Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only Hornday Dangerous game bullets

Anyone have experience with these? How good do they penetrate? Are they as good as they are cracked up to be?

going to use them in a 500 NE in Tanzania this year. Heard they perform well.

Will also use TSX, as always, and NF in another gun.

Performance is fine but feeding can be a serious issue in many bolt rifles.

Everyone I spoke to about them at the Dallas Safari Club convention including PHs had good things to say about them but I was strictly talking double rifle performance and velocities. I guess that flat meplat especially in the solids could be an issue

The funny thing about them is when you look at them the meplat seems to be larger and flatter on those designed for bolt rifle calibers than the rounds for double rifles.
The ones for my 450/400 compared to those for my 416 Ruger are perfect examples.

In my camp there are four 375 Rugers and two 375 H&H and only one will semi-reliably feed the DGX bullets if operated fast. My daughter had her rifle jam when a bear charged up to within a few yards - fortunatley it veared off within touching distance - the steel jacket of the 375 DGX bullet caught on the chamber rim and she had completely pushed the bullet into the case. Her rifle will not feed them at all if operated fast.

Thanks guys

+1. They are also very sensitive to COAL with shorter than spec rounds hanging up in the chamber consistently. A real shame - hopefully Hornady is listening and will modify the shape - because the DGX/DGS bullet length makes them nearly ideal for standard-length case based cartridges.

Damn. Thats never good.

I also had a problem like Phil posted about his daughter and her rifle. So I will continue to use Woodleighs, Barnes solids and Swift A Frames in my rifles.

Tonk. Your talking about factory or hand loaded?

Tell you more after Aug. 12. I'm shooting both in my ruger no. 1, 375 H&H mag. My son and I will be using those bullets for our DG hunt, in Zim.


maddog

Sounds like that rifle needs some feeding work to be 100% reliable. I make sure that mine will feed Flat points (wide flat points)

The only two rifles I have tried them in are a CZ 550 .416 Rigby and a Ruger No. 1 .450/.400.

They fed perfectly in the No. 1!

They also didn't cause any problem in the CZ Rigby, but I have done some work on that rifle to make sure it feeds a variety of bullets well.

In some penetration tests run alongside other premium, lead-core expanding bullets in both calibers, the DGX's performed quite well, retaining a lot of weight, expanding nicely and penetrating very comparably.

A "tiny" detail that many people blissfully never learn about many rifles until the wrong time, and not always only blunt shaped bullets or specific case shapes.






Slower can be faster, and sometimes a whole lot more reliable.

I used them in a 450 Dakota. Didn't have any trouble feeding but they shot to a POI about 5" below and to the right of every thing else (Nosler,NorthFork,and 4064). No problem-just an observation.
Very accurate loads. One 70 cal hole at 50 yds. I can't see to shoot irons at 100 anymore.

Factory ammo!

My CZ 416 Rigby feeds anything you stick in it. I had the feeding checked before I ever fired it. If my rifles do not feed flat point bullets I have the feeding work done to make sure that thye will

My son's CZ 416 feeds the DGX bullets well most of the time too, but if you really push it, feeding it rapidly from the shoulder, it will still bobble. And it's been worked over by one of the best.
On the 416 Ruger that I had I told Ruger of the problem and they said to send it back. I did and three months later they told me that they could not make it feed DGX bullets 100%. They then sent me another and it feeds OK when operated slowly - like most folks who don't know how to really operate a bolt action do when they take the rifle from their shoulder - but again, if it is operated vigorously from the shoulder the FN DGX bullets occasionally will hang up when the lip of the steel jacket catches on the chamber. That is also what happens with the .375 Rugers.
It also happens with my M-70 375 H&H and my Ruger .375 H&H if I use DGX bullets and seat them at the cannalure. If I seat then farther out they feed in all the rifles.

The problem is that with a flat nose and seated deep on the original canalure, the steel jacket of the bullet acts just like an empty case. And not many folks can make empty cases feed reliably.

Not many can is true, some realy top builders can't. Proper feed work is slow and time consuming and many do not want to fool with it.

I've read on other forums people have this problem. So only with the DGX? Not the DGS? Or both. IT's hard to visualize the problem. Guess i'll see when I get the rifle. I guess hand loading with other bullets solves that problem, there are lots of good 416 bullets out there, both solids and various expanders