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How does the Hornady 250 grain compare to the 250 Partition for penetration

I imagine it's pretty hard to beat a partition for penetration.

The 250 partition has a super long shank that makes up most of the length of the bullet. I recovered one (against the hide) that plowed through both shoulders of a moose at a low impact speed and it looked like 3/4 of the bullet shank was still there. The front end was entirely missing: what was left of the mushroom was a small open cup of copper.

The back end of the bullet probably could have been filed down and loaded and fired again and that was after it had gone through several feet of muscle and bone.

I haven't shot anything with the 250 hornady but the other .358 hornadys are pretty soft and open up pretty big even at low speeds.

Best guess is that both bullets might penetrate the same under certain conditions but at high impact speeds or if heavy bone is hit I doubt there will be much comparison. The partition will dump its front end and keep going.

The older 250 grain 358 Hornady Spire point bullets were quite tough and held together well. The last ones I got were different. They had a flat point without the exposed soft point and were quite fragile. I shot a coyote with one, out of a 35 Whelen, and it damn near cut him in half. A similar shot on a small deer, with the old bullet, left a 1 1/2 inch exit. GD

I've only used the 250gr Hornady on about five deer in the .358 Winchester, started at 2350-2400 in several rifles. I find it to be pretty splashy, lacking exits, and is the ruination of meat. The bullets I used were from a couple different lots. When I called Hornady about it I was told that my starting velocities were to high. I repeated that my max velocity was 2400, and the fellow reiterated that velocity was beyond the design parameters of the bullet. I have no idea what they're thinking there, but I will only use it as a plinking bullet from now on.

I find the 250gr Noslers to be accurate, but I've not yet used them on anything because my rifle has been tied up in a restocking project.

Both the roundnose and spitzer 250s were pretty tough in the early 1980s--before they introduced the Interlocks--when I started handloading for my mentor Norm Strung's Savage 99F in .358 Winchester. This occurred because Norm didn't handload rifle ammo (though he did shotgun ammo) and Winchester had pretty much discontinued their 250-grain factory load.

So I bought a set of RCBS dies and started loading Hornadys, which were the most readily available back then. Both the RN and Spire Point opened well on anything from deer on up, when started at around 2300 fps. In fact Norm killed his biggest elk, a 6x7 if I recall correctly, with the 250 Spire Point at around 250 yards--where using the round-nose would have worked too.

Which is why I have a lifetime supply of the old Hornady 250's: I inherited his 99.

The 250 Hornady is Soft, Soft, Soft..............

Had a rodeo with Bison. Bullets flattened out like a silver dollar.

Noslers, Hawk?

Lefty

I've not used the Hornady 250 on any game but did take a bull moose with an old Hornady 275 grain round nose. 21 yards and coming on the fight. Spined him quartering to. Dropped on the spot. Bullet exited. Wound channel showed evidence of good expansion.

I like the Hornady RN's and the Speer spitzer bullets in my 35 caliber rifles. I have a box of the 250 gr. Spire points but have not loaded any of them for hunting. The ones I shot at paper made good groups.

So this Hornady Interlock is soft in 35 cal. Does that also stand true in their heavy 30 cal and 338 250gr ?

I've used the now-discontinued 220 .308 a fair bit on deer. It was a good bullet. Exits on raking shots were the norm, loading it to 2400 in the '06.

Once nice thing about Noslers, Barnes, Swifts, ect is that they all generally work across a variety of calibers without any guessing or wacky results. It's pretty irritating to puzzle out that the Hornady .308 220 and 165s are good, but that their 180s used to be good but now suck (remember they used to be good but about 10 yrs ago they went and changed them), and the .35 250s suck.

I shot three bull elk with the Hornady 250 RN, and one with the 250 Spire point. All shots were from a .35 Whelen, at 2500 fps muzzle velocity and all shots were under 200 yds. In each case the bullets were found under the hide on he far side, after passing through ribs and lungs. About half of the weight remained by the look of them. I don't recall hitting shoulder bone with any of them. They opened quicker than Speer GS or Barnes TSX and killed quickly. But they were not stressed by hitting heavy bone. Seems like a good deer and black bear bullet but I'd rather use something else on bigger animals. I haven't used the 250 grain Nosler partition .358" bullet but suspect it would penetrate deeper than the Hornady, based on my results when comparing the same weight and style Hornady bullets in .375" and .308"

I used the Hornady 250 gr from a Whelen at 2450fps on a pronghorn at about 25 yards. The bullet hit the spine at the neck junction and absolutely came apart. The pronghorn obviously dropped right there. The entrance was caliber-sized and there was no exit...just pieces of bullet. Fortunately not much more meat than usual was ruined.

I shot a 250 pound feral hog with a 250 RN from a .35 Remington. Slow and heavy- - - -I think it chronographed around 1800 FPS. The bullet penetrated from the left front shoulder to just ahead of the right ham with a tennis ball sized exit wound, about 18" diagonally through the hog. We didn't recover the bullet. DRT- - - -range was about 25 feet with the hog bayed by three dogs in the root ball of a downed tree.

That's surprising it being so soft. Hornady Interlocks have always had a good reputation as a reasonably hardish cup and core bullet. You'd think they would make it to expand reliably at .35 Whelen velocities, that being the most popular .35 cal I'd hazard a guess.

To emphasize, I'm going to clarify my earlier comment; the Hornady 250 Interlock is a steaming piece of crap! It is useless for big game. Because of my experience with it, I am reluctant to even try ANY of Hornady's newer interlocks. 40 year old Hornady bullets are pretty good and worth using. The new ones? Crap. GD

Sitting here typing, I'm looking at nine original containers of .35-cal bullets, plus one out of sight. They are products of Barnes, Hornady and Nosler. Most were purchased many years ago for my Rem 7400 in .35 Whelen. Four of those were added recently for my new .35 Whelen purchased in March/22. Those four have current plans: 2 of 225gr AccuBonds, and 2 of 180 TTSXs. The others? I'm afraid they'll be sitting gathering more dust! Still, among them are some worthy candidates: 1/2 box of 250gr Partitions, 300gr Barnes O, and 225gr Barnes X. Two boxes of Hornadys: 250gr SP Int. and 200gr SP, each about 50% remaining. They are the last I'd ever use, except for practice.

Still, a 286gr Hornady RP from my 9.3x 62 worked very well on a black bear from close range at +2400 fps. It was wounded by a young friend (he shot two legs - first from a tree stand at 125 yards, and later from the ground another leg from about 40 yards - a left front and a right rear! I caught up and killed it with a shot to the right flank going away. So impact velocity was around 2300 fps, and bullet made exit behind the head after taking out 6 - 8 inches of spine. Bullet never found and no fragments.

I've taken two other bears with that rifle using a 286gr Partition at +2600 fps and a 250gr AB at +2700 fps.

Bob
www.bigbores.ca

Bob,

I've had good luck on one animal with the 286-grain Hornady from the 9,3x62 as well, a cow nilgai (about as big as a cow elk), taken at 150 yards or so as it stood almost directly facing me. The bullet landed where I aimed, just inside the left shoulder (she was angling slightly to the right). The cow crow-hopped about 10 feet sideways and fell over, the bullet having exited the rear of the ribcage on the opposite side. The guide was very impressed, as nilgai are considered very tough, both cows and bulls. The bullet was from a Hornady factory load, which I believe is advertised at 2360 fps, but did not chronograph it.

But tend to load older Hornadys in my .358 Winchester, usually the 250 round-nose, as they have always worked, and have seen some funky stuff from newer Hornady .35s.

John

The 250 Speers are pretty danged tough if you can find them. Those and the Partitions shot interchangeably in a few of my Whelens.