grain SST's, large entry hole, no exit, no bullet to recover. Total disintegration in the chest cavity all three times. Proved very lethal, but what if the bullet hit more than a rib? Too bad I still have 30 rounds of them left.... I think I am just going to pull them, and use them for load development or practice on paper.

 

[Why not?]

Hornady isn't the bullet was 10 years ago.They won't admit changing the jacket integrity and claim they have had no complaints so I called them on it.As 3 friends had phoned the previous week with jacket core separation,then I called .The phone went silent.I had a 286gr 9.3 Interlock explode on the shoulder of a cow moose at 190 yards failing to enter the chest cavity.Three more rounds to settle things down. At 2400fps they should be like a plow not fragile. Harold

Thanks for the post, Harold. Did you find any of the others in that moose? Wondering what the ones looked like that didn't hit bone?

Read a thread on another forum that had similar disappointing results. Won't be using them for hunting anything big, that's for sure!

Ted

 

[horseman2]

I shot three deer this year with 130 grain SST's, large entry hole, no exit, no bullet to recover. Total disintegration in the chest cavity all three times. Proved very lethal, but what if the bullet hit more than a rib? Too bad I still have 30 rounds of them left.... I think I am just going to pull them, and use them for load development or practice on paper.

So where did all that lead end up?
If there was no exit there must have been a jacket to recover.
Lead bullets are good for practice and varmint you dont eat.
For serious social/hunting intercourse - Barnes or what ever else does not leave a trail of lead.

 

[Cleftwynd]

So where did all that lead end up?
If there was no exit there must have been a jacket to recover.
Lead bullets are good for practice and varmint you dont eat.
For serious social/hunting intercourse - Barnes or what ever else does not leave a trail of lead.

I didn't cut up the entrails to look for them, but since the bullets never touched the rib cage or anything else on the off side I know where they were. If there was anything substantial left of them, something would have exited, or at least hit the ribs/hide. Farthest shot was 140 yards, I didn't need to find the bullets to know they are not for me. If it was a Berger bullet, I would have expected this, but they were Hornady SST's from a 24" barrelled 270. Mind you, there was nothing left of the lungs and liver on all three, and on one the heart was mangled.

 

[A-zone]

Hornady isn't the bullet was 10 years ago.They won't admit changing the jacket integrity and claim they have had no complaints so I called them on it.As 3 friends had phoned the previous week with jacket core separation,then I called .The phone went silent.I had a 286gr 9.3 Interlock explode on the shoulder of a cow moose at 190 yards failing to enter the chest cavity.Three more rounds to settle things down. At 2400fps they should be like a plow not fragile. Harold

Wow ! That is brutal.

Thanks for posting - I'll definitely be using my remaining 9.3 Interlocks for "trigger time" and go with a stouter bullet for hunting.

 

[Why not?]

Here's my go to 9.3 bullet now. Stopped by a big grizzly last year. Broke the near shoulder, took out two vertbrae, and stopped in the far shoulder.

Bonded, accurate, and made right here in Canada!

Ted

 

[c-fbmi]

I have always held this opinion of Hornady bullets and have never once hunted with a hornady bullet......oops, took my first Cape buff with Horn solids........so I'll revise to Hornady expanding bullets. I've seen this time and time again over the last 40 years with buddies who used Horn bullets, I affectionately refer to them as bullet bombs. So I guess I won't be changing my opinion any time soon........not that I ever change my opinions anyway. LOL

 

[elker]

Here's my go to 9.3 bullet now. Stopped by a big grizzly last year. Broke the near shoulder, took out two vertbrae, and stopped in the far shoulder.

Bonded, accurate, and made right here in Canada!

Ted

Yes, it is made right here at my back yard. I just found that your favorite Matrix bullets are from Crofton ,the town I got my trapper certificate from. It is the same price as accubond though. As you have proved it a good one, I will try it next year on a poor bear.

 

[mbogo3]

The old Dark red box of Hornady Inter locks were great bullets and I pick up any I find at gun shows.Now I use them to work out loads for high end bullets of the same weight and tweek them .Also good for range time.I have also shot one grizzly in 94 in the Yukon with a .338 225gr inter-lock and they were fine.Like I surmized this started to " fall apart" 10 years ago and they won't admit a thing............cratered a lot of moose and deer with the 130gr .270 back in the day.............Harold.........PS Ted that's what a bullet should do and look like after the fact! Do you make your own or another local? Corbin tooling?