Why I like Hornady bullets

I have shot some game up to and including moose with the Hornady Interlocks with generally good results, as seen in Dennis' pic. Hornady bullets have always been superbly accurate in my experience. However, I did have one dramatic failure, using the 140 Interlock in one of my 270's. This may have beeen an abberration, but it was definitely something that surprised me. I shot a 4 point Whitetail buck broadside at about 80 yards. The bullet hit an onside rib, and it basically broke into 3 pieces. None of which hit a vital organ. Nonetheless, it stunned this deer, which then ran about 50 yards and stopped, looking back as if to say, What the h*** was that? Gave me a chance to put another one into him. This second bullet acted properly, and the result was a dead deer. The autopsy showed what had happened. One piece of the bullet was in the onside shoulder, one piece was in the flank and the last piece was somewhere in the gut. This bullet had a muzzle velocity of about 3000 fps, so wasn't a really fast load. Strange behavior, but enough to make me choose a different bullet for my 270. Regards, Eagleye
 
Eagleye,

You sure had an unusual experience... a bit of a bummer...

I used the 139 grain Hornady in a .280 for a number of years... you would think that would perform much the same as a 140 grain Hornady in a .270...

I had excellent results with it. Here is a 139 after going through the ribs and into the far shoulder on a nice deer at about 200 yards... it mushroomed out to .60 caliber and retained 125 grains.

139hornady.jpg


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OK now I'm confused... I have read elsewhere that the a-max makes a pretty good hunting bullet. I imagined its performance being somewhat similar to the nosler ballistic.
regardless, it goes where I point it, so I look at that as half the battle
 
In all fairness to the Interlock, several years ago, I shot a moose broadside with a 180 IL FB out of my 308 Norma Mag. MV was 3125, and that Bull was maybe 40 yards. I had a complete passthrough of both lungs with about an exit of 1½". Moose took two steps and collapsed. Perfect AFAICS. Regards, Eagleye
 
Republic of Alberta said:
Wrong, read a Hornady manual some time, you might learn something.
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OK, I checked my manual, they are recommended for varmints and medium sized game you are right. But why use a marginal bullet when you can use an SST or IB which are recommended for medium and large game? Nice reply by the way, what are you 12 years old?:p
 
I think the Hornady Interlocks behave very much like Remington Corelokts in terms of accuracy and terminal performance. I use both with equal confidence up to 2700 fps, the Remington's in my wife's '06 and the Hornady's in my .375. I've got 2900 out of the 270 gr Honady, and it performed well, but I don't believe that velocity is within the design parameter of the Interlocks. If I'm going to load a big game bullet bullet faster than 2700 I'll look for a bonded or mono-metal bullet. Last summer I loaded some Remington's for my son in law to use as practice ammo in his .300 Winchester, but if I know him he'll probably use them for everything and save the Blue Barnes for special occasions.
 
MTM said:
While I've shot lots of game over the years with Hornadys and generally had good results lets not forget that was a 7-08 at over 300 yds. Put that in a 7 mag. and shoot something at 150 yds and I bet it looks slightly different. I'm not saying Hornadys aren't good just that with the high speed rounds we now have better.
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Well I would hope it looked different.
But I got 20 bucks says if you hit the animal right it's meat on the table.

The only complaint I've ever had had with Horns was 1 time I shot a calf at 300yds+ with 175s out of a 7x57. I found the bullet in the off shoulder with very little expansion. BUT I really wouldn't call it a failure, more of a failure on my part to realize it was constructed for more vel than my old 7x57 could muster at distance, had that bullet been fired out of a 7mag I'm sure it performance would have been better.
I now use 150s in a 280 & have had nothing but good results!
 
In my opinion, the Hornady IL BTSP is the best value for preformance going, for deer bullets. I think the 165, 180 and 190 are all superb in the .308 calibers. I use the 165's in my .30-06; it would be great out of a .308Win.
I have not tried them but the 190gr BTSP is about perfect for the .300WM, .300Wby or .300H&H; not sure how it would do in the .300WSM, cuz I don't know if the short mag handles longer bullets.

In my .300H&H I load the even better, but more expensive, 200gr Nosler Accubond.
 
444shooter said:
Has anyone used them in the .270WSM yet?
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Fair question.

I have been hunting with partitions in my 270 wsm. I am going to have to try an interlock next season though. My A bolt loves to shoot them, nothing groups like an interlock, and my gun hates interbonds???

My fear has been interlocks won't retain weight, but I am going to have to knock down something with one to see.
 
Republic of Alberta said:
Retention of weight can be a bad thing or a good thing, it just depends on what you are trying to accomplish. It is not something to fear, just something to understand.
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I agree... you have to ask yourself what performance you want...

On game animals I prefer to have all the bullet energy spent in the animal rather than beyond. I have never required a bullet to pass through.
 
What I mean is, I have used ballistic tips and hated them. I found they fragmented and made a mess. Once, a fine shot resulted in a gut shot animal as a fragment tore through the gut sack. This was shooting 308.

I have feared that 270 WSM will have the same effect on an interlock.
 
riden said:
What I mean is, I have used ballistic tips and hated them. I found they fragmented and made a mess. Once, a fine shot resulted in a gut shot animal as a fragment tore through the gut sack. This was shooting 308.

I have feared that 270 WSM will have the same effect on an interlock.
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Hornady list the velocity range that each bullet under most circumstances will perform well in... it is with the pictures of the bullets towards the front of the manual. I would think the heavier bullets .270 were designed for .270 Weatherby velocities...
 
guntech said:
Hornady list the velocity range that each bullet under most circumstances will perform well in... it is with the pictures of the bullets towards the front of the manual. I would think the heavier bullets .270 were designed for .270 Weatherby velocities...
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Well, that is awfully good to know.

Thanks guntech
 
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