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

Any experience-based reports regarding elk hunting with this bullet in 7MM magnums?

Don't shoot them in the shoulder.

Did you have one come apart?

That surprises me. I'm not calling you a liar by any means, but I would have expected that bullet to punch on through. Kind of disappointing because I thought about loading that one up in my 7mm.

I have had two fail and I don't use them anymore. Neither do I intentionally shoot elk in the shoulder anymore, either, regardless of what bullet I am using. Both bulls died, but not anywhere near the place where they were shot. Neither bullet penetrated to the heart/lung cavity although enough shrapnel did to eventually cause the animals to expire.

The firsthand experience report was what I was looking for, Mudhen - thanks.

I use the 175 gr. Partition, "they don't break up".

Would the Hornady break up at 7x57 speeds at under 150yds? capt david

I don't know. I switched to Nosler bullets for big game after the second episode with the 175 Interlock.

Mudhen, I was just curious what were the circumstances surrounding your two failures. (velocity, range, circumstances, what any of the recovered bullet parts looked like, etc) I'm shooting that same bullet in a 7mm SAUM @2700 fps and so far it has done well in wet newspaper and 1 antelope but neither are much of a test compared to an elk. Thanks for the info.
cody

My elk hunting bud has been toting an STW with 175 Horns for about 2 decades now. He's taken a lot of elk with the combo. We've found one bullet, the rest have all gone thru.

The one we found broke a shoulder and the spine on a downhill shot @ about 200 yds or so (if I recall right). The bullet was a bit bent up, we never weighed it but I'd guess about 50% retention.

If I was told I had to use the bullet the rest of my life in a Big 7 I'd sure never blink. That said, far and away the old Noz 175 Semi's are my fav. They shoot very well, carry well and we've never found one after Smashburning a critter big, lil or small...

Dober

The first bull was shot at about 70 yards with 7mm Reg Mag using a Hornady factory load with the 175 Interlock. At the shot, the four bulls and all of the cows took off. Finally found him three days later, dead pecked to smithereens by ravens and all the meat spoiled.

Second bull was two years later, around 90-100 yards with the same rifle and bullet, this time in a hand load at around 2,850 fps. Same story, bull took off, tracked him a ways on rocky ground and lost the trail. Found by another hunter two days later, about three miles from where he was shot. Guy said that it looked like I had used a varmint bullet.

The latter episode troubled me so much that I pulled all the bullets in that batch of hand loads and weighed them to make sure that they were all 175s. They were. (After 20+ y ears, I still have the rest of the box of factory loads, and I guess that I could check to see if, in fact, they are all 175s, too, but it doesn't seem worth the trouble,)

Obviously, a lot of elk have been killed with 175 Interlocks, but two good bulls lost to the carrion crew have spoiled them for me.

I love my 7x57 - but 7mm's are not big enough for my personal use on elk.

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.