Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Hornady 7MM 175 gr. Interlock SP

Never used a Hornady 175 but did try the Hornady 162g BTSP in my 7mm RM. Once was enough.

Hit a spike bull broadside, dead center on a rib. The bullet missed or barely nicked a farside rib. Retained weight was 47.7% (77.2g).

Switched to 160g Speer Grand Slams and used them 20 years before recovering one. When I did it had destroyed both shoulder joints of a 5x5 bull. Retained weight was 71.1% (113.7g) or 238% of the Hornady's retained weight. Didn't recover one until the last time I used them when I took the bull and a cow within seconds of each other.

Both bulls dropped, as did most of the animals I shot with the 160g Grand Slams. The difference was there wasn't much challenge to the integrity of the Hornady InterLock and there was a LOT of challenge to the Speer Grand Slam.

The only reason I don't still use Grand Slams is they were never consistently accurate. A 4-shot group would usually measure about .5" with a flyer that took it to .9" or more. Yeah, I know, plenty accurate for hunting. Still, I've switched to bullets that provide better and more consistent accuracy and still seem to drop animals quickly - without shedding all their weight at the first opportunity.